1. A tranquil evening and some beautiful memories...

It was a quiet evening at the hillside overlooking the fading lights of Sun going down the horizon and giving way to a starry night, when all of a sudden Karan’s cellphone rang and a worried voice asked "Where are you, its 7'O clock and you have been out for almost 4 hours now. Come home son, you come home only for few days and that too you spend either sleeping or out with your friends. When are you going to spend some time with us?" Karan replied "I’ll be back in an hour mom. And tomorrow I'll spend the whole day with you. I promise."

This was our favorite spot – Karan, Arshpreet, Sagar, Disha and me, Harshit. We were really close to each other, even after leaving school for 2 years now. And this place, it was a nice small hill which was a little distance away from all the rush of the city. It was a peaceful place covered with trees and had a small lake. It was really soothing to see the sunset and then those yellow lights slowly and gradually covering the whole city. Under the moonlight, this place would look like a place so serene that we just wished to stay silent and listen to the sound of breeze blowing. Every time we came back home from our collages on vacations, we tried to meet every single day without miss.

We five were known to be inseparable in school. Karan was a student of Electrical and Electronics Engineering; Sagar, an MBBS student; Arshpreet, an Indian Military Academy cadet; Disha, an Environmental Science student; and I was pursuing Political Science. We all were very different, we all made different career choices, but then all of had seen a dream, a dream which bound us and which, in some way or the other led to the same destination. It was the dream about which you will get to know soon.

School, a place where we met for the first time and a place where each of them, except me, made up their mind about what they really wanted to do in life. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do, I had no passion, no specific skill and was going with the flow. Karan, Sagar and I were extremely notorious. Arshpreet(or Arsh as we liked to call him) was more of a serious kind of person and a guy who stood by his friends, firm and strong in any case. As long as he knew that whatever we were doing is not going to harm anyone, he was there for us. He was the tallest among all of us and had a nice built. Karan and Sagar were good-looking and this was the main thing that put them into troubles always. I was known to be the innocent one in the group and I used that notion to make maximum out of it. Mostly, when all three of us were involved in any mischief, I somehow always managed to escape.

2. Karan's encounter with death and a new direction (Disha)

Sagar had this superb talent of pumping up Karan and I added the spice on top of it so much so that he ‘almost’ proposed a girl in std 8(one who had recently joined our school and it was just 2 weeks after her joining). It resulted in a big issue as the girl was not a timid one as we expected her to be but an expert in handling such situations. She gave a naive look when Karan blabbered all the stupid things, and replied in an innocent manner that she came here to study and does not want to get involved in these things. But then, nobody knew that she had an elder brother Vicky in std 11 who was a huge person, almost twice the size of Karan.

During recess, that girl informed her brother about Karan and as is usually expected from a brother, he got extremely agitated and came to us while we were having lunch. As far as pranks were considered, Karan was always the first target for us. But when it came to facing the consequences, we never left Karan alone. I came forward to explain the whole situation to Vicky, and tried to clarify that Karan only asked her for friendship  and nothing more. Then Sagar came and tried to calm down Vicky by cracking a joke on how being friends in co-ed schools was not a bad thing after all. But out of his anger or maybe to show his strength, Vicky punched Sagar's face, which resulted in a small scratch and it started bleeding. Now that was enough, Arsh who was listening silently all this time at the side, came forward, pulled Sagar aside and without any second thought smashed Vicky’s face, who was stunned by this sudden reaction from his junior. Then as he was trying to regain his composure, some teachers came and took us to the Principal's room. Which did led to our parents being called but it was not difficult for us to convince our parents, and they managed the situation. They never stopped us from living our school life in the way we wanted, at the same time making sure we never crossed the lines. 

As a matter of fact, we all knew very well that it's really hard to stop Arsh once he has had enough and he'll show Vicky his real place in no time. None of us supported violence as means to resolve any conflict but then, when I pondered over what Arsh did, I realized that he was right. We tried our best to explain Vicky about the whole situation and we had no plans of bothering his sister again, then also he hit Sagar on face, and so did Arsh. He had it coming anyway.

Disha, she joined our school in 9th class and this time, it was Sagar who approached her, as they worked together in lab. Sagar hardly missed any opportunity to talk to a girl. He was clever with words but as they say, when you really like someone, you make sure not to botch up the whole thing. It took Sagar some time to gather the courage and they became friends soon and along with Sagar, she became our friend too. She is one charming girl who makes you feel really comfortable with her presence. We all admired her and also the suggestions and points she used to raise during our discussions. 

We developed this habit of taking up any relevant point from the news or any burning issue and taking about it in detail. What are the reasons for that issue to arise, who all are responsible for it, what can the government do for it and what are our responsibilities as citizens to resolve or at least mitigate that. It was actually quite amazing that Sagar and Karan, who never sat seriously during any class and always tried to find a way to divert the attention of class, took part in this with great seriousness. Although we never denied any other person to come and join us, mostly we were the only 5 who used to discuss some issues related to movies, sports, politics, defense, technology, etc. We all had our own personal interests in some or the other issue.

Disha was always very conscious about getting to the conclusion of our talks. She was extremely fascinated by the journalists and admired their tasks very much. She was a feminist and made sure she was treated at par with guys at home and outside. She had this ambition of leaving a special mark of herself in this male-dominated society. Which, she actually did as she was one of the five persons who got selected to represent their country in an international research program to analyse the impact of environmental pollution on increasing cases for cancer and find solutions for the same.

3. Some sensible talks and Sagar's ultimate dinner night

It was during these discussions that we saw this world from different eyes as each of us spoke their hearts out when talking about the problems that existed and what all changes were required in our country and many other things which, I think, guided us to the place where we stand today. We all were really annoyed when people around us said “Is desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta, ye jaisa hai waisa hi rahega, jo hota aaya hai, aage bhi wahi hoga (Nothing good will ever happen to this country, whatever has happened it will continue to be so, and nothing will change)”. We hated the fact that people who were fortunate enough to receive proper education, lead a good life were sitting on the sidelines doing the commentary rather than making an effort themselves to improve the situation. 

