It was late night... the clock showed half past one, and here I was sitting with my laptop, giving some finishing touches to my presentation that I was supposed to deliver tomorrow morning... oops, correction: today morning.
My project manager sure knew how to extract work out of each of us to the fullest.
“Our team will set an example for the company...” my project manager announced one fine day during a team-lunch. “We'll do off with late sittings. Don't worry, with my excellent time management skills, that would be a child's play,” he added.
Since then, from the very next day my team got habituated to leaving office comparatively earlier, however we used to get enough home-work to keep us up all night. That bastard had duped us.
After toiling for fifteen more minutes, I decided to call it a day. Shutting down the laptop, I headed to hit my bed. I had barely closed my eyes when my mobile phone started ringing. Shit! Hope it’s not from office.
I felt my way to the phone and opened my right eye to discover the name, Jade flashing on the display.
“Hey Addy, where are you?” enquired Jaydeep, or Jade as we called him.
“Home buddy… where else?” I murmured.
“Can you come over to Apollo Hospital right now?” I suddenly sensed the anxiety in Jade’s voice.
“What happened Jade? Tell me…” I exclaimed. I wasn’t feeling sleepy anymore and had already started fishing out my clothes from the wardrobe.
“It’s Rishi… he’s met with an accident. A truck hit his bike while he was on his way to the office!” Jade said it all in one breath.
I was stunned. Rishi used to work in a call center. Although a cab used to come to pick him up, but this crazy fellow preferred a speedy bike ride to the boring cab.
“My long legs don’t fit in the small company vehicle… I feel cramped pal,” the six-foot Rishi would explain whenever any of us tried to sermon him on that matter.
Jade was silent for a while over the phone now. I too didn’t utter a word.
“Hello… Hello Addy! You still there?” Jade spoke from the other end.
“Yeah dude… is he serious?” I enquired.
“Can’t say. The doctors are examining him. I’ll get to know only in an hour.” Jade replied. “Please come immediately mate… I am finding it difficult to manage things on my own here. Try to get Anurag along with you,” he added before hanging up.
I quickly slipped out of my pajamas, put on my jeans, picked up the helmet and my bike keys and rushed out to start my bike. Just before driving off I dialed Anurag’s number.
Anurag answered my call right away. “Hey Addy! What’s up dude… so late?” From his voice I could figure out that Anurag wasn’t sleeping. It was almost a year that we had finished our college and this poor fellow was still on a job hunt. Since he didn’t have to get up in the morning for any engagements, he had become an owl by now.
Rishi had offered to help him get a job in his call center so many times, but Anurag had some ego. “I didn’t do engineering to join a call center dude,” would be his prompt reply every time.
“Quick dude! Get dressed up. I’m coming to pick you up in ten minutes,” I said.
“At this hour!! Anything serious?” Anurag queried.
“Bad news… Rishi’s had an accident. We’ve to rush to Apollo at once!” saying this I hung up and guided my bike towards Anurag’s house.
In less than ten minutes I was outside his flat. Anurag was sitting on the steps, smoking a cigarette. Seeing me he threw away the cigarette and came running.
“Don’t tell me that the ass was biking to office again,” Anurag asked about Rishi as he hopped on my bike. “Hmm…” I muttered as I drove off.
“Gosh! When will he start acting like a grown up?” he yelled just as I swerved my bike to dodge a dog’s carcass lying on the road.
“Easy baby, easy… I don’t want us both to land up in the hospital bed next to Rishi’s bed,” Anurag said putting a hand on my shoulder. “You want me to drive?” he offered.
“I am all right dear…” I assured him as I sped past a truck.
“So, who’s there at the hospital with him?” Anurag inquired.
“Jade had called me up… he’s there,” I said as I squinted to look for potholes in the dark road. Turning at the end of the road, we reached the building with ‘Apollo Hospital’ written across it.
Anurag collected the parking ticket while I parked my bike.
“Which way to the emergency ward?” I asked the boy at the parking lot. We ran towards the emergency ward as soon as the lad pointed his finger towards the same.
“Mr. Rishi Verma!” Anurag declared at the reception.
The nurse flipped through a couple of pages in her register and looked up.
“OT-7C, first floor. Please take the staircase,” she said.
Anurag ran… I followed closely behind his heels.
“Hey, hey! By OT she meant the Operation Theatre, right?” Anurag confirmed.
Before I could answer, we bumped into Harry.
“This way guys…” saying this he guided us towards OT-7C. There, seated outside the Operation Theatre was Jade, with his face buried in his hands.
I sat beside Jade and putting my arm around him asked, “Is he all right?”
Jade didn’t speak… he just shook his head.
Harry took over, “Doctors are performing a surgery on him right now. They say that the right side of his body has been hurt badly.”
