Yeh dosti: 'An extra piece of chicken in the army!'

Share pics and stories of your best memories and good times shared with your closest friends! Illustrations: Uttam Ghosh

We invited readers to write in with fabulous stories of fun times with your closest pals. First up is a response from Mohamedali Savanur of Hubli, Karnataka of his days spent training in the Indian Army with his best friend Raj:

The year was 1973, I was 18 years old and so was Raj, my best friend. We were in the second year of college and the National Cadet Corps (NCC) was a passion for both of us. Because of our enthusiasm and good turn-out, we were both promoted very soon. I became the Company Sergeant Major (CSM) and Raj a corporal. We were both selected to undergo the Advanced Leadership Course at Narangi, Gauhati, Assam State.

The following day, the NCC truck came and picked us up to take us to the railway station. Mr. Khatri, a Junior Commissioned Officer of the Indian Army came to help us with the ticketing and see us off at Hubli Railway Station, Karnataka.

My parents were at my native place and without informing them, I just went off to Assam for this NCC Camp. When I reached Narangi, I wrote a letter to my parents as I needed money too. My father sent me the Rs. 50 I had requested by money order for my expenses -- this was big money then.

When we boarded the train at Hubli, we had just about a hundred rupees and the travel time was around six days, but we never thought that the money was less. Almost all through the journey, we travelled in compartments which were reserved for the Army and enjoyed every bit. After six days we reached our destination and reported to the Camp Administrative Officer who was a Bengali and Captain in the Indian Army.

Camp life was unbelievably good. I loved the army life, getting up early in the morning, breakfast and then exercise, parading and lunch at around noon and afternoons spent in map reading, first aid lessons and rest. In the eastern part of India, the sun sets pretty early and it used to get dark by around 5 pm, when the roll call would be taken. During the roll call we could hear the laughing cry of the hyenas and other wild animals outside our camp compound. After roll call was dinner. Dinner used to be special with non-veg food, which we relished. The chicken served was very tasty but was limited to only one small cup per person -- the rest of the food (rice, roti, vegetables) was unlimited.

We thought about the Chicken Masala and were saddened at the quantity dished out to us. We decided that something should be done about it because the quantity was very small. So it was decided that as soon as the roll call was over we would rush to the dining area wearing only a vest and pants and take only chicken and rotis. We would gobble it up quickly and clean the plates and go to our barracks, camouflage ourselves in a different set of clothes with caps on our heads and once again return to the diner for more chicken. This went on contentedly for a couple of days, until another friend of ours noticed, and we were forced to divulge our modus operandi to him -- he was very happy to emulate us.

The following day, as usual, we went for the first round and when we went for the second round; our new accomplice was spotted because he was tall and well-built. The man who was serving the chicken asked him, "Didn't you come earlier for food?" Our new friend was so scared and stunned by the question that he said 'no' and ran away to the barracks. This was brought to the notice of the Commanding Officer. The following day the Commanding Officer came to the roll call and said it's a shame that NCC cadets behaved in such a disgusting manner. Many eyebrows were raised, wondering who the crooks were. Even we pretended not to know who the crooks were! From that day on, coupons were introduced -- give coupon, take chicken. That was the end of our adventure.

At camp, Raj and I made many friends from the north-east, really a friendly lot. On our way back, we saw many major rivers of India -- the Brahmaputra, the Ganges and the Yamuna -- and were very fortunate that we reached Narangi, which is very near the Cheerapunji Hills, reputed to receive the highest rainfall in the world then. And in the east, in the trains tea was served in small earthen pots, which amazed us.

The camp ended after 21 days and the Karnataka cadets decided to break journey at Siliguri and go sightseeing to Darjeeling. We were all very excited about this opportunity of a lifetime. Unfortunately, we had very little money -- about Rs 50 put together, but that didn't deter us. We decided that for the next four days of our journey, we would have to survive only on bread, jam and bananas for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but no missing Darjeeling!

Darjeeling was heavenly, with its cool, misty weather, and as we ascended the mountains, at times we could see the clouds much below us in the valleys. This was a sight to behold. The jeep drivers were extremely reckless, crisscrossing the famed Darjeeling train and because of the twists and turns, many of our co-passengers vomited. We could see lush green tea gardens and beyond that was Sikkim, which was not a part of the Indian Union then. Darjeeling looked like some kind of a foreign country to me, it looked more like some Chinese town. There was some kind of World Meeting of Mountaineers going on and Sherpa Tensing was present. The driver of our jeep pointed Tensing out to us and since it was a big gathering, Raj spotted him and I didn't, something I still regret. I guess we saw Darjeeling at only Rs 20 per head. Those were the days, when everything was so inexpensive.

