THE STORY OF BEN

A BRIEF HISTORY

Darjeeling, one of the most elegant creations of the pre-eminent architect GOD, encompassed by tall, lofty and high calm cliffs and ice covered mountains blessed and nurtured with the calmness, love and purity of our beloved mother nature is one of the most preferred tourist spots on this planet. Every year hundreds and thousands of tourists, including foreigners, arrives here for sight viewing and hedonism.  But, this is not only a tourist site. There are also inhabitants of this place. Though, this place is not as fast as the metro cities but it is a place worth living. There are schools, colleges imparting the noble and honored cause of education, markets for shopping the daily essentials and necessities and even modes of recreations and amusement like cinema halls, discos and other arenas. People dwell an Arcadian Life here happily with open heart and absolute emancipation.

My anecdote commences in the year 1980 at one of the colleges situated therein naming Shorans College of Science and Technology where the proud batch of 1980 postgraduate students of Bio Technology of the same college are now waiting avidly for their dean to come and join them in their final day of college for their group photo which shall be published in the cover page of the year’s annual college magazine “Remembral——-By and For the Students.” Remembral is an annual magazine which is published by the college for every department.

However, this year, unlike and dissimilar to the past years, is a very proud year for the department of Bio Technology of this educational institution. The reason for the same is that three students of the mentioned department have secured the three highest marks in the subject in aggregate in all over West Bengal in the last 25 years. They are Ankul Dey, Anamika Sen and Naina Sen securing the first, second and third position respectively.

Ankul is a tall, slim and muscular boy of more than 6 ft. in height with a fair complexion. He has short hair nicely combed and his eyes are brown in color reflecting the brilliance of his brains.

On the other hand, Anamika is a girl of approximately 5ft. 11” in height and has a very white complexion. She is a very calm, tranquil and quiet girl and has been a consistent good student.

Naina Sen, the sister of Anamika, was also a brilliant student and has always been within the first four rank holders. Her height and complexion was almost the same that of her sister Anamika but she was genial and good looking than Anamika. She is of very jolly and cheerful nature and always liked hanging about with friends which obviously include her best buddy Ankul Dey. All the three of them have earned the college huge respect, honour and recognition in the eyes of others. The press reporters came and they even interviewed the students and the students were also felicitated by the college for their brilliant and outstanding performance in their field.

Now, all the three students along with other students of the same department are now eagerly waiting for their dean to come and join them in their last day of college for their group photo. The photographer, on the other hand was busy allotting seats to the students as per their respective ranks. A place was kept vacant in the exact middle of the first row for their dean. Finally, the dean came and as soon as the students saw the man with old glass and large beard approaching, some students due to fear and some as a mark of respect, but all the students stood up and greeted the man in unison, “Good Morning, Sir.”

The dean also nodded his head in reply and wishing them the same asked all of them to take their respective seats. The dean also came and took his seat in the exact middle of the first row in a wooden chair that was already kept vacant for him. Ankul and Anamika were sitting on the left of the dean and Naina was on his right. Finally, all the arrangements of seats were completed by the photographer and he then by putting his eye into the camera shouted, “Cheese” and then a glint of light appeared indicating that the photograph has been taken.

But, today is a very morose and gloomy day for all the students and especially for Naina and her best buddy Ankul, who were best pals since the initial day of the college. But their despondency had a good reason. Today is their final day of college. From tomorrow, all these will be history -events of the past. All the beautiful and exciting moments of life that they have spent in the college will be history from the next sunrise. It is as if someone is leaving his/her family and going to boarding school eternally against his/her own will. All the students were sad and distressed, some were shedding tears, some were silently weeping, some taking their friend’s contact number, some giving tight hugs to their mates while others were just sitting tranquilly drowned in some deep thought with their heads merged down in sadness.

Naina and Ankul were also striding the college campus slowly but they were silent. They did not have any words to say to each other. Naina finally breaking the reticence said to Ankul with a deep breath,

“Life is so strange, isn’t it? Three years before, when I first entered the college campus, I was so nervous that how would I cope up with the new environment with all the new people. Now, the college has become my second home and all my classmates have become like my family members and now I will have to say Good Bye to them. It is really such a bad feeling. I do not know, what is the reason of creating a relationship, when sometime, it will have to break.”

Ankul, then turned towards her and said to her with a small smile in his sad face with an effort to solace her, “All these are not vague. These memories will remain in our heart forever.”

Moreover Ankul continued, “And, do not worry, this is only the end of the college and not the end of our friendship. We will be in contacts, we will call each other, we can meet also whenever and wherever we want– so do not worry.”

Actually Ankul was trying to console her as she was seeming very sad. Finally Ankul, in an attempt to make her smile, said, “Well, if I knew that you would be so sad on the last day of our college, then, I would have given you the suggestion of failing in the final examination, so that we could have spend another glorious year over here.”

Finally Naina’s small smile came in her lips. After that, they for a few minutes talked with each other, and finally Naina took a cab from the outside of the college gate and went towards her home bidding Ankul bye, who was still standing in front of the college gate staring at the cab. The cab just moved away and Ankul just kept staring at the cab until it took a left turn and finally disappeared. Ankul felt a chest pain as if a very heavy stone has been kept on his chest. Ankul did not say a single word but just took a deep breath. But his wet eyes were symbolizing that he was really sad. However, after that Ankul also walked towards his home slowly with a feeling of helplessness sadness.