I didn’t have any specific interest but I read newspaper due to which I had gained a bit of knowledge in politics and was really fed up of the corruption which had engulfed our system so badly and to such an extent that now the word politics actually sounded as a synonym to fraud, cheating, self-interest etc. One more thing that I hated was the lack of awareness among people about education and I personally felt that if at all, every person had some basic knowledge, even a bit of formal education, then most of our problems would have eventually vanished by themselves(which included poverty, child-marriage, child-labor, over-population and to a great extent pollution too). I was a day-dreamer and would often imagine in my dreams that how incredible would the place, where we lived, look without all these problems.

We always thought that even after working so hard all day long in scorching heat of the sun, a person goes back home with so less money that he/she is hardly able to feed his/her children and while some don’t even get that much. Why small children, who should have been studying in school, were either carrying the load of their younger ones or working as a rag-picker or somewhere else to earn a living(at an age when most of us wouldn’t have bothered to think about how hard our parents worked to get all our wishes fulfilled).

Some days, this used to be our topic while at other times someone else came up with their opinions and views. And this was not just limited to this, whenever we all used to meet anywhere outside school also, some or the other topic or incidence used to lead us to something that needed some serious attention.

Every other time, when we were not doing this, Sagar and Karan were busy planning their next roguery. For us, school was a place where you meet friends, play prank on others, try to divert attention away from teachers during classes towards something silly, break rules, take risks like bunking our morning assemblies as our principal sir used to give a long speech everyday, which were mostly on the same topic every time. Though quite surprisingly for teachers and most of the other so called studious students in our class, we were decently good at studies. We were just trying to live our life to its fullest, and at the same time realizing that our jocosity and easy going attitude did not affect our future.

Now one more thing about guys is their crushes. Sagar and Karan used to have crush on every other girl they saw, even a double crush on the same girl if she changed her hairstyle. Once, Sagar saw Disha with her cousin Priya at some market place, and became elated as if he was already sure of going on a date with Miss Universe. Next day in school he was waiting for Disha to come so eagerly that he almost went out to see if her bus arrived or not more than thrice. And it had to be the same day when a teacher gave Sagar some task, so he tried to control his emotions for some more time but at last he gave-up thinking that maybe she won’t come to school that day and came back to the class with broken heart. It was 10 minutes passed the start of first period that Disha came running to class panting vigorously. It was then that Sagar's face lit up as if after a long battle with clouds, sun was again shining in its full intensity. Sagar became restless and as soon as the bell rang he rushed towards girl’s row and called Disha outside. He inquired of every detail about Priya as if investigating some murder case. Disha also was a great player, she initially told him about Priya in such a nice way that Sagar actually thought that she was the only girl for whom he had taken birth. They both resumed for classes and Sagar had already started dreaming about Priya and him, having a sweet romantic candle light dinner with no one else around. Those 3 periods before lunch were the most happy hours of the day for him, not knowing what Disha had in store for him during recess.

When we all were having lunch, Disha in her usual and soft tone said just these few words – "Hey !! I forgot to tell you Sagar, the name of Priya’s boyfriend, it's Rohit. I have met him, he is such a super cool guy..." It was just an instant after Disha stopped after saying that, we all looked at each other’s face and then Sagar’s. The colour on his face disappeared and his mouth opened wide. He was dumbstruck, and we all began laughing frantically seeing him. It looked as if whole of our group had gone mad except Sagar, the lone survival of this attack of madness. He did not had anything more and just went to class as his ‘beautiful candlelight dinner’ dream was shattered into a million pieces. It hardly mattered to him as he would find someone else for his ‘dinner’ dream in a day or two.

4. A visit to Gurudwara and Arsh's decision...

13th April, it was the birthday of Arsh and also the day of Baisakhi festival. We all loved going to Gurudwara and had made the plans of attending the celebrations of Baisakhi in Gurudwara and after having langar there, we would go for a dessert treat by Arsh. We all had been to Gurudwara many times before but we didn’t know why, that was the first time, when we heard what was being said by an old person on stage. He had come there not to impose his thoughts on people but just to share what he felt. Disha went to sit with Arsh’s sister, Harneet. 

For the first time, we realized that day that whatever he was speaking were not related to any religion in particular, but was true for anyone's life. Some of the things that I remember were –

'Deh shiva var mohe Eehai, Shubh Karman te kabhun na tarun, na Darun arsyion jab jaaye Ladu, Nishchaya kar apni Jeet karu.' He also explained the meaning of this line – “O Lord!! Give me enough strength and a strong will, that before doing any good task, I never think twice, never be afraid of doing whatsoever that might be; And while doing that good deed, I know that I'll always WIN!"

He said one more line that will remain with me always and won’t let me stop when I find it difficult to move-on(fight). That was –

‘Sura so pehchaniyen, jo lade deen ke het, purja-purja kat marein, kabhun na chadein khet'. It means – “Only that person is brave who fights for the needy and unprivileged; even after having each and every part of their body cut, they don't leave the battle ground till their last breath.”

This was not just limited to these sayings, Sikhs have done it before, Guru Gobind Singh’s all 4 sons (the age of smallest was just 7 and eldest son was 18 years old) died fighting against injustice by Mughals. At the end, he humbly appealed the masses to wake up and fight against the evil in this world. Arsh had been listening to all these things from his childhood and had incorporated lot of them in his life. We all knew how Arsh never thought before doing anything he felt was right, even in the case of Vicky. He used to say these lines whenever we asked him to remain cautious, ‘Guru Gobind Singh once said – ‘sava lakh naal je ik ladawa, tabei Gobind Singh naam dharawa (Only then I'll proudly call my self Gobind Singh when each one of my Sikhs fights fearlessly against huge battalion of unjust enemy).' This may have sounded funny but we knew what Arsh meant was clear that one shouldn’t stop him/her(self) from fighting against something that they feel is wrong. There were many other things that Arsh used to tell us which has stayed with us since.

Everyone was quiet and in deep thought when we'll met outside Gurudwara after Langar. We all had lived this life without ever thinking about others, we didn’t even paid attention to the selfless love that our parents gave us. Then after some time Arsh started – ‘Oye, ki hoya? Kise nu treat nahi chahidi hun? I guess I'm spared for the day, thanks a lot guys.’ But then he dragged us to Ginger’s and ordered Ice-cream for everyone with me and Disha opting for milk-shake. We were sitting there when two people came and sat behind us, of which one was looking very upset and it was clear that the other had brought him there to cheer him up. As after that Gurudwara session, all of us were already silent, we could actually hear their conversation. The person who seemed upset had lost his brother in a terror-strike that took place in Delhi. He was a middle-class person who went there to purchase some items for his shop when a bomb exploded due to which he got seriously injured and then succumbed to his injuries after 2 days. He had a son in 6th std and a daughter in 1st std.