We had happily nicknamed ourselves 'Black Ravens' and I just don't know why. Although, we were lean, we thought we were tough. Now I am 57 years old, my friend is also about the same. I worked for 15 years abroad and returned to India and my friend still works abroad. Our children are pursuing their professional degrees and when Raj visits India, we still talk about all the crazy things we did as teenagers.

If you have fabulous stories to share about fun and crazy antics with your closest pals, write in to getahead@rediff.co.in (subject line: 'Hamari Dosti') along with a photograph of all of you, if possible and we'll publish the best entries right here. Hurry and send in your experiences and pics today!

And here is Meera Gopalakrishnan's story of a surprise birthday for a dear friend:

Though I have met many new people and formed many friendships in my professional life, it is the friendship I have with four individuals since our school days that I still rate best. I have shared many wonderful moments with these four friends, including bunking classes, playing pranks, watching movies etc, but I guess the best story I would like to share is the birthday party we organised for one of our friends, Ayswarya.

We have been together since our childhood days and it was the first time we were parting ways after our pre-degree. Myself, Manju and Jisha ended up at the TKM College of Engineering, whereas Ayswarya went to the College of Engineering in Trivandrum and Sindhu decided to pursue a BSc in physics.

Whenever Ayswarya came back from Trivandrum, she would call everybody and complain about how lonely she felt at the CET hostel. She always had one complaint or the other and used to tell us how much she missed us and how we were lucky to be together in TKM. She felt Sindhu was also lucky as though she was doing her BSc, she was in Kollam and we could meet up once in a while. She alone was stranded in Trivandrum.

One year passed that way. It was during the beginning of the third semester that she started telling us she needed to buy a walkman but even after four months, she hadn't still gotten around to it. Ayswarya's birthday is on December 19. So we secretly planned to gift her a walkman, which was way above our normal gift budgets back then. But we thought we would manage it anyway as she was feeling lonely and our gesture would make her happy.

Along with that, we planned a secret party for her. December 19 in 2000 was a Tuesday so we told her we would have the get-together on Sunday, December 17. Then we told her mom that the get-together would be on the 16, a Saturday and we wanted it to be a surprise. Aunty agreed to conspire with us.

The plan was for me to take Ayswarya shopping in the morning. It was the festive season, so it was enough to take her to Archie's or Hallmark on the pretext of buying cards. In that time, my other friends would come to her house, decorate it and keep it ready so that she would be surprised. Our planning went haywire when our dear friend ended up at her house on Friday evening with two of her hostel mates. She had plans to take her hostel friends in and around Kollam for the day on Saturday. Our only option was to let the two hostel mates know of our plans when we got the chance and have them help us.

Since my house was near hers, I went over at 9 am on Sautday. Ayswarya was fully geared up for the outing and a little angry because, except for me, none of the others had agreed to join her and her hostel mates for the outing. So we went around, first to Hallmark. While she was busy looking at the greeting cards I slowly let her friends know our plans and asked them to help us so that we could execute it perfectly. By the time we came out of Archie's and went to Bishop Jerome Nagar (a shopping desitnation in Kollam, it used to be a favourite college hangout) it was almost 11 o' clock.

We didn't have mobiles back then, so I had to find a telephone booth and phone my friends. When Ayswarya and her friends were in one of the shops, I slowly slipped out and called my other three pals to know the status. They said they were almost done and we could go back by 12-12:30. By the time I went back to the group Ayswarya was fuming, asking where I'd been. She had no intention of going back. She said we could lunch in one of the restaurants in BJ. I knew it was not possible, as her mother had cooked for all of us and our friends were waiting. I told her we would go home as I had some other urgent work to do. That increased her anger. She started saying, "Ya, I understand, since I am no longer here all of you guys have better things to do. See, everyone else was too busy. I brought some people from my class and none of you were there to properly receive them. How much I told them about you guys and our friendship!" Luckily for me, one of her hostel mates said she was having a bad headache and it was really hot, so she would also prefer to go home. That kind of cooled down Ayswarya and she agreed to come back, but not before treating them to an ice-cream.

By the time we finished it was almost 1-1:30. I knew all my other three friends would be really hungry and waiting for us. When we reached her place she asked us wait at the bus stop as she had to get the keys from her mother's shop. Well I had no intention of doing that, since I had to warn my other friends of our arrival so that they were prepared. So I asked her hostel mates to stand at the stop and walked to her house.

Once inside the house, we closed the front door tight. From the house we could see Ayswarya walking to her house, fuming and frowning, most probably angry with me for deserting her friends at the bus stop. We started giggling. The moment she pushed open the front door we burst the hanging balloons and all the glitter from it fell on her. She was stunned. Before she could recover we started singing Happy Birthday and directed her towards the beautifully decorated birthday cake. She cut the cake in a daze and I still remember the surprise and joy on her face when she opened the gift and found the walkman. Slowly it dawned on her why her friends didn't come with her, why I was hurrying and yes, she did mean a lot to us and still means a lot to us.