Om "Shanti Home"

It all started one fine evening in Olypub. It hasn't ended yet. And it won't. Never.

As we were merrily drinking along and enjoying the beefsteaks and chicken-a-la-kievs someone said "lets plan a trip together". Everyone nodded in drunken unanimity. Little did we know what awaited us. Three to four days later, it suddenly occurred to me that my uncle has an empty house in Shantiniketon. Phone calls followed. Then there were a lot of persuasions, plannings, apprehensions. And one fine afternoon eight friends were waiting at Howrah station for the Howrah Maldah Town Intercity Express. Not that everyone was equally well acquainted with the others. But everything changed in the two days to follow. The journey, the anecdotes, the "chhoRanos", the wonderful house, the booze, the weed, the drunken stupors and the list could go on forever. But again, that would only be a list. The experience, I don't have words to describe it. I fail utterly to express how it felt to be completely drenched in the rain and splash around in the breathtakingly gorgeous Kopai river. That too with five beautiful women :P I search around for words when after midnight amidst all the inebriations, someone sits up straight and with closed eyes starts singing "aamar nishitho raat-ero baadol dhara". And there were also the "bangla panu" reading sessions by the candlelight, the erotic "mohuay jomechhe aaj mou go" dancings, the "chaa" and "aloor chop" rendezvous' at a roadside "jhupRi" and spending the last evening in Prinsep ghat watching a magnificent sky glorified further by a sad sun setting. The two days changed eight lives. Forever. Only time will tell whether we'll all be friends in the future too. But there always will be a part of each one of us that will crave for the seven others. Some figments of memories that will remain, some little things that will make us laugh even after twenty years. And Shantiniketon will always be a place we would associate with us, a place that formed an inexplicable bond between eight people. And I already miss that place.

Everything that goes up, comes down. But everyhting that starts doesn't end. This IS it. We plan to do this again and again. But whether we do or not, we'll relive the memories. Time and again. OM "SHANTI HOME" to that.

P.S: For those ineterested you can see the pictures at
1) http://picasaweb.google.com/tapabratabanerjee/Shantiniketan
2) http://picasaweb.google.com/bichienator/ShantiniketonTrip