The next day dawned bright and early. What next day ? None of us had slept...it was as if the last day hadnt even finished. Dipanjan was supposed to pick up Shankar and his wife but he had overslept. The wise thing Dipu did was to have stayed back at his place...at least he caught some sleep. Dipanjan ultimately did pick up Shankar and his wife... the moment they came in Shankar was assailed with the inevitable :why did not Basu and Santo come ? He started with some of the stuff he had been asked to tell but not for long. Cause just following him were Basu and Santo. Evidently this was a surprise.. on the lines of Nilanajan and Mickey Matthews (story copyright-- Dipti). Except that Dipti had forseen this and hinted at it in a mail. No wonder, considering the way Dipti looks into vacant space I am sure he knows quite a few of the mysteries of the universe by now.

It is said that war brings out the best and worst in people. The same holds true for Basu. No sooner had he announced his presence, than there was a spontaneous wave of "Lets beat up Basu." In an instant, the supine figures were up in more ways that one. Basu's legs were clasped by eager hands while Basu's tender ass was bombarded by "daisy-cutter" kicks-- the sort of stuff Bush used in the caves of Tora-Bora. And soon Basu's ass bore the signs of a rampaging army till Adi, as host, had to put a stop to Basu's pain. Or was it pleasure ? Santanu, on arriving, started asking everyone to get up.. Santo was ready to go. When we pointed out that none of us had slept, Santo said that neither had he nor Basu had slept . Later of course Basu accepted that they had slept on the plane but of course not as good as they would have slept in their beds shipped from India at Microsoft cost.

Basu greeted with tender love and goodwill

Plans started to be made while people went off to finish their morning duties. Reminded me of Amit(Gudu)...he was just too "dutiful" which lead to long queues in front of restrooms. Breakfast was self-prepared, Adi had stocked the house with milk, corn flakes and orange juice - so resources were never the problem. The table however was. There was nothing actually wrong with the table, except that you could not reliably put anything on it. The reason was that the table was a Long John Silver- one of its legs was broken !

With the arrival of the Seattle shuttlers, we made one last attempt to call God. But He remained as elusive as usual. And his excuses kept on changing. He spoke to virtually everyone giving a different excuse to everybody. Reminded me of the Sufi saint Kabir: "There is only one Truth, only we as Men see it in different ways." In the same way, God appears to us in different ways...Ram,Rahim and Rambo...depending on your point of view. So Rajo started off saying that he cant drive 18 hours. On being pointed out of a lovely invention of James Watt, he said that Tulsa didnt have a train station. Which was a bit tough to umm swallow.....somewhat like Rajo's under-14 escapades for the Bengal cricket team. When we pointed out the existance of an airport at Tulsa, Rajo said that a plane ticket would be expensive. To which we in very un-JUCSE fashion said we will pay half of his airfare. Just to show that we were prepared to pay our "pranami" for "darshan". Rajo was now plotting a truth curve, with time being on the x-axis and truth on the y-axis. Another point was plotted when Rajatish said that the reason was something "personal" and that he cannot tell it now. Soon the curve sloped when Rajo said it was a very dear friend's wedding and Rajo has made a commitment to get him married off. And that he had to drive him somewhere... somewhat like when Krishna drove Arjun (also called Partha) ! The graph plot was still not finished...the "truth" or whatever was left of it was that he had a job interview. By this time, the graph paper had run out and so had our patience. We left Rajatish in his sweet heaven while we chalked out plans to make Baltimore hellishly heavenly.

Rajo was too busy in Tulsa to attend !

The plan was that we were all going to go to Baltimore. From there, some of us were going to go to DC. Now I was too tired by then to even think of going to DC. So personally my plans were to come back from Baltimore and sleep. In Baltimore our plans were to go to Inner Harbour and visit Water World.. the place where dolphins do cute tricks for people. We walked along the harbour.. taking pictures. Now taking pictures was a lengthy affair. Thats because everytime we took a group photo, there would be 12 people with cameras all wanting the SAME shot. Hence we had to give 12 poses with the same background and the same set of smiling faces. One of the main reasons is that we in JUCSE have been historically lax in sharing photos. The biggest culprit in this regard is Adi who has priceless reunion pictures which he refuses to scan or to show to any living being. Why only he knows ! So much so his camera was dubbed as fossil by Arun. I think black hole is more appropriate..once the camera captures some light it never comes out.