“Let us hope for the best!” Harry added.
I looked towards him. Harry… or Harit, as his parents had named him, used to be the kid of our group. Ever enthusiastic… and game for the weirdest of adventures. He had changed a lot now. Something seemed very different in him… maybe that was because he had grown his tresses.
Actually, I was meeting Harry after almost six months today. In fact, not only Harry but also I hadn’t been in touch with the rest of the gang that often. And to think that during the four years of college, the five of us used to be inseparable.
We literally used to do everything together.
Now my job seldom allows me to freak out with my gang ever.
Jade is busy with his MBA preparations. Harry is looking after his dad’s business.
And Anurag… he is still looking for a job. Rather, a job of his stature.
“As soon as I got the news of Rishi’s accident, I called up Harry and dashed here,” Jade recalled.
“But, how on earth did…” before I could complete my sentence, the door of the operation theatre opened and two masked people came out. Of course they had to be the surgeons.
We rose to our feet… one of the surgeons came towards us and disclosed his intellectual face as he removed the mask.
I took a deep breath and didn’t let go of it until I saw a smile on the doctor’s face.
“Your friend is out of danger,” the doctor addressed us.
“Phew!!” chorused Jade and Anurag.
“But we need to keep him under observation for an hour, so he’s been moved to the ICU right now,” the doctor concluded.
“Thank you doctor,” Jade said, heaving a sigh of relief. The rest of us echoed Jade’s words as the doctor walked off.
We celebrated with a high five followed by a group hug.
The doctor returned. “Any of you with blood group A-positive?” he enquired.
Anurag stepped forward, followed by Jade.
“It would be great if one of you could donate a unit to compensate for the blood we used on your friend… there’s no compulsion though,” the doctor added.
Anurag said, “No issues... I am game for it.”
“Great! I would request the rest of you to wait at the reception and you please come with me,” saying this he walked off with Anurag.
“So, how did you come to know of Rishi’s accident?” I asked Jade as we strolled towards the reception.
“Incidentally Rishi had put my mobile phone number as the emergency contact in his company I-Card,” Jade explained.
Rishi used to stay alone in the city in a rented one room flat. That room used to be the after-college and weekend hangout for us during our college days. Even after getting a job quite far off from the city, Rishi never ever considered shifting to a place nearer to his office. Guess he had some emotional attachments with that flat… well, so did we.
Harry picked up the Sports-World from the magazine rack before we settled down at the sofa. He had forever been a sports freak.
He was a member of our college football team and used to miss out on a lot of lectures because of his practice sessions.
“This year Japan has very good chances of upsetting some big teams in the football world cup… what say?” Harry put forth his point.
“Nah… these five-foot Asian players stand no chance against the giants of Europe and South America”, I debated.
Jade wasn’t interested in our conversation. I noticed that he was too much engrossed in gazing at the pretty nurse over the reception counter.
I nudged Harry and pointed towards Jade with my eyes.
“Pretty babe, huh?” Harry mockingly addressed Jade.
“Hmm?” Jade made one of his most innocent faces as he turned towards us.
“What babe?” Jade added with a wink. That was typical Jaydeep. During college days too he used to sneakily stare at all the chicks and nobody used to notice. Guess it was his naive expression that never gave him away.
“Remember the time when I had almost got Jade to give up this habit of his totally?” Harry recalled.
I remembered quite well.
It was one fine Delhi winter morning. The five of us were sitting at the amphitheatre steps soaking up the warm sun, just as a very pretty girl passed by us. Jade as usual took a sneak preview of the lady without our knowledge.
Ten days later it was Valentine’s Day. However, for us unattached guys; this day didn’t hold much value. So, that day we decided to mourn our single-status by attending a lecture… a feat that we very rarely performed.
Harry was however missing from the classroom that day too. He and his football practice, whew!
Suddenly the monotonous tone of Professor Sharma was disrupted by a melodious voice, “Excuse me sir… may I speak to Jaydeep Roy for a moment please?” It was the same pretty lass who had walked past us some days back, at the amphitheatre.
Jade was astonished. Professor Sharma gestured him to go out of the classroom and meet the girl. Jade walked off mystified.
I sensed something fishy… so I pulled Rishi and Anurag with me and followed Jade.
The girl started speaking to Jade and the three of us listened with strained ears from a distance. “Is this you who has written this?” she said waving a sheet of paper at Jade.
Jade took a look at the sheet. “Love letter!! Gosh no…” Jade leaped back.
“My brother saw you staring at me some days back, and he’s sure you are the person behind this letter,” she exclaimed. “He’s waiting for you round that corner… go meet him,” she added as she pointed towards the lab.
Jade was traumatized. With meek steps he started walking towards the corner. He looked at me once and I assured him that we are behind him.
