Green

1. The Idea of Sex

Her email id was green and his email id was blue. They at first met online in yahoo chat room and then switched to gtalk since they really liked each other. Green belonged to Kolkata and Blue used to chat from Mathabhanga an idyllic river bound town of Northern Bengal. Both of them were quite different from each other. That's the reason they used to like each other so much. But after all it was a kind of distant friendship in the beginning. So, both of them were worried about losing contacts one fine morning. Blue expressed this concern time and again and asked for a contact number from Green. But every time Green used to avoid this idea of exchanging phone numbers since she knew she could either fall in a trap or really lose control. As ill luck would always have it for her it was raining in the campus of SRFTI, a national film school of India. Yes, though Green used to claim in the chat room that she is from Kolkata, actually she came from Mumbai and used to stay next to the attached room of a young student Rahul from Delhi at the G Block in the hostel of SRFTI. She always wanted to see Kolkata since her father was Bengali and Mother was of European origin. Green liked Rahul because he was gentle and never poked into her individual life. Rahul and Green did not know whether they are going to settle in the near future conventionally or this is going to be another hit and run story for a little bit of new experience in her fast post-modern life. After coming to Kolkata she heard that North Bengal is really a beautiful, green- a poetic land of mountains, jungle, small towns and simple people. This really attracted her to know more about this land. Blue appeared to be a knowledgeable guy and he used to talk a lot about a place called Coochbehar at times. Though she was never so bothered about these stories of a particular place, she slowly started liking him because he never failed to motivate her whenever she used to feel stressed due to the departmental pressure and tension for a future life. Though the campus of SRFTI is really cool, a-bit-humid and green, she sometimes used to feel like going away to get rid of the rat race. In those moments Blue, in the chat room was really a relief. Yes, it was raining in that evening and she lost control when Blue again asked for her phone number. Blue called her up and they started chatting over phone. Although she suffered a lot before from sex-starved men, who always wanted to be boringly close to her for nothing, she did not feel that way with Blue, since Blue always had a futuristic view on almost everything. She really liked that. Even when Blue tended to shift to phone-sex, he always maintained a tone of respect towards human dignity. She liked that. Blue told her about the resorts in the jungle of Dooarse and she planned a visit to this land after the Durja Pujo, probably the biggest spontaneous public installation art of the world, though she knew she might lose control in the green forest

As it was her first experience of Durga Pujo in her parental land she did not take any risk. She followed Blue's instruction not to travel too much by walk, though it feels really great for Bengali people and they just cannot hold themselves back at their homes during this time, it could be quite troublesome for her because of the extraordinary condensed crowd, of Kolkata, of Durga Pujo. So as Blue suggested during the time of id festival she went directly to Kumartuli, the place where the lion's share of Durga idols, which sell all across the world, are made. She read in a book that all these festivals and carnivals including Christmas that was going to come after Durga Pujo are basically resulted out of WKE, WKM and WWKM culture. However, Blue told her to go to that place to see all idols that are going to be installed across Bengal, India and the many parts of world to see beforehand. This advice was really fruitful to Green. Since she could see how all the artists create it and sell it to the world.

After this one day Green called up Blue and asked him if there is any good place, where they can stay and enjoy the place. Green expected that Blue would invite her to his house. But it did not happen. Blue guessed a bit. Green could understand the reason of his hesitation and liked it in the beginning. Blue told her that he could have suggested her to come to their home in case his sister was there. But unfortunately his sister had already left for Midnapore where she was studying. And since Blue's home town is very small and almost everyone knows everyone he would have to explain everything to everyone. Of course it seemed a bit irritating to both of them. Then Green asked whether there is any good resort where they can stay and see mountains or jungle for one or two days. The idea seemed quite okay with both of them. But Blue said that since he is unemployed now, she cannot ask for this amount of money from his parents. Green smiled and told him to start a business as tourist guide and she would be his first client. Blue thought it was not a bad idea. After all it's going to be a friendly deal. So Blue arranged a beautiful lodge and told her parents that one of his close friend's relative wanted to see the dense moist green forest of Dooarse. So he was going to stay outside home for one or two days without spending any big amount of money from his own pocket and he said that he was planning to launch a new business of a tour guide very soon if this tour became successful. So her parents did not mind at all. On a beautiful rainy day Blue guided Green to the desolate peaceful romantic land of Jaldapara Sanctuary. Blue had already liked her, seen her photographs online and now liked her way of talking. Green wanted to take rest for the first day. So after having lunch they sat down by a hilly stream just before the forest bungalow. On the other side of the narrow river a pair of rhinoceros came to taste the mounds of salt that were specially kept for them. They talked until the dusk broke down and caretaker asked them to go back to lodge for safety. They entered the room. Green went to the bathroom and took a shower in the hot water. Then she asked Blue to do the same. They ordered for two cups of tea. When the caretaker brought the tea Blue came out of the Bathroom and found Green cozying up underneath the blanket. She was looking so beautiful that Blue said 'You look great!' Green got pampered and said 'Have tea. It's getting cold.' Blue served a cup to her and took his own cup and stood by the window and looked outside at the moonlit suave soft and wet face of jungle and exclaimed, 'Wow! See, it's so beautiful.'

-'What?'

-'The jungle, moon beam and everything.'

-'Really?'

-'Yes.'

-'Hmm! You have already forgotten me.'

Blue turned to her. She looked really attractive. He could feel it inside his heart. He said, 'Not really. I meant Green, moonbeam and everything.'

She smiled and asked him to come and sit by her. When he sat by her on the bed she asked 'Would you mind sharing the bed with me? You need rest, dear.' When he kept their cups down on the floor, she insisted and snatched him saying, 'Come on dear, it'll save cost.' Blue let his body get in and as a result her hand touched her skin under the blanket. He was shocked and asked her, 'What are you wearing?' She said, 'Only perfume.' Blue looked at her dark eyes and kissed her. When the body struggle got over, Green said that she wanted to know more about his home town. Blue said it was nothing new since it was the same boring story of the rich and poor and a perpetual struggle of educated people to uphold and reform the place. He added though he would like to tell these stories to her, he knew she would not like it. She also knew that this was the fact to some extent. But she had already liked Blue and she wanted to keep this friendship alive forever and for this something more is necessary. At least she should have felt the beating of his young heart and there could not be any better place in the whole world to know a person than this lonely jungle. So she insisted, 'See, I really can't spoil this night this way. We need to talk so that this night becomes a precious memory to our lives. Don't you want that?'

-'Yes. I do.'

- ' But I know you would not like those stories. I do not want to bore you in this beautiful night.'

- 'Okay. But you have to tell me stories and those have to be brand new and fresh.'

-'You are really a tough client.'

-'That's why you like me. Right?'

He kissed her again before telling her a story of his own imagination.

2. The Cosmic Bang

Sondha was a village woman, who used to stay just at the outskirt of the river-bound town Mathabhanga, often abbreviated as MTB. Her husband was an infamous drunken boisterous rickshaw puller. This guy had a bad habit of spoiling most of his income after gambling, wine and cannabis. The small town MTB was surrounded by two beautiful rivers Sutunga and Mansai. And Sondha's village was at the valley of Mansai. She used to work as a daily wager in that village and nearby places. She used to do various works starting from digging sand for construction to applying pitch to construct roads. It was a day of Holi, the festival of colours. During the day people play with specially prepared harmless colours in and out of their families. Since this is a festival of fun and quite attached to a tradition of sublime but illicit love affair between Radha and Krishna, a godess and a god respectively, people get license to be a bit naughty with each other. Many people delve into various addictive substances, especially bhang. Since there could be a chance to lose control on this day of Holi for young people the cop patrols in disguise or in uniform in the sensitive parts of India and MTB subdivision was no exception. Thus, a new officer was traveling in the village of Sondha in disguise i.e without uniform. When he was passing by her house, he heard a groan of a woman. He realized it was coming from that particular house. He waited for a while thinking that someone would be inside to take care of this women. But no one seemed to be inside to help this woman and the degree of groaning increased. So the cop decided to enter the courtyard, surrounded by betel nut trees and gourd creepers, and asked for her permission to enter the cottage. He got no reply. But he understood what actually happened to her. He had this kind of experience before when he was posted in a small exterior police station of southern Bengal. When he entered the cottage he found Sondha on the floor, groaning in severe pain. Sondha was a bit irritated since the guy was not his husband and she was just going to bring forth her first child. But there was no other choice, but to surrender herself to the pragmatism of this man. The man found a bucket nearby, went outside, poured water into it from the tube-well and came back to her. After a long battle he slowly and gently dragged out the wet moist baby from her vagina. She got relieved and looked at the beautiful reddish face of her first child. It was a girl still attached to her navel. He asked for a blade. She showed him a shelf on the wall. Then he traced the blade and heated it up with his lighter and cut the navel tube attached with Sondha. She looked really happy and wrapped up the baby with a towel and asked the police to sit down for a while. The police man helped her to clean the baby. He felt nice when he saw Sondha's relieved and happy face. In this time suddenly they felt the outside is becoming dark though it was middle of the day. The earth below their feet started trembling. Yes, the police understood that it was an earthquake the degree of which continuously mounting up. He held the child and mother in his tight arm. But now it seemed more than an earth quake and more than a no-moon horrible night. The cottage flew up in the air and they flew off to another direction. After another few seconds they were literally and scientifically annihilated and fused into the great universe. It was a cosmic bang to the life of the earth. A huge comet hit the earth dividing into pieces.

