Diary from Heaven

College Connect

While Mahender got through an engineering college in Gurgaon, a standard practice then, Manu got into a diploma college in Vasant Vihar. Arun, on the other hand, did something unthinkable; he gave up his free engineering seat and enrolled for Bachelor of Arts at BTS College in Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon.

He had enrolled in a comprehensive course of five years which included Graduation and Post-Graduation from a foreign university. It was his choice, and his father supported him. The Director of the College was known to his father. The college fee was paid in full.

According to his relatives, he had screwed-up his career by giving up engineering, but Arun had other plans. He was always good at English communication but wasn’t interested in studies in general. He wanted to capitalise on his communication skills; this was way before call centres became a rage in India.

Choosing a non-technical from a private college course was a huge risk. He had thought of a sales and marketing career, but thankfully by the time he was out of college, call centres were in place.

First drag came and went, and Arun had forgotten about it until he felt a familiar smell in the college washroom on the third floor. His class, BA (Section C) was on the fourth floor, but the library and the auditorium were on the third floor.

He would usually hang out on the third floor with his pals; Suchi, Pratap, Yogesh and Neelam. They were a tight group and quite active in cultural activities. He was fond of the console in the music room and practised mixing music quite often.

Arun was introduced to the nightlife and the world of Disc Jockeying by his friend Raghav. Raghav was his classmate and rich enough to throw a party at a night club then. He was mesmerised by the glitz and glamour of Ghungroo, one of the first night clubs in Delhi. He wanted to see the DJ console up close and Raghav being the host easily arranged this.

DJ SS, one of the first DJ’s in India, masterfully handled the turntable as everyone grooved to his mixes. Arun stood close to DJ SS, he imagined himself playing, on the console to a huge crowd on the dance floor. As he was lost in thoughts, Raghav pulled him to the dance floor. Dancing and Arun were like the two geographic poles of the Earth, always opposite.

He wanted to buy a console so that he could even practice at home, but it was too expensive, so he stayed late in the campus practising. He carried his walkman around and was always hooked on to his Bose headsets even while walking through the campus. His dad knew about his fondness for music and had gifted him the walkman and the Bose headsets. He recorded his cassettes at home.

As usual, Arun’s headset was on, and he was listening to his favourite track Stairway to Heaven as he washed his hands in the washbasin. He suddenly felt this familiar smell up his nostrils and turned around to look up over the toilet cubicles. There was smoke coming out of cubical number three. Although it had been almost six months since he took that drag with Mahender and Manu, it was still fresh in his memory.

He knocked on the door, “who is inside? Come on out this instant,” he asked.

“Who is it?” someone asked from inside sounding nervous.

“I am Arun,” he replied.

“Oh, thank god, it’s you and not a faculty,” the person smoking inside sounded relaxed.

The door opened slowly, and Arun was shocked to see Shobhit putting his cigarette out on the toilet seat and flushing it in the pot. He took a deodorant out of his bag, and sprayed around to kill the smell of the cigarette and walked out of the toilet smiling. He froze as Professor Nath walked in, sniffing around.

“Did someone smoke in here?” Professor Nath asked sniffing close to Arun’s face, who was still shell-shocked seeing Shobhit smoke inside the college campus.

“I... I didn’t see anyone, sir,” replied Arun fumbling.

“Come with me,” said Professor Nath as Arun followed.

“Someone was smoking in the toilet on the third floor. I smelled it from outside,” said Professor Nath walking into the HOD’s office.

“He saw it,” he continued pointing towards Arun as HOD Dr Sharma looked up and lowered his eyeglasses to the end of his nose.

“I swear, sir; I didn’t see anyone. I have never even smoked a cigarette, so don’t know how it smells,” replied Arun mischievously.

“Let him go, Professor Nath; he’s a sincere boy,” said HOD Dr Sharma.

Professor Nath was famous for his detective-like antics. He aimed to catch students with their hand in the cookie jar, so to speak. He would often roam around the campus like a detective searching for students doing something mischievous. Students had nicknamed him ‘Sherlock’.

“What did Sherlock ask?” asked Shobhit as Arun walked in the auditorium.

“Nothing much, he just wanted to know who was smoking in the toilet,” said Arun.

“...and what did you tell him?” asked Shobhit.

“...nothing, I didn’t tell him anything,” he replied.

Shobhit smiled and took out a cigarette. As Arun looked at Shobhit perplexed, Shobhit walked up to him and said: “Do you wanna try it?”

