Amritsar

Amitava: Again there are plenty of them, but I chose to write one for all of you, which I thought, is very relevant here. It happened during our trip to Kasauli. Just after our marriage, we went there along with one of my friend, Abhi (Abhikarsha Sinha Ray), in his brand new Alto. We had a very nice time together. Though, we had a driver at our expense, he wanted to drive in the hills. We didn’t allow him, as he learned only few months before. We were staying in Hotel Maurice (a very good hotel, near the Church) and after spending two days, we were leaving for Shimla. This time, without giving us any time, he took the key from the driver and asked him to follow us till the Check Post. If you are aware of Kasauli, just after the Church, there is a downhill and a Check Post. Just when we were crossing the Church, he switched-off the engine (all he wanted to check is to save petrol while going downhill). Then we saw a truck just before the barrier and it took a fraction of second for us to realize that he was not able to stop the car. Both the ladies in the backseat didn’t even aware of what was going on. My friend completely surrendered to the fate, closed his eyes, folded his hands and rested his head on the steering. I had no idea about the arithmetic’s of any car at that point of time and waiting for the collision. The car hit the rear of the truck with a loud sound and after a few seconds it stopped, by the time the lower portion of the truck was just in front of my eyes and the windshield is only barrier between us. Everybody realized what had happed and I don’t think I need to elaborate anything further about the over friendly, warm conversation between Abhi and his wife.

Even before I could earn a driving license, and even before the elders could know of my newly acquired driving skills, I had once taken away a car (Landmaster -perhaps older version of Hindustan Motor’s Ambassador) of my father’s friend filling it to the capacity with small children of our neighbourhood (nearly 12 of them). The old car was entrusted to my father for finding some good customer for it who would be willing to pay Rs.10,000/- for it.  With all those children in it, I stationed myself at the driver’s seat and had a circular trip upto Kuthal Gate (between Rajpur and Mussoorie).  When the parents of all those ‘missing’ children came to my father to enquire if he had any clue as to where all the children could had gone, my father, discovered to his great horror that not only I was also missing but the Landmaster car also was not where it was supposed to be.

Today I can visualize how he must have been going through in those moments. When after an unbearably long wait of an hour, he finally saw the black Landmaster coming in the lane like a fat, pregnant buffalow, and then 12 children jumping out of it one after the other, giggling and laughing, he was red hot with rage. I had already seen him standing in front of his clinic in the lane and if I had any option, I would never have come out of that car but as I stood before him trembling with fear, he gave me good thrashing. As revealed by my father later, he was most perturbed because I had taken 12 children of different families of our lane.

Thereafter Shubham grew from one grade to the next and continued his engagement with Ghumakkar. His first story came in June 2007, which is more than five years from now, and since then he has managed to write here, mostly around his travel to London and UK. If I leave DL and SS, probably he is the youngest Ghumakkar I would be talking to. Someone who has never seen the days of having a single TV channel on a B&W set, no mobile phone, no internet, no malls and so on. Before I realised, I started getting panic attacks. I have no idea of what Arsenal is and why half of the world is crazy for EPL (English Premeier League). With an open mind (read: blank mind) and a child like curiosity I began my first interview of the lucky 2013 on a cold wintry evening.

Ghum: Tell us about yourself, your family, friends and everything around you ?
Shubham : I have a close group of friends in school, some of whom I’ve known since I was 3 years old. I live with my parents and my dadi.

I play football and am a football enthusiast. And as it says in my profile, I am an Arsenal fan. I play a bit of cricket as well- I support Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. I am part of a band called Missing Links, formed with some of my close school friends. I am the lead singer. We’ve performed at a few places including IIT Delhi. We’re supposed to perform on Saturday 19th Jan, 2013 at La Crepe in Select Citywalk, Saket. I also play the keyboard.