Once we visited the Water World, we found a a huge Labour day crowd in front of it. It didnt appeal to me to stand in that line,sleepless for over 36 hours , just to watch some dolphin juggling balls. So we decided to come back on Monday early in the morning. Good I thought..that would never work out. So that plan was politely nixed. Now the enthu people wanted to go to Washington DC. Some complicated arrangement was worked out between Adi, Kanoo, Dipanjan about how to split people in cars, who will follow whom and all such things. Of course noone was understanding the other, everyone was speaking at the same time and repeating what the other person had said. And after everything was decided along would come Santo to make the confusion more confounded. We had lunch at a mall where again there was the customary round of snaps. Basu, Joy and the rest took some "Patel" shots overlooking the harbour. That being done we went back to the cars. It was a 4 storied parking lot and Dipanjan forgot which floor he had parked the car. He came back shouting that his car was GONE. The good thing is that Aditya had remembered. This time I was in Kanoo's car as he followed Dipanjan into DC. But was that driving ! Dipanjan was driving like a drunk madman on weed. With people following him, he was changing lanes needlessly, going to 90, dropping to 60, taking unexpected turns. It was a miracle he hadnt crashed into someone or something. Sometime around this time Shankar used his cellphone to call someone sitting in the front seat of the car he was travelling in ! Why ? Dont ask ! But Dipanjan drove merrily on.. with Kanoo getting more agitated by the minute. Kanoo himself took some sharp lane changes and all sleep vanished from my eyes as I frantically tried to call Dipanjan on his cell using Kaushik's phone. Only problem was that Kaushik wasnt in our car and CV and I just couldnt agree on how it works. We kept missing calls and couldnt call. Later we found out it wasnt working and hence it wasnt our fault. In all we spent a few tense moments with Kanoo swerving wildly and Cv and I arguing as to how a cell phone works.

Baltimore

We parked at all places...Shankar kept getting out of the car and running about. Kanoo was getting close to an explosion .. I could feel that. Having been fortunate/unfortunate to have been his roomie for 3 years I can anticipate his behavior to some extent. But it didnt happen though I had hoped it would. In all good that didnt. Cause it was all leading to a cataclysm of epic proportions. The catalysts for the explosion had arrived: Subhadeep and Susanta. Plans were being made for the night: alcohol was going to flow like water, there would be music and mayhem. All of it sounded good. At least on paper.

Food arrived. Chinese stuff. Standard fare. A bit late in the night for which different people blamed the other. Again blaming others for perceived lapses is nothing unique in JUCSE culture. What was not standard was the eclectic selection of hard liquor that had been brought to the table. Our group is divided into 2 classes: the Keshto Mukherjee type and the Mahatma Gandhi type. No one in between. Well almost. I normally fall in the former but this day I had decided to drink in moderation. Good thing I did otherwise noone would really have remembered what happened that night. Shankar went home and possibly missed the most memorable few moments in the reunion. Or the most infamous depends on your point of view. The vodka was mixed with orange soda, while Kanoo kept his reputation as an amateur bartender with his tequila concoctions which had a bit more alcohol to them than what was prudent. To top it all of there was whiskey.

The night started well enough. There was song.. Raja,one of Dipanjan's friends, played the guitar. Adi banged on the tabla with all the frustration and angst of someone who has loved and lost. All of us singing types joined voices. While in the background, CV was now drinking freestyle: mixing ever increasing quantities of vodka in his drink. Of course people were too busy with the rambunctious singing to notice that CV was tottering already. And most of all, all attention was on Basu's sensual gyrations. What Shakira does with her ample posterior Basu does with his ample torso....in all a sight for the Gods. Basu hadnt had a drop to drink yet he was as high as a kite. Maybe his impending marriage had something to do with it. Or maybe it was the private time he had spent with Arun earlier in the morning. What was important was that Basu was in full flow. So were the others..soon people were dancing. CV was dancing like Titanic after being hit by the iceberg...but people were too busy in other things. Dipti sat in one corner, dry as Sahara, looking into a corner of space...deliberating to "pull" or "push". Dipanjan was locking arms with someone and singing CHaiyya chaiyya a few scales off. Kanoo was giggling and whispering to people conspiratorially. Arun was looking with barely controlled lust at Holmes's stationary cavorting. Susu was smiling and giving khisti. But thats what he always does. Kaushik was already looking distinctly sleepy.

