Love-not
out-Peace
when love takes a 'u-turn'
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Love-not
out-Peace
when love takes a 'u-turn'
Prasanta Mahanta
NotionPress
5 Muthu Kalathy Street, Triplicane, Chennai - 600005
First Published by NotionPress
Copyright © Prasanta Mahanta 2013
All Rights Reserved.
ISBN: 9789382447931
This book is sold subject to condition that it shall not by way
of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold or hired out, circulated
and no reproduction in any form, in whole or in part (except
for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews) may be made
without written permission of the publishers.
This book has been published in good faith that the work of
the author is original. All efforts have been taken to make
the material error-free. However, the author and the publisher
disclaim the responsibility for any inadvertent errors.
Acknowledgement
The most difficult part of writing a book is the
acknowledgement part. There are so many to
thank….my publishers Notion Press at the very
outset; Ma, Mina Mahanta, you are the God’s
greatest gift to me; my Deuta (father in Assamese),
Rama Mahanta, and elder brother, Simanta
Mahanta, who were always there by my side; my
teachers and guides, Devraj Sir and Amardeep
Sir, who managed the time out of their hectic
schedules to critically evaluate the manuscript and
put forward their honest comments; Tinam ba, you
are a darling sis and without your suggestions,
this would not have been possible; Oliva Das, to
whom I owe the name of my book; Munna, Ankit,
Ashish, Nayanika, Arunav, Arup, Pijush, Shibani,
Satarupa, Debankur, Karan, Rituraj….thanks for
your encouragement guys.
I would also like to thank Mufty Sir of Sacred
Heart School for it was his rebukes that gave
a new direction to my life; Sister Christopher,
Junmoni Mam, Shyamali Mam, Madhumita Mam,
Ashim Sir and so many more….you all will always
be my idols.
My biggest thanks to all my teachers of DARRANG
COLLEGE who supported me in all possible ways
and it is because of them that my dream has come
true.
And last but not the least, thanks to that special
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Love-not out-Peace
person who inspired me to write this book. I know
I have hurt you a whole lot of times ‘Chasmis’ but
I never did it intentionally. This book is a mark
of apology for all my mistakes. I love you Chasmis
and I will always do so; hope you will forgive me!
This one is for you…
ab
A Sudden Encounter
The time was 6:30 a.m. by my watch. I was in
the compartment of the Samparkakranti Express
going to Guwahati from New Delhi via Mugal
Sarai. I was a student of the Zakir Hussain College
pursuing B.A. in English and was on my way
home in Guwahati during my semester break. I
had boarded the train the previous night and
was just awake after a short nap. I was on the
upper berth and as I looked down, I saw that the
other passengers were still asleep except a young
man, perhaps about 25 years of age. He was busy
reading a novel bearing the title ‘I too had a love
story’. As if feeling my gaze on him, he lifted his
eyes towards me and said, “Good morning kid..had
a good sleep?” That was the first time when I
clearly saw his face and to my surprise, his face
looked very familiar. But I could not remember
where I had seen him.
“Good morning sir, ” I said, “and yes, I had a nice
nap. But didn’t you sleep?”
“Well I dozed off for sometime but could not sleep
for long, ” he replied.
“So what’s the novel about?” I asked.
“It’s a sweet, simple love story with a painful end,
” he said.
He then kept his novel aside and asked, “So what
do you do?”
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Love-not out-Peace
“I am a student of ZakirHussainCollege,
DelhiUniversity, pursuing B.A. in English sir, ” I
replied humbly.
Oh…that’s cool, ” he said, “I too had pursued my
B.A. degree in English but I did it from Darrang
College. Heard about it?”
“Of course sir…it’s a frontier institution of Assam.
Everyone knows about it, ” I said.
“Hmmm, ” he said, “that’s true. I also wanted to do
my graduation under DelhiUniversity but perhaps
I was not lucky as you are.”
“Oh come on sir…it’s the same thing; after all it is
knowledge that matters the most, ” I said with a
smile.
