Between Life and Its Delicacies

              Chapter 2: Beers, Bells and Bangali Babas      T he first couple of months in the new 'City Cozy' hostel zoomed by at breakneck speed. Hostel life in the new city was a wild ride, unlike anything I'd ever imagined. Our hostel was a bustling hive with over 100 rooms, housing a raucous 250+ student population. Most rooms were crammed with triple-quadruple roomies, some double rooms, and a few lucky souls like me who enjoyed the luxury of a single room. My room boasted a giant window that showered me with sunlight at the crack of dawn—nature's alarm clock with a beaming smile.    Initially, I battled a fierce bout of homesickness and claustrophobia. Once you were inside the hostel, there weren't too many options for entertainment. You had your room, a shared balcony for socializing, and a rooftop to give your clothes a sunbath. The clothes on the rooftop resembled a vibrant clothesline rainbow, and so did the motley crew of hostel dwellers. It was a boys&

                                     Chapter 1: Life in the New City           It was the killer Summer of 2011, with the May sun blazing at its full glory. Things were changing at the speed of a Bollywood dance sequence for us boys in our small town of Tezpur, right on the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra River. All of us friends had finally escaped the clutches of our High School Board exams and were ready to kick-start the new chapters of our lives. Some chose to dive into the world of science, arts, hotel management, medicine, and other fancy stuff. As for me, I had my sights set on a bachelor's degree in Management, then an MBA and joining a Navratna/Maharatna PSU.           Most of my buddies had scattered to cities all over India for their higher studies, while I settled on NEF College of Management & Technology to pursue my BBA degree. It was like one of those new fancy-shmancy colleges in Guwahati that everyone talks about. For me, it wasn't just about getting a BBA

  Ah , the glorious spring of 2011! The time when nature put on its fancy green suit, flowers played their symphony of colors, and 🦋butterflies twirled around like drunken ballerinas. And there we were, a bunch of clueless country bumpkins, about to escape the clutches of suburban life and dive headfirst into the unknown. You see, our heroic adventure began after we flunked our IIT/JEE exams, leaving us with more free time than a snail on vacation. Our group consisted of four friends: Joon, Sasank, Pavitra and myself. Having failed our IIT/JEE entrance exams, we were exploring alternative options. The atmosphere was gloomy, and conversation was scarce. On a slow April morning, we gathered at the park to discuss love, life, and aspirations. While Joon flew a kite, his attention was divided, engrossed in his newly acquired mobile phone. He scrolled through countless messages he had sent to his various crushes, eagerly awaiting a reply. I busied myself with repairing my kite, which had b