Will miss you (cool) dude…..

Tapu – Smarta- The name in itself confuses you. The guy in discussion was my portly ever smiling buddy. He was one of those effervescent cute guys who never failed to delight you. A favourite with all parents.

I’d first met Tapu sometime back in 2004. Harry was a close buddy and Tapu was his neighbour. Back then he was a mustachioed man with a jiggly tummy. Our first meeting was with me confusing him to be Harry’s cousin. “Who else could it be” I’d thought The guy was strolling around in the house in a short pant and tank top grabbing all the food he could, so i’d arrived on the logical conclusion that this chap is Harry’s cousin.

Confusions cleared up and i was introduced to Tapu or Smartabrata or Smarta for short He was Harry’s tenant and he was here to prepare for his final year graduation papers and then for the CAT. The best thing about Tapu was his jolliness, be it the way he spoke, he joked or played. Everyone around was bound to take a liking for that jolly nature of his.

So that’s how a friendship started which went from strength to strength. One thing about being an undergrad student is that you are always hungry but you hardly ever have money. Same was the case with me, Tapu and Harry. Every evening after our gruelling sessions on the streets of trying not to hit the ball into any compound (Translated as gully cricket), we three used to start out for our evening snacks and invariably Harry and me used to be the ones who were broke. Tapu the saviour used to chip in every single time paying for all of us. That how this friendship lay its foundation stone which was cemented further because of the numerous outings and time pass that we did together.

The best stories about Tapu are the ones in which we travelled around. The wanders was a group comprising of Sam, Anup, Tapu, Harry and me. One fine winter morning all of us decided that we had to be in Jaipur and Delhi. Thus a trip was planned. A few B-school interviews were scheduled in Jaipur and that was the cue for all of us. For parents it was an important interview in Jaipur , in reality, it was a vacation trip to Jaipur via Delhi. A trip with four nutcases. A gang which loved to roam around. After all it was a vacation. Pooling in money for each other and sponsoring each other, we somehow managed to get the tickets and all of us were on board with a pack of cards some food and a few suitcases. The best part about being with good friends is that you don’t really care if anyone has money in his/her pockets…you know that in case of dire needs you can walk and so as an ode to the spirit of youth, we started off…..with a cumulative account which accounted to a little over 600 bucks.

The first penny of this saved money went into purchasing the single most important thing that we could think of and that was a pack of cigarettes costing us 80 bucks The second most important thing was another pack of cigarettes costing us 40 bucks and the third was 3 cigarettes costing us 15 bucks. Thats necessity for you. Food n all were kind of secondary. But our train was to pass through the town of Balasore which was Tapu’s native town and auntyji had promised us some food. So it was an eager wait till Balasore and once we had our supplies of chilly chicken, parantha’s and juice, it was a regular slumber party. Many amazing mountains and grasslands later we landed up in Delhi.

Greeted by Sam’s yelling and shrieking girlfriend at the station, who dragged him off to their pub party, it was left to Tapu, Harry n me to find a place to stay overnight. Having relatives helps and so we ended up in a plush serviced apartment with a huge dog named Tyra. Over the next few days we got to discover that Tyra’s single most favourite hobby was to take all our clothes and make a bed for herself. The worst would be trying to pull out the clothes from beneath her. Many shirts were to end up armless or collarless in the struggle that ensued. It was a matter of prestige for us and gleeful entertainment for the dog. After four days of dog n fight we decided that 6-7 torn shirts were enough for us and we moved on to our next destination…..Jaipur. All this done on money borrowed from various sources.

An elaborate trip was planned in which all of us ( meaning me, harry, tapu, sam, sam’s girlfriend, a friend of sam’s girlfriend and the friends another friend…..I know no one understood this but thats ok ….even i didn’t ). So all of us kind of piled up into the bus to Jaipur….. The pairs all got together on double seats and then it was left to us pairless souls to find ourselves seats. Tapu n I managed to find a seat way back in the bus and so we bolted there. Poor Harry was left stranded with the friend’s friend who was a lady. Over the night we had around 4 pit stops during which Harry told us scary tales about how the friend’s friend is almost hugging n kissing him while pretending to be asleep and how one of us should be nice and change seats with him. He gave an elaborate speech on how friendship is all about sacrificing ones comfort for the sake of a friend and so we sacrificed him once again to have some more fun at his expense. No seat change nothing happened and all of us reached in Jaipur at around 4 in the night. A very harried Harry tumbled down from the bus looking very pinkish and sheepish. We climbed into the most docile looking auto waalah’s rickshaw who promised to find us the best hotel at the cheapest rates and so we ended up in an area which was not so posh but however the hotel rooms were good.

Early morning in Jaipur, at around 9 when we opened the window, we discovered that the not so posh area was actually Jaipur’s most crowded market place and the hotel probably was one of its worst. Seeing all this Harry lost control of his bowels and tried to find salvation in the loo. So leaving him with his pursuit of happiness, Tapu and i headed towards the B-School . Amidst loud honking colourful vehicles and equally colourful cows we managed to reach the Jaipur border.Wrapping up our interview in 40 minutes, we decided to take a little stroll in the small lanes of Jaipur. We saw ladies making papads and kiddies playing around. The stroll was pretty leisurely till one of the little kids ran upto Tapu and hugged him yelling,” Papa, Papa !!!” Too shocked to say anything poor dear Tapu kept standing like a statue. It was only when the kid tried to climb on Tapu that he started running. The kids playing around got into the act and started chasing him yelling things like, “Uncle,Uncle, Kaka !!!!!!!!” Too shocked to do anything myself i just kept standing….finally after 10 minutes of hullabaloo, the kids realised that probably this man didn’t look like their father and let go of Tapu, by that time Tapu had completed one round in the colony. Huffing n Puffing he came back to me saying,” Dude… Thats what i thought. I have never even been to this place before this how can i be their father”

“Ummm…. good point buddy” i said.

“Man, they had me scared for a second. I even tried recollecting the last time i was here but then i realised this is my first time in here so i can’t have that big a kid” he continued.

Back in the hotel room, the first thing Tapu did was shave off his carefully grown moustache which made him look even funnier.

Jaipur has some of the most beautiful monuments in India frequented by tourists from across the globe. We managed to miss all of them and ended up seeing some of the worst possible areas…… but i guess there is a charm in seeing the worst lot if you are with friends. Especially funny ones who are comfortable anywhere in any condition.

Tapu by nature and spirit was very charming. There are people who can make you laugh at the drop of a hat and he belonged to that category…..Be it falling in love with Burkha clad ladies in Jaipur….. or losing balance and falling on an Auntyji’s lap in crowded buses to be shouted and yelled at…. the chap had an indomitable spirit. He also was the hardest working guy that i can ever think of…somebody who lost sleep over work….. somebody who ensured that we feel ashamed of ourselves for not working as hard as he does……

We lost him to a tragic road accident last Thursday. An extremely close buddy who will be very difficult to forget. The group of Wanderers namely Anup,Harry, Sam,Shrey and Tapu has lost a trusted steed, but as Anup said, the beauty of the guy is that his memories will always make you laugh and that is what makes him so special.

So we r remembering Tapu as we had always known him….. They funny one who always made us smile……

Miss you cool dude.