Wednesday, March 17, 2010

BAREILLY.........

These dots, yes, those right after Y,circles filled with black ink,representing nothingness,representing void,a riddle, where you know you’ve got something to offer, to explore everything,yet nothing is achieved. These dots for me are bareiily, unclear, unimaginable,underestimated yet so unruffled, So unfettered .

In the first go, I hate bareilly, I vomit at the mere thought of abhaipur. Those memories of “Band Samosa” of Aslam (my MBIC canteenman) bring tears to my eyes when Kaushal’s daal-parantha meets the retina. I feel impugnant when after every 30 minutes there is a long jam covering all what’s there in Kodesia.”Kyun koi rehna chahega is shahar me” vikas Singh shouts in the midst of the jam. Me responding, “haan yaar, kahe koi rahega”. There are no parks,no malls,name any chicken dish and you’ve got the same taste. Road minus bumps equals nothing, cut the crap..its hideous.

Second round of thoughts , and I go down memory lane. I get wet with the colours of holi we play with ,every time at station. There are those tasety nights ,filled with chicken bhuja,roasted chicken and the uncle at Anand shouting ,”aaj aap log bahut dino k baad aaye”. One cannot loose those BP Mondays , guys clipped with accessories , smothered with perfume, and full of murmurs.” Abe aaj wo bhi aaegi!!”. My mind also comes across quiet moments of syndicate book house, only to get a book of choice, ending in failiure everytime.

Brain ,now turns creative, no, calculative, ‘coz now it counts the first timers, those maiden ones, the first time I started living alone, the first bunk,the first Monday,the first time I liked a girl,the first time I had a full plate butter chicken with only 1 leg piece(trust me , it happened),first time short attendance, the first curfew.

And here’s when the road takes a sharp turn, we’re at the by-pass, Raja and me in the college bus, 11 march, 2010 going to post our admission forms. The ride to junction(as station is called ) is always full of excitement ,as mostly it’s a trip down home, but this time I witnessed peace, no, quieteness.

There were no tempowallahs shouting “CB Ganja a jaao”…CB Ganj was hit with riots. The by-pass was looking like a dumb guy, shops all closed, everything deserted ,as a few days back, it had turned dumb to a mockery of humanity, shops all burnt ,everything destroyed. We are now on our way to fly-over and except for the choti li ne train,nothing at all. Tilak Inter College, the epitome of education in Bareilly was looking like a symbol of apocalypse.the ground opposite to that..no kids, no cricket..just mud with patches of dust.

We move a little further—a truck full of people shouting slogans. The driver stops the music. One faculty sitting looks around carefuly, sighs and says,”Truck bhar k jaa rhe hain, aaj fir bawaal hoga”. The bus moves through a different route this time. I didn’t see Syndicate , BP, Selection Point. Places, I was just imagining ,where I had searched for my definition for 4 years, how were they in riots, in plunder, the book house, the chicken hotel, those model shops, the ‘outlaw’ showroom. Heartbeat was getting faster, eyes were getting closed.

My fourth round of thoughts were ending, we were reaching junction, I was missing bareilly I hated. we were moving through a place where on one side there were green flags fluttering , in stiff competion with the orange ones on the other. Somewhere in the middle there was a Gandhi Ashram shop still carryin a tri-colour..Jai Hind written all over it.

P.S.
B.P. Butler Plaza
Anand Anand Chickem Shop.

4 comments:

Anurag Pratap Singh 'MEGHRAJ' said...

Very well said yaaar!!
We missed our old , dull, and boring bareilly in these riots....
Despite all the sucking and forgettable facts of college and city, We enjoyed enough and did all that anyone could do..... So bareilly woul be the part of our memory "Kuch meethi kuch khaththi"

कार्तिकेय मिश्र (Kartikeya Mishra) said...

एक आम हिन्दुस्तानी का आम डॉयलाग- किया ही क्या जा सकता है..??

इन्हीं बीपी, कौशल, सेलेक्शन पॉइंट, आनंद जैसी जगहों से ही तो चार साल के ताने-बाने जुड़े हैं.. जाहिर है, कुछ याद रखने के काबिल हैं तो कुछ भुलाने के भी होंगे।

पर्सनली मेरा भी मानना है, कि बोसीदा शहर है ये... लेकिन फिर कुछ यारों के चेहरे आते हैं सामने, कुछ रूमानी लम्हे, कुछ पल जिनसे मुस्कुराहट दौड़ जाती है चेहरे पे, और आँखों मे नूर आ जाता है.. शायद इन मौकों पर यह शहर भी एक हद तक टॉलरेबल लगने लग जाता है..... ऐसे पलों को खूबसूरती से चस्पा भी किया है तुमने यहाँ..

जाहिर है, कि ऐसे शहर में अगर 15+ दिनों तक ऐसा कुछ हो, जो तमाम खामियों के बाद भी इसका मिजाज़ नहीं रहा, तो तकलीफ तो होती ही है... तुमने ट्रेडिशनल तरीके से सांप्रदायिक सौहार्द्र की बात नहीं की.. अच्छा लगा.. वरना ये रेटॉरिक (Rhetoric) तो सभी गाते हैं..

बाई द वे, कभी कौशल की आलू-टमाटर भुजिया ट्राई करो, या फिर देसी तरीके से बनी चिकन करी.. शायद जाते-जाते उसके लिये तुम्हारे नजरिये में कुछ बदलाव हो...

:)

कुल मिला कर एकदम पंतात्मक पोस्ट.. तुम्हारे स्टैचर के मुताबिक..

APOORV SINGH BAGHEL said...

yes sire, rightly said ....despite our bareilly and this college's shortcomings it has got deeply associated with us.....we can never forget it

Ankit Uttam said...

Yaar........senti kar ditta tune to