I don’t know why but today I was reminded of an incident that occurred in the very first year of our college life, the date being 14th of February, 2004. I woke up in the morning without the slightest realization that this was our first V Day of our college life. Frankly speaking, there was precious little in our college that would have made me enthusiastic about V Day in college (apologies NIT gals :D). I spent the first one hour in the morning reading the newspaper and waiting for Ankur to wake up. Ankur and I ALWAYS went for breakfast together even if it meant us missing classes. So i waited till 9:30 and when I could not control my hunger any longer I walked into Ankur’s room to wake him up.
Upon entering the room I was pleasantly surprised to find Ankur’s bed vacant and I felt may be this was the day in the week when he had decided to take a bath. I came back and sat in my room waiting for Ankur to return. Time ticked by but Ankur was no where to be seen. I was beginning to get a little worried. Had Ankur fallen asleep under the shower? I asked his room mates about his whereabouts but they were as clueless and perplexed as I was. This was the first time Ankur had woken up by himself and what was even more worrying he was absconding. A search was launched…people checked neighboring rooms. Some went as far as the common room and the hostel mess but all returned with no luck.
By now my hunger had disappeared and anxiety had taken over. After two tense hours, I saw a familiar face smiling ear to ear entering the hostel. As the figure drew nearer it was evident that this was none other than our very own Ankur. But he had undergone a complete makeover. Dressed in a crisply ironed green Kurta worn atop blue denim jeans, and with a walk that smacked of George Clooney’s famous swagger Ankur was ready to set several hearts aflutter(Some of them in the boys’ hostel too :P). Ankur was clearly in violation of the NIT dress code and he was looking extremely neat and handsome(razor sharp too :P). Top that with his innocent smile and he would have floored many that day.
Immediately I pulled him in my room and the investigation started. I had not even started asking any questions and he was already blushing. I told him to spill the beans. The story goes as follows:
Mr. Saxena had woken up at 7 am that morning and taken great pains to dress up and get the ‘right look’. Then at exactly 8 am he had set off for the forbidden fortress, aka, girls’ hostel. Upon reaching there he had called up Shreyashi Shukla and told her he wanted to meet her. Being Ankur’s technical mom (one year senior in the same branch and from the same state) she quite willingly obliged. As soon as they were face to face Ankur said something that goes like this, “Ma’m will you go on a date with me?”. Boy isn’t this the smartest pick up line ever[:D]. Taken aback by this unexpected question she politely told Ankur that she was busy with selections for the Girls’ team for the athletics meet and hence would not be able to oblige Ankur even though she really wanted to. She said that they could go for a dinner some other evening. This my friends was the reason for his ear to ear smile that day.
Needless to say that the dinner never materialized and from the next V Day onwards it was Kunal Khashu who gave her company. But it was a bold move on Ankur’s part. I am sure he had spent several evenings planning this and he had managed to hide all this from us. He did not even hint to me that he had a thing for Shreyashi. It was only on this day that I realised that whenever I said that amongst our immediate seniors Pranati was prettier than Shreyashi, he made a long face. To this day I feel if there was ever a day in his life that he could have made a girl fall for him just by his smile it was that day…but Ankur being Ankur managed to go to the wrong girl :D.
If you would like to share any of your favourite Ankur incidents please feel free to do so. This place is all about him,isn’t it?
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