Another one from my guest blogger and friend Pradipto Chakravarty.......his memory of these happenings is 'elephantine'.....
Thanks Pradipto.....
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My Unique Identifier, the first taste of freedom and an evil omen……
For all Indian official documents including passport and driver’s license, one has to declare a unique and visible body mark that identifies the person. In my case it is “cut mark on the little finger of right hand”. This irrelevant body mark, however, is a very significant part of my personal history. It is associated with the first heady flavor of freedom – not only for me, but I am sure for my dearest friends Azfar Alam and Swayandip Pal as well.
While we all know Azfar from his blog posts, Swayandip has vanished from our radars. Well, not really – I did bump into him on a couple of occasions in Gurgaon where he lives now, but the connection seems to have obliterated into the maze of what we call as urban lifestyle. He is now known as SHAYON PAUL and has long hair that he pulls back with a ridged metallic hair band. We, of course could not keep up the relationship barring few phone calls a couple of years back.
The three of us were the self-styled intellectual elites of St. Xavier’s college and revelled in “upper class” activities such as debating and quizzing. The year was 1991 and one day, we chanced upon a notice inviting college teams for the state level Tata Steel Quiz Competition (Ranchi was not Jharkhand at that time). Seizing the opportunity to prove ourselves in the event-less and mundane life of Ranchi, we were the first ones to enroll as a team of three.
The selection round was a written quiz conducted by our favorite teacher – Mr. Terrance O’Brien (one of the cousins of the famed quiz master and now Member of Parliament, Neil O’Brien). We did fairly well and were selected. The difference of scores between the teams was not disclosed, but I still believe that the clincher as an interesting question that Swayandip answered: Architect Le Corbusier designed Chandigarh – What is the meaning of his name? Pat came the answer from the best amongst three of us – The Crow. So, there we were – selected to represent St. Xavier’s Ranchi at the Tata Steel Quiz Competition to be held in Patna among 6 shortlisted colleges. We were given a hotel stay for two nights in Patna. I remember we three went to Ranchi railway station on scooter and bought the 2nd Class tickets. Then for some weird reason we decided to walk along the railway line. We walked all the way up to the Namkom bridge and returned back - was a heck of a day!
The excitement was palpable on our first independent train journey with friends and the obvious temperament to break rules made us leave out seats and stand next to the door. I was initiated to smoking that year and did not lose any chance to demonstrate the bravado of smoking in the corridor like a celebrity. And then, the inevitable happened. The train jerked and I clutched the rusted basin to balance myself.
Before I could realize, the little finger of my right hand got a massive cut and part of skin came out marking my finger and identifying me for life. I don't have a birth certificate and all my 18+ documents were made after that......It was dressed the next day in Patna by Azfar’s Mamaji who was a doctor.
The incident and the related pain however, did not deter the excitement of the competition. We checked in to this non-descript hotel, which was nothing less than a 5 star property for to us! We came to know that the food was complimentary and the knowledge got us ballistic in ordering lunch – Palak Paneer, Dal Tadka, chicken curry and rotis. We dispelled the saying – “there is nothing called a free lunch” by eating as if there was no tomorrow. The flavor of that lunch still lingers – more in my mind than on the taste buds….
The quiz competition was in a huge hall opposite to the hotel (called Nritya Kala Mandir). What happened in the next 2 hours of competition is a blur and I remember that we could manage to barely scrape through to 5th position, the second last. We were thrashed and tongue tied as questions shot at us as missiles and annihilated us from all angles. We were actually relieved when it all ended with the last question. Three brighter IIT type guys from Patna Science College won the quiz and gave us the quintessential “you guys are duffer” look which is commonly demonstrated by quiz champions. The only consolation, of course was receiving the certificate form none other than Mrs. and Mr. J.J. Irani, the then CMD of Tata Steel.
For some time we were crestfallen and returned to the hotel room as a battle-lost should. While analyzing and lamenting “Aah! I knew that question on Bollywood”. “Ooops – that one on cricket was a walkaway”……. we reached to a conclusion that it was not that we did not know the answers. Our tongues (and minds) were tied because of an evil “tona-totka” cast by one of our competitors. The proof – a half-eaten sachet of Paan Parag that was placed by someone on our table……….We nearly complained to the quiz master for this unforgiving bit of security breach which prevented us from victory.....till better sense prevailed.
This two day adventure laid a foundation of our quizzing days – we went on to participate in almost all competitions in and around Ranchi…..winning some and losing some.
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From Azfar -
I remember some of my relatives who lived in Patna like my Chhote Mamma (Dr. Nadeem Mohsin) amd my Manjhale Abbi (Dr. Naiyar Alam) were in the audience with family expecting us to win. After our pretty disastrous show, we desperately wanted to avoid them !!
