Bespectacled, a football fan and would write a bit, also he drank like a fish. The perfect qualities one could have to lure me with their friendship. Moreover, when the first meeting happened at a place which was more of a home; I knew it would be for something good, would be something special.
He was a friend of my colleague, someone who has been more of a younger brother to me (more about him in some other blog), but the guy turned out to be the first friend I made in Guwahati, someone from Guwahati, a local lora as they say in Axomiya. My colleague wasn’t my friend, he won’t be, he looked up to me like an elder brother, I have my affection towards him, all my care and that is why, maybe we couldn’t be like normal friends. But, that again makes our relation special.
Coming to the guy in the picture, curly haired he was and at times had this air of arrogance about him. First impression perhaps, and when he turned out to be a Manchester United fan, I knew his arrogance wasn’t his fault actually. Some clubs put this notion in the heads of their supporters that they are above everyone else, he was no different, still living in the summer of 1999 and singing songs about the class of ’92. He was born that year maybe, not his fault either.
I had come across many a social media fanatic in my life, his enthusiasm about his social media image was beyond ordinary, unmatched actually. I guess, I didn’t have one-tenth of his reach on social media, he knew almost everyone in town. The girls specially, he knew a lot of them. That didn’t make him lucky though, you know how friendzoned people often make the best company, but I take nothing away from him. He was amazing, a charmer with his words, knew his football well and could dance to any tune that would play. Plus, he had a wacky sense of humor too. His luck was a joke too, I often said that on his face, lady luck? Some other time, maybe. Also, the red chequered shirt he wore brought him no luck.
We bonded over the love of football and alcohol, he would once in a while visit me at my place and we would get high on rum and Jayanta Hazarika, he would explain to me the lyrics of the songs we listened to. I had seen the best and worst of him, his times maybe. I wasn’t that close perhaps, but I knew him to an extent and the kind of fuck ups he was prone to. He knew me too, he helped me with whatever support he could when I was jobless, be it arranging for comedy gigs or getting me part time jobs that paid me reasonably, good enough to manage my cab fare and daily allowance. I had seen him jobless and broke too, saw him after an accident and also an incident that changed him for the better.
To me, he will remain the obnoxious Man United fan who ended up becoming a dear friend for life, I had once promised that I would write about him someday, and what better time than now to frame him in words when my club is sitting at the top of the table, you need to be in a good frame of mind to praise a United fan, for now as the league stands, make hay while the sun shines.
P.S: June the 28th will always remain something deeply attached to me, thanks for existing. I didn’t tell you then, thanks for inviting me to the party.
abhishek purkayastha 