The Box and the Tower

Surath Chatterjee's Birthday Party

The day began, rather early, with us kicking at his door, waking him up, wishing him HBD and demanding an instant treat. The fellow was rather disoriented and after some negotiation it was agreed that the Jilipi (or Jalebis) at PremBazar was the only edible stuff that could be procured at that ungodly hour! Some of us pooh-poohed the idea of riding all the way for just Jilipis while a few, possibly Rana Bhattacharya, vociferously liked the idea and nearly dragged Surath out to Prembazar.

An hour later, Surath and the Jilipi enthusiasts came back to the wing to find the rest of us hanging out around the garden chair, that we had pinched from somewhere, and staring at Zakir Hussain Hall. Surath went into his room and bounced out immediately.

"What's this?" He was pointing to a HUGE wooden box lying next to his cot.

"Your birthday gift!" - evidently delivered when he was away. But there were no tags, labels or anything else on the outside.

"It is all nailed up."

"Here, here is a screw driver." Someone was rather too quick to locate one for him. By this time the entire wing had gathered around the box.

"How do I take out the nails?"

"Have you forgotten your carpentry shop?" -- this was in our third or fourth year -- "Let me help." The same person seemed a bit too anxious to volunteer.

"No, no, I will do it myself." Mr Chatterjee attacked the nails on the plywood box with great gusto and finally prised open the top sheet... and

And lying inside the box was Rashmi Johry, Surath's SN Hall girlfriend, grinning awkwardly from ear to ear! C Top West's birthday gift for Surath was his own girlfriend, packed in a box and delivered to his room.

The elaborate Jilipi plan was to get him away from the wing while Rashmi would sneak into the hall, early in the day, and then get into the coffin-like box. There had been some worry about her getting suffocated but we had lookouts posted on the mess roof to alert us when Surath (and the Jilipi party) returned to the PAN loop. That was when Rashmi actually entered the coffin and the last nail was literally driven in.

Surath and Rashmi are now married with kids and they live in New York, US. I hope they would not mind this story being posted here and I wish that some of the fellow conspirators would chime in with their memories.

Vishwakarma Puja

This was in our third or fourth year, 1982 or 1983, and even the names of the co-conspirators are fading out. It was the night of the Vishwakarma Puja, that heralds the start of the festive season in Bengal. Some of us from Azad, C-top West had visited Salua/Prembazar end of the campus for a shot of Mahua and on the way back we decided to stop by the various Vishwakarma puja pandals that had sprouted around the campus. The farthest one was the one at the Workshop and we decided to go there... and on the way of course was the dark and ghostly structure of the Old Building. We had heard of the ghosts of the freedom fighters who were martyred there but we did not really care. What we were really worried about was the security staff because we had decided -- on the spur of the moment and under the influence of Madam M -- to climb to the top of Old Tower!

Nowadays, the place is neat, clean, well lighted and there is a science museum there but in those days it was dark and deserted. We hid our cycles among the trees, near the Chem Engineering Building, darted into the darkened building and somehow found our way to the base of the tower. The door was locked and after some deliberation we decided to kick out the bolts. It made a terrible racket and we panicked and hid behind some boxes waiting for the security to come in and investigate. But perhaps they were sleeping, or they had been drinking at the Vishwakarma puja pandal, or perhaps they were scared of the ghosts... no one came around. So we crept in and started climbing.

After the first two stories, the staircase ended and there was a steel ladder that went up vertically. Perhaps we should have checked but we did not and we started climbing. Initially it was nice and easy but then as we neared the top, we found that some of the rungs were missing! But we still kept going... and then there were bats and chamchika flitting around us. Also the stink of bat-shit was quite strong. Nevertheless we did not stop and finally emerged out of a trap door and reached the top.

The view was beautiful. The night was dark but the town, or rather the bustees beyond the railway line, was lit up with the lights of the Vishwakarma puja pandals and in the distance we could hear the sound of mikes playing and an occasional cracker going off. How I wish we had a camera but then such things were rare then. We hung around, savouring not just the sounds and sights but the bravado of conquering what seemed like Everest to us. Then when we decided to come down... that's when the terror began.

As any mountain climber would know, going up is easier than coming down and as we eased down the steel ladder, we knew that there were some steps (or rather rungs) that were missing but in the pitch black darkness we could not see anything. So while hanging on for dear life with our hands, we had to stretch our legs lower and lower until we could find a step to take the load. Suddenly someone said that perhaps the ladder cannot take the load of all of us and we should go down one by one. Which is what we eventually did... and finally all of us were safe and sound on the cemented stairs -- and mind you all the time we had the bats and chamchika buzzing around our head.

Now that we were at the bottom, the next step would be to exit from the tower, walk down the long dimly lighted corridors and exit. And this is where we ran into a problem. Two security guards had appeared and were standing near the portico and talking to each other. Fortunately, they were just patrolling but did not bother to come inside the building. We waited with bated breath in the shadows and once they had gone away we sneaked out and sprinted towards the Chem Engg building where we had parked our bikes.

I have been to KGP numerous times after that, including a 5 year stint as a faculty, but this was the only time that I climbed one of the towers.

But who was with me that night? That is what is slipping from my mind. Was it Kinshuk Adhikary, Abhay Maheshwari, Prasenjit KarBhowmik, Rana Bhattacharyya or Arindam Bhattacharya?