Date: 11th March, 2010.
Time: 2:33 a.m.
Received Call: Ankit 98600*****
Me: Hello
Ankit: Hello, jago ho?
Me: haan yaar, tum kab aaye?
Ankit: Bas abhi aaye aur tumko call lagaye…
Me: Tab! Mil liye Disha se?
Ankit: Nahi yaar, nahi mile, bahut kaam tha aur itni garmi tha Mumbai me ki mat puchho… Tab kya kar rahe ho?
Me: kuch nahi yaar..bas time pass. Net pe baitha hu..
Ankit: Kahi ghumne chalna hai?
Me: abhi dhaai baje hai, saadhe teen baje poha khane chalte hai…
Ankit: Theek hai, fir sabko jaagete hai..
Me: Theek hai fir aao.
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Let me tell you the context, Ankit is one of my closest friend in Pune. We almost spend every evening together loitering in the city. Yesterday he went to Mumbai, which created a breach in our daily routine. As soon as he reached his flat late night, he made this call to me. Since the car (one of his friend’s) was with him, he offered me for a night hang out.
Exactly @ 3:35 a।m। Ankit was there at the gate of my society. The gatekeeper gave me a stern look, I ignored him and squeezed in the car since all the four seats have already been occupied by Ankit @ the driver’s seat, Rohit @ the navigator’s seat and Banwari & Manish @ the rear seats. With music on, and Ankit’s feet firm on the accelator paddle we moved towards Amriteshwar (name of a snacks center) @ Nal Stop (name of a place).
Amriteshwar is one of those exceptional snacks centers which starts functioning @ around 3:00 a.m. in the morning. I believe this comes under its (Amriteshwar’s) Marketing & Promotion Strategies as he does a handsome business at this odd time. A good crowd daily visits this place in between 3:00-6:00 a. m., obviously most of them are either so called stagnate students (few exceptions are always there) or Call Centre employees.
“Uncle, teen (three) pohe, do (two) samose aur paanch (five) chai ( tea)” Ankit asked the vendor to deliver these eatables with a hundred rupee note in his hand, I was accompanying him & others preferred to stay out of the mob at the vendor’s counter. The vendor who is a short heighten , dark, pale fellow, in his mid fifties or may be forties first returned the change money & then five tokens for tea(which is supposed to be collected from another counter), then the two samosas wrapped in a piece of old newspaper and finally the three pohe which we passed amongst ourselves with the help of Rohit. We decided to finish our snack item first & then we will proceed toward the tea counter to have it. While eating all of us preferred not to talk much (elder’s say-“Don’t talk while eating, it’s bad habit”) and concentrated on our snacks.
Pohe is a National Breakfast snack item here in Maharashtra (other most popular companions are wada-pav & upeet).I am sure that you all must have had it, if not please try it, its really tasty and can be cooked without much effort (Sasta, sundar aur tikaau).Let me tell you one more important thing about the samosas which I & Ankit were eating were not the common one’s. Instead of regular stuffing of aloo (potato), it contained patta gobhi (cabbage). I think you will find these rare samosas only in Pune.
While we were eating, I took my eyes for a ride of other happenings in our surrounding. Around 50 people were present there, mostly in their shorts. Few others who were returning back from their offices were wearing jackets(its common in pune that people wear jacket throughout the year, irrespective of any weather) and few strange men were also wearing pullovers( mind the fact that these days it’s hot & humid weather here in Pune). All of them were having pohe or somasa or atleast tea with a fag in the other hand. This place is supposed to be the distribution point of daily Newspapers in that area, therefore a bunch of hawkers were doing their work of arranging the Newspaper bundles. Suddenly there arrived a bike (white colored & black stripes on it) with orange colored beeping lights, fixed on the leg guard of the bike, carrying two men. Yes!!! you got it right, they were cops. They were also in a mood of taking a break on their night shift duty, so everyone was relaxed.
After everyone of us completed their snack items, I proceeded towards the tea counter, Ankit & Rohit accompanied me to pass on the tea, but no one was there to provide us the same. Uncle from the first counter said “Doon minta thaamba.”(Marathi for- ‘wait for two minutes’). Again the cops came under the coverage of my eyesight, neither had they ordered something nor anyone offered anything to them. They came at the tea counter, crossed it, took two empty disposable glasses, filled them with tea and moved inside the Snacks Center). From Government Servant they have transformed into Self Servant.
Ankit said “Arre!!! Idhar dene ke bajaye andar leke chala gaya”. Actually when the first cop took out tea , Ankit thought that he is the tea vendor (since he was wearing a jacket over his Uniform ) and will pass on the tea. I took the charge of explaining him the difference between a Cop & a Chaiwala. Anyways, that person soon came who was supposed to deliver the tea. He did the same & we were back in the organized group of Boys- relishing the tea @ 4:00 a.m. as well relishing the moment, pulling legs of each other.
After finishing the tea we all moved towards the car. This time Manish on the navigator’s seat & Rohit on the rear seat, every other position remaining the same we decided, instead of directly going back lets take the long route from University Road so that we can enjoy the ride as well. This decision became memorable because Red FM was really airing some good soft old hindi movie songs which made the ride even more enjoyable. Ankit increased the volume when this song aired- ‘Hey Ganpat, chal daru laa’(from the movie-Shootout at Lokhandwala) just few minutes before reaching my place.
Around 4:45 a.m., Ankit dropped me at my place & we all exchanged Good Night almost in the Morning. After changing my clothes, I went to my bed. Suddenly it came in my thoughts that our College life is about to end, & these golden moments are never going to come again in future. Everyone passes through this phase of life, therefore I decided to share my night out with all of you so that you can remember your college days or can imagine your future college days.