3. The Birth of the Green planet:

This cosmic collision completely eradicated lives from the earth and the earth actually got bifurcated into mainly two pieces. Thus two planets started to move round the sun in place of one earth. The most amazing thing was the orbits of them were quite close to each other and they shared the same moon that previously belonged to the earth only. And both the planets again slowly went through another process of reconstruction. Slowly after millions of years in each planet plants and animals started to emerge in the natural course of evolution. After a long history of evolution at last in both planets fortunately different intelligent human species and intelligent aliens were born. From the space two of these planets used to appear as blue and green respectively. So after almost another ten thousand years, when intelligent aliens of the Green planet, progressed a lot in the astrophysics they devised a spaceship to explore the Blue planet. On the other hand the intelligent human like people of the Blue planet were got developed more in spiritualism, philosophies and theories almost at the same period of time. The Blue planet was comparatively hotter than the Green planet since the orbit of the former was closer to the sun. Thus the land of the Blue planet was quite fertile and full of rivers and seas i.e water. But the Green planet was colder, mostly ice clad and full with Green forests. The people of the blue planet used to see the large green planet with the moon everyday on their sky and they imagined rich, prosperous and strong aliens living there. Actually the life of the intelligent aliens was a bit hard there. So from the need of smoothen their lifestyle they developed an urge to explore the blue planet that they used to see every day in their sky. And from this urge they slowly got developed in technology and hard industries. They discovered a lot of machines, factories and transport systems to modernize their lives. At one point of time the aliens became successful to make a spaceship, which was thought to be capable of travelling down to the blue planet. But they did not take any risk, since they did not have any information regarding the blue planet. They decided to send a living creature called 'laika' that looked quite like a hybrid of a polar bear and a polar hairy dog. It has got a face like a dog, ears like a bear, eyes like a human being and body like a bear, feet like a dog, though thicker and stronger than its, and a short tail. The expedition was successful. The spaceship did not land in the blue planet. But it did enter the atmosphere of the blue planet. Some people in the blue planet did see it and named it UFO (unidentified flying object). The people of blue planet could not accumulate much information regarding this UFO. They did not even realize that it had come from the green planet. But they did write a lot of fictional stories regarding this cosmic phenomenon. Nevertheless, the laika returned alive and the spaceship brought a lot of information, which clearly proved the existence of life and water in the blue planet. This information encouraged the aliens to really discover and explore the blue planet. But the problem was not any alien was ready to travel by the spaceship since most of them were quite afraid of losing life, though they started preparing for a next expedition. After many years a young courageous alien astrophysicist Kalpana and her students took the initiative to travel through the space to the blue planet. At last she descended on the sea of Bengal in Blue planet. When she landed on the sea, it really felt fabulous within her. She saw refreshing water all around her. She detached a small part of the spaceship and tried to float it on the water surface as a boat. She was not sure of whether it would float or not in the beginning. But in the end she was successful. So she with one of her student, Columbus, started traveling with the help of compass to keep the direction fixed. She was lucky that compass did work in the blue planet. After a while she saw a trace of land on the horizon. They were really happy when they reached near a muddy land. The area was really different from the cold places of green planet. It was full of mud and a dense forest with peculiar trees. But it looked magnificent when they had been approaching toward this wetland. It appeared as slowly the lands were trying to enclose the sea. It was getting narrower gradually and the jungle was getting denser. On the muddy shore she for the first time saw a piece of life. A crocodile was basking. When it moved into the water, she inferred that it might be possible to remove the special space jacket here. She talked to Columbus over a transmitter and they decided to do it slowly. They decided to open a small part of their skin at first since it might get burnt out. When Columbus did it, nothing happened except he felt a bit of heat. But it was fine. They were naturally happy and removed the air tight protection suit. Now they realized that they could travel in the blue planet the way they used to travel in the green planet. After a point they felt a bit tired. But they did not get down from the boat since it would certainly be unsafe for them. And unfortunately they reached a place, which was full of carnivorous animals. However they decided to call it a day and returned to the spaceship as they had to try to send information to ISRO (Indus Space Research Organisation). While returning to the spaceship, Kalpana thought she should collect some leaves and if possible fruits from those trees so that she can test it in the spaceship. If those became eatable they can stay there more than what they actually expected. So she took the boat towards the muddy shore. But when she got down she simply got stuck into the mud and started got bitten by small flying insects that swarmed over her head and typically known as mosquitoes. It was hardly possible to walk ahead. She found some creepers nearby and collected those. She presumed that it would really be too risky to proceed. So she turned back and found a tiger is approaching from behind. The tigers of this forest, known as Sundor Bon due to a mangrove tree called Sundori that prevailed in this forest, were really clever. They always attacked from behind since it was hardly possible to run in this muddy shore. Luckily Columbus shot the tiger dead and they returned safely to the spaceship. Then Kalpana told all of her students about their journey to the wetland. Then she entered into her small chamber and tried to connect her communication device with ISRO. She was not getting the signal properly in the beginning. But slowly it got connected and the first sentence she said, 'It's hot.' The speaker box replied, 'What do you, mean?' She said, 'The blue planet is a bit hotter. Life is there and the Green planet looks the best in the whole sky. There is really a lot to explore. I feel like settling down here.' It was enough for ISRO and the people of green planet. They immediately understood that this blue planet is going to be theirs soon. In the mean time Kalpana tried to taste the leaves she collected from the muddy land. It felt not so bad. She tried to eat a piece of it. And yes it was not so bad and after waiting for an hour she just belched a bit. So she thought food is also available here. She immediately said to her brave students who came having their lives at stake that now they would simply collect as many information as possible within the next few days and then they would return to organize a next bigger expedition.

