Vegas @ Bihar
Definitely not a happy summer (vacation!!!..err I mean training) for me, I would say. Since I was only a couple of hundred kilometers away from my hometown, I usually managed to visit my home every now and then. Most of my friends were enjoying their vacations there but there was a serious scarcity of cards-playing-members in our group. So, during one of my visits, we decided to play cards. 29 is the name of the game of cards which almost every Bihari (and Jharkhandi as well!!!) knows. But playing cards is considered a serious offence in our families. It’s a game made for Juadis, they would always say. What to do??? Guys want to play 29 and parents won’t allow. An issue of grave concern! So, three of the most dedicated players, all of them being IITians (including me), sat down to discover a decent enough place to play. Since ours is a very small town and people know each other very well (especially we IITans, lol), it seemed quite a difficult job. Several places were talked about, analyzed, scrutinized and eventually discarded. At last, one of us came up with the weirdest idea of all…The Crematory Place!!! Hardly anyone alive visited that dreadful zone. A nice, quite place on the bank of the monsoon-fed river with few half-burnt corpses waiting for us. I was quick to say yes. The third guy hesitated for a while but the urge inside was so menacing that everything else appeared secondary. So, the grand casino for us was decided. It was just a matter of finding the 4th player. But that issue hardly bothered us. The 4th guy was at a phone-call-distance. One of us had a pack of cards in his house. All problems solved! We all agreed to meet in the evening.
Evening arrived and so did we. The 4th guy was ringed at his home. Unfortunately for us, he was not at his home. It is, indeed, criminal to expect finding people from our group at our respective homes during summer evenings. So, we waited and waited for someone to arrive. We always gather at a pre-decided place so that none of us is left roaming on the streets finding others. (See, we are quite methodical and always plan things wellJ.). Time flew by and we were left wondering when the fourth ‘card-playing-member’ would arrive. It had started getting dark. Finally, the fourth one arrived and we quickly moved towards the abode of non-living lives.
A really captivating place for we Juadis. A Peepal tree, cool breeze blowing, a thirsty river, green fields on the other side of the river, a boundary wall good enough to separate us from the rest of the town, a cemented mundane and most importantly, not a single known and alive face other than four of ours. Perfect scenario! Our eyes lit up with excitement. Good choice, we said to each other with an element of satisfaction over the time we spent planning the diligent space.
We sat down on the dusty, cemented zone. The handkerchief was taken out and spread. The cards started slipping on the handkerchief with crisp perfection. One aspect that separates a classic-cards-player from other players is the panache of letting the cards fly away from his hands and the ease with which cards slip on the surface. If you play cards, you must know its elegance. We were miles away from reaching our peak when the darkness in the environment called the end of the play. We wished we had brought a bulb with us.
Nevertheless, we were glad that we, at least, got the feeling of the smooth cards on our palms. We came out of the crematory talking about the indifferent nature of the stock market during those days, the companies which were relatively safe to bet upon and the way we performed at the grand casino!!! End of a more-than-happy rendezvous with non-living lives. I hastily left for my home as it was time for my early dinner.