“Very true, ” he said.
“So do you work somewhere in Delhi?” I asked.
At that he smiled and said, “Have you heard about
PULSE 24x7?”
“Yes, ” I said, “the T.V. channel centered at
Guwahati? Well its one of my favorite channels.
So you work there?”
“Well, ” he said smilingly, “I don’t really work
there; I own that channel.”
That very moment I realized why his face looked
so familiar to me. He was Mr. Prashant, owner of
the national channel PULSE 24x7. I had seen him
a lot of times on television. However, I was struck
by his simplicity and at the same time I was a bit
perplexed at the fact that being the owner of a
national T.V channel, he was traveling by a train
and that too in the sleeper class.
“I can’t believe I am seeing you sir, ” I said
impulsively, “I am a big fan of yours sir. The
moment I saw you, I had realized that you are
somebody very famous but I couldn’t recollect
A Sudden Encounter
3
where I had seen you. Sir, please don’t mind me
asking but being the owner of a national channel
how come you are traveling in the sleeper class of
a train?”
I didn’t know what he found so funny about my
question but he laughed out and said, “I love to be
among people. I could have easily taken a flight
and reached my place within a couple of hours.
But had I done that, would I have been able to
meet you?”
His answer, or more appropriately his question
startled me; I didn’t understand it to be honest.
I just gave him a smile and didn’t say anything.
Moments later the vendors walked into our
compartment shouting, “CHAI CHAI.” I got down
from my upper berth and sat in front of Mr.
Prashant. He bought me a cup of tea and again
got busy in reading his novel.
Some ten minutes later I said to him, “Sir may I
ask you something?”
“Sure kid, ” he replied, placing the novel on his
lap.
“In most of your tweets and updates you speak of
a loss…an irreparable loss that changed your life
forever but you never disclose it to your followers.
What is it sir? Is it SOMETHING or SOMEONE?” I
asked.
For a moment I felt I had gone a bit too far;
I should not have asked him such an intimate
question.
“Well, ” he said, “it’s a long story kid. You will be
bored.”
“No sir, I won’t be. Please sir, I want to know
about your life, ” I said and my excitement was
distinct in my voice.
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Love-not out-Peace
“Are you sure kid?” he asked again.
“A very positive YES, sir, ” I replied instantly.
“Hmmm…if you insist then listen……..
ab
My School
‘It all began way back in March, 2000, when
I was a student of the eighth standard. It had
been three months since the commencement of
our classes and needless to say, I was the second
rank holder of our class and an active participant
of all the extra-curricular activities (quizzes and
debates especially) that were held in our school
and outside. As such, I was my teachers’ favorite
and used to get a lot of attention from them
during the classes. And probably that was the very
reason of my solitude at school. I had a few friends
and I befriended only those students who had the
potential, of course from my perspective, to match
my level. I had such an egocentric nature that I
didn’t even talk to students whom I believed to
be academically a ‘dumbass’. The very few friends
I had were namely Rohan, the first rank holder
of our class; Arvind, a kind of ‘mathematicsoholic’;
Priya, my best friend and the only female (other
than my mom and female relatives) with whom I
used to talk and Akash, whom we had nicknamed
as ‘scientist’ for his indomitable hold over the three
branches of science.
Well it’s worth mentioning here that our school,
Sacred Heart School, was one amongst the most
reputed schools of Tezpur and we ‘Heartians’ were
proud of that. We used to look down upon the
students of other vernacular medium schools and I
was a master at it.
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Love-not out-Peace
Then one day it so happened that Rohan and I
were selected by our principal, Sister Christopher,
to represent our school in an inter-school quiz
competition organized by an N.G.O to be held
at the renowned Bengali Theatre Hall of Tezpur.
Rohan was at first reluctant to join the event as he
always regarded himself as an amateur quizzer but
after a lot of persuasion from our group, he finally
agreed. Hence we were all ready to ‘rock the show’
(that was our motto of joining any competition).
Love-not
out-Peace
when love takes a 'u-turn'