4. The Great Indus

So after a few days collecting data more than what they thought to be possible Kalpana returned to the continent of Indus or the Great Indus. By that time the civilization of the green planet progressed a lot. It had gone through a hectic history of struggle for existence and got divided into many continents on the basis of languages, different social cultural institutions and mainly because of isolated geographical existence. Among these one continent or geographically separated land, known as Indus, had really become immense powerful in terms of economics and societies and become innovative in space research as well as in modern warfare that was unfortunately necessary for a cold war in the green planet. However, Kalpana and Columbus used to do research in ISRO. In ISRO the other people were waiting to have all the dramatic new information about this new blue planet of which so far they only heard stories. At that period of time the great Indus was ruled by the parliament. Before that queen Elijabeth and her loyal powerful ministers and clerks, which were the mercenary ruling class, it was going through tough political situation due to emergence of new traders into political scenario. After the massive development of modern industry there slowly emerged a community, which mainly started dealing with finding the requirements of the aliens of a particular place and supplying various necessary products accordingly. Earlier they used to resort to the barter system. But long ago King Red the first introduced the system of coins in this kingdom of Indus. It is said that during the kingship of Red the first, there used to be a famous market at the valley of river Sutunga. The market was known as 'haat' or 'bazar'. Haat used to be there on every fourth and sixth day of the week. Aliens used to barter all the necessary materials, starting from domestic animals to cloths and clothes. The king Red the first had a habit of observing the aliens of his kingdom in disguise. So very often he used to roam around all across his kingdom as a common man, though in disguise. One day while walking in the market he found a young girl, who did not have one of her legs, was begging sitting on the soil. There was a wooden support stick lying by her side. The king Red went to her. He wanted to give her something, but since he was in disguise he did not bring anything so special. Though he was called king, actually he was a group leader by natural selection of his aliens who used to depend on him. Thus they settled down by the river of Sutunga and slowly built up a stable society and kingdom. However since he had nothing so worthy to give her, he felt sad. Then he thought about the future of this girl and felt even sadder. He talked to the girl for a while and got to know about her whereabouts. The girl said to him that her family abandoned her, since she was born 'disable'. It made the king really worried. Then he thought if anyone could make a chair for her that can move fast like a cart or chariot she could do a lot of things. After all, life is to be lived, indeed. Then he thought why anyone would care to prepare such a chair for her. Even if anyone wanted to do it like him, what was going to be the return. Then he thought it could be a magic chair that everyone would like to experience. If it happened so, it could be installed in the market to entertain the aliens. His dream went beyond every possible barrier of time. Then again it came back to the origin and he soliloquized, 'How to start making such a magic chair?' He came back to his place and told her peers and family about that handicapped girl. All of them sympathized and said they should do something for that girl. Then Red said that he was thinking about all the handicapped aliens like her and he talked about the idea of the 'magic chair'. Everyone liked it and said they were going to make it very soon. Then Red and his peers created an organization that would travel door to door and collect various materials necessary to make that 'magic chair.' That's how the first ever 'magic chair' was created. One day one of his friends came running to him and alerted him that he heard that an equestrian community was coming to their land. They were powerful and used to loot properties from different communities. Red told his aliens to prepare for a war. They prepared many underground trenches and chambers to hide the precious properties of their community and they themselves hid in the jungle of Dooarse. The group of aliens came riding the horses and collected a lot of properties and killed whoever came in front of them. Since the place was very fertile and easy to live at, he thought of settling there. Before they could realize Red and his aliens struck back from various directions and killed those, who wanted to fight back. But a section of alien of that equestrian group did not want any war. They somehow conveyed it to the Red and his aliens. Actually this group was traveling across the green planet to find a better place to live. So they started living on the bank of river Sutunga happily spreading the kingdom of Red the first. Since this group brought a lot of horses and looted materials with them, they created a lot of curiosity among the aliens of Red. A young boy gifted a wooden spoon to Red the first. When he touched the spoon, he was sure of the quality of the wood and the craftsmanship of the community. He immediately devised a plan. He asked the young boy, whether he had any more spoons or wooden artifacts with him. The answer was positive as he expected. Then he wanted to know whether he told him about the magic chair that they tried to build up there for that young handicapped lass. The Red knew the young chap could make far better magic chairs. So he advised the young boy to sit in the market with his wooden artifacts. Cleverly the Red and his aliens suggested him to sit by the young beggar girl for which they created the first magic chair. Naturally the young boy did not like the quality and laughed within. One day he requested the beggar girl whether he could make a magic chair for her. She said, 'certainly'. Red was immediately informed about this incidence and requested the boy to join the organization that helped so called 'disable' aliens. The boy agreed to join the group. But he found collecting necessary materials from door to door was not a very good idea, since it took a lot of toil and infrastructure and especially he was not being able to concentrate properly to create a beautiful 'magic chair' for the beggar girl. Red also realized the problem since he always wanted the beggar handicapped girl to be happy. But he could not find any way out. One day the young boy himself solved the problem. He said that it would have been nice if they could collect a common item instead of different items from door to door. This one sentence sounded remarkable to Red. He immediately said, 'You are a genius. You will stay with us forever.' The next day the Red and his aliens finalized the idea of introducing coins as an alternative to barter system, though he could not find where it is going to lead the civilisation. The next day the young chap created a beautiful magic chair and since then every evening he used to take the cute beggar girl to a cold dense green walk in the river bank. There they would sit and talk. The girl would tell him stories that she always wanted to share with someone. The name of the boy was Robi and the girl was Tiya. Robi would learn a lot about the beautiful birds of that region from Tiya. This way trade started growing in the green planet. Then there came the time of queen Elijabeth in the great Indus. The aliens of the great Indus formed a company called Universal Blue Company or UBC to explore the blue planet. But the news of Kalpana's discovery spread across the green planet like fire, though ISRO tried to keep it as a secret, somehow it got leaked. The other continents of the green planet also started preparing for space exploration. One of those, known as the great Goa could really make it. Their spaceship reached the the Blue planet. They descended on the Arabean Sea and started exploring the blue planet as Kalpana and Columbus did it. Cleverly in the first expedition they came fully prepared with artillery and soldiers. That time blue planet was being ruled by a fierce Emperor. When these aliens from the great Goa continent of the green planet arrived and started settling down and trading with the blue planet, the emperor could not disallow them since they had already hinted that they were quite advanced in modern war fare. So the emperor started trading with them. These aliens of the green planet mainly exported spices and silks to the green planet. When this information reached the green planet, the queen Elijabeth of the great Indus asked her peers to immediately send traders to the blue planet. As a consequence a company called Universal Blue Company or UBC was formed. These people reached the blue planet with even heavier artillery, soldiers and defeated the aliens of the great Goa and forced most of them to return to the green planet. That is how they impressed the great Emperor of blue planet and asked for the permit to set a business centre in the blue planet. The emperor happily gave him the permission. Afterwards the aliens of the green planet started to spread the business slowly in the blue planet. Though the aliens were quite happy, but they thought any day in near future the emperor might send them back to the green planet since they clearly looked different from the native people of the blue planet. Secondly, they had defeated the aliens of the great Goa. This war created a new tension in the green planet itself. As a consequence they became the target of remnant pirates of the green Goanese origin. So these traders of the great Indus continent wanted a permanent settlement and informed the continent of Indus in the Green planet. Then a young diplomat, Thomas, came to help UBC in the blue planet. He came down at the Bay of Bengal exactly where Kalpana descended. There the aliens received him and took him to their shelter. When he was traveling in towards the delta of Ganges from the sea with his friends, he was enthralled by the beauty of this place. He slowly moving in and found how the sea is slowly getting narrower. After a while he saw lands in the horizon the way Kalpana had seen it. He crossed the wetlands of crocodile and tigers. Up there was the blue sky, beside the forests of mangrove trees, ahead the bush of long grass and buzzing, irritating mosquitoes – what a land of diversity he thought. After traveling another day he saw traces of some huts on the river bank. He was so tired that he needed to rest. So he asked to stop the boat there. He stayed there for a considerable period of time to learn the language of that place. In the beginning it was tough. But then he befriended some farmers and tried to understand how they communicate. When he learned a few sentences and went to meet the Emperor and tried to impress him by talking to him in his own language. Emperor was pleased meeting Thomas. So, Thomas requested the Emperor to allow him to learn the native language in details. Naturally the Emperor helped him to learn the language. But the traders of UBC became really impatient. They asked Thomas to talk to Emperor and make a permanent settlement. Actually Thomas was slowly becoming more like the people of the blue planet and started falling in love with everything around. But the aliens alerted him not to become too romantic and spoil the game. So one day he went to the Emperor and asked for his permission to make a fort in the Kingdom of Bengal. The aliens of the great Indus were really lucky. Thomas was successful to acquire the right to make a fort. Luck did not stop doing favour to them. It even opened another door for them. One day the daughter of the Emperor fell terribly sick and the native doctor failed. Since the aliens were much more advanced in practical science, Thomas brought the doctor of the UBC Company in and he, after a real hard work, cured the princess. When the Emperor wanted to pay him, he disagreed to take it. Instead he said that he would have been glad if he granted the company to do free business in the kingdom of Bengal. The happy emperor immediately granted him a written permit. In the mean time many years passed and kingship had changed in the continent of Indus. But the then nawab(King) Shayesta Khan of Bengal denied UBC to operate freely. He demanded tax from the aliens. When the UBC refused to pay tax, he waged a war against them. This time aliens lost the battle and fled. After that the new nawab (king) Ibrahim Khan of Bengal brought them back and allowed them to do business there. But they needed to pay some taxes. The aliens agreed this time and asked again for a permission to make a fort. Nawab (king) granted the permission. The aliens were really happy and they initiated the process of making a fort and a city around it. The name of the city was Kolkata. But the aliens had a habit of pronouncing it as Calcutta. However, they named the fort as Fort William after the name of the king William the third, who was ruling the continent of Indus at that time. Then the aliens of the company thought that the Nawab gave them permission to do business in Kolkata. But he did not give them the right to be landlord of this city. In the course of time, the aliens met the old land lords in and around Kolkata and bought it from them for really a very little amount of money. Thus UBC became the sole authority of the city of Kolkata. Now the UBC thought to bring expert engineers from the green planet to reform the old fort. This information reached the then nawab (King) Sirajdoulla of Bengal. He became angry thinking that the aliens were making a new fort inside the old one. So he with his soldiers came to Kolkata to teach aliens a lesson. He defeated them and occupied Kolkata. He renamed it as Ali Nagar and overthrown the governor. The aliens fled once again taking shelter in various places and waited for reinforcement. At last when the reinforcement came they defeated the nawab in the battle of Palashi by dividing his own soldiers. However, they recaptured Kolkata and constructed it. Since Kolkata was safe many people from across the blue planet started to come and settle down in this city with natives and aliens.

'What a weird story! Are you crazy?'- shouted Green.

- 'Why, didn't you like it?'

- 'I did. But it's weird. Sounds like a future history.'

- 'Yes. Kind of. Actually I have a bad habit of seeing the world or universe the way I want to see it. But I cannot tell all these to other people. Now I have got a chance to tell you. Guess I did not bore you at least.

- Not at all. You certainly have a different flavour. I'll taste it later. We should sleep now. 

5.The Dream:    

She was happy and sad since she did not have enough money to stay back there for more. Next day in the evening she had to leave. She asked once whether it was possible to visit Blue's home town MTB. But Blue hesitated since it would be difficult to make his parents and peers understand the whole fact. So he promised that he would tell everyone about her. Then he would invite her very soon to their place. Actually Blue did become a bit skeptical about the real intention of this girl. He could have easily consulted the whole thing with his friends and relatives. But he thought this was not the right time. They needed to know each other more. On this part of India life actually would not move so fast. Green realized it. So she did not insist any more. But she did tell him that time had changed indeed and they were living in such a society where the line between right and wrong social norms was slowly changing. The change was the reality of this time. 'We were forced to become different and it is not so bad all the time.' Green said. Blue understood it and felt sad indeed since he needed to return the next day to his hometown and work on his new business and apply for jobs. It would probably be the last night they would spend together.  However, Blue had already felt asleep. Green was sleepy too. But she was not being able to sleep properly, though there was no such reason for that. It used to happen to her quite often. And the cock and bull story of Blue really triggered her thought that night. Since her childhood she had a dream to travel across the globe. She had already got a hint that this dream of hers was slowly becoming true. She thought it would have been nice if she could travel across all the continents of the globe easily the way she came and met Blue in this forest. She thought it would have been nice if she could go to Greenland of North Pole right now. Then she remembered that her mother used to say, 'Always remember too much of courage is not good for girls. It takes a fraction of second to ruin all the reputation of a girl.' She was young now. It was the age of fire. In this age all of us had a tendency to conquer the world. So she thought, 'What's so wrong in dreaming and if the chance really comes one flavoured piece of condom can save her from accidents?' She was not dead against having a family and thus children. But Indian philosophy itself allows one to go through 'Choturashram' (Four Stages of life). It said that before having family one had to go through rigorous process of acquiring knowledge and practicing solitude. Nonetheless, she always envied birds as they could always fly to any places any time. And human beings were born so helpless that they always needed to go through painful and destructive history of reconstruction. She wished tomorrow when she would wake up, she would become thin transparent bird like her condom that she always carries with her as a part of her precautionary things. She could not wait till the dawn. She woke up and brought out a condom from her bag. She blew it like a balloon and tried to shape it as a bird. And then she closed her eyes to see herself i.e the silky transparent bird, flying across the sky. All her fun expectations did not count. Though she slept well, she had a short dream of the huge audio mixing console that she needed to work with after returning to the campus. Students of other departments used to call it a spaceship since it quite looked like a smaller version of a huge space ship. She had to work with it after she gets back to her departmental routine. The tour was a great experience indeed. She thanked Blue wishing good luck to his new business. They checked out of the Bungalow. He accompanied her till the airport and then returned to his hometown. 