They left the place soon as the person was not able to contain himself. None of us could swallow whatever was remaining in our plates and glasses after that. All of our eyes were filled except Arsh's. His eyes seemed to burn red with anger. I took an initiative to lighten up the situation, but then realized that nothing would help that situation, so just said – ' Guys !!! Lets have this and go from here to DHN Park and spend some time there'. We had our shakes and ice-creams and went to the garden. Harneet had tution so she left.

Arsh's anger had not lighten up yet. He never abused, but this time he did and that too in front of Disha. We asked him to relax and sit calmly. Karan tried to divert the attention and pointing as to what will happen by abusing and beating our heads around that topic. To which Disha replied ‘So what we just keep quiet, haan? Whenever terrorists wish, they come and kill our people, that’s it? It's that easy right, and we, we just change three channels, feel sad, abuse terrorists and then go back to sleep hoping that this won’t happen again. It’s true that we didn’t lose any of our closed ones, so maybe we won’t realize how it feels when someone so dear dies such a disgraceful death. Okay tell! What was the fault of those 2 young children who won’t be able to see their father again in their life, they might not have thought in their wildest dreams that when he was leaving his home, he would never come back.’ Saying that she broke up. Sagar and I went to conciliate her. All this time Arsh was silent, he didn’t speak a thing, but we all could read his eyes by now. If given an opportunity he might not even think twice, go and do whatever he could have done alone.

Sagar tried to change the topic, by pointing towards an old couple who just came to the park, and were looking completely satisfied and happy. They seemed to play pranks on each other. It felt so nice to see them relishing those moments together. A light moment that to a great extent dissolved our anger. But not for Arsh, he had been thinking something all this while. Seeing him tensed Sagar asked him to just stay calm and think what role could we play in this time of crisis.

After a long silence, Arsh spoke – ‘I have decided. I won’t leave any single of them, I’ll just ... I will join defense forces. No person should die like this and if someone wishes to show their strength, they should face our defense forces first, not innocent unarmed people, who will show them their real place.’

He was a serious person, a person with firm determination who left no stone unturned to get something he decided, done. This was where his journey started and landed him to the place he is right now, and I’m sure he would be one of the best captains of Indian Army.

5. Sagar and Karan face the 'Real' world

One day, when we were at school, suddenly Karan’s stomach started aching. And after some time it became really intolerable for him to sit in class. He was sitting beside me and seeing him in utter pain, I stood and asked teacher for going to the first aid room. But his pain didn’t stop. We called his parents and soon he was taken to his doctor who asked him to get Sonography done. When the reports came, we got to know that it was Appendicitis due to which it had pained and he had to get an operation done for that. Although people considered it to be a minor operation, but as it was a first experience for us, we all got worried, more than his parents actually, as they knew it was not that big, just that the word 'Operation' had that feel. Operation took place that weekend and then doctors asked him to remain admitted for next 4 days. It became our routine job to spend 2-3 hours in the evening, with Karan.

Sagar always found the job of a doctor fascinating. Once it happened that the saline bottle of Karan was about to finish, so Sagar went out to call a nurse or doctor. Two things that he saw there changed his outlook towards life. One that while he was going to call the nurse, on the way he found that a patient around 55 years of age had come to get back his reports, along with his son. Sagar slowed down his pace to hear what doctor had to say. Doctor asked the son to come outside and told him that his dad had developed a tumour inside his lever and which he explained, was the third stage of cancer, and could not be cured. Only thing that could be done was to reduce his pain till he was alive. Hearing that, son broke down, Sagar was standing on the reception table pretending to read newspaper. The first thought that came to his mind was that even after so many developments in medical science, still there were some diseases which had no cure. And that made him really sad. 

And then as he went ahead, he saw a poor villager’s son who had met with an accident, and was very serious. The farmer had covered a lot of distance somehow to bring his son to the hospital on time. He saw a senior doctor who was kind of free. Farmer approached him but the doctor seemed so uninterested that he asked one of his assistant to handle the situation. Sagar was astound seeing such an attitude of a doctor. Farmer out of his desperation pleaded assistant to do something to save his son’s life. The son’s breath were sinking.

At that very moment, I came and asked Sagar to come as nurse had arrived, so we went inside. Soon Disha and Arsh also came. Arsh quite contrary to his nature, asked Karan in a funny tone – ‘Ki haal bhai Karan? Naam kharab kar ditta mera tu te. People come to hospital when they become old, and see this boy of class 10, lying in bed, hah ...'. We all started mocking Karan. All this time Sagar was silent. We all were addicted to some useless non-sense of either Karan or Sagar, but for a long time, hadn’t heard anything of that sort. Disha asked what happened to him, when suddenly, huge noises of crying and cursing came from outside. Sagar rushed outside, having an idea as to what might have happened but praying otherwise. He saw farmer and his wife crying over the death of their only son. Sagar knew about the situation but on seeing their condition he almost fell on the chair kept on the side. We all went outside, and brought him back to the Karan’s room. He recovered from the shock after a while. But still, his mind couldn't away from the distressing scene he saw.

He had always dreamed of revolutionizing the medical scenario of our country and now he had more reasons to pursue that dream. The thought of death of that small child who had not even seen this world, had not enjoyed this precious life that we all get just once, was eating him slowly. That was the time, when another person in our group had got a mission to pursue. A life to make best of medical facilities available to each and everyone in this country, irrespective of his status, religion, conditions under which he lived and a free one to those who couldn’t afford to get expensive treatments done. He wanted to be rich, a doctor who made all possible facilities available to every person, so that no other farmer loses his/her kid because of unnecessary ego of a doctor. These incidents and many other instances which none of us but him noticed as to what was needed and where all he could bring improvements, led Sagar to choose medical sciences as a career . Soon after he joined the college, he started working on a research project under a well-known doctor.

Things were changing, we all were changing. Karan was discharged soon and regained his health in almost no time. He was a fighter, all of us were. We were not going to stop or slow down at any point of time, till we saw our country as a place where there was Happiness, Peace and Love.

