Nothing Else Matters

He was skinny. He was funny. He was a young lad of late-teens when I met him first at Shankho's house at Salkia.

I had heard a lot about him since my childhood because his father and mine had been bosom friends since their boyhood and they did bad and good things together learning how to live a life. We never had a chance like our fathers till then as we were gathering strength to run rebels against the peaceful world we lived in because we all wanted by then was no more favour from our parents. Whatever it took, we wanted to do things on our own and take the entire blame or responsibility on ourselves only. We were trying to be self-dependent without being questioned at every step. What Pinaki did, consequently, still remains a heroic story to tell others to be proud of for what came out of it and how that influenced the life of a lot who, following his path, became men from idiots, not in terms of money making, but we all chose to do what we loved the best and what we could do the best.

I never got a chance to meet or see him until a hot summer evening when a boy with a very loose round neck T-shirt and tattered baggy jeans suddenly entered the famous room at Mitras as  Shankho and I were listening to some ABBA song.

 His steps to the sofa were like wading through some muck. Shankho remained unperturbed and I could only shake a cold hand with him revealing my identity. That did not spark anything special as he was lost in some other world. The music continued. After the song was over, Pinaki spoke. His lips were red with chewing betel leaf. We could see his red tongue between off-white stained teeth.

-          I could not make it. Am an a**hole!!!

-          What happened?

Shankho enquired quite reluctantly, as if such things keep on happening in Pinaki's life.

-          She's gone…f**king gone…I am an idiot!!!

-         It is not like that. But, did you (with a hesitant and meaningful pause) try to kiss her or something like that in the very first private meet?

-      Kissing!!!! How could you even think of that…? She is like an angel... I don't wanna use her for all these cheap puroses…and why the f**k am I telling you all these…you don't know a thing about what true love is…and kissing? Chhi…! Out of question…How dirty you are and your thinking!! Thank god that you didn’t say that I f**ked her…sorry, I mean 'made love' to her.

As if the word ‘f**k’ is a taboo for her, and for the first time I wondered how spiritual love can be at this age when libido speaks the highest. Shankho changed the track and George Michael started to create a perfect ambience with "Kissing a Fool" on the famous stereo music system of SHARP. Shankho knew the best, perhaps, how to get the most out of Pinaki. When no one asked anything further for a couple of minutes and the only sound that overflowed the room was “you must have been kissing a foooooollll” Pinaki fell victim to the pressure cooker theory and opened up like a sudden blow of a whistle steaming out hot and loud:

-          You know it was our first day out.

-          Wow Pinaki! You were out on a date with her! Congrats bro!

-          C'mon have the patience to listen to the entire tale.

             He looked at me with a queer pair of eyes.

-          Is this boy safe? Can he be trusted?

-          Well, he is younger to us but sometimes proves to be wiser than us.

-          Uhhh…well but he doesn’t look like.

-     Sometimes apparent looks are deceptive. You may confide in us, blindfold. After all, ourfathers are bosom friends, too.

      The last line worked as Pinaki got back to the main story instantly.

-          Well then ...We got out of our college. (FYI: Pinaki was studying Commerce Graduation course from Goenka College of Commerce, Kolkata) She asked me where we were going. I smiled with a mysticism at her and told her that, let's take a walk as if there was a big surprise for her. This mystic adventure, I reckoned, would prove romantic. And we started to walk.

Shankho interrupted with a vital question,

-          Where exactly did you plan to go walking?

-          I had planned to walk till Esplanade and then catch the Satyabala (Name of a route) minibus back  home.

-          That's surprising indeed!!!! And what about the gal, man? How would she get back home? Where does she stay?

-          C'mon…she is not a mom's kid. She could handle herself. She didn't need me when she came to college in the morning, right. Did she? Why would she need me when she gets back home? And I am not yet that close to her to ask about things in detail.

-     True true…ladies must be free from all these first of all…because to get them to their comfort zone, at least you need to make her feel that you are least curious about her personal details. What is most important to you is only her. I hope you know her name…

-        Right you are. That’s why we started to walk. I needed to know things. And everything was fine. We were walking down Central Avenue towards Esplanade. We had reached near the Medical College. She was looking like an apple with her sun-burnt reddened cheeks.

-          Contrast is good! And fair is foul and foul is fair….

Shankho uttered this quote from Shakespeare almost vanishing in the air. And there was forty degrees celsius outside which we could feel rising in the room with such a catalyst devised by Shankho.

-          What did you say?

-          Nothing…you may continue…we are listening.

-          I don't know what happened to her suddenly.

-          Why? What happened?

-      She wanted to know where we were going, again. This time I told her our destination and my plan. Then she told me to take a bus or a cab to Esplanade, at least, instead of walking that far. I was candid enough telling her that taking a cab was a fantastic idea and I did not have enough money to take a bus, even. All I was left with was the bus fare for me alone to travel once by Satyabala mini bus route. I can't afford even for two.

Both me and Shankho were all ears. 

- Then?????

-          She just said 'Fantastic' with her eyebrows resembling an anguished second bracket … -- She must have taken the word ‘fantastic’ with a positive mind and missed the literal one that you talked about the impossibility of the idea.

-          Yes, exactly…I even told her, ‘If I had that much money, I would not have walked myself in such heat outside.'

-          Whatt? You told her this?

-          Yes and it was very queer of her to get tight-lipped suddenly telling me, “Never ever try to talk to me even, in future.” and  I was deserted there, clueless. She crossed the road and before I could reach her, she took a bus to the opposite direction.

-          That’s nice... Pinaki, you are saved.

-          How come?

-          This gal  is not of your kind or match. She badly lacks humour and is not romantic enough to go along with such a wit like yours.

-          Opposites attract…you know.

We understood how Pinaki’s 'true love' for the lady was turning him to be blind at her.

Shankho changed the cassette and started playing “Blind Man” by Aerosmith. I bet he was doing it intentionally, to unnerve Pinaki. But Pinaki’s feeling of love was too deep, by then, to grasp the metaphor in the musical atmosphere meaningfully created.  

Pinaki suddenly retorted at me,

-          What does your f**kin’ wisdom say, pal?

To this sudden deep query, I mumbled and recollecting myself, I prepared to present myself to him quite like a wise priest and told him that:

-          The best love relations ever are found to begin with a quarrel or a fight.

With a grin from his heart, Pinaki looked as if he had salvation.

 -          So all you folks are saying that there is still hope... 

       Shankho and I both promptly replied,

-          Yes….of course.

Pinaki patted my back and said,

- You talk like your father...quite a wise man...

- May be... I donno...Because we never want to be a part of your achievement or loss…whatever, because we are friends. Maybe too bad. But still, our fathers have been friends too, never leaving one another despite differences. So I believe that we are are ever beside one another for whatever we do...individually or together. Sometimes best friends are the worst critics....and we have to take that. 

 Kakima entered the room with triangle shaped french toasts and infusion coffee. I found that Pinaki’s hunger was working a guilty mind in him so far. With a sip on the best coffee we ever used to have till date, he forgot all and everything, almost, it seemed. 

And we started to talk about BBC Top 20 charts that we listened to every Tuesday @5:30pm IST. I can clearly remember that the evening was spent in appreciation of “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica.

We never heard anything about her further. We never knew if she existed in Pinaki's life or not, after that evening.

However our friendship took a different route henceforth.