Roomies!

In September 1996 I moved from Kochi to Ahmedabad to join IIM. Throughout my school/college days I was a day scholar. So, I had never lived away from home till then. Initially I stayed with my cousin at Ahmedabad for a week. He was working for Airports Authority and was living at Sardar Nagar, near Ahmedabad Airport, which was far from IIM. So, I kept searching for accommodation near the campus. One day Chinnam Reddy, a colleague at IIM, told me that one of his room mates had vacated and I could join them. He took me to his place and showed around. It was a two-room accommodation on the first floor of a building near Vijay Char Rasta. There was a small balcony and a terrace. Along with Chinnam, two more were living there – Venkatraman, an officer at Corporation Bank and Pankaj Nautiyal, an executive in a private firm. I liked the place and told him that I would move the next weekend.

As planned, I reached the place with my luggage on Sunday morning. Chinnam introduced me to Venkat and Pankaj. I was not sure how I would adjust to the new circumstances. I told them I had some work in the city and left the place. I didn’t have anything specific to due. It was the initial difficulty of adjusting in a new place and the apprehensions of living away from home that made me come out. I moved around the city the whole day and returned by evening. To my surprise, all the three were waiting for me to take me out for a dinner as a welcome gesture! I was really touched by this. I told them I would be ready in fifteen minutes. Venkar Bhai (that’s how we called him as he was the eldest in the group) asked Chinnam and Pankaj to leave immediately to the restaurant and he waited for me to get ready. I didn’t know why those two had to go early. When we reached Topaz, a popular restaurant at Panjrapole, I realised why the two had left early. There was a big crowd in front of the restaurant waiting for their turn. There was a tall fat man standing at the entrance with a writing pad in his hand. People were supposed to reserve seats with him and as the tables got empty, he would call people inside! We had a sumptuous dinner that night. It was just the beginning of a wonderful camaraderie that lasted for almost two years.

We used to head to our workplaces in the morning and hardly got anytime to talk to each other in the mornings. It was in the evenings that we used to spend time together. We used to search for new food joints for dinner. We went straight to the terrace after the dinner with a small transistor radio. ‘Vividhbharti’ was our favorite station and the legendary Ameen Sayani, our favorite anchor. Sunday was meant for cleaning. Mostly we used to have only tea and biscuits on Sunday mornings from a nearby ‘chaiwala’. After cleaning the house and washing clothes, we used to head for a heavy lunch, followed by a siesta!

We represented various parts of this country – Chinnam Reddy from Hyderabad, Venkat Bhai from Chennai, Pankaj from Himachal, and I from Kochi. A mixture of Telugu, Tamil, Pahari, and Malayalam! So, we spoke mostly in Hindi or English. Disproving all my apprehensions, I thoroughly enjoyed their company. The two years that I had spent with them remains fresh in my memory. Unfortunately, I lost contact with Venkat Bhai and Pankaj after I moved out of Ahmedabad. Chinnam is in touch with me.

Forget mobile phones, none of us even had a still camera. So, I don’t have even a single picture of those days. A small idol of Ganesha gifted by Venkat Bhai adorns my pooja room even today and a pocket dictionary gifted by them on my birthday continues to be on my office table!