Saturday, 23rd Feb,2008 2.30 pm
Room no.429, 9th block,MIT hostels,Manipal,Karnataka
"Checkmate" whispered Manav in his trademark style with a glint in his eyes as he looked at Sabby. It was the 18th move of the game,9th of Manav's. Manav stopped the stopwatch in his cell and declared, "My time...21 seconds". Sabby, (his real name was Sarbajit) gave a high five, "Way to go bro! Agnihotri's gonna get smashed this time."
"Smashed he will be,just like last time unless he pulls up an upset win,dunno", said Manav.
"Upset win,ha! He is upset himself about whether he would even meet you in the finals. There is apparently this new kid on the block, 1st yr civil."
The fan kept whirring above their heads on the hot humid feb noon in Manipal. They had stopped complaining about it, the daily weather that is.Apparently Manipal had simply 2 seasons, tearing rains and searing heat. ( You can get both on the same day too if you are unfortunate enough). Sabby wondered if his last piece of news had even fallen on Manav's ears.
"Plays well?" enquired Manav not raising his eyes from the board , while practicing a new defence formation he had just recently formulated. " See, this knight is the problem in this defence, it comes in the bishop's path", he said, more to himself than Sabby.
" Ya heard so" Sabby continued, least bothered about the bishop's problem," Is a state level winner."
"Even Agnihotri is something like that"
"Come on! Agnihotri? He is a state level PLAYER, his career high point is semifinals in UP state. He is no match for Bengal state champ,nationals finalist Manav Sarkar!. This chap is at least a state champ."
"State?" shot Manav.
"Kerala"
"Hmm... Kerala is not an easy state, will have to check out this guy."
"Check out ... ya you sure will 'check' him out from the chequered board,he he!", mused Sabby.
"Hey that's a good one,write a poem on me and my chess na..." said Manav in a complaining way."You can write so many for the college mag,not one for your roommate and best friend!"
"Best friend huh! The worst friend" taunted Sabby."A best friend copies assignments for you when you are in trouble", he sneered.
Manav slapped Sabby's head."Ya when he IS in trouble. This friend was going to Kapu beach with his very 'special' friend while I..."
Sabby didnt wait to hear the rest, he got up and grabbed his golf cap. He knew Manav wont stop for another 2 full minutes,till he repeated his monologue for the 10th time in the past week. He loved to prick Manav's sentiments like this. His roomy was very emotional. He knew Manav felt bad for not copying the thermodynamics assignment for him,while he was the one who had all the fun at the beach.He was making a strong effort to stop himself from laughing out and kept a straight face.
"What the.... where are you off to?" Manav cut short his 'monologue'.
"Got to go,have some work."
"Some work,yeah yeah", drawled Manav," That code i know, 'some work', in front of 4th block no doubt."
"Uff will you give me a break,am going to the post office!" said an irritated Sabby.
"Oh!" Manav fell on the bed,turned towards the wall,thrust out his posterior a bit so that about a quarter of its volume overhung from the bed limits, and tried to sleep with his usual 'pillow-over-the -head' style and mumbled with half closed eyes," work for 4th block then,hmmm... go go."
Sabby could hardly stop smiling at his roomy's wit,and shot his pillow at Manav's head with an accompanying profanity. Glancing at his new proud possession, a gleaming silver Swiss watch,(an expensive Swatch given by his uncle in Germany) he cursed himself for being late and slammed the door behind him. A shout followed him from inside," Can't you shut it softly?? you dog!!"
EPISODE :2
Same day, 7.30 pm, Room 429
Thud! Thud! Thud! " 3 solid kicks,that's him!" ,thought Manav,still under his pillow. "Keep kicking!", he shouted.
"Ok, now open up! Here's your knock in British style." 'Knock,knock,tock...'
Manav slid the latch and without even looking at Sabby jumped back under his pillow,as if even a photon from the tube light into his eyes,which Sabby would just turn on would destroy his sleep.(While Sabby was from the school of thought that believed that neither the Sun from the window nor the tube light can ever create an iota of disturbance in anyone's sleep)
"Oye some news, prize money doubled. You are getting 20 grands this time", Sabby said nonchalantly as if stating a matter of fact. He dropped onto his bed,lighting up a gold flake white cigarette and puffed out a ring and waited for the reaction from the opposite bed.