Karan was a tech-freak. He tried to participate in every event he could find which was in some way or other was related to technical field. He was very clear in his mind to become an engineer. And he always strove to find ways to improve anything he felt was not the best or optimum way to do it. He kept a small notebook in which he kept a log of ideas he came up with and even make things that he could himself. He was always very interested in electronics, and most of the time his mind kept thinking about those only. Once during his similar quests, he recalled news he had seen few days back and also the words of our famous EVS teacher, Mrs. Poonam Verma. She used to say about the resources that we used to generate power were limited, and the consumption of these fuels is ever increasing rather decreasing. The news report mentioned that a lot of our foreign exchange goes towards buying oil and other fuel materials which had become a biggest priority for our country.

One day, we went to the same hill. After the sunset, as city was getting lit, Karan started – ‘So much fuel gets burnt over this, cars, bikes and all other gas-guzzling means of transportation which eat huge amounts of fuel.’ I added –‘Yes and moreover these resulted in pollution which further led to many other disastrous consequences such as temperature rise, ozone layer depletion, random climatic changes and deforestation’. Karan continued ‘For how long, we are going to spend so much of our precious foreign exchange on buying fuel from other countries , when will we become self-sufficient ? When we’ll begin using clean and green technology on a large scale?’ To this Disha replied – ‘That's fine what you're saying, but renewable energy technology is not yet well-developed and too expensive. A developing economy like ours cannot afford to spend the huge amount of money needed in that. I recently read about some students in an engineering college in US had developed a car which ran on Solar energy but its performance is not amazing.’

‘Yeah, I too had seen that and that’s what I have been thinking on how to utilize this solar energy to maximum. There were some constraints related to this, which included high cost, low efficiency and uncertainty in sunlight all through the year’, Arsh said . ‘So what ?’ This time it was Karan who interrupted. ‘ No one ever believed we would be able to fly, but we did , no one ever thought we would go to outer space, we not only went there but landed on moon and now Mars too.’ He said firmly and continued – ‘Paths have to be made to reach to the destination. They are not always smooth, someone has to walk on a rough path with just faith in his/her heart to make it unruffled for those who follow.’ Everyone fell silent. We all knew that now Karan also had something which was as important for him as his life.

6. The most difficult task 'Convincing parents' for ...

Then we all got busy with our board examinations, and hardly got time to meet each other except during school hours. No one of us actually believed in group studies, but whenever any of us had some problem we met and tried to mutually solve it. We all knew that it board results do matter a lot, so we all became really serious as they came closer.

They got over on March 23^rd. We all were free after the big event called ‘Board Examinations’. It was a historic day too, as on the same day Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged. Though we all came to know this or rather realize its importance after the movie 'The Legend of Bhagat Singh', atleast we started appreciating their effort for getting our country freed, for a dream that those people saw while fighting so hard against unjust rule, to create a just environment, a place where everyone had equal opportunities and where no one ruled over other, rather respected each other and their work , but we knew that although we got freedom from British rule but their dream was far from getting completed. We always pledged on this day, that we won’t let their sacrifice go waste and that their dream would come true ... SOON !!!

Now that exams were over, all of us had planned some or the other thing to do. Karan had some initial plans of getting involved in some technical activity and was waiting for exams to get over. As soon as they were over he started surfing on net and started searching for some nice thing in which he could get involved. In the meanwhile, we all planned to go to some hill station, an outing for a week. But as was expected, things hardly go as smooth as planned. We had this big-big task of convincing our parents to allow us to go. Arsh’s , Sagar’s and my parents were very cool especially our dads, they themselves were really excited on hearing our plans, and the remaining task of convincing moms were handled by them, so it was a great help.

But convincing Karan’s parents was our biggest problem. They were really possessive about him, and were very adamant about not letting him go. But I had this great power of speaking in polite as well as an usual manner after which I usually succeed to convince people. Then after persuading them so much, we felt it awkward to continue doing so, so we left, but somehow I knew that we have been able to change their mind, and rest of the matter Karan took into his hands. He now used his greatest strength which he knew that won’t let him down. His Grandmother. She loved Karan so much that, whenever he wanted anything, he would straightaway go to her (But that didn’t mean that Karan used her love, to get any of his senseless demands accepted). He also loved her a lot and she was the first person in house with whom Karan shared all his secrets and also his successes and failures.

Now, the same night he went to her to explain how badly he wanted to go with us, as we didn’t know what’s kept for us in future. Till that time our paths were common, but after that, we all knew that things were not going to remain same. We all had different things to pursue, we didn’t even know that whether we would be able to spend time with each other or not. As was the matter of fact that, all those who were taking sciences will be a bit more busier because of all those competitions and stuffs... Karan genuinely requested his grandmother to grant him permission to go, to which she agreed. Karan felt so grateful to god for giving him such a beautiful relationship, in the face of his grandmother, for whom Karan’s happiness came before anything else, without expecting anything in return. Karan spent whole night with her, explaining her what we had planned to do.

Then came Disha. Although we knew that it was next to impossible to convince her parents as generally parent’s of girls don’t allow for outing to places far away from hometown. Her parents were really liberal in their approach, though they allowed her to hang out with us, this time there was no scope to change their mind and it was almost final that Disha won’t be going with us. And there was an another reason that Disha’s cousin was getting married, so she had to attend that too. We decided to drop the plan but she impelled us not to do so. But then she had strict order for us that every moment should be captured in cameras and also to get her something nice.

7. A memorable trip

We had planned to go to Manali. It was a memorable trip for all four of us. Right from the beginning, Karan and Sagar were back to their natural form. We all knew that as both 10^th and 12^th standard exams were over, so we had a great opportunity to see some really interesting people out there (I hope you would have got what I meant by ‘people’ :P). Arsh had also decided to live these days to fullest as we had an idea that this was probably our last trip together. When we were on the way to Manali, we stopped at a ‘dhaba’ to have lunch. It was situated at such a nice location that we all were just mesmerized seeing the views on either side of the dhaba. On one side of the road where it was located was a beautiful mountain with pine trees which made it look exquisite, and on the other side a river was flowing.