Our college was notorious for bullying lads; hence all of us were a little nervous. Slowly we crept behind Jade.
“Muahahahaha!!” the stupid ass Harry jumped out from behind the wall.
“Scared you Jade… did I?” Harry enquired.
We all were amazed. The pretty lady who was the partner in crime of Harry also burst into peels of laughter. “Let me introduce you to my cousin. Guys… meet Sonia,” Harry said pointing towards the girl.
Recalling the episode, Harry and I burst into peels of laughter. Suddenly we realized that we were in a hospital and had to suppress our glee for the moment.
“I will surely take revenge from you someday for that episode Harry,” Jade sneered.
“Grow up Jade,” Harry giggled.
“Why? What did this kid do now?” I heard Anurag’s voice behind me. He was holding a piece of cotton in his arm. “These bastards took a lot of blood out of me… I'll have to workout extra tomorrow. Well the doc said that we can meet Rishi in fifteen minutes.” he added as he aimed and threw the cotton bud directly into the waste basket.
I was the only person who took notice of this hole-in-one accomplishment of his. As he looked at me I signed an applause using my eyes.
“So, did you give a thought to what I said the other day?” Jade was talking to Anurag.
“What?” Harry and I chorused, unable to withstand our curiosity.
“Nothing guys… this Jade was suggesting me to prepare for the MBA exams along with him,” said Anurag. “Bad idea”, he added.
“I don’t think so…” I intervened.
“Well, I don’t want to become just another manager in just another big-shot company, wearing a tie and attending meetings throughout the day,” Anurag argued.
“Believe me dude, that way you’ll be much better than what I am now… just slaving for my project manager, toiling day and night doing some miserable work.” I tried to explain to Anurag.
“Whatever… but I can’t study anymore,” Anurag concluded.
“Forget it!” Jade spoke up. “It’s of no use trying to explain things to this idiot… he’ll do whatever he wishes to do.”
Jade was right. Anurag was a typical Leo. He was filled with ego till the brim and his stubbornness seldom allowed him to let us have our way with him.
“I wish we all had never grown out of our college days…” Jade suddenly sounded very nostalgic.
“Yeah dude, those sure were the best days of my life… no tension, no worries, just plain fun,” I nodded with a smile.
“That’s why I sometimes feel lucky that I haven’t found a job yet… at least I have some time for myself,” Anurag said. “Look at you all, busy with your jobs and MBA preparations. We guys never meet nowadays,” he complained.
“True pal… very true. And for this we have nobody else to blame but ourselves,” Harry concluded.
The telephone at the reception rang.
“Yes doctor… sure doctor,” saying these four words the nurse disconnected the phone.
We looked towards her with expectant eyes.
“You can go and meet your friend now… Ward 33, Bed 5,” she said.
We all rushed to see Rishi. Just outside Ward 33, the guard reminded us to keep our voices down. We almost tiptoed towards bed number 5 to avert waking up any sleeping patient.
There he was… Rishi was leaning up against a pillow with his right hand plastered. A tube from the hanging glucose bottle had found it’s way to his right arm. He would have appeared to be in a miserable state if it wouldn’t have been for the smile that dwelled on his lips.
“Hey, hey… all you rascals are here! Sorry to spoil your sleep at this hour pals,” Rishi said with a wink. He was struggling while speaking, but he seemed fine enough.
“Just shut up you ass…” Anurag bellowed. “Who do you think you are, Batman? Driving his Bat-Mobile in this dark night…” Anurag went on.
“Chill dude… and please don’t insult my Yamaha by calling it names such as Bat-Mobile and all…” that was typical Rishi. Not failing to crack jokes even at such an hour.
I saw Anurag too sporting a faint smile.
“All the best dude… hope you can put your YA, MA and HA together into one piece after this accident,” Harry commented slyly.
The look on Rishi’s face changed, thinking about his broken bike.
“Come on guys… just for courtesy sake I have been holding on for so long,” Rishi announced suddenly.
We all looked at him questionably.
Seeing the confused look on our faces, Rishi explained, “With so much glucose water flowing inside, a man desperately needs to pee guys!”
“You haven’t changed at all…” was all that I could mutter as Jade fished out the necessary container from under the bed and helped Rishi with his relieving activity.
I felt really tired now. We all had positioned ourselves comfortably around Rishi’s bed. With the gang getting together after such a long time, nobody could contain their excitement and we chattered on unstoppably. It won’t be long before the warden will shoo us off, so each of us wanted to make the most of this time we’d got together..
I looked at us. Times surely have changed.
The five of us who were always together… now it took something as big as a near fatal accident of one to reunite us.
This day surely goes into my diary as ‘The Great Reunion’. Finally we all did sneak out some time from our respective ‘busy’ schedules.
Finally we did meet…
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