The pillow curtain was pulled down slowly,Manav said without turning,"Ok, if this is your idea of a joke then ..."
Sabby without saying a word threw his nokia N-73 at Manav, just missing his ears. " See the last pic you sleepy sloth, i knew you wont believe me, I clicked the poster itself on the notice board!"
Manav shot up like an alarmed dog on his bed,eyes red from his unfinished siesta and now bulging out over the pic. "My God! 20,000 rupees! Have they gone crazy? For winning 7 games of Chess... hell!
"Its the golden jubilee year mate and its raining gold for MIT from all over. NIIT is the sponsor.They might even get your God Vishy Anand to inaugurate,who knows.Anyway whose complaining?" Sabby smiled slyly.
"Whose complaining? Well I am! Just look at the 1st runner up prize money,a paltry 5000!The 2nd runner up nothing but a certificate!MIT just cant give up on its 'winner takes all' policy...Hutt!"
" I ask again", Sabby said softly,"So who is complaining? Its yours dear."
"As if it were a cake walk eh? A couple of false moves and I could end up with 5000 or a piece of paper, and i ll tell you what,this brings in a lot of pressure.The defending champion is the worst sufferer." Manav said the last sentence pointing to the cell phone screen with such a serious tone as if it were a classified CIA file.
"Yeah,yeah you cried the same way last year. Anyway there was a footnote in the poster which i missed in the pic. One thing is that the tournament this time is open to all students of Manipal University, which hence explains the big bucks, and second is that previous year's finalists need not play the qualifiers.
"Small recompense..." mumbled Manav and prepared to lie down again.
Sabby quipped," Arre think bike, a new cell phone,party!"
Manav shot out a finger backward towards him while his head remained buried under the pillow,"Don't you count chickens...you buffoon, and please turn off the tube light.Use your nice Japanese gift lamp"
"Aye Aye captain",Sabby saluted and the tube light went off.
EPISODE: 3
Tuesday,26 Feb,2008. 1.58 pm,
Kamath Circle (KC),MIT.
" I am buying a bike next week!",cursed Sabby."This dreaded 1 mile afternoon walk to class uff!"
Mech-C 2nd yr was apparently making their daily '1 mile pilgrimage' as Manav used to call it
alongwith other MIT masses who happened to have afternoon classes that day and had missed the last jam packed college ferry buses which seemed slightly larger than Kolkata Mini buses. (Sabby would have preferred to say slightly larger than matchboxes.)
"You've been saying that since last sem", chipped in Kabir,already sweating and heaving as the uphill slope started at KC. Kabir a lanky tall fellow standing 6'2'', with long wavy hair, was Sabby and Manav's next door neighbour in hostel and their classmate in mechanical 2nd year C section. Kabir was Sabby's closest freind after Manav. They both shared many passions. Bikes,Cars,rock music and 'bird watching' to name a few,passions with with which Manav could not exactly connect much.
"Yeah,so you show me the money na! You think dad will give me a single penny given the kind of gpa i am exhibiting?"
"Oh you know what?",chipped in a heaving Manav, trying to change the topic. "That freshie drubbed Agnihotri fair and square in an informal room challenge."
"Oh that first year civil?" asked Kabir.
"yup."
"Looks like its between you and him then this time," Sabby judged.
" Who knows, its big this time.We don't know how many big shots are there in KMC,MIC and all the dozen colleges around upon the hilltop," Kabir prophesized and winked at Manav. Manav smiled. They both knew Sabby will have something to defend Manav's supremacy.
" I enquired about that," said Sabby in an annoyed tone. They both let off giggles and then looked serious.
" There may be 1 or 2 good players but among the enrolled participants none is a Nationals level player like Mr. Sarkar of MIT!" a beaming Sabby proclaimed.
to be continued....