All of a sudden, Arsh asked us to look behind, we all hurried as to what happened. We saw a family (but that was not what Arsh pointed). The group had two beautiful girls, of which one was of about same age as us and other was maybe 1-2 years smaller. We all were overjoyed by such a beginning of the tour ;P but were more startled by the fact that, this time it was Arsh who pointed out. We don’t know why but soon he felt shy about what he said, but then we had our fish caught in the net ... We had got the greatest opportunity to pull his leg for the first time, and it was me who started first –“ hmm... we are seeing Mr. Arshpreet, two cars, a family and two......, anyways its nice, it may have took long time but we have been successful, Arsh is finally arriving into the main league." To which he replied in a casual tone, “hah !!! What...., what all is going through your minds always, I was telling you guys about the little child with them, he is sooo cute.” Sagar said “ Why not ?? He is sooo cute, go with them and become his caretaker, they will be so pleased to have one for free, and then enjoy the trip with that ‘soooo cute’ child and also with..... .”

Karan in the meanwhile was enjoying the scenic beauty of the place, he had been the biggest nature lover in our group and all those places where we went to hang-out were actually discovered by him. He had camera and we asked our driver to take a pic of ours alongwith the dhaba. Arsh and I were trying our best to sit in such a way that those two girls also came in the background of the pics.

Then after 4 more hours we reached our destination. It was 7 PM when we reached hotel, and we all were so tired after the long car-journey, that we planned to stay in hotel itself (let me not forget to mention that although it was a cheap hotel , it was placed at such a nice location that we were actually glad to be there). Next morning, Karan and I woke up early, and as we went to the balcony we saw some beautiful snow-capped mountains and a small ray of sunshine coming from the clouds covering them. It was an awesome view. Next few days were full of fun and power-packed. We all did skiing, paragliding, rode snow-scooter, fought with snow-balls and all the crazy-stuffs that one could imagine to do there.

One day we went to see the sunset at some place famous for it. We went to the highest point over there, where hardly anyone went, but it was worth it. Just a place next to heaven, clouds covered that place and there were more than 10 varieties of flowers and it looked amazing to see the sunset from that place. Next day we all had to leave so we decided to go to the ‘mall road’ and do some shopping as we all had plans to buy some or the other thing for our families and yaa Disha too otherwise she would have cut us into a million pieces. First thing that Karan bought was a beautiful shawl for his grandmother. Then we all bought a nice sweater and a wooden showpiece exclusive to that place for Disha and something for our parents and other family members.

We came back after a week, it was an amazing trip, we got to learn so much, I especially gained a lot of negotiating skills and added a lot to my convincing power. Karan had a superb experience with photography. By the end of this trip , there was a spectacular change in Arsh’s attitude, he really started enjoying moments ( also started staring at girls :P) and to keep his cool, and for Sagar this trip added to his vast experience of handling various situations and people and getting most out of them. Moreover, one more thing that we learnt was to meet various kind of people , manage and utilize the money in best possible and also to take care of our usual stuffs, that was handled by our mothers or dads at home.

When we met Disha after returning, we had a lot to tell her and so did she about her experience of the marriage in a village. Her relatives lived at a very beautiful village, and she had thoroughly enjoyed her little vacations with them. Now, she was a great speaker, she explained each and every details so nicely and clearly and we felt as if we were ourselves experiencing all those events going by. 'Serene', this was the first word that she used to describe the village, which itself brought us into a different feel altogether. The greenery, the peace, a simple lifestyle and a tranquil environment made the life go so easy and smoothly that people over there were always happy and free of useless tensions. She also told us about her boating experience on the river that flowed by the village.

Marriage in one house, and whole village helped in the work with so much vigour that, marriage of their own daughter was going on. The people there were very cooperative and helpful. She said in her peculiar style – ‘ Functions, ohh my god !! There were so many functions for just one marriage that, in cities functions in three marriages would be required to equal them'. She continued ‘It was a great fun and all those pranks and games that they played on their new brother-in-law made the occasion even more interesting.' Then they came back after 5 days.

8. End of school life on a positive note

By this time, everyone in our group was clear about their careers, and which direction to move from then, but not me. I was the only odd-one out :P. Karan and Arsh took science with maths, Sagar and Disha took bio. Till then I didn’t know what to do exactly, so I chose the subject in which I had a bit interest and I thought was easiest, so I took arts. For the next two years, we met but mostly in school and that too only during recess as the classes were different. Hardly on any other occasion except the birthday parties, we could enjoy each-other’s company. We all wanted to be best in our respective fields, irrespective of our chosen stream.

So, the next two years passed and were actually quite uneventful. Karan and Sagar were by then really serious and they didn’t want to leave any opportunity as they knew that competition was going to be tougher as were moving ahead. Arsh had a bit interest in science and not at all in commerce and arts, and there was not any pre-requisite for joining IMA, so he also tried to get involved in scientific activities as he didn’t know that in his future life, whether he’ll get an opportunity to deal with them or not. Disha, had also been doing really well, though she was had some other plans (not competitions). She tried her best to make the use of last two years of her school life to the most. She greatly improved her speaking skills by taking part in speech competitions, extempore, which certainly helped her in handling any situation instantly, as a being a environmentalist, she had to meet various kind of people, answer their queries, conduct seminars etc. I also took part in these out of interest and one more reason was that, I was a bit annoyed by the fact that I always felt very nervous on stage, standing alone infront of the audience. I really trembled a lot as if someone would brake my head or kill me, if at all I didn’t speak well. So, I forced myself to all these, initially I was horrible ( not exactly, as I heard some claps after I spoke, although I knew those were only by my friends :P ). But over the period of those two years, I had developed the competence and won the third prize in my last speech in school ( now let me mention clearly, there were 12 people who participated, and coming 3^rd in that was indeed a big achievement for me :) ).

Those two years passed very quickly before we could realize. Soon 12^th board examinations arrived. I thought that we’ll be able to spend some more time together after that, but things went exactly opposite. Firstly, competitions came which kept science students busy, and secondly, after that, rush for admissions to colleges started. Everything just went too fast to notice and then time came, when we were leaving our home-place for the college. But that didn’t mean we were out of contact, we had cell-phones and were always in contact. We always used to share our incidents in college with each-other. So, here ended the most happy days of our school life when we were together.