Thanks Pradipto.....
******************************************************************************
My Unique Identifier, the first taste of freedom and an evil omen……
For all Indian official documents including passport and driver’s license, one has to declare a unique and visible body mark that identifies the person. In my case it is “cut mark on the little finger of right hand”. This irrelevant body mark, however, is a very significant part of my personal history. It is associated with the first heady flavor of freedom – not only for me, but I am sure for my dearest friends Azfar Alam and Swayandip Pal as well.
While we all know Azfar from his blog posts, Swayandip has vanished from our radars. Well, not really – I did bump into him on a couple of occasions in Gurgaon where he lives now, but the connection seems to have obliterated into the maze of what we call as urban lifestyle. He is now known as SHAYON PAUL and has long hair that he pulls back with a ridged metallic hair band. We, of course could not keep up the relationship barring few phone calls a couple of years back.
The three of us were the self-styled intellectual elites of St. Xavier’s college and revelled in “upper class” activities such as debating and quizzing. The year was 1991 and one day, we chanced upon a notice inviting college teams for the state level Tata Steel Quiz Competition (Ranchi was not Jharkhand at that time). Seizing the opportunity to prove ourselves in the event-less and mundane life of Ranchi, we were the first ones to enroll as a team of three.
The selection round was a written quiz conducted by our favorite teacher – Mr. Terrance O’Brien (one of the cousins of the famed quiz master and now Member of Parliament, Neil O’Brien). We did fairly well and were selected. The difference of scores between the teams was not disclosed, but I still believe that the clincher as an interesting question that Swayandip answered: Architect Le Corbusier designed Chandigarh – What is the meaning of his name? Pat came the answer from the best amongst three of us – The Crow. So, there we were – selected to represent St. Xavier’s Ranchi at the Tata Steel Quiz Competition to be held in Patna among 6 shortlisted colleges. We were given a hotel stay for two nights in Patna. I remember we three went to Ranchi railway station on scooter and bought the 2nd Class tickets. Then for some weird reason we decided to walk along the railway line. We walked all the way up to the Namkom bridge and returned back - was a heck of a day!
The excitement was palpable on our first independent train journey with friends and the obvious temperament to break rules made us leave out seats and stand next to the door. I was initiated to smoking that year and did not lose any chance to demonstrate the bravado of smoking in the corridor like a celebrity. And then, the inevitable happened. The train jerked and I clutched the rusted basin to balance myself.
Before I could realize, the little finger of my right hand got a massive cut and part of skin came out marking my finger and identifying me for life. I don't have a birth certificate and all my 18+ documents were made after that......It was dressed the next day in Patna by Azfar’s Mamaji who was a doctor.
The incident and the related pain however, did not deter the excitement of the competition. We checked in to this non-descript hotel, which was nothing less than a 5 star property for to us! We came to know that the food was complimentary and the knowledge got us ballistic in ordering lunch – Palak Paneer, Dal Tadka, chicken curry and rotis. We dispelled the saying – “there is nothing called a free lunch” by eating as if there was no tomorrow. The flavor of that lunch still lingers – more in my mind than on the taste buds….
The quiz competition was in a huge hall opposite to the hotel (called Nritya Kala Mandir). What happened in the next 2 hours of competition is a blur and I remember that we could manage to barely scrape through to 5th position, the second last. We were thrashed and tongue tied as questions shot at us as missiles and annihilated us from all angles. We were actually relieved when it all ended with the last question. Three brighter IIT type guys from Patna Science College won the quiz and gave us the quintessential “you guys are duffer” look which is commonly demonstrated by quiz champions. The only consolation, of course was receiving the certificate form none other than Mrs. and Mr. J.J. Irani, the then CMD of Tata Steel.
For some time we were crestfallen and returned to the hotel room as a battle-lost should. While analyzing and lamenting “Aah! I knew that question on Bollywood”. “Ooops – that one on cricket was a walkaway”……. we reached to a conclusion that it was not that we did not know the answers. Our tongues (and minds) were tied because of an evil “tona-totka” cast by one of our competitors. The proof – a half-eaten sachet of Paan Parag that was placed by someone on our table……….We nearly complained to the quiz master for this unforgiving bit of security breach which prevented us from victory.....till better sense prevailed.
This two day adventure laid a foundation of our quizzing days – we went on to participate in almost all competitions in and around Ranchi…..winning some and losing some.
*********************************************************************************
From Azfar -
I remember some of my relatives who lived in Patna like my Chhote Mamma (Dr. Nadeem Mohsin) amd my Manjhale Abbi (Dr. Naiyar Alam) were in the audience with family expecting us to win. After our pretty disastrous show, we desperately wanted to avoid them !!
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