The Carom Board Story

There are events in life which seems to be of immense significance but actually don’t impinge on us in long run. Then there are events which are of minuscule nature but change our life forever. Serendipity, Luck and Coincidence play a larger part in our lives than we realize.

This is a story of such a petite event. This is a carom board story. As every good story has a central prop to culminate the climax like a shoe or a sock, or may be an umbrella mine have it too and it’s the carom board.

Let me wash your presumptions, It’s not a Cinderella story of how two love birds met but it’s story of how I met my friends.

Guys it starts like this when I was young (did I just say that…I said ‘when I was young’ ….nooo… I am still young) ok let me start again. This was my first route to the college. After more than 20 hr of train journey, I stepped out of the train on the longest platform of the world (yup Kharagpur railway platform claims to be world’s longest platform, 1.7 km long) filled with the exhilaration and fervor. But this enthusiasm soon changed to anxiousness during the cab drive to institute. This happened so when my cab driver told me that we are passing through the main streets of the city answering my query that what are the hang out points in the city. There were only fields and trees I could see out of the window from the cab. I got really distressed with the idea of spending next five years in this jungle. Soon we arrived at the institute and I got my room keys of the hostel. None the less even the Institute campus was an extended jungle with some buildings here and there.

After the long run of registration from the whole day and unpacking my bags I decided to go out to find a phone booth to call home. I came downstairs (my room was on second floor) but then I realized that I forgot to bring my purse so shedding the idea to call home I moved towards the common room (recreation room) of the hostel. Voilla!! This was the fate playing its part. The whole room was packed with unfamiliar faces and when I turned my eyes in the corner I saw three guys standing on a carom board table. I moved there to join them over the game and to fulfill the gap of the fourth player. From that point onwards Kharagpur never remained a jungle for me and those five years I can easily say were the best time of my life.

On that day at that table I met Neel and Nirav, few of my best friends for rest of my life. Later we three got a whole group (names of members of this group are still written on the wall of B224 RK Hall of Residence).

When I look back I can say I have met all my friends because of this one event. This whole thing that was such so unnoticeable in domain of life decided the whole future .And It just so happened because I took one of the many paths at that precise moment in life. It just happened so because I forgot to bring my purse and decided not to go back to room. It just happened so because no one in that room filled with people bother to play carom board other than four of us. It just happened so because it was meant to happen so.

Time is always a factor of nature that can never be predicted or chagned. No one ever really knows what it could bring and they can only wonder about what has happened in past.

P.S. Earlier on that day I had the lunch at a restaurant sitting beside Neel and I did not notice him there and did not had the idea that soon this guy is going to be an inseparable crime partner.