I had chosen lightest stream ( or atleast I felt so), so had lots of free time in college. During this, I spent most of the time, trying to understand the political scenario of our country. I went to places , where hardly people went and tried to explore many places at the outskirts of the place where our college was located. I had a new friend, Sameer, who also took the political science, for the same reason (it being lightest of all other options). He was an adventurous person and had almost been to all those places before, and he was the one who took me there. Quite contradictory to a boy of our age, he was not at all interested in girls . He had his own world, of fun, and was really happy in that. He loved to go to new places, meet people and interact with them, actually his company also helped me a lot.

We went to various places, small villages, settlements, fields where farmers were working, slums and Govt. Schools etc. We tried to talk to the people over there, ask them about their life, facilities that they had, and about the problems they faced. Some of them were really co-operative while others just tried to ignore our questions.

9. Two worlds and a purpose to follow...

Our first trip was to a village called, Khatihaar. We had planned our trip before so we left for the place early in the morning on a Sunday, and reached there by 10 am. Initially we went to a place where children were playing, we sat on grass and called the boys playing there. At first, they hesitated, but then, after our convincing them for some time, they came. We asked them their names, their hobbies and whether they go to school or not. To which they replied that it was of no use going to school, the teachers didn’t teach them properly, and moreover used violence whenever a child didn’t answer them correctly. Almost all of the teachers were same. The saddest part of all this was that they had started seeing school as a place of torture and now it became a burden for them to attend the school. After listening to so many negative views, we thought that if this continued then no child would love to study, or aim to be educated. Those teachers had filled so much poison into the minds of small children.

We really became disappointed to hear that, and then tried to convert all these things into positive. We deviated from the topic for some time and asked them about their dreams. We asked them what they wanted to become when they grow-up ? We got various answers, some of which were really optimistic while others disappointed us a bit. Some wanted to become doctor, some pilot, some wanted to build cars, and many more listening to which, we were so glad. These children wanted to become rich, lead a nice life, but were not able to find the correct way leading to that future. There were some others who just wanted to work as their parents did, sit at some shop and sell items. They were not willing to see dreams, they tried to restrict their thoughts. Then we started, and explained them that they all had so much talent to pursue anything in life, god gave them hands, legs, a beautiful mind, a pure heart. That was all one could want from anyone, and once we have all this, its just we who shape our future. We asked them to free up their thoughts, try to let their dreams fly and touch the sky. We just get life once, we should not restrict ourselves to anything small; dream ... dream big and then put in all your effort to make your dream come true.

We also explained them the need of education, and that, it's only knowledge that would lead them to the place they wanted to be at, or maybe see themselves maybe 20 years from now. We gave some them some funny examples which I guess, must have helped them to create a positive image about school and studies. We asked them not to take studies as a burden, but as a sport in which you just try to give your best, then it doesn’t matter whether you score good or bad, just study and try to gain the knowledge. We asked them to tell their parents about the situation prevailing in the school and ask all of them to go and complain the higher authorities about the misconduct of teachers. After that, we played with them for sometime and then went ahead.

We visited the well from where whole of the village had drinking water. Although the water in the didn’t seem to be much polluted, but the place surrounding that well was miserable. All of the village’s waste was thrown some 4 meters away, all the animal garbage and a drain flowed besides it. We both were stunned to see the ignorance and also the lack of awareness among the people there. We went to a shop whose owner seemed to be a bit dignified. We went and sat on the chairs kept outside his shop. When he asked what did we want then, we both opted for a Perk. Then we slowly and steadily started interacting with him, and shifting the topic to what we wanted to know.We then asked him about the major problems they faced and how satisfied they were with the present governance. Are all the promises being done to them were being fulfilled or not ?

Then he told us about the electricity, which was the major problem. He mentioned that it just remained for 10-12 hours and that too its intensity always remained so less, as there was overload and also the theft of electricity. They had tried to complain but no serious actions were taken. There was a big trouble with the amount of supply water they had been promised. And similarly we came across the various troubles they faced in village. Although we always used to feel that villages are so peaceful and people there loveable and tolerant, that day we saw the other face as these people didn’t really tried to raise voice against or were just trying to adjust with any situation whatsoever it may be.

It was a big day and we came across so many problems that were required to be dealt with in proper manner and as early as possible. We returned back to our college in the evening and thought of relaxing after the hectic day. But, it was college, how can anybody expect to ‘relax’, when you are a part of a group :P. During the evening, it was almost certain that we went outside our campus every other day and then return late at night, except during exams. It was the only time (exam), when our whole corridor would turn from a fish market to a disciplined workplace. I and Sameer tried hard to convince other people but all our efforts went into vain. So finally we agreed to go. Our favorite hot-spot was ‘Times’ Mall. It was the most busiest place in the evening in the whole city, and was full of crowd almost everyday. And the actual and most important reason was that it was located at a place near to a NIFD. So all the students there were also the regular visitors of the place.

As we were tired after a long day’s work, except Sameer and me, everyone started doing the business, they went there for (staring at some of the hot chicks of the city) . We took there leave and went for some ‘window’ shopping inside the mall. Then we sat in a coffee shop and just tried to spend time there till all of the other members of the group were satisfied and had their quota for that day finished. It actually felt nice to see various kind of people around, a colourful life of the outside world as in college it felt so dull, seeing the same people around yourself, with almost no movements, bikes, cars etc. And families, I loved to see people spending time with their family, children, enjoying some glorious moments with them. I used to miss my school friends very badly some of the times, really wondered what the life would have been if we all were still together. Anyways, you don’t always get whatever you wish in life, sometimes you have to accept the reality and move ahead. We knew that we were best friends and will always remain the same and just hoped that wherever each of them were, they remained happy and succeed in whatever they wanted to achieve.

Suddenly Sameer started –‘Two worlds, poles apart, and that too the same day, haa ... Whole day long we spent time in a village where people used lanterns even in the day to find items from dark parts of their shop, and here there is so much light that, I think, the whole place where we went must not be having power equivalent to its half. Here people come and buy things worth thousands of rupees in no time(without any prior thought), and there they would think twice before spending some hundereds of rupees which they might have accumulated for past 2-3 months. We sit here and had a coffee of 50 bucks, and quite surprisingly, they just try and use every 50 rupees that they earn in best possible way.’ Then I continued -- ‘ hmm .... exactly. Life of people located not more than 15 kms, from here are soo different. There is such a vast difference in lifestyles of them. And the one responsible to fill this gap also must be enjoying in a party. But then, we cannot always just blame others, this country belongs to us too, those people who are suffering are also one among us and those here enjoying there life are also the same.’ ‘If we have problem with the existing scenario, then its we who have to bring about the change.’