6. The Hope:

 Both of Rahul and Green were the students of the department of Sound, a department that they were hardly aware of before applying to this course. Green wanted to do something new in life. Her father was a research scientist and mother used to work in an international publishing house. Green got to know about this course when she was chatting with one of her online friend, Laura, who belonged to Virginia. Laura with another girl Mellissa used to run a band of music. They used to promote their music online over a social networking site. After talking to them Green understood the role and value of a sound recording engineer. Laura introduced her with another online friend Rahul of India through that social networking site. He was also interested in the art of cinema. He was born and brought up in a small town of northern India. He was another example of a spoiled brat, since in India cinema was hardly considered the cup of tea of the middleclass educated people of small towns to take up as a profession. Rahul's parents wanted him to study more and become a teacher or a lecturer. But he did not follow them. As a result he ended up being in this beautiful campus. His parents could still not understand why among all he chose to study sound. Only because he was a physics graduate and he wanted to learn the most technical part of cinema, he took up sound as he would tell in the interview. So, Rahul was lucky enough indeed, since he could hardly imagine that he would share a room with Green! However, in the mean time Green returns from her tour. She was really very eager to talk about the tour to Rahul, of course minus the stress relieving body struggle. But when she returned she did not find Rahul anywhere. But she did not call him up over phone since she expected him to be in the internet lab that was there in the main building in front of the library. When Green came to that room, she found Rahul was writing a message to Laura. He used to write messages to Laura mostly at night. Green felt a bit upset since she wanted him to listen to her story. Instead he was busy writing messages to Laura. When she hugged Rahul from behind, Rahul turned and became really happy. Now he wanted to tell Green about the recent 'interesting' discussion with Laura. Green knew now she had no escape. She had to listen to his carefully edited and moulded summary of the online discussion. Only after that Rahul would stop to share her experience of a 'healthy' tour. But she did a trick. She insisted to see the original conversation straight from his online account. Laura expressed her wish to visit India. Then, Green suggested contacting Blue, whom he had just met in the green forest. Green preferred that place and around since it was quite like Europe, though people appeared to be quite different. But it was cool and really a relief from the humid, hot, noisy and crowded city. Green was also eager to see the highest railway station, as Blue said it was there in Darjeeling, a small town famous for its sunshine of 'Tiger Hill'. Blue told her that there were many funny stories of how an engineer struggled to bring in railway to this extremely beautiful land of hills where the Himalaya starts. The British used to call the land of Darjeeling, the queen of hills during the period of undivided British India. But Green missed it because of time and money. Rahul agreed that he also heard of this exotic land. Then they tried to collect more information. Many days passed with the same boring routine. Green went home and returned. Then one fine morning, after quite a long time, Blue phoned Green to know about the admission procedure, since he failed in his business attempt. Now he was looking for a loan. Green told him about the reality of the uncertain future and the amount of struggle involved. Blue smiled and said he had already struggled with her in the forest bungalow. She laughed but said again that actually the world is full of insecurity and quite tough. However, Blue did not care like many students who dare to join this institute with the hope of doing something great. In the end they either leave the field or really keep on struggling in the hope of experiencing something great to happen. Actually nothing great happens to them until they learn to cherish the experience to walk a different path. That's it.

7. The Direction

Blue was an English graduate. He decided to pursue higher education and so he came to Kolkata. Most of his cousin brothers and sisters by that time lived in this City. Blue's maternal aunty was also living in this city. So he with his father came to Kolkata and stayed at his maternal aunt's house at Borisha. After staying there for a few days he shifted to a mess with the help of one of his cousin brother Santonu, who was working in Coca Cola Company. Mess is a place where a few people rent a house and live together sharing the rent. It is a cheap adjustment to live together in the city. Blue started living in the mess with five other boarders. He then looked for the options of jobs or education in Kolkata. In the mess they used to keep the entire job and education related editions of various news papers along with two regular news papers, one standard Bengali news paper ABP and the Telegraph. His cousin brother Shantonu got married by this time and bought a flat at Bonhoogly, which was quite near to Blue's mess. One day in the morning after having tea and breakfast from a nearby tea shop, Blue returned. The maid came and started preparing the food for lunch and dinner. The mess had got a system of weekly management. Every week one of the boarders used to be in charge and he was responsible for shopping and keeping the record of expenditure. Since Blue was not the manager that week, he was relaxed. He started reading the ABP and interestingly a report on the red-light area of arrived on that news paper. Like all youngsters he found it quite interesting and read it completely. He never visited any red light area before. The report was quite analytical and standard. However, he did not give it much thought then. The lazy days passed like any other day. Next day he was also free spending the time reading news papers and loitering around. Then he thought of visiting the eldest cousin brother's house in South Kolkata, near Kalighat metro station at Deshapriya Park. This brother of his was a professor at Calcutta Ceramic College. He was a well read person. He understood the creative side of Blue and told him to come to the address of a little magazine, called Parbantar. Blue's eldest cousin brother was the editor of that magazine. He introduced him with many creative people who were associated with that magazine. They used to sit in the house of a well known script writer Partho at Ballygunj twice a week. Blue started to attend their meeting almost every week. Everybody used to write something and Blue really enjoyed their company. Then one day he thought that he should try writing. Then he started writing a script of his own imagination. He finished the first draft of the script in some days and showed it to one of his roommate. Then he thought he should take it to the people of Parbantar. So on a fixed day, he visited the house of Partho. Unfortunately that day nobody else came along. Only Partho, an aged man of 60, with white hair and beard was sitting by the window on his writing desk. He gave him the script and requested him to read it. He read it. And after a few days when he again went to meet Partho, he analysed that the script was really fast and will last one and half hour to two hour on screen since each page usually take one minute of screen time. It was the first script written by Blue which had a influence of the news paper report that he read a few weeks before. After that one day Partho gave him a short story and told to build up a screenplay on it. Blue took the story and went home. There he spent some days and wrote a screenplay based on that short story. Then after returning Kolkata, Blue gave it to Partho and Partho paid him some money. It was his first income in life. He was very happy. Time passed again. One day Blue again went to the flat of Shantonu at night. Shantonu suggested him that he should appear for CAT and join any of the IIMs. But Blue was sceptical about his ability to crack the exam since it was quite tough at the same time he thought it would be quite expensive journey too. However he had a passion for cinema. He used to go to Nandan, a state owned multiplex complex and Esplanade to watch cinema at a cheap rate. In the mean time when he was spending time without doing anything, he thought he should learn a foreign language. So he went to Ranjan's house and told him that he wanted to learn Spanish. But Ranjan had a friend, who was expert in Nihongo or Japanese Language. That guy was an IITian and a professor at Jadavpur University. So he started to visit Jadavpur University twice a week for participating in the Nihongo classes. There he got introduced with haiku and would write a few of them in his diary later that  he always kept with him. One day Blue saw an advertisement of RKK the state run cinema and social communication institute. He applied for the editing. He told it to Shantonu. But Shantonu immediately told that he should join SRFTI. But Green left an impression on him that SRFTI is a place for rich people. So he was reluctant to join SRFTI. He started preparing for RKK. Partho told him to go to a library called Chitrabani near Esplanade. Blue started going to the library and prepared for the exam. He read an American book on editing completely. However one day when he was lying on the bed and reading a book, Green called and asked, 'How are you?'

-'Hey, I am good. How are you?'

-'I am good. What are you doing these days?'

- ' Nothing. Just applied for RKK.'

- 'Okay. Which department?'

-'Editing.'

-' Hmm good. But you should also try SRFTI.'

-'It's expensive.'

-'Who said? Seventy five thousand all you need to pay for three years.'

-'Okay. I will talk to my father.'

-' Yes. I will call you when the ad gets published.'

-' Okay. Thanks.'

Green cut the phone. Blue was back to his daily routine once again. One day he went to meet the people of Parbantar once again. There one writer gave him a book of Freud. Blue came back and started reading the book. Meanwhile he got a letter from RKK and he appeared in the interview. Blue was given to analyse a movie in front of the panel. He did it well. After coming to the mess, Green called again,

-          'Hey, what's up?'

-          'Just attended the interview session of RKK.'

-          'Did you see the ad of SRFTI today?'

-          'No.'

-          Do you keep 'Times of India?'

-          'No. ABP and the telegraph.'

-          'Okay. Find out. The ad appeared in all the leading news papers of India as well as in some Bengali news papers.'

-          'Okay.'

-          'You should apply for direction.'

-          'I don't understand direction.'

-          'That's why you should apply for direction. You will understand when you join the course.'

-          'Okay.'

-          'Okay. Will talk to you later I am a bit busy now.'

-          'Okay. Thanks.'

Blue tried to understand, why Green was telling him to join the direction. To his understanding editor cuts the rush, a cinematographer captures the images and a sound recording engineer records the sound. They get jobs. But the director has to struggle a lot and be dependent on these people. He also thought that the direction is a fancy of some sophisticated and privileged people. However Green insisted.  Blue browsed the news paper once again and found the ad. But he was afraid to join direction. So, a few days passed. And he did not go to SRFTI. And one day he felt lonely and called Green to talk for a while. It was at the night. Green was having dinner with his friends at the mess of SRFTI. The phone rang, and green picked up,

-'Hey. What's up?'

-'Just thinking about you.'

-'Hmm. What are you thinking?'

-'I want to meet you again.'

-'Of course, We will meet. Did you apply for SRFTI?'

-'I don't want to apply for direction.'

-'Why?'

- 'My future will be shattered.'

-' I can understand your concern. But trust me life is always uncertain. But you should listen to your heart.'

-'That's a statement always given by the rich who have enough to waste.'

-'That's why I am telling you to apply for SRFTI, it's a government film school, cheap and the best.'

-'Okay. But why are you insisting on direction.'

-''cause, I felt so, after meeting you. There is no reason. All I can say that you are born to create your own story. That's why direction is the best choice for you.