After that a few days passed. But among those few days, there was not a single day in which Ankul and Naina did not talk to each other over telephone. They used to call each other alternate day. If Ankul would call her on Sunday, she will call Ankul on Monday and Ankul will again call her on Tuesday and Naina on the next day and so on. In this manner, not a single day passed in which Ankul and Naina had not talked with each other since the last day of their college. A week passed. One day, Naina did not call her, though it was her turn to call. So, Ankul made a call to her. But to his astonishment, she disconnected the line from the other side and send him a sms.

The sms stated, “I will call you later.”

So, Ankul thought that she might be busy in some other important work and so he thought not to disturb her. Ankul thought that Naina will call him when she will be free. That day Naina did not call him. Ankul also did not disturb her by making a call to her. On the next day at about 6 P.M. in the evening, when Ankul was lying in the bed and reading some magazine, Naina called him. Ankul picked up the phone. She was sounding much tensed on the other side. Ankul asked her what happened. Naina did not say anything except that she wants to meet him in the local coffee house, on the side of their college, immediately–within half an hour.

Ankul did not understand anything, but he said her not to worry and he will be there in a moment. By saying this, he then without wasting a single moment of time, went to meet Naina. As soon as he entered the coffee house, he saw Naina in a pink salwar suit with a mug of coffee in front of her sitting at the extreme right of the coffee house. As soon as he saw her, he went towards her and sat in her front chair. Her tension and problem was making her expression different. She was continuously shaking her legs due to nervousness and was playing with her fingers unconsciously. Though she was staring at the mug of coffee, it was evident from her countenance that she was thinking about something else which was bothering her and giving her tension. Naina did not even realize that Ankul had arrived there until Ankul asked her nervously with his heart beat beating at a faster rate than usual,

“What happened? In the phone, you were sounding very tensed. I hope everything is fine.”

Naina then moved her head upwards to see Ankul and after seeing that he has arrived there, she replied sadly looking towards him in her same sad countenance slowly,

“My father had fixed my marriage with his friend and business partner Abhirup Ray’ son.”

As soon as Ankul heard the expression, he just got vacant for a moment. He blinked his eyelids for about three times and it took approximately 3 to 4 seconds to him to understand the sentence properly and digest the news. Moreover Naina continued,

“I, though knew him and I am also a very good friend of him, but there is a difference between friendship and love. For all love, there must be friendship, but not all friendship turns into love. We are friends but……” by saying this she just bowing down her head stood silent.

She continued slowly, “Moreover after marriage, he will be going to London and being his wife, I will also have to go to London with him. After that I can never meet with you.”

Ankul was just spellbound by her all these words. Ankul could not believe that his best friend will not be with him anymore. At that moment of time, Ankul’s feeling was a dirty mixture of confusion, nervousness and sadness. Ankul, then said instantly without even thinking with his folded eyebrows,

“No. No. I can’t let that happen.”

Naina then asked her excitingly, “But, what can we do?”

Both of them stood silent for a moment. None of the best students of the college had an answer to this apparently simple looking question.

Ankul then asked her with folded eyebrows, “But, didn’t your father ask your opinion regarding this marriage?”

Naina replied, “This is 1980. Here, parents make their decision for their children and our only job is to accept their decision or more precisely take the burden of their decision.”

Naina then said hopelessly taking a deep breath looking towards Ankul with her big rounded black eyes, “I really do not know what to do now. All the preparations for marriage have started and all the relatives have started coming and whatsoever nonsense is going on in our house. It is just so irritating.”

Ankul then looked towards her uncoincidently and said to her that he has got a question for her. Ankul, who was listening her with due attention, then asked her in a somewhat nervous manner in a slow voice lacking confidence,

“You said that for all love, there must be friendship. But all friendship does not turn into love. Can our friendship turn into, you know, love?”

By saying this sentence, Ankul started looking at Naina with his brown eyes waiting anxiously for the answer to his question. Ankul was highly nervous at that point of time. Naina understood that Ankul just proposed her. Naina looked towards him and with a smile on her face said blushing, “Definetly, idiot. Otherwise I shall not be sitting here with you now and sharing all these talks with you.”

She continued, “I knew that you will never ever have the courage to disclose your true feelings to me in our three years of college. So, I say it–I love you.”

Ankul understood that Naina accepted his proposal and he breathed a sigh of relief and was very happy. It was as if he was standing on the top of the Eiffel Tower and sharing his happiness with the entire planet. But acceptance of the proposal does not solve the already existing problem of her marriage.

Naina then asked him , “But, what are we gonna do now?”

Ankul, who was now very happy, replied, “Look. At first, you just be calm. Tension never solves any problem except complicating it. You now go home, tell your parents that you love me. You place your opinion, listen to theirs and then tell me. I will see the rest. Just do not be nervous. Always remember that you are not telling any lie. So be truthful and be cool.”

By saying this he held her hand tightly giving a squeeze on them, which were on the table, in a manner to console her. She, though unsatisfied with the suggestion, but finding no other way to solve the problem, agreed to the suggestion. After that she by drinking her share of coffee from the mug, which had already turned cold during the time of their discussion and conversation went away with a nervous face as she has many things to do at her home as per the suggestion. Ankul also drinking his share of coffee went to his home with a mixed feeling of happiness and tension. Happiness was due to the fact that Naina had accepted his love proposal, though she took the first initiative and tension was due to the fact that what her parents will say when Naina will tell them about all these stuff. So, it can be said that he was happily tensed.

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