Saying these words I suddenly stopped. All those past memories ran through my mind and then when I thought about what all happened, I was dumbstruck. I thought that while in class 11, I had no reason whatsoever to take arts. And as I was moving ahead without any direction or purpose in my life, now I had ‘one’. I thanked god and was so grateful to him that he led my may way when I was clueless.

Now, I wanted to join ‘politics’. I knew that whenever I would say these words to anyone, even some of my close friends, or maybe parents too, would be surprised. I knew that this term ‘politics’ had such an impression in minds of people that instant this word was spoken, a sudden image was created in minds of people ( I think I don’t need to mention here about what that image contained). But then, I thought at some point of time, someone or the other had to do something (someone had to get into the drain to clean it). Till when, we will wait for that ‘someone’ to come and change everything for positive. I had an opportunity, being a student of political science, and now I’m not going to back out. Now, that was the day when I too had got a purpose in life.

10. Meeting after a long time

Actually the problem with all of my school group was that, our holidays occurred at different time, so it had been a year since we all met each other at the same time. As was the ‘default’ case, we came to the same place, to these hills. Meeting each other after such a long time was the most delightful treat in itself. We all had lots and lots of things to share. Karan had developed a new style of speaking, which looked more of a casual tone. Sagar had developed a charming personality, Arsh, he had become even stronger than before and kind of more disciplined, didn’t speak much, Disha, she had become enamouring and was more influential with her style of speaking.

Karan was most excited to tell his story first so he started – ‘Hey guys !!! I had told you about Prerna.’ Then we all replied in chorus (intentionally) ‘naaa, who ... who’s Prerna?’ J He shied a bit, but not for long, and continued , ‘Shut up !! and listen. After going from here so far away from home, I really found it difficult to adjust over there, with no-one else from here. Whole day long I used to think about our school days, as we did almost every kind of non-sense there but there don’t know why life had become so uninteresting. I missed my family badly, especially my grandmom. It took me quite sometime get adjusted to that environment. Then .....’ ( now this was the worst part of Karan , he used to stop after saying such a word that would piss someone off ) We all asked in a furious tone ‘Then what ????’ He said ‘ok ok... Be patient, I’m continuing. One day, when I was attending my lecture, suddenly I heard a query from a girl sitting on the rightmost row. I was captivated by her voice and as I turned to see her, I was flabbergasted.’ It was just the mention of this incident that Karan’s face lit up and he just couldn’t hide the smile on his face. He was blushing to utmost extent. He continued ‘see, I know that, you all will think that this happens to me always, (to which we all nodded) (he smiled) even I thought the same that time. And tried to forget that, as I (kind of) didn’t want to live in present, I was so happy to live in past. But somehow after that instant, I couldn’t compose myself. Moreover, I don’t why that happened to me always, but I encountered her almost everywhere in the campus wherever I went.’ ‘But, I think that time I was cherishing all that, everything just seemed to turn so bright, all of sudden some colours started to pour into my dull life over there. I began listening to some light songs. Everything looked cheerful.’(he went to those memories and stopped, and this point Sagar interrupted Karan, the poet, to continue with story).

‘hmm... then as I began thiking of her always, and realized this time it was different. I somehow came to know her name. And then, began looking for an opportunity to talk to her. It came soon, but there was not any effort from my side for the same. We were sitting in a class, when the teacher asked a question, to which both of us replied. But, the answers were exactly opposite. Now this is the worst thing about any teacher that he always asks students to discuss among themselves and find who was correct. We began, and as I was sure about the answer, I stood firm with it, and soon that discussion turned into an argument. The problem was that, she had misinterpreted question and was not ready to accept it. So, finally teacher cut-off our fight, but he was late, our first talk (of which I saw so many beautiful dreams) was totally screwed.’

‘Prerna was a different girl with an innocent face, child-like smile, very simple in attitude and yet modern in approach. And she looks awesome when she wears salwar-suit. And I was very impressed talking to her in class(the way she stood by her answer). I actually began liking all the things she did. Then, at last after 3-4 days after that foolish quarrel, I got an opportunity to talk to her. We both were simultaneously present at the juice centre of our college. I don’t know why but I think that was the first time when I thought so much before talking to a girl. At last, I composed myself, tried to gather all the courage, and spoke, ‘hii...’, she was standing besides me, she smiled and replied sweetly ‘hii’. Then I felt, a bit ease and continued, ‘Our first conversation was amazing, hah ,,, ( I tried to sound funny, but knew that it didn’t make any impact)’. Then she said ‘yaa, we were fighting like small children, actually I misinterpreted the question.’ I replied ‘are.... leave it !! so what’s your name (although I knew that) ?? I am Karan.’ And that was where we started and then got to know many more things gradually. I found her very sober, and not like what I had thought her to be. Our thoughts matched to a great extent. One most important thing was her love for animals, nature, and was very much disappointed by the way they were exploited in our country, and rate at which deforestation was taking place.

‘ I’m not sure guys, but I think I love her. Her simplicity, her concern and such a down to earth attitude. Everything's good about her. She is just charismatic.’ Saying these words he stopped and again went deep into some thoughts. All this time, we were just enjoying his narration about their small and beautiful story. We were amazed by the seriousness of Karan, entry of someone in his life had really changed him. Apart from this, Karan also mentioned about the knowledge he had been gathering on increasing the efficiency of Solar Cells, and what all new materials could decrease its cost. He told us about the project he had been thinking to undertake, next year. We were together for next 4 days, as Arsh had to leave. He had just got 15 days vacation and had arrived 10 days before we met. And soon after that Sagar also had to leave. It was late by then, so we left.

We met every day till Arsh was there. Then everyday we discussed our lives, and I was sooo happy to tell them about my decision in life and what situations led me to come that conclusion . The only good decision that I took. All of them admired it. And were glad that, the only odd-one out person in there group was no more odd. For both Sagar and Disha, they had formed a proper friend circle in college and there was nothing sort of ‘love case’ with them. They were enjoying there life completely. Sagar had joined a research team in college and explained us in simple language (as it would have been really difficult for us to understand medical terms and that would have gone far above our heads) that they were involved in finding treatment of various incurable diseases and also to reduce the costs of some of other medicines. We asked Sagar about the names of his friends and then started teasing him with the name of his friends, for which he had a hard time to explain us, that there was nothing of that sort. Immediately, Arsh (smiling) pointed that ‘what sort? We were just speaking about you and Anjali as friends, thats it. What were you thinking, hah ??’ We just tried to trap Sagar in some way or the other.

