The Four Musketeers

While attending a workshop on CitizenSBI programme at Hotel Taj President, Mumbai a couple of days back, I noticed that a seminar of Tata Power Company was going on in the adjacent banquet hall. I felt slightly curious and walked in during the break and, after enquiry, discovered Vijay Chourey, my college mate, there. That took us back to our college days...

We studied at the Govt. Science College, Jabalpur from the year 1971 to 1974 and completed our Bachelor's degree there. Those were days more of fun than serious studies. We - Vijay Bajaj, Arvind Harshey, Vijay Chourey and yours truly - were the four musketeers of our class. After the classes were over we used to stand at the tiraha near the CPWD office and talk and talk. Our discussions were not on any particular topic, nor meaningful by any means, but they kept us together. We used to laugh a lot is what I remember now. Arvind stayed in the colony nearby, Bajaj was from Narmada Road, Vijay stayed at the Satna Building and I came all the way from Ranjhi. Arvind looked like a child and the office clerk refused to hand over the scholarship money to him. Next day, he had to come with his father to collect the scholarship.

I am not able to recollect the names of many of my class mates. Some names which I remember are P P Dubey, G P Dubey, Manjeet Kaur Jabbal and Uma Devi. Just four of them. I also remember a fat boy much older than us (whom we referred as Dadaji) who came from the suburban Panagar. He was a warm guy and I wonder where he is now and what he is doing presently. As far as I remember, we had one dark Vishwakarma in the class whom we referred to as the policewallah.

Our Professors were Handa (the Giant), Mahalaha, D K Mishra, S K Mishra, Nilose, Sahastrabuddhey ( also known as the policewallah), Madam Chauhan and Paliwal Sir. I am forgetting the name of a moustachiod Mathematics professor who pronounced "equation" as "yoocation" with a twist of his moustache - probably he was Mr Premchand. All of them were really good. Once a strike was called by the Student Leaders (which included Sharad Yadav) and the four musketeers opted to attend a Physics lecture of Professor Nilose. The leaders came to the class and warned us of dire consequences after we came out but the professor continued with the class.

One of us four musketeers was having a one-sided love affair with one of the college girls. He sent her a love letter full of poetry. Soon he got the reply from her. The reply was Spirituality of a high order with the concluding words -Eeshwar aapko sadbuddhi de!

The flash back has just started. Let us go back in time and re-create those dreamy days. May I request the two Vijays and any one of our class mates who are reading this to continue the string. I shall also contribute when I recollect more incidents. Bye till then.