-' What will happen in future?'

-'See even I don't know what's gonna happen to me in near future. But you cannot live thinking about that. You have to live for today. Tomorrow does not exist.'

-'Yes that's right.'

-'What's the last day of the issuing forms.'

-'I don't know exactly. Come as soon as you can.'

-'Okay. I will go tomorrow.'

-'Yes, that will be great. Had your dinner?'

-'Yes.'

-'When will you go to bed?'

-' At 2:30 or 3 am.'

-' What do you do so long?'

-' I read.'

-'What are you reading now?'

-'A book of Freud.'

-'Nice. Keep it up.'

-'Sweet dreams.'

-'Okay. Good night.'

Blue cut the phone. Next day he went to SRFTI. It was a nice big a campus. After signing at the gate, he entered the administrative building. He talked to the receptionist about the form. She showed her the way to an office that was peculiarly called 'Tutorial.' He entered the office. The officer told him that the last day was gone. Blue then requested him to do something. The guy was kind. When he listened that he came all the way from Coochbehar, he told him to visit a large hall, where the forms were still being distributed to the scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and OBC people. The registrar was there, Blue told him the same thing and he gave him a form. Blue returned to his mess with the form. He filled it up with the required details and sent it via post. Blue went to the office of Parbantar once again. And when Partho heard that he applied for SRFTI, he told him to go to Chitrabani, a well known library for cinema at Esplanade. He started visiting Chitrabani till he got an interview letter from SRFTI. After getting the letter, he appeared for the interview. It was a four day orientation session followed by the interview by a huge panel of eminent cinema personalities. He stayed in the campus and visited all the departments. It was a great experience since he also met Green in the campus. Then he appeared in the interview. A lot of people asked a lot of questions. He answered them all in his own way. Then he thought that he would not get through the orientation session. He was nervous at the time of the interview but left the thought afterwards.

8. Green Goes to South Korea

It was the time of Orkut. People indulged a lot on this social networking site. Green was no exception. The campus of SRFTI was still not wifi connected. So the internet lab was the fastest connection at the campus. One night Green was browsing through Orkut. One of her friends, Madhabi, posted a 'scrap' of Asian Film Academy, Pusan, South Korea. The name was Pushan by that time. But later it got changed into Busan. She did not know about AFA before. However, she followed the link. A page appeared asking for the application. Green tried to apply for it. But it was not that easy. She needed to write an essay about herself to crack the test. She went to her room and wrote an essay on her laptop. Then she sent it to AFA. They also wanted some sample works. Green posted a dvd of the short films in which she worked as a student at SRFTI. After that for some days she did the departmental works. She was getting accustomed to the audio software Nuendo by this time. Her teacher at the department Pankoj gave her an exercise of synchronising a randomised audio track of an old Hindi song. She was doing that in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Suddenly her phone rang; it was an unknown international number. She rushed out to the lobby so that the phone did not get cut in the acoustically treated sound proof DAW. She picked up the phone. It was from South Korea. An unknown voice from AFA asked her a few questions. It was a short interview. Again she came back to the DAW and started working. Again she forgot about it. Only a few days later, she received a mail form AFA. It was another big task allotted to her. She was asked to submit a script of a short film. All the fellow members from more than ten countries were asked to submit a script each. She got frustrated and started reading news paper at the library. As Blue told her that he had a habit of reading the Telegraph. She browsed through the Telegraph and found an interesting story. She created a short script on that story and sent it to AFA. Again a few days passed and she started receiving mails from AFA. Her script did not get selected, but instead two different fellows' script got selected. And the AFA wanted to participate all the selected fellow members in the loop of mails to rewrite the script as a compact one. She participated in the online discussion mostly at night, while doing the departmental works in day time. However, it was the time for documentary project at SRFTI. Green was doing sound for Madhabi. She made a documentary on Indo Afghan theatre. She did the sound for the documentary. It was her first departmental project. She was nervous since she needs to use wireless microphone and boom microphone together. She just learned about wireless microphone from a note given by Pankoj to her. But when she went to shooting, nothing seemed so tough. It happened quite smoothly. After the shooting was done, she was a bit anxious about how to do the post since it was her first project. But Pankoj did not allow the film studio for documentary. He told to do the sound in the editing department. So Green did it in the editing department with her batch mate Abhishek. In the mean time, Green got a few mails from AFA. They told her to visit the South Korean Embassy in Kolkata for visa. By this time she found that two other students from different departments got selected for AFA. Their names were Pritam and Praveen. Pritam was from Malda, a district just on the northern side of Ganga. And Praveen was from Hyderabad. Green realised it, when Pritam asked for a script from her. She did not say him anything since she wanted him to write it on his own. However it was a good idea to visit the embassy with them. Green found it and went to the embassy with them and collected the visa. While returning from the embassy with Pritam, her senior and Praveen his batch mate through a crowded fruit market typical of Kolkata, Avishek phoned her.

-          Hey, where are you?

-          I am in a busy street, returning from the South Korean embassy.

-          Did you get the visa?

-          Yes, visa and the ticket to South Korea.

-          Okay. That's great. How much is it?

-          Thirty nine thousand I suppose.

-          Okay, that's great. Congrats.

-          Thanks.

-          Which airline is it?

-          Thai Airways.

-          Drink Cogniac. They don't give it unless you ask for it.

-          Hmm! Nice to know it from you. I'll drink for sure. Thanks.

-          Okay, come to campus safely.

-          I am with two body guards, Pritam and Praveen J

-          That's nice.

-          But I like Kolkata people.

-          They are always safe. It's not like Delhi.

-          That's true, it's comparatively safe. But Eve teasers are everywhere.

-          I know. But I don't care as long as they don't harm me.

-          Okay good. Keep it up.

-          Hmm. Bye. We have to catch a bus.

-          Bye.

Green came back to campus. And she met Pankoj the other day and told him everything in his chamber. He said that it was nice. He arranges the schedule for the department. So it was kind of wise to inform him, she thought. When he said, 'no problem', Green felt happy. Green went to the hostel then, and started preparing for the journey. She needed dollar for international travel. So she called HOD Ghoshal to find out if there was any forex shop nearby. He said to get it from Thomas Cook shop at the airport. But she could not wait. She wanted it right now. Next day she met the production coordinator Prasenjit. He smiled and said, 'Everything is available here at my office.' There he called a staff Bharat. He told her to visit his stall, which was at the back of SRFTI near the Peerless Hospital. Meanwhile she checked the latest exchange rate online. She went in the evening and met Bharat at his grocery shop. He exchanged twelve thousand rupees in dollar. She got the exact exchange rate from him. She was excited.

The day came. It was a night flight. All three Pritam, Praveen and Green were ready with backpacks. Pritam called a yellow taxi from outside the gate of SRFTI and they started for the Kolkata, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, air port. They took the boarding passes and gave their luggage. Green insisted for a window seat. But Pritam was adamant to seat by the window. So Green took the aisle seat. Praveen was a humble guy. He said that he was okay with anything. So he took the middle seat. The Kolkata airport had a traditional charm. Still the ceiling fans were there. The toilets were old. However, Green liked it since it was different, though she saw it before. But this time it appeared different since it was an international flight. They entered the plane, as it was scheduled. The airhostesses greeted them as usual. The people were speaking mostly in Bengali. And they looked all coloured, she thought. They found their seats and sat. The flight took off after the same announcement from the pilot and the safety advices of the airhostess. Green put on the earphone and started watching a video. Pritam was watching the city lights through the window and praveen was looking at the beautiful Thai air hostesses. The flight entered the dark starclad sky. After a while the two air hostesses came along with wine to be served. They were serving red wine. Pritam and Praveen started drinking red wine. But green asked for Cogniac as Avishek advised. They then brought out a hidden bottle and served congniac in a small beautiful glass. Green drank it. It tasted nice. After a while she pressed the calling button overhead. The air hostess came and she asked for another Cogniac. They served it. Then the dinner arrived. Green asked for another Cogniac and thought it would be nice to have it with dinner. The airhostess hesitated. But when she insisted, she brought another peg. They finished the non-vegetarian dinner. And she tried to take a short nap. Green could not sleep well, since they would have to get down at Bangkok and change the flight in the morning. It was more or less a four hour long flight. Atlast Bangkok arrived.