Then Disha told us about her college, and friends. She told us about what all things were required to be kept in mind during an interview and how to deal with situations involving various people. Then she told us about her friends, and before we could pull her legs on anything she herself told us about a friend close to her, but mentioned clearly that there was nothing more than friendship till then.

Then came the turn of Arsh, he told us about the various kind of training and exercises they are made to do, and also about the ones he found tough among them. He told that they hardly went outside the academy, and when they used to go, they were bound to return within some specific time. Then he also taught us some trick of self-defence in case of any adverse situation, and also some tricks which would help us face any person, better built than us. We cherished those lessons. And he specially gave some tips to Disha, to face a situation in which she had to handle some group of people (as she was going to be an environmentalist and who knew what all absurd situation may arise in front of her). He also justified the necessity of every female being self-dependent, and not to rely on any other person to come and help them out of some inauspicious situation. We all paid heed to what he told, as he also mentioned that, that problems don’t arrive after knocking door, asking for permission to get-in. They just come and a person had to be ready always to give it a proper reply. He told – ‘see, any kind of defence force, may it be police, army, or commandoes, they cannot be present everywhere at every point of time. All the citizens should try and understand this and be fit enough, and have that much courage, not to let any person create instability in their country. He asked us to be healthy enough, and also to follow some specific exercises and also to pass on this information to as many people as possible.’

This is the worst part of life that, when you want time to move at a slow pace, it runs. Soon the time of our departure arrived, and then we all were back to the business. As one year of college life passed, similarly the 2^nd year too.

11. A new job (farming) and a doctor cum friend

One day, we were in our hostel, and Sameer’s room was the favourite time-pass spot for all of there. There was a friend, Rahul (the most notorious of all the people there, god knew how ideas, for creating trouble for others, came into his mind). The cupboard provided to us, was big enough that Rahul actually got inside it. He took his cell phone and started video mode in that. When I arrived in Sameer’s room, everyone behaved as if everything was normal. So, I sat on bed at ease and joined the discussion going on. After some time, Sameer in his natural tone asked me to take biscuits out of the cupboard. I got up and went towards the cupboard. In the meanwhile, Sameer was also ready with his cell’s video mode on. As I opened the door, suddenly a loud shout came from inside and Rahul jumped on me. Ohh my god !! I was frightened like hell. My heart-rate went so high that I thought I would fell on floor, I was blanked as to what was happening around me for some time(when everybody there were enjoying that and laughing at top of their voice). As I tried to compose myself, I saw everyone laughing like mad people and to add to that, they also had video recording of the whole incident.

This was just one incident, there were many more non-sense activities going around in our hostel, like throwing water on someone, and wetting him from top to bottom for no reason, kicking someone’s ass on his birthday to such an extent that for the next two days, sitting reminds him of the sin done by him by taking birth or atleast being a part of that group.

One day, Sameer and I, went to rice fields, at the daytime, when some farmers were working there. We went to them, and started interacting with them. One of them reacted in an unexpected way, and we were taken aback, a bit. It was then that, Disha’s words came in my mind and did exactly how she told to handle various types of people. It worked. We where able to extract lots of information about them, efforts they used to put in their work, irrigation facilities and services provided to them by government, and what all they required. After sometime when we became quite familiar with them, we asked them allow us to do something. We tried our hands on so many things, including, riding a tractor, which I should mention was not as easy as it looks from outside. It was a fun to do those things for once, but we didn’t even have the courage to think of doing it ever the next time. These people worked under the scorching heat of the sun for almost whole year and then after that, earning so less that, its really difficult for them to get their children educated and secure a good future for them. They gave their best, for their children but just because of so many people as middle-men (or the owner of land), they didn’t get the price they deserved. We could see what it means being a farmer (or any labourer) in a country like us.

Government allots money for improvement of agriculture, but it never reaches to these hard-workers. Or if at all somehow it reaches, it’s not enough to help them improve. Corruption had become an integral part of our political bodies. Every politician who gets money from government, to distribute it among his lower counterparts, he first tries to fill his pocket (infact overload it) and then whatever amount left, after his hunger is satisfied, passes to other, who in turn do the same. We knew that again we were getting into the same thing of blame-game. Anyways, due to this trip, we confronted many other aspects, and needs of people close to earth (who grew the food we ate, never bothering to think about their life, their children who ideally should have been studying in some school getting proper education).

In the meantime, I usually had talks with Sagar, Karan, Arsh and Disha on phone. They all told about what’s going on there. Once, Sagar told me about the thrilling experience of the first post-mortem that he saw. He told that, they were standing in a group and when it began, and two of his friends collapsed. And also about the funny people he encountered, during the case studies of patients.

And one more incident I remember was when he was moving around with his apron on, then a patient came to him, thinking that he was doctor. Sagar explained him that he was a student, but when person compelled him to go through his reports, he went through it, and understanding the case to great extent, as he started, the person interrupted and said, ‘ I had shown this to other doctor, and he said that there is no way out and no hope...., do you also think the same ?’ Hearing this and seeing the expectation on the face of patient Sagar tried to handle situation in a positive manner and replied ‘See, I am a student, I seriously don’t know whether there is possibility or not, but then I myself being a medical student want to tell you one thing that why do we let our lives governed by some diseases, medicines and most all by some other person(doctor), is this great-great gift from GOD, Life is so small that we just get disheartened because of a report. Naaa, please sir, try to understand we become as weak as we feel ourselves to be, when we have got a chance to live, then why worry about future and be afraid of anything. The only death that I know is fear. Don't let it rule or shape your life, it would lead you to nowhere.' ‘and listen, live this life to its fullest till it gives an opportunity, fight against the odds, you never know one beautiful day might bring with itself a nice surprise of your being absolutely fine. Keep smiling, people look good with a smile on their face :).’ Sagar actually said this, ohh my god (the movie Munna Bhai MBBS, did all it intended to do, as doctors began thinking on those lines). He also said that after hearing to those firing lines by him, the person felt so lightened and started seeing a ray of light amidst of clouds surrounding him.