[Dr. Zafar Ahmed, zai-alpha@hotmail.com, 14-A, Mallayagiri, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 94]
[3 Parts, Reading time: 10 min.]
(1)
Right after the TS interview, I was supposed to fill many forms before collecting my TA. One of the labs of TS was utilized for this purpose where several young boys and girls were serving as recruitment staff. I entered there with the pink slip to show.
I was given several sheets to fill and sign. Suddenly, most of them started calling out for Meher’ : A short, spectacled and chirpy girl. I could not ignore that there was a Muslim girl amongst them but I used to be a shy guy, so no interaction.
But my BHU buddy Bhupesh from the previous batch who was hosting and accompanying me, noted this and talked to the girl. Those days, as Bhupesh was a paying guest in a flat in Anushaktinagar and her family also lived around there, these two often met and became friends.
After receiving my selection telegram from BARC, I fell ill and I was quarantined in the dispensary of IIT-D for over a week. During this time one AMU-friend Pawan who was going home to Aligarh came to see me. I requested him to send a telegram to BARC with the message “joining shortly.”
I came late to join TS by about two weeks. Bhupesh was delighted to see that I was selected and called to join. According to his info’ I was not selected! Oh! that day was a difficult one, I was asked to meet a senior physicist named Dr. R. C. Chidambaram, he listened to me and conditioned that I would be producing the medical certificate from IIT-D (dispensary) soon.
Even more difficult time I had in TS, that day, where the officials and the Head were not impressed by my story as to why I came late. Someone even said that no telegram was received by them from me! I felt really harassed.
It was then that Meher produced a telegram from Aligarh! with the message “joining shortly”, neither Delhi nor my name was mentioned by Pawan in it !. But it surely lent credence to my story and I was admitted to TS, I thanked her very much. My dramatic admission to TS, boosted the friendship of Bhupesh and Meher, further. After two weeks or so, I had to leave for IIT-D to get the crucial medical certificate. I remember, that I had to miss the first picnic of our batch.
I soon became busy with the training, I often saw them walking around in the colony but I used to avoid them, also because I was still a shy-guy. Next, Bhupesh would deliver some chits and bits scribbled by her, branding me uncivilized etc.
After my TS, I shifted to Konkan Bhavan, Bhupesh bought a house in Vashi, Meher got a job in a bank in the Fort area. Three of us and her friends went out for picnics some 4 times.
(2)
It was 1985, we were busy working for our official assignments half a dozen batch mates used to be around to chat and discuss.
There was a computer lab and Bhupesh also sat in the same corridor after our administrative office. Next to it was Biology division. My meetings with him were reducing because of the company of new colleagues. Those days used to be very lively, we used to visit our big air conditioned canteen covered with glasses, some 3-4 times a day. There the decibel levels used to be high and we surely added to it.
These days, ladies are trying to outnumber gents in offices, and labs but in those days only few ladies were around in our corridor: two of them were our colleagues, two or three used to visit computer room, there was one young researcher ferrying liquid nitrogen cylinders and two cheerful ones had just joined the Bio’ division. One smart Parsi lady in skirt used to talk very nicely.
One day, in my pigeonhole of office I found an unstamped envelope, inside that someone was appreciating some small things which I did! but there was no signature! This letter was suspiciously interesting. The next hand-put letter was also flattering but this time it revealed that it was from some unknown girl! Some more short and romantic letters followed
My friend Mythili warned me that someone was playing a prank and she would watch out. My friend Bhupesh also told me that it could be a prank and advised me not to bother about it. Some more letters followed. Chances that someone would come from away to put it, were less. Was he/she nearby? Whodunnit!?
The issue was now open to other friends. They smiled, giggled, enjoyed and became serious too. Friends promised me to sort it out, but I suspected each one of them.
Those short letters followed for about a month with reduced frequency. In the last one, the “girl” revealed her name as “Ferzana”. Some friends opined that it was not a prank because in a prank the guy would be called to some peculiar place to be laughed at by the prankster(s).
I was then made to realize that mostly: it is friends who script a love story and the lovers just act it out. Friends even found that one of the young biologists in the corridor was actually a Muslim.
(3)
One day, after hi and hello Bhupesh suggested that while going to/coming back from TIFR, I could meet Meher in her bank at Fort. This my seismologist friend had zero-dialling facility then itself. On a Saturday, I went to TIFR-Library, had lunch in the western canteen and came to her bank. There, I was received warmly with several boys and girls knowing me well by my name! I was introduced to a smart young man, a colleague of theirs named Irfan who was the fiancé of Meher.
It being a half-day, Meher proposed that two of us would take 90 Ltd. to travel to A’Nagar, then I was supposed to take a bus to Vashi. Our Journey started, she was good at reading and hence she was talkative. I divulged the Farzana episode to her she found it very interesting. Soon, we were nearing A’Nagar. She gave me parting suggestions that I should meet Bhupesh more often as he felt left out! and that while walking I should look up and around. I replied: I don’t want to see: people un-necessarily / un-necessary people.
A’nagar depot came, we got down and headed towards Vashi stop to wait for my bus. She stayed there with me for a while. She said “I want to tell you something, but promise me that you will surely excuse me” I said “OK, tell me”. She said that Bhupesh and she were behind the Ferz’ episode! she ran away and hailed good bye from a distance. Surprised, yet soon, I realized that Fer’ could not have had any name other than Ferzana, because in Urdu it may be taken to mean: Imaginary!
It seems Bhupesh had a bet with Meher that such letters wouldn’t deter me, but I think that he might have lost the bet.
Later, Meher got married to Irfan, theirs was the first wedding that I attended in Bombay. In their reception, I went to the stage to present my gift and give them the compliments that they were looking great! They teased me with Ferz’ episode. Next, I applauded the food that was served. She said “yes, we could see you eating without looking up and around!”
Friends, it was about time when boys and girls started getting to know each other without becoming Romeo or Juliet.
Thanks for your read.
I WROTE A STORY 