The School City : 4

Before we go any further ahead with my journey, I think its best if you are acquainted with the characters. The quirks of these characters is difficult, no, impossible to portray in a paragraph, but I would try to cover up as much as I can. All these people have influenced my life to a great deal and I owe much to them for what I am today. For good or for bad.

So Ladies n Gentlemen, here are some of my best friends :

AS: My roommate (in XIIth), my loveguru, my best friend and a very confused person. No more than I am though, but still very confused. He was the ladies' man. Soft spoken, a good listener, studious (before we met each other) and good looking (well, I had to say this lest he killed me). We both acted like a catalyst for each other's doom. It was like we had met each other to take us away from the paths of glory. A lanky, tall guy who used to wear his pajama under his trousers to look meaty. And ya, he was also very fond of his hair which he used to pull back with his hands in the manner girls do. I tried to stop him from that but man, you can never really stop the horse from farting, can you?

PS: A tomboy, prankster, a very dear friend and again a very confused person. Maybe I was the magnet attracting confused people, but then aren't the teens a time to be proud of confusion? She was the third musketeer of our team of well two guys and a gal. She had the shortest hair among us three. Before I shaved them off in a moment of false bravado. She had the habit of writing love letters. She wrote a 3 page one for me, which was for obvious reasons duly disposed off. What reasons? She sent the letter with one of her friends, whom I was dating at that time. And the funny thing is that her friend asked me to accept the proposal. Damn bro... Do I look that bad?

Kallu : He was the universal brother, i.e. brother of every damn hot lass in the school. Well, except one. But then it was better if she was also his sis, because then they would have had talked more than they ever did. He was also a good person at heart. I must say that because now he is a close friend. But at that time all he did was cause trouble for me and AS. Physically, he was like the Hitler, except maybe a few inches tall. And definitely without the mustachios.

Parul : She was a tall, lanky and beautiful girl. A very close friend and thus a very confused person. She was the most sensible amongst us. And she was in love with AS. Not madly, deeply, etc, etc, but ya, the teenager's "pehla pehla pyaar". I tried to tell her about AS's dark secrets to keep her heart from breaking (AS and I had sworn in to save each other's ass) but "Honi ko kaun tal sakta hai". Anyways, she was smart enough to come to senses by her own. Well, as they say "All's well that ends well".

DB : If we ever wanted to laugh our ass off, he was the dude. He had the most funny stories to tell. He even knew how to sing in rhyme those small "rangeen ramayans" we had. He had two of his front teeth missing and a spectacle with lenses as thick as the paperweights. And he is dead now, all due to one misadventure. RIP DB !! I always miss you whenever I read a "men's only" magazine.

Paul : He was our "Steve Stifler". Love him or hate him but you just can't ignore him. He had no sense of respect for the girls, pulled off the hair off any body's hand (but mostly the gruesome waxing took place on his own hands), had his hair cut practically every Sunday AND most importantly was fun to be with. A Bong with the vocabulary of the choicest Bihari profanities, which he constantly exchanged with DB. Oh! those were the golden, olden days.

Chopra : A very, very dear friend. I am using his real name here because I can't bear to change all that's left of him. He was a true gentleman and a brilliant guy. He died a few years after we left school. RIP Chopra. We miss you everyday dude!

P.S.
1. Any person described here, dead or alive, if he ever has a problem with this description, go get a blog ;) .
2. There are many others but these were the ones who I remembered after racking my brains for two hours. More people will be added to the list as we progress with the story and as I remember them. This post is to act as a reference for anyone who gets confused with the principle character and ode to all my friends.