Annie

Chapter six

August 2006

'This is sambar? I'll go and teach him how it's made.'

Abhi grabbed Gowtham by his arm and pulled him back to his chair. 'Shut up and eat, we're not at your home to eat what you want.'

It didn't taste bad though. I do agree it's a little too sweet for sambar but there's no need to make a big fuss out of it. I and the other customers are not complaining; the others might like it but still, it's not okay to complain if he doesn't like something for the bill he'd pay—which is sparse.

'I'm paying for it, I get to demand quality!'

'Oh please! For that free sambar, you're demanding quality?'

Goutham turned to Ajay rather unpleased. 'Don't forget that all of this is because of you. If not for you, we wouldn't eat at this stupid place.'

'What can I do when today is Saturday? You didn't have to call for a meet-up if you're so troubled.' Ajay's mom once told him that he should eat only one meal—that to tiffin—every Saturday and he blindly follows.

If that's not enough: he goes to the Hanuman temple on Tuesdays, fasts on Mondays, and offers prayers to the sun god—standing on the hostel corridor in everyone's bare sight, wrapped in a towel—every morning after the sun rises. Earth may collapse, everyone might die and famine would break but still, his routine will never change. Mainly because he believes he got a medical seat by following his mother's prescribed rituals. And he's not going to stop as his good luck will fetch him a medical degree, not the hard work he puts in studying.

'It's a Saturday for you and semester preparation to this bastard. What do I look like? A fool to believe that you have your semester in July?'

I sipped from my coke, 'Welcome to medicine, Gowtham. Its a place where no rules apply, it's a world of its own.'

'Why can't your degree be like everyone else's?' He groaned. I can't blame the boy when I too wish for the same. 'When we have holidays, you have exams and when we have mid-terms, you have holidays. I still don't understand which idiot designed your curriculum.'

'Why don't you ask our dean? I'm sure he'll love throwing you out of his office.' Everyone other than Gowtham laughed at what I said.

The people around us didn't bother to cast another look our way as they're busy laughing with their own company, and that's not common. If any they give us those odd stares as they can't kill us, but when no one bothers to burry you six feet under the ground with their eyes, it's pure bliss. Maybe the horrible food is making them enjoy their company but Gowtham is still poking the idli floating in his bowl of Sambar with more vigour, and it doesn't take a genius to know that he's thinking of me in place of his food.

'Come on, ra, it was just a joke.'

'It was just a joke.' He mimicked, still poking that idli.

I wrapped my arm around his shoulder. 'Arey! I'm sorry, now don't sulk, we're hardly meeting nowadays.'

'Because of whom?' I didn't answer as he'll walk away like a baby if I open my mouth. 'I was so happy when you said you too got in AIIMS like Ajay. I thought five of us can be close at least for four years, but you two are always busy.'

'Abey Peter, we are busy. When did that happen?' Asked Ajay with a smile plastered on his face.

Despite Gowtham's emotional breakdown, I laughed.

Labs, assignments, postings, records and twenty-four-seven studying. That's what I had in mind of medicine before being a medical student but it isn't the case, not that studying is not a part of it but it's not twenty-four by seven. There is fun and pressure in equal proportions.