The Players

KB was feeling not so great and I wanted desperately to be out of the house last Sunday evening. We were both restless and was looking for some place which will help us calm our insides. KB said that we could go to Shibpur Botanical Gardens. We got on a cab and requested him to drop us off at Babughat. He instead dropped us off at Princep Ghat. From Princep Ghat we walked with the intention of reaching Babughat on foot. The banks of the river from Princep Ghat till Outram Ghat have recently been paved as part of the Ganga Beautification project. It is a commendable project and I think it needs to be applauded. Anyways so we went about asking people from where we can get a Ferry to Botanical Gardens. One very nice gentleman informed us that the Ferries do not ferry on Sundays.I wanted to watch the sunset at the least but KB does not like beautification. To her it is artificial and not organic enough. She then pleaded and proded me till I agreed to go to Bagbazar. We got on another cab and he took us to Bagbazar through these roads I have never been before. It is lined with palatial houses standing solemnly holding secrets, tall and grand even in their state of ruin. We finally get off at Bagbazar. The roads are narrow here and the river broad. The narrow lanes are lined with temples dedicated to different Gods. We went and sat and gazed at the river for hours. After the sun set we got up and walked to a road-side tea-shop. We ordered quintessential "dim toast" ( omelette wrapped bread). It was delicious. There were four boys playing cards sitting their on the cemented seats beside the river. This place is all lit up and we decided to sit and eat there.

Usually, the general reaction of most women (including mine) would be to avoid a group of boys just sitting and playing cards. I soon found out they were playing Call Bridge. We could hear bits and pieces of slangs floating our way as well. But they were talking among themselves and were totally absorbed in their game. I wanted to talk with them. One way to let go of my reservations and secondly was to humanize the female species to these boys too. I seriously doubt if any other women have approached them like this.

I started by telling them that I would like to take their picture and I will put it up on line. One of the boys, whose name I later learned to be Subroto simply got up and left. He was initially vehemently opposed to have his picture taken. He was telling the rest of the group that he might get into trouble with his parents later. I decided to ask my ultimate question to him, then and there.

I am trying to capture the snippet of conversation here but it is difficult because everyone was talking and cross talking. 

• NAME : Vivek , Mohit , Anirban , Subroto.
• AGE : 21 , 17 ,  19 and 22 respectively.
• LOCATION : Bagbazar Ghat.
• PROFESSION : Commerce Students.

Me : So what's your name ?

V : Vivek.

Me : How old are you?

V : 22.

Me (in an incredulous tone) : Seriously?

V : Not really I am 21 +.

Me : You are hardly 15 or maybe 16.

V : No I am 21.

M : He is telling the truth. He studies is 3rd year of college.

Me to KB : I have found my soul brother.

KB asks V :  How old do you think she is ?

V looks me up and down and stares at my eyes and guesses me to be about 6 years younger than my age. At this point KB looks at me and says in what she believes is a soothing tone, " Atleast he did not call you 15" .

Me : So what do you do V:

V : I study Accounts Honors. 

Me : So why do you come here to play? Why cards and why this place? How often do you play ?

All of them gives a collective reply which summarizes to that this place is convenient since all of them live nearby. And they gather at that point every Sunday.

V: I live just a little further away.

Me : Where ?

V : Rajarhat near CC2.

Me : It is not a little far away. It is  very far away.

V : Yes. It takes me an hour to get here. My parents think I have come to collect notes.

At this point I give him a very meaningful look as to I know all about class bunking and going off with friends( which I actually don't).

V : Are you a journalist?

Me : Absolutely not !

V : Why are you doing this ?

Me : A social experiment. (And I try to describe my intention behind this.)

V  : You are doing this voluntarily and you are not getting paid.

Me : Yes you are right.

V : So how old are you exactly ?

At this point I turn my attention to M.

Me : So what's your name?

M : Mohit.

Me : How old are you?

M : 17

Me : You are still in school !

M ( a little shyly) : Yes

Me : So what do you want to do when you grow up? Have you ever thought of making cards your profession ?

M (laughs at the degree of ridiculousness of my question) : No. My passion is guitar. I want to make that my profession. I also want to travel like a Hippie.

This was a strange answer. Something I did not expect:

Me : Why a Hippie ? What is the difference between travelling normally and like a hippie ?

M : I will have no responsibilities. No family ties, no liabilities and I will be free like a bird.

At this point KB asks M : Do you know any hippies ?

M : No, I have read about them.

V : He knows me. Every Sunday I travel from Rajarhat just to play. I have turned into a Hippie.

We all have a good hearty laugh on his comment.

Me : Is that what you want to do after you finish school ? Travel the world.

M : No I want to get a job in a call centre.

I was again surprised with this answer. At this point one of the guys got very irritated and said rathar harshly that he has to leave. If they are not playing then he does not want to hang around. So I obviously go and start bugging him more !

Me : What is your name and how old are you?

A : Anirban. I am 19 .

Me : Dont you feel cold? He was just wearing shorts and a tee and the temperature was about 12 C.

A ( a little flabbergasted) : Not much.

Me : Why are you so irritated ?

A : They are not concentrating and I am in a hurry.

Me :Or is it because that someone strange girl had descended on you and asking you absurd questions and ruining your game ?

A ( a little embarrassed) : No not at all. Actually we have "KaliPujo Bhasan" today. "Poush-kali."

Me : Oh ! So you will be coming back to this ghat ?

A : No we submerge the idols in Babu Ghat every year. 

Me : So you don't think that playing cards is bad, like your friend. ( I look pointedly at S). You are not running away because you are doing something you think you should not?

At this point S jumps in, because he knows that I said what I said because of his comment.

S : It is not that playing cards is bad. But our parents will not approve. They will get upset and fight as to why we came here to play cards.

A then adds : I play cards with my brother inside our house. So playing cards is not the problem.

Me : So is the place a problem ? Also what is your name and how old are you?

S : Subroto and I am 22.

Me : You study commerce as well ?

S: Yes

Me : So tell me what is wrong with this place? It is beautiful with the Ganga flowing by. It has all these cemented chairs. It is a comfortable place to come and hang. So much better than any malls in the city.

S : But the automatic assumption of people is that since boys meet here and play then something wrong must be happening. They must be into gambling and drugs. And this is something that you cant really exlain to parents.

At this point V played a bad hand and everyone had a heated argument and it was over in like 5 minutes.They gave up on their game and KB and me ended up having a adda session with them, panning their ideas and experiences and our ideas and experiences, from philosophy to human behaviour to social evils to what is happening in our city. In the middle of our discussion, a group of men around the age of 30 came and occupied another spot and started playing cards. They were getting rather irritated and expressing it. I have a suspicion, it maybe was because we were not paying any attention to them whatsoever and not because they were actually getting disturbed.

I will like to end this really long post with two quotes that stayed with me.

The first one from V. The only boy who unlike the other three did  not grow up beside the river. "Ganga is our guest. She keeps on moving but thankfully never leaves."

The second one from M. The 17 year old school boy who wants to travel the world like a hippie, and has no idea that a call centre job will crush his free bird spirit. " What we see all around us right now, is someone's imagination. A hallucination. And when this hallucination fades away, we as humans will not know how to cope. We will all be broken."