Once upon a time in Dehradun

As the legend goes, not so long ago in Institute of Management Studies (IMS), Dehradun, there was a group of devil-may-care guys, who cared for nothing else but G-I-R-L-S. And one of them was just crrrrazzzzyyyyyyyyyy about them. He had a crush on, say, every other girl. Well in terms of girls, his college was heaven. Even there was strict uniform code (waiter's uniform - white shirt, black pant, blue tie), girls looked fantaaaaaastic. And being the loving guy that he's, he loved all of them.

The window

Sitting with his friends on the window-side seat of his first-floor class, from where every goddamn place in his not-so-big college was visible, he developed a crush on, umm... countless girls. Never mind, if almost every teacher noticed, objected, condemned, ridiculed and punished them for staring outside the window, despite repeated warnings during the class. The particular guy I'm talking about, he was asked to come and give a five-minute presentation on why he looks outside the window all the time. And the truthful guy that he's, the truth he told: "There are so many pretty girls in the college sitting outside, it's hard to concentrate in the class."

Sight of every other damsel used to drive his senses nuts. If one girl's hair impressed him, other girls' eyes won him. (DO NOT think further... He's a gentleman!) He was so loving, that he fell instantly in love with every pretty creature. Name a course, and he'll have a dozen of crushes in each batch.

No discrimination

Love knows no boundaries, and he proved it alrite. Course, batch, height, weight no bar, he loved them all. Curly hair wooed him just as much as straight, permed hair. Girls in high heels won him just as much as girls in flats. He'd sigh a wishful sigh as a feminine girl would pass by, and would be impressed by those tom-boyish girls too. If he liked one particular girl because she was silent and cool and calm and poised, he'd like "loudspeaker" too.

Tall or short, dusky damsels or fair and lovelies, slim or unh.., shy or outgoing, sexy or unsexy, feminine or tomboy, almost every girl appealed to him (given that she had something sort of 'charming.') By the end of his second year at college, there was no pretty girl in his class who didn't have the honour of being his crush. And as new batches came, new girls got their names etched in the roll of honour. Ah, those (countless) lucky ones...

Codename XXX

He knew name of each of them, but to be able to converse about them openly, without letting others have an idea what he's talking about, he assigned nicknames to all of them. And thanks to his great circle of friends, that all these pretty girls got rather wonderful names. His group was always abuzz with few of those names at a time. Oh you wanna know what those names were like? What, Whitewash, Sonia Gandhi, Original, Duplicate, Batakh (Hindi for duck), Button, Shampoo, Patakha in Pink, Kangana, Bomb, Arjun, Model... There were many more, couldn't recall now. Others used to wonder, "what the heck are they talking about!?!," as these reckless boys merrily talked about those pretty girls in their secret terminology.

As long as these guys were in college, these nicknames were pretty famous. And so were the guys! There were at least a thousand love stories involving them. All of them one-sided, though.

The tree

There was a "tree" in that college, just in between of the undergraduate and postgraduate building. These guys used to sit under that tree when class was off. And these guys used to sit under that tree when the class was not off. From there, they used to see "Kangana," that short girl with curly hair and high heels, whose class was on the first floor, just in front of the tree. Kangana always used to sit near the window, noticing these guys. And these guys always used to sit under the tree, noticing Kangana.

"That tree" holds a rather important place in hearts of those guys, as in their farewell they were felicitated for sitting under it. Those guys were pretty infamous among a group of junior girls, there was "romantic hatred." Romance was from guys' side and hatred from girls.

Gone are the days

For these guys every day was Valentine's Day. Especially for the particular guy I'm talking about, he was infamous for falling love at the drop of a hat. Alas, as love was in full swing, their course come to an end, and none of these guys failed. So they moved on to different cities to study further. Hmm... The only subject these guys studied in their college (no prizes for guessing), was girls. Alas, there's no certificate course for excellence in this! So let us say these guys had to go on to pursue higher studies to get a job, as it's time to get serious now.

All are in different cities now, trying to make something out of life. But still when they reunite, they can't help but relive the nostalgia. Oh, when they meet up they still zip and zap through Rajpur Road of Dehradun, looking for girls. They'd roam in tuition hotspots of Dehradun, waiting for girls to come out. ("School girls are the easiest to link up with," says one of them.) They'd go to the crowded Paltan bazaar, stand in front of McDonald's, go window shopping in Vishal Mega Mart. Time can just throw them outta college, but it can't take away from them their instincts.

And yeah, amidst their busy schedule of "bird-watching" in Dehradun, these guys still take time out to go together to "their" college, IMS, and sit under that tree. And girls of that rival group still make faces upon seeing them. These girls can't forget those guys. And those guys can't forget these girls. It's a love-hate relationship.

Cheers to friendship, cheers to life!