My Dad's Moustache

We - me and let us call them the dark triad had aspired in our second year to become programming experts. The aspirations, enthusiasm, everything else fizzled out and what remained was a bland tasteless blend of tests. To say i was unprepared would be an understatement. We were late even before we started off. I was feeling like a stoic. I had never been so poised before a test. That's the kind of courage being unprepared gives you. The prepared anticipates, the unprepared knows. We were standing in the heat only so particular of this place. And in accordance to the universally applicable laws of the all-knoweth Murphy, universal forces were working hard to delay us further of course! We decided to break journey- i dragged them actually to a bus i thought looked empty. We entered and their were two empty seats, apparently.

One was well unoccupied but the man wont let me sit next to him. And the other was well effectively occupied by Her Corpulencey who was very much engrossed in the happenings of slumber-land. The bus dropped us at gariahat and we walked on to golpark auto stand(oh! eventually i had managed to find a seat when a man got down). We got in the line and were immediately gheraoed by a bunch of those street kids- The shabbily dressed chaps with running noses-an essential part of the city. And they were in full spirits, almost happy. Hoooooooooooo, they attacked us well almost!. Instinctively we ho-ed them back. One of them- with bright eyes- demanded "Chaup". I yelled back at him "Chaup" And suddenly we were exchanging chaups. "Chaup chaup tor babar goph" , they started singing. They were having the time of their lives. And at that moment I dint feel like giving them the two-rupee coin i usually dole out. Because they dint seem like beggars at all. They were my equals at that moment and we had just played a silly game. We were playmates.