 They got down from the plane. They saw the airport for the first time. 'What an airport?', Green thought. They walked down to a floor. They went to collect the boarding pass again. There at the desk they were told to find the gate E, which is far way. When they walked to find the Gate E, they had a glimpse of the airport. It was huge, like a small air-conditioned town, quite different from the Kolkata airport. It was decorated with the Thai traditional sculptures and various shops. They walked on the glossy floor. Then they stood on the flat escalator. Then they walked again on the glossy floor. Then they stood on the slopey escalator to reach another floor. Then they again walked for a while and they found the Gate E. They waited on the chairs for the call of the ground staff. Green thought for a while what if the whole India was like this airport. 'Is it possible?'-She smiled a bit. A stranger young man saw her and smiled too. She immediately turned towards Pritam and asked him, 'How long are we gonna wait?' Pritam said, 'Who knows?' Then the plane arrived. The ground staff checked the boarding pass and they boarded the plane. This time passengers looked very different. Most of them were mongoloid but coloured. This time Green insited to sit on the window seat. The flight took off. All the formalities were done by the pilot and the cabin crews. They flew over the city of Bangkok. They crossed the clouds again. It was more or less seven hour journey. Poor Praveen got the middle seat again. This time Green did not drink Cogniac anymore. With the breakfast she drank red wine. Then she put the earphone and listened to a meditating music. It was going to be a long flight. The music appeared to be traditional typical Chinese. 'But who cares? All of them looks mongoloid?' she thought. After six/seven long hours the plane stopped at Taipei, the capital of Taiwan for a transit most probably for refueling. They were told to get down at Taipei airport and wait in the transit room. They waited. They saw the Taipei airport on the other side of the glass window. It started to be boring now. Green picked up a face wash from the hand bag and went to the wash room keeping the hand bag with Pritam to get refreshed. Praveen also went to the wash room keeping the hand bag with Pritam. When they returned Pritam visited the wash room. Then they waited for a long time. Sometimes they walked and sometimes they sat. Sometimes they gossiped. Then they boarded the plane again. This time Pritam again showed his affinity toward window seat. But Green said, 'No, this time it's Praveen's turn.' So the humble Praveen sat by the window seat at last and Green took the aisle seat and Pritam was made to sit in the middle. The plane took off. All of them fell asleep. The plane arrived at Seoul airport. They had to catch another flight to reach the then Pushan. They took the bus to reach Seoul airport. They waited at the Seoul airport with the boarding passes. Up ahead there sitting was a Caucasian type girl in blue jeans, yellow top and a small maroon scarf. Pritam recognised her. He saw her photos on the AFA website and he wanted to talk to her. But he did not have the courage. So he told Green to approach her. Green felt irritated. She said,'Why don't you go and call her?' Pritam said, 'No. You go.' She said, 'Idiot! What's her name?'. 'Tamara', Pritam said. So Green went to her. Green asked, 'Hey are you going to Pushan?', Tamara turned back and said, 'Yes. Why?' Then Green explained everything and Tamara recognised all of them. At first Tamara appeared a bit snobbish to Green. So she said to Pritam, 'Leave her alone.' However they boarded the plane and after two-three hours they reached Pushan airport. They collected the luggage from the belt. Then they exchanged the currency.

   At the exit of the airport a few Korean faces were waiting with the placards of AFA. One beautiful Korean girl was capturing photographs. And a guy was recording videos of their arrival. It was easy to find them. They met them. And they started to be as hospitable as possible. One of them asked Green

-          How was the journey?

-          Long and tiresome!

-          Yes. I know. How long was it?

-          Almost twenty hours.

-          Yes. You must be jet lagged?

-          Yes. A bit.

-          Okay. We have to catch the metro now?

-          Don't you have cabs?'

-          It's air-conditioned. Don't worry. And not so crowded. Give us your luggage.

-          It's okay. We can carry it.

-          No, I insist.

The guy and his friends helped them by taking their luggage. The women hugged Pritam and Praveen. Then they left for the metro. The tube rail was connected to the airport. So it was a minute's walk. Then they boarded the metro. After some time they got down from the metro. The cars were waiting. The Korean friends helped them to get in the cars. Then they reached their destination hotel, Arpina. Green wanted to call home. Park, the production guy took him to a shop in the hotel itself. She bought an international calling card and called home from a telephone at the hotel. The Korean friends showed them the rooms. Green shared a room with Tamara. And Pritam shared a room with two guys from Afghanistan and Mongolia and Praveen shared a room with two guys from Malaysia and Vietnam. When Green asked their Korean names they said that they were hard to pronounce and so they adopted some English names. However some of them indeed used their Korean names. Green entered the hotel room, and picked a scrubber and a face wash from her hand bag. In the room of Arpina, Green asked Tamara,

-          If you don't mind I would like to go to bathroom now? I can't wait anymore.

-          Hey, don't be so formal. What happened? Having periods?

-          Nope. I just want to feel refreshed.

-          Oh, that's great. But I think I am having period. I am feeling a bit damp there.

-          Okay then, you go first.

-          No no it's okay. I have a pad. It's not something big. You go, I will wait.

-          Are you sure?

-          Yes, absolutely. Don't worry.

-          Okay. As you wish.

Green removed her black t-shirt and blue jeans. She entered the bath room wearing a pink tanga and pink bra. In the bathroom she removed those undergarments and kept them on the hanger. And she threw the pad into the dustbin. She became completely naked under the shower and felt so happy. She soaped her body and applied face wash and scrubber. When she was done, she came out wrapping herself in the white towel and saw Tamara in a black French cut panty and a red push up bra. Green said,

-          You look amazing

-          Are you a lesbian?

-          Not at all. I love to be with boys.

-          That's better.

-          Yes.

Tamara was pressing her pad on the vagina to see whether it was wet. She said,

-          I am going to the wash room now. Hope you are done...

-          Yes, of course.

-          Thanks

-          Don't say it. We are friends now.

-          Yes, indeed.

Tamara entered bathroom with a vaginal liquid wash and a face wash. She entered the bathroom and removed her panty and pad. She washed her vagina with the liquid and then took a shower. She came out of the bathroom in a bathrobe and found Green in purple sleeveless night wear shorts. She asked,

-          Won't you have dinner?

-          Yes. I will change again.

-          I won't change. I will wear something new now.

-          That's fine! Do it.

Tamara picked up a dark grey designer top, a fresh panty, a fresh bra, and jeans and entered the bathroom. She changed it and came outside. Green pushed herself inside the blanket and she saw Tamara, but did not say anything. Tamara asked,

-          How am I looking?

-          I am not a lesbian.

-          Common, I was just scared. That's why I asked you.

-          Okay, you are looking great. Boys will attack you soon.

-          Thanks. Why did you come with two boys?

-          They are from my institute.

-          Okay. Close friends?

-          Yes.

Somebody knocked on the door. Tamara opened the door. It was Hiroki from Japan. He told in broken English that there was a party at the Asian Cine Fund nearby and they would have dinner there. So it's time to get down. The cars were waiting. Green got herself ready in a green t-shirt and blue jeans.

  They reached Asian Cine Fund. It was a huge hall adorned with decorated small round tables. Many people were sitting there. Something was happening on the stage. Sun Koh, a beautiful korean production coordinator guided them to a table. Three of them sat together on the chairs around the table. There was three bottles of champaign on the table with three glasses. The hall was filled with the murmur of eminent people from all across the world. The environment was cheerful. Pritam could not wait. He started pouring champaign into his glass. Then Praveen started and after that Green started. They all drank the full bottle in an hour. And it was a quality champaign. Green felt refreshed indeed. After that Sun Koh came and told them that now they had to appear in the stage as AFA fellows for a photo shoot. They stood up and went to the stage along other twenty four fellows from different countries. It felt nice. Afterwards they got down and went for dinner. It was a buffet arranged on the left side of the hall. Much kind of foods were there. Green had chicken and some sea food with sticky white rice. After that they returned to the hotel. Green changed dress and got her into the night shorts and fell asleep on the thick white cushion. Tamara felt a bit unhappy since they did not talk to each other though she also felt very tired and fell asleep after changing the outfit into a light nightwear.

 Next day again Hiroki knocked on the door and told them that they have to go for breakfast. They took bath and went down for breakfast. The breakfast hall of Arpina was big too. It was a buffet breakfast. Green took a glass of orange juice, two breads and butter cups and a roasted small chicken wing. The tables were long there. Many people could seat together face to face. Green saw a middle aged Caucasian guy having breakfast at the corner of a table. She headed towards him and asked him,

-          May I sit here?

-          Yes, of course.

-          Thanks.

-          Guess, you are from Afghanistan?

-          No. India.

-          Where are you from?

-          I am from Britain.

-          Okay, what's your name?

-          Mark.

-          I guess you are not a fellow like us.

-          No, I am your cinematography mentor.

-          Okay, that's great. I did not think I would meet a British guy here.

-          British Council is supporting AFA. You are going to shoot with a Red camera provided by the British Council.

-          That sounds great.

-          Yes, indeed.

-          May I ask you something personal?

-          Why are you hesitating? Shoot it? I love to talk to girls J

-          Great. Are you married?

-          No, I had a Chinese girl friend though.

-          What happened then?

-          We broke up. What about you?

-          I have a boyfriend.

-          Did he come here?

-          No.

-          Okay. Have fun with your friends.

Mark got up since he was done with the breakfast. Green said, 'Sure'. Mark said, 'See you soon.' After a while Green finished her breakfast. Pritam and Praveen were enjoying breakfast with some other boys from Asian countries. Tamara found another boy with a long ponytail hair from Thailand. Green started browsing the food once again. She found a pot with some small disposable bottles of vitamin supplements. She thought that she needed one. So she picked one and drank it. By this time another production guy Park came and guided all of them to the lobby where there was a counter. Everybody was given an identity card inscribed with their names. Green got one too. Then they were told to get in a meeting room. A big round table was there. All of them sat around it. The mentor Penek of Thailand came to the room and introduced himself. He was given the selected scripts by the production team. He then said that since there were ten director and ten cinematographer fellows, they were going to divide them into two teams and they were going to make two short films. So they divided them into two groups. Along with the directors and cinematographers there were two editors and two sound designers. Pritam and Green came for sound and two other guys came for editing. So, two teams were formed with twelve fellows each. Pritam was given the task of doing sound for Team A and Green was given the task of doing sound of Team B. Praveen was placed in Team A with Pritam as a cinematographer. So the team got divided and Praveen, Pritam and Green got separated. Now they were supervised totally by two different teams of mentors. Penek became the supervisor of Team B, where Green was placed. After dividing the team, they were given an hour to spend time among themselves in the room of Team B. Team A went to a separate meeting room. In the room of Team B there were two computers with internet connection. In the free time Green sat at one of them and started browsing Orkut. Eric a cinematographer from Singapore sat at the next computer by Green. He saw her browsing Orkut. But he opened Facebook and told Green to try Facebook. Green saw Facebook for the first time. She immediately created a profile on Facebook and added Eric as a friend. Then they went for lunch.