But then the party was deliberately slowed down. Joy got out his mouth organ. Susu had a different idea of a mouth organ ! In all this wasnt what people wanted..they wanted to go wild. Music may soothe the savage beast but not a JUCSE reunion aflame with liquor and the sensual writhings of Basu. The disaster was when some of the more musically inclined people decided to move the music to another room. That was when the party collapsed. And people hit the bottle with more gusto. By that time Adi had hidden the bottle. But it was too late. Kaushik was going to everyone begging them for whiskey saying someone drunk his whiskey. It was a pathetic scene...but even then the bottle of whiskey did not reappear. Basu wanted to go to sleep and so did Santo. Arun had other ideas. Arun was pacing the room like a tiger, shouting. And calling everyone Dr Ray or Dr De or Dr something....and abusing almost everyone blaming them all for the many problems in his life. Dipanjan told me to show the video of the StonyBrook Indian student association party so that they could ogle some girls. I just felt the party was too wild for that. We tried to connect the cables..but Kanoo was too drunk. On top of that Arun was standing over our shoulder shouting abuse at us. Soon Arun, seeing us not reacting, went to Holme's bedroom with his eyes looking like Gulshan Grover's eyes when he enters the room of the hero's sister. Within a few minutes Basu came running out of the room...it seems Arun had been sloshing saliva all over him in his drunken stupor. Santo came out shouting I didnt expect this from you people. What was not clear was if Santo was angry at Arun's abuse of Holmes or whether he was pissed off because Arun totally ignored Santo who was sleeping in the same bed!

But the jewel in the crown was CV. Born and brought up under the strict guardianship of his dada and his boudi, CV was as wild as a raging bull in front of a matador. CV claimed he wasnt drunk.. The proof: He could still tell the time. He was going to everyone and telling them :" See I am not drunk. I can tell the time." I asked him to count down from 20. He did it .Then I told him to stand on one leg. CV did so...for a fraction of a second. After that he collapsed with a dull thud. He got up saying he fell cause he was off balance..NOT because he was as drunk as a lord. I told him to walk in a straight line. CV took 2 steps and then did another free fall...another resounding thud. CV then realizing that he wasnt feeling too well collapsed on the couch and lay there with his tongue hanging out and his eyes closed. But CV's two falls had brought the neighbours complaining, there was too much noise.

Things went on like this. By this time Adi was mad as a hatter. So was Kanoo as he lay on the ground and listened to Arun call him by the filthiest abuses he could conjure. Kanoo kept on pleading Subhadeep to beat Arun up as Kanoo was powerless to move. No luck...Subhadeep is about as brave as a rabbit and he kept on telling Arun , a lot politely than he usually does " Chup Kor". Such entreaties fell on deaf ears. Adi by this time was frothing at the mouth...evidently CV had tried to jump from the balcony. CV had now been subdued and lay on the couch.. a huddled lump of humanity wallowing in self pity and loathing. My camcorder was on as I recorded CV's confession that he had never been successful in having a relationship with a girl. It was the most emotionally charged moment of the reunion. Well it could have been if Arun hadnt been saying "Ei harami Adi....ei sala Basu"...ceaselessly in the background. CV then went on different exercises to prove his soberness like closing his eyes and telling the names of everyone in the reunion, and also in trying to tell the time in India. He goofed on both the counts.

Santo kept on saying "Kanoo...I had high expectations from him." Well all his expectations had suffered the fate of the Babri Masjid as Kanoo lay dead drunk and totally out for the count sprawled in the middle of the living room. By this time Arun had excused himself to go to the restroom. And he wasnt coming out. Not for a long time. Susu and Adi went in and Susu started asking Arun for a smoke. No answer. Adi knocked.. shouted Arun Arun...no answer. CV came in, careening wildly, and said " This **** Arun. Cant control himself and gets drunk....". Dipti totally lost his cool and threatened to slap CV unless he himself sat down. Adi then declared he had the keys to the restroom. I thought that was a bit strange. What was stranger was when Adi took off his belt. And started fiddling the lock with the belt ! That was the low point of the night. Adi had lost it. And when Adi loses it he also loses his native tongue. He starts talking in English......and Adi was on a rant saying it was too much....this has gone too far. Arun flushed the toilet and we knew he was at least alive. Adi was shaking his head and Dipanjan's attempt to cool him down was futile. Adi was in his English mode and as everyone knows Adi's English comes with a license to kill. Arun came out and flopped on the bed... while Adi started shouting :" Its all over.. the reunion is over. Tomorrow all of you leave my house. Please.Please." Kanoo came to mediate..he tottered up. He went to Adi to say "Come on Adi such things happen." Well he certainly would have said that had his mouth not filled up with puke........ Adi certainly was not mollified at this display of "sober reasoning". Susu was snoring like a steam engine and I had to sneak into Basu's room and spent the night at the foot of the bed....what a night !