“Aahh… yes,” replied Arun still confused. Though he wasn’t sure why he said yes, he followed Shobhit to the fourth floor where they went to a classroom on the end of the corridor. Junk furniture and files were lying everywhere. Shobhit locked the room from inside and closed the windows.

Shobhit was one of the most popular boys in the college. He was good at dancing, dramatics and studies as well. He was someone Arun looked up to for inspiration. Guess he also wanted to be friends with a popular kid, so he followed him.

Shobhit lit a cigarette, took a few puffs and handed it to Arun who did the same. Though he felt choked, he tried hard to stop himself from coughing. Arun thought that if he coughed Shobhit might think that he’s stupid so Arun pretended as if he had smoked before and acted cool.

As his face turned pale Shobhit hit him on the back and said, “breathe, you fool,” and Arun just lost it and started coughing badly. Shobhit took out his sipper and handed it over to Arun, who took a few gulps.

“Don’t worry this happens to everyone the first time,” said Shobhit.

“...did it happen to you too?” asked Arun still coughing.

“Yes, of course; who do you think I am? A superhero?” said Shobhit, laughing.

Arun settled down on the boxes lying in the room as Shobhit finished the cigarette, and passed the box to Arun.

“There are three in there; let me know if you want more,” said Shobhit.

“But I don’t have any money...,” said Arun.

“Don’t worry about it, buddy,” said Shobhit as he helped Arun get up.

“Buddy? Do you even know me or you are just trying to sell these to me?” said Arun and then turned around cursing himself for asking a stupid question to the most popular boy in the entire college. He was throwing away his chance of being friends with Shobhit by asking this silly question.

“I know that you live in New Colony with your parents and brother and your sister got married in Delhi,” replied Shobhit.

“If I wanted to sell you, I would have asked you for money,” he said.

“Then why?” asked Arun.

“We were together in SDBV School, I was in section C, and we travelled in the same school bus for two years,” said Shobhit as Arun looked at him with a question mark on his face.

“My father knew your father; they used to take the same chartered bus every day to Delhi. I am also from New Colony,” he continued.

“I like you man; you mind your own business, never butting into anyone else’s business. Even in school, everyone liked you because of this,” he said. Shobhit was right as Arun never interfered in anyone else’s business and limited himself to studies only.

“I like your choice of music. Saw you the other day at the fest behind the console. You did some good mixing,” said Shobhit.

Arun suddenly felt proud because he didn’t know Shobhit in school, so if Shobhit remembered him, then he might indeed be unique. “Shobhit was right,” thought Arun as he stood there smiling.

“Come, let’s go before anyone finds us here. Let me introduce you to the gang,” said Shobhit.

Arun could not believe his luck. He was about to meet the most happening group on the entire campus. They went down to the front side of the main college building and moved towards the fountain close to the main gate. Behind the fountain, some students were lazing around.

“Everyone, this is Arun; say hello,” said Shobhit as he kicked the guy sleeping on the grass and said; “Wake-up, Guddu.”

“Hiiiiiii! Arun,” everyone sang together.

“...and Arun, this is everyone,” said Shobhit as everyone burst into laughter.

“Hi...” replied Arun sheepishly as he looked at the blonde girl sitting near reading a book.

“Sherlock almost caught me smoking today, but he saved me,” said Shobhit as he noticed Arun looking at the blonde girl.

“That is Rose, she’s part French, part Punjabi; and that is Harveen,” said Shobhit as he pointed towards a pretty Punjabi girl coming towards them.

“Hello??? We are also here,” said Guddu as he got up to shake hands with Arun.

“Hello, Mr DJ,” said Guddu, aka Gaurav.

“Hello!” replied Arun, shaking hands with him.

He was feeling happy and awkward at the same time because everyone in the group knew his name. He kept praying, “Please, God, let this be a reality and not a dream.”

“Hi! I am Harveen Alam,” she said.

“Hello! Hello, Harveen,” he said blushing.

“Harveen and then Alam?” wondered Arun.

“My father is Muslim, and my mother is a Sikh” she replied.

“Deadly combination, bro,” said Guddu nudging Arun in his stomach.

“Well, that is Tina, Guddu aka Gaurav, Sagar, Pratap, Mitali, and Rose,” said Shobhit as he sat on the grass to enjoy the December sunshine while Tina punched him in the stomach for coming late.

“Hi! I am Tina Rajavat,” said Tina as she extended her hand towards Arun.

“Hi, Tina,” said Arun shaking hands with her.

“This is the gang,” said Shobhit as he lit a cigarette. Rose grabbed the cigarette and threw it in a nearby dustbin.

“Hey, what the...” said Shobhit as Tina intervened.

“Language Shobhit, language,” said Tina.

“You know Rose doesn’t like smoking,” said Tina as everyone looked at her because there was a cigarette packet sticking out of her pocket.

“On-campus; I mean she doesn’t like anyone smoking on campus. So let’s not do it, please,” she continued pleading with Shobhit.

“So, what're the POA guys? It’s Friday and no college tomorrow,” asked Tina as everyone looked towards Shobhit.

“POA is to have a ball at Band Baja Baraat tonight. It has been refurbished, and the dance floor is waiting for us to groove to whatever he will play for us tonight,” said Shobhit turning his attention towards Arun who was still blushing looking at Harveen.

“Arun will play some groovy numbers for us tonight,” he continued.

His smile changed to shock as Arun heard his name.

“What? Band Baja Baraat? As in a night club? I...I... have never played at a night club before. I had only played at a few parties and a couple of college fashion shows and the fest last month,” replied Arun nervously.

“Don’t worry, the crowd is pretty friendly, and when drunk, Punjabi’s won’t even realise if you were playing music or screaming on the mike,” said Shobhit giggling as Tina raised her hand for a high-five to which Shobhit reciprocated with full energy.

“What do you like to do when not in college?” asked Harveen.

“OOOOOOOOOO...” Tina made this weird sound and Gaurav gave background music, “Tanan tana...”

“Me?” was all Arun could utter.

“Yes, you, dummy. Is there any other Arun here?” said Harveen sarcastically.

Arun smiled, “...music is what keeps me going, I am hooked on it all the time,” said Arun as everyone looked at the walkman tucked on his belt and the Bose headsets around his neck.

“I want to make it big as a DJ and make my dad proud, who supported my decision to quit Engineering and join BTS College,” said Arun pointing towards the huge college banner on top of the building. 

“Awwwww,” said Tina kissing Arun as he blushed.

“Move over, Shobhit; he’s our new champion, he quit engineering to be with us,” said Tina laughing and raised Arun’s arm like a referee.

“How screwed are you, man? My Dad would’ve donated his wealth if I would’ve cracked the engineering exam, and you decided to quit?” said Gaurav giggling.

“Right, as if you possess the grey matter to c***k a competitive exam,” said Tina sarcastically signalling Gaurav to sit down.

“Well, I am proud of my decision, and so is my family, especially my dad and I love him for this,” said Arun proudly.

“Anyways, what should I play tonight?” asked Arun.

“Anything you like,” said Harveen.

Arun blushed, smiled like a child and played with his hair as he looked at Harveen.

“I usually play a mix of Punjabi, English Pop, Rock and Trance,” said Arun.

“I am going to play at a real night club,” mumbled Arun nervously.

“Don’t worry about anything, buddy, I own the joint. I am a partner there,” said Shobhit proudly.

“Always showing off,” said Rose sarcastically. Shobhit gave her a look, and Rose got back to reading her book.

“You have enough time to practice; don’t be nervous,” said Shobhit looking at the watch.

“I will pick you up from your home... say at 7:00 PM?” said Shobhit.

“That’ll be great,” replied Arun.

It was another hour or so that they kept chatting before dispersing to meet again in the evening. Arun couldn’t believe his luck; he was part of the most happening group on the campus, and he was about to play at a real night club. He pinched himself a couple of times to make sure he was not dreaming. Guess his life was on a roll now, this was his chance to make it big.

A small gig at a night club was a big thing for him because he wanted to prove to his family and relatives that DJ'ing was a good career choice. He had a simple family, and his father retired in 1997 from a Centre Government job. His father invested his life savings to start a printing business which failed miserably. His father was never upset with him for leaving engineering. He always defended Arun's decision. Though his father always supported his decisions, he still felt awkward discussing with him about being a DJ.

After quitting engineering, life was uncertain as it is and now that he got into DJ’ing, which was not considered a respectable profession then, things were shakier. So, he had not shared anything with his parents about the gig at Band Baja Baraat. He wanted to make it big first so that his parents can be proud of him. He was always looking for an opportunity to play at any event.