After the lunch, the script reading session started. Everybody read the script before online. Now it's time to audiovisualise it. Penek divided the group in five smaller subgroups since there were five camera persons and five directors. Each director paired with one cinematographer and the script was divided into five parts to be shot by the five groups. Green was about to do the sound for all the groups. And Shogo, a guy from Japan, was supposed to edit the whole film. Now it was time for visualising the script on paper. As Penek said when he makes films, he draws each shot and hangs them in front of him in the office before going for a shoot. So it was time to sketch each shot. But the question was who would do that. In the evening they were served snacks. It was typical Korean cream and biscuit desert. Then they were introduced with a Korean intern, a young student, to draw the shots. That day was over they went for dinner. This time Green tasted pork again with rice and other items.

Next day the script reading session started and the Korean intern started drawing all the shots discussing with the fellow directors. It took almost three days. Now it was time for location recce. Green saw the shots. And she visited places with a production guy. There was a scene to be shot at a railway station. One singer would sing a song. So it had to be recorded properly on location. The production guy showed a railway station to Green. But it was surrounded by construction noise. Green said that she would not be able to do sync sound there. The production guy immediately took her to a hill top station, where it was full of nature and silence. Green liked the place and said she would do sound here. So that location got finalised. For other locations she visited with each subgroup and expressed her opinion. It was not like India. Everybody respected her opinion and took decision considering that. She liked it.

 The recce was done. Now it was time for actor selection. The film required a young couple. The production team brought two boys and two girls. Since the film was supposed to be shot in Korean, fellows tasted their acting ability and then voted for the actors. This way, actors were selected for the film.

Now it was time for shooting. Green met the location recording engineer Mr Lee. He wanted to teach her about the Tascam DAT (Digital Audio Tape) recorder, he was happy when he saw that Green already knew about it. Mr Lee did not know English. So the production coordinator Park acted as a translator. And it became nice and smooth when Lee found that Green already knew about DAT recorder, boom microphone and wireless microphone. That was all what was required for the shooting for now. Now it was time for getting assistants. So Green was provided a young Korean girl student for the shooting. She spoke broken English to communicate with Green.

The time for shooting arrived. A lady translator was provided by AFA. She became very friendly with Green during the shooting. She talked a lot with Green. She told about her little son and family. Green heard everything patiently while setting up her machines, maintaining sound report and instructing the assistant. It was a great experience. She liked the sunny not-so-hot Korean weather. She also liked the production team since they always managed to bring good food for them sometimes at location and sometimes they took them to some Chinese restaurants. One day in the evening they brought Sushi, while shooting at a local metro station. This was going nice. Every day they used to get up at seven and come back at night. After that Green used to take rest and smoke a Korean cigarette bought from the basement market at the Hotel.  On the third day in the evening, when they were shooting on a rooftop of a house, the Dean Makhmalbaf arrived straight from Iran. He told them that after landing, he instructed the production team to take him directly to the shooting location. So he came and saw the shooting. 'Great Experience', Green thought. It was also great to experience a light director on location. That was unlike India. In Korea the light director decides about the lighting and the cinematographer concentrates on the image. Next day the shooting was over. Now it was time for post production.

 Shogo took three days - first day to lay the sound, second day for a rough cut and third day for a final cut. Then he put subtitle with the help of the Korean translator. It all went fine. But the Team A messed up with shooting; their rush did not come up according to their expectation. So, Penek suggested breaking the movie into chapters. They did so and somehow managed to edit the film. After that it was the time for sound design. Pritam took the film of Team A to a studio. And Green was sent to Dongseo University a bit away from the Edit suit. At the studio, the film was laid on the ProTools software. A professor Son and his students helped Green in the University. After watching the film on computer, Green listed all the sound effects required to be recorded. Hiroki was there with her throughout. Then she asked for a car. She was provided a car immediately. She travelled from location to location with her equipment to record the sound effects with Badam. Badam was a fellow director from Mongolia. He was impressed by Green's work. So he also wanted to go along with Green. Green also enjoyed his company. Green came back to the studio and laid the sounds to the film. She had lunch on the lush green ground of Dongseo University with the professor and her students. A little bit of dubbing was necessary here and there. But mostly it was the location sound. Then she mixed it and sent the track to the editor. Now, it was Dean's class at a nearby theatre. Makhmalbaf talked a lot about films and screened a show reel of his own famous films. He discussed the films thoroughly. It was nice experience. He also had a translator with him. Green noticed that when he got emotional he spoke his native language.

 At night they came to the hotel. They had dinner. Almost everybody went to their rooms. Penek and Makhmalbaf were walking on the lobby. At the basement there was a bar. Penek was a talkative guy. But Green wanted to talk to Makhmalbaf since she read one of his books recently. She wanted to tell him that. She was walking with Tamara behind preparing for going to the room. Penek saw the bar and said,

-          Makhmalbaf, want to have a beer?

-          I don't drink. But I can give you company.

-          Okay! I want to have a beer.

Penek turned back and saw Tamara and Green. He told them, 'Let's go to the bar.'

They agreed immediately. They sat around a table. The waiter came, Penek ordered three beers and a lime soda for Makhmalbaf. Green told Makhmalbaf, 'I read your book on Afganisthan.' Makhmalbaf said, 'I wrote it long back.' He was not interested to discuss about it. So she stopped. Penek said,

-          'Are you rich Makhmalbaf?'

-          'No, you can't be rich by making films. But you have the satisfaction.'

-          'I am also not rich (smiled).'

-          'But you enjoy the whole process of film making as a director?'

-          'I feel bored at times. As a director on shooting floor, you have to wait and watch. Everybody works but you have to wait for the moment of shot taking.'

-          'Yes, that's true. But you meet so many people. The crew, the actors.'

Green was listening to their conversation. She had no dream to be rich. She just wanted to be happy in life. So she knew what she wanted in life. Tamara asked, 'But the field is so male dominated?' Penek replied, 'Women are also coming up! Don't worry; time will come for them too.' Green said, 'Yes, time will come for us too. We will rule the outside world. But I want to go hand-in-hand with boys. I don't hate them until they hurt me.' Tamara said, 'Okay. That's a nice statement. But they always want sex.' Green said, 'What's so wrong in that. May be it is their biological need. They are programmed that way. But the real problem is they will call you whore after sleeping with you. That's the biggest problem. If they did not do so, there would have been no problem. The society is corrupt.' Tamara asked, 'Are you a communist?' Green said, 'I don't know. It's my own experience and thought. If it merges with any ism, I can't help.' Makhmalbaf finished the lime soda soon. Penek finished the last glass soon and said, 'We are in South Korea. Not in North Korea. It's late now. Let's go.' They left the bar.

Next day AFA arranged a tour for them. They boarded a bus. The bus went through smooth the campus. Fellows bought a lot of staffs. But Green was not interested in any religious staffs. So she did not buy anything. She felt the huge peaceful silent prayer hall. Then they took them to a German food festival by the same bus for lunch. Green entered the hall. Lot of food were arranged in that hall. It was a buffet. She thought it would be quite interesting to taste German food. But to her utter surprise, it was mostly tasteless boiled food. She tasted a bit and hated it. She told Pritam, 'Do you like it?' Pritam nodded his head negatively. Green started looking here and there. She found an Indian section was there. She found Indian beef curry there. She took it on her plate and ate it with some rice and vegetables. After that they left the place. Then they were brought to a street market, where many shops are there. The market was spacious. Green bought a black lady's blazer for twenty five thousand won. In the evening they were taken to a cinema hall and watched a movie made by Penek. They came back to the hotel at night. This time they were served typical Korean staple food. In a bowl vegetables, sea food, and sticky rice. Other options were there. But Green chose the staple food. It was not so spicy and good for health. After that she went to the room with Tamara.

Next morning they woke up at seven and had the breakfast. Then they went to the room again. From the glass window of the room far away on the mountain top a statue of Buddha was visible. Green planned to visit that place since that day was free. So, they teamed up with Pritam, Praveen, a few other fellows and some Korean friends, who know the way. They started to walk. The production guy Park was worried. He told to keep the id card with each of them. They crossed the street, went up the mountain, walked a long time. Then they reached the statue. It was a nice trek. They sat there for a while. Then they returned. In the evening Green went to McDonalds for a while with some fellows. At night they had a sochu party with the Korean production team. They sat on the floor and had sochu in paper cups. They served little pieces of alive octopus. Some of the fellows ate it. But people from India and Afganisthan did not take it. Green was also hesitating. But when they insisted Green took a piece and ate it. It was no so great. But okay. The main topic of the party was sexual frustration. Park started it. He wanted to know everybody's sexual frustration. A guy from Beijing fell in love with a slim and beautiful girl from Hongkong. They talked about it openly. Then Park asked about sexual life of Green. She said, 'I'm feeling sleepy.' However, the party lasted for some more time. Then they had dinner there and went to bed.

  Now, it was time to return. Next day Penek left. While leaving the gate of Arpina, Penek talked a lot as usual and kissed Sun Koh in the end on her cheek. Tamara protested, 'You are exploiting her.' Penek smiled and left. Everybody gave him an affectionate send-off.'

 Next day Green, Praveen and Pritam left. In the car Green found that she forgot to bring her phone. Park was driving the car. He said there was no time to return. But Green said, 'I have many contacts in that phone.' Park said, 'We will send it to you by courier. Don't worry.' Green was relaxed a bit and tried to enjoy the ride.

