“Some partnerships are made in the Heavens”, right? Partially, maybe. Some are made over humor and Old Monk. And, Guns N Roses and a bit of AC/DC. I had always grown up assuming that I could be friends with people who were of my age, my generation and old school.
He was none of it, just none of it. A mechanical engineer, not your quintessential Gujarati boy, could dance to David Guetta and Falguni Pathak with equal enthusiasm, and he could roast people too. His sense of humor wasn’t forced, he could carry it anywhere. A good 3-4 years younger to me, but assumed himself to be a 50 year old in the head. I can’t blame him, most Gujaratis are the same. Self-righteous!!
I met him when I was going through my own ordeals, he happened to be a comic then and also the emcee, last seen he was just an emcee; couldn’t write much: you know how excel sheets suck life out of you, but his excuse wasn’t ordinary, he never had time. He was gracious enough to host me in his room during a visit to a town where he was working then, we bonded over Old Monk and mutual mistrust for bengali women, funny it is as I now think of it, but alcohol does help in gluing people. A renewed strength for the bond that we then made awaited as he shifted to Guwahati, now jobless. Another connection perhaps, joblessness binds people too. While, I had a credit card and little or no cash, he had fuel in his bike, we knew we could go about our business of doing comedy for free and networking with people who we thought would help us in getting venues; more often than not the networking did help the ones who networked with us, we would get burgers and black coffee for free, a cigarette could be shared. “Counter chalega bhai”; he would say, deep within we both knew saving ten rupees meant we could spend it on another cigarette after an hour. The relations you make when you are struggling in life often turn out to be something for a lifetime. In him I found a brother I never had, ‘Lakshman to my Ram’, but then we were savagely human.
Luck did smile upon us at the same time, both having finally landed jobs by September ‘2017; almost a year and a half had passed away since I had happened to meet him, the countless hours and days we had spent making jokes, organizing open mics and running from cafes to pubs to arrange for venues could now be a backup, a passion we could follow. We would often leave from our respective offices together and head towards a place where I would force him to, just for a cup of tea. The struggle did pay off as well, but then certain things are memories you make for a lifetime.
We could now afford more than an occasional drink, the cigarette would still be shared but we could do away with asking for a puff. Old Monk, still our favorite and with AC/DC playing in the background, we knew we could bring any house down, me with my nonsense and he with his oversized bum hitting the dance floor.
But then, all good things carry knots and have nots, I hadn’t seen this coming though. Our ‘holier than thou’ attitude towards life can afflict implications we aren’t aware of, I was naïve maybe and he too mature for his age. He was a good thing in a big package, I knew I could crack jokes on him and he had the same liberty, I wish it had stayed that way; perhaps certain friendships deserve no serious chatter, and that is just but a wish. I wish him good, I wish him well and I pray he carries on with whatever remains of the collective we had, we built and dreamt of.
We were savagely human, weren’t we??
P.S: I wish him well, I wish I were wise. He wanted it too.
abhishek purkayastha 