9. Blue joins SRFTI

Blue phones Green. But it said 'switched off'. He got a bit frustrated and lay on the bed. His roommate asked, 'What happened?' He said, 'Nothing.' Just after that his phone rang. His brother Ranjan called him. A letter came from RKK. He used to give his address as a local guardian. So, all his mails used to come at Ranjan's place. He said that according to the letter he got selected for the department of editing at RKK. He became very happy and went to his brother's house to collect the letter. The starting date of the course was mentioned there. So he went to RKK accordingly. The classes started. The first six months was common course. He attended camera, direction, editing and sound classes. There was no acting course. But the legendary Soumitra Chatterjee took an acting class and told them how he became Ray's favourite actor. There was a subsidised canteen where they used to get chicken rice for only twenty rupees. One day when he was having lunch at the canteen, he told his friends that he applied for SRFTI. Then he found he was not alone. Another boy Arindam and a girl Tinni had also applied for SRFTI. The information got spread like wild fire. He realised it when he was denied the delegate card of Kolkata Film Festival by the then idiot director. He missed many films of that festival that year. However after one month, his brother Ranjan again called and said he got selected for SRFTI as well. So he went to his house again and got the letter. He then visited SRFTI on the starting date. It was another chapter of his life. They were given to stay at the registrar's bungalow since hostel was occupied by the senior. There were many rooms in that bungalow. So he stayed with four other friends on the hall of first floor. He left the mess and shifted totally to SRFTI campus. He could not see Green at the campus. He phoned her, but it was again switched off. So he became upset. However, classes started. And at the same time sadists attacked. Every day they used to be harassed by a group of seniors at night at the terrace. They would put a chair in the middle of the terrace and make one after another sit on that chair and harass him/her continuously until the dawn breaks. In the mean time they will drink. It ran for a few days. He went to buy liquor at night on the order of seniors. Some seniors were good. They used stop this nonsense in the name of ragging. Some people left the campus because of this. Blue understood their psychology and bore them whenever they used to approach them. But he did not see Green there at the ragging. Green went to Mumbai on her way back. However, after a few days some new comers protested and the ragging stopped. It seemed after a long period they slept well since they were attending classes in the day time and they were writing film diaries at night and then the ragging. It seemed too much. After it stopped they relaxed. Blue started attending classes regularly. Green came to the campus after a few days. One day during the lunch time Green met Blue face to face. They stopped. Green smiled,

-          What happened to your phone?

-          I went to South Korea. I forgot it there. They will send it to me soon.

-          Okay. Why don't you take a temporary number?

-          I have another number. My Mumbai number. I will send it to you.

-          Okay.

-          So you are an SRFTian now?

-          Yes. Because of you.

-          It's good only.

-          Do you have a boy friend?

-          Yes. Don't tell him anything. I hope I can trust you.

-          Yes. That you can do. But it's bad only.

-          Don't be jealous. You will get one too.

-          What if I want you?

-          Who knows what will happen in future?

-          Hmm. What do you mean?

-          I will tell you a secret. But before that you have to tell me something.

-          What?

-          Do you think I am a whore?

-          No.

-          Tell me seriously.

-          No, I told you that.

-          If I hug my boyfriend in front of you and kiss him. What would you feel?

-          I will feel angry.

-          And you will call me a whore...

-          Most of the people would certainly do that. But I will better cut you off from my life.

-          I know. Because you will feel the urge again.

-          Yes, I am a boy. But I don't like to sleep with anybody.

-          Let's go and sit there.

-          Where?

-          Come with me.

Green took her to a long iron chair set on the ground at the back of the library. They sat together, Blue asked,

-          What if your boyfriend sees you with me?

-          I don't care.

-          What secret are you going to tell me?

-          I tell you one thing. For girls marriage is a career. We are uncertain of our lives, and we don't have a brothel to go. So we get married as soon as possible.

-          You want me to go to a brothel, what the fuck?

-          I don't want you to go to a brothel. Love is not sex at all.

-          So it's a directionless discussion. No solution.

-          Yes for the time being. But time is the solution. Give it time.

-          Okay. I will do that.

-          Great. So we are good friends now. We trust each other right?

-          Yes, indeed.

-          Let's go. We will have lunch together.

-          Okay.

Green took him to the canteen and had lunch with him. She gave him her Mumbai number. Blue was happy that he met Green at last.

 Time passed. Green's cell phone arrived from South Korea. Blue got busy. He used to talk to Green only when it was necessary. Green understood that. But it was a complicated situation. Both of them were mature enough to understand that. So they decided to give it time. That's the only thing that can be done now. At the same time Blue started translating for the little magazine. It was a hectic routine for him. But he enjoyed it. After a few days, they were shifted to hostel. Blue stayed with a senior Kushal from Bareli Uttar Pradesh. Kushal was a talented guy. He learned Bengali and could speak quite well. But he was upset since Blue used to read till 3 o'clock at night. So he changed the room after a few days. Now Blue is alone in his room. He brought a localite roommate. His name is Dhiman. Dhiman's house was twenty minutes away from the institute. So he seldom used to stay with Blue. Blue used to eat flat rice in the morning, teachers used to come and go in the day time, they used to watch films in the evening and two days a week, he used to go to the office of the little magazine. On the other hand Green learned many things in her department. She learned about electronics. She learned how to record songs. Then came her project short film. She did the sound for her batch mate,Tamal's, short film. Then she visited home and returned. Again classes resumed. She learned how to do sound for a movie. Her teacher brought a few reels of a Hindi movie for their group and they recreated the sound for those reels. Then came the playback project. She recorded a song for the project and took it to the streets of Kolkata for shooting. The direction student Korok arranged a band and she recorded, edited and mixed the song. After shooting, during the editing she visited home. After this project the fourth semester ended. Green received Dolby scholarship for her performance. For Blue they needed to make a short silent video each on any subject. They were divided into groups. Blue wrote a script and shot it with his batch mate Arindam as a cameraman and edited it with the help of seniors. He also worked for others as camera person, production manager. Then he went home for a week.  After that again classes resumed. Green came back. Blue learned many things. Then came the audio project. They have to write audio script for a short radio play. He started reading short stories in the library. He found a sweet short story of Tagore and turned it into an audio play. He did it in a small set up in the sound department. He struggled with the new software for a while. But with the help of a staff of sound department, he finally completed the audio play. He went home and returned after fifteen days. Again classes resumed. Then came the last project of the first year – the continuity film. Each of them was told to write scripts for a five minute short film. Blue struggled hard to write a script. He thought about many stories that he heard in his childhood. Then he thought it would be nice to take an idea from write-ups of the little magazine. In the little magazine a writer, Bitan was writing a serial essay on post-modernism. He wrote the dialogues of the script based on that essay. Then he went home for a few days. On return he prepared for the shooting and the day came, he shot his first short film. He worked also as an actor, producer, cameraperson, and sound guy for others. On the other hand, Green was preparing for her final diploma film. She did two films, one with Sange and another with Korok as a director. Both were shot outside Kolkata. Sange's cameraperson was a girl called Puja from Maharashtra and editor was a guy called Sanglap from West Bengal. Sange was from Arunachal Pradesh. Sange shot the film well. But he messed up in the sound post. He had no idea about sound. So he forced Green to withdraw many sounds that was necessary for the visuals. So that film was completely messed up. Korok was a different guy. He was a bit frustrated during the whole diploma project and so he did not interfere with any of his crewmembers. Shiva from Chennai did his camera; Sayan from Kolkata edited it. Green liked to do the sound for this film. Both the films had music. She recorded them in department's studio. So the diploma films were a great experience. It took almost six months to finish two diploma films. By this time Blue got promoted to third semester i.e the specialisation with a scholarship.

Time passed like lightning. It was time for Green to leave the institute. Rahul was still stuck with his diploma project, since, his director wanted to do the project slowly and in the end. Green missed Blue after a long time. It was night, almost 9 o'clock. Green phoned him. But he cut the phone. Green was angry. He went to Blue's room at the hostel and found it locked from the inside. Blue was sleeping with a girl, who was a good script writer. He got scared and shouted, 'Wait! Coming.' The girl got dressed up soon. Blue wore the shorts and opened the door in bare body. Green noticed the girl at the back drop and said, 'Okay!'

  They did not talk again. They looked at each other. Both felt guilty. Green turned and went back. Blue stood silently for a while. Green came to her room at the G Block. As a student of last year she had a single room with attached bathroom. That room was connected to Rahul's room. Since there were not many girls in the campus, many boys used to stay in the G block. Rahul was there in his room. He heard the sound of Green latching the door and switching on the light. He came to her room asked, 'What happened?' Green was angry, 'Don't come to my room. I want to be alone now.' Rahul got scared, 'Okay! Okay!' and he left. Green lay on the bed supine, closed her eyes and put her forehand on the closed eyes. She was upset. She did not know why. After one hour she went to the hostel mess for dinner. She had it alone. She did not talk to anybody and came back to her room. Next day she bought the ticket for Mumbai. This time she went by train because of her luggage.

10. The Mumbai

 She took the phone numbers of the big sound recording engineers of Mumbai from her teachers. Her home was at Goregaon East in Mumbai. She reached home in Mumbai. Her mother was a busy woman. But she was quite worried for her. So she took some information about the sound industry beforehand. She knew it was quite struggling in the beginning. But she did not tell anything to Green, when she reached home. She told her to take rest for a few days. Green took rest for one day. She was worried too about her future especially after what she told Blue. She realised that she needed to do something in life. Marriage was a career indeed for her. But she could not just marry anybody. She realised that she was slowly falling for Blue within. But she thought whether she was doing justice to Rahul. The relationship with Rahul was mathematical. 'Have a boyfriend and don't let people call me a whore' – that was all about it. Rahul was never as attractive as Blue. Blue was docile, angry, knowledgeable, tough and adjustable. Most important thing was he respected her. He was a complete package. Rahul was rich but blunt.  Blue was middle class but wise. Rahul was charming but monotonous. Blue looks nice and colourful. Rahul was great but uninteresting. Blue was great and interesting. However, she thought why to calculate as a mathematician. 'It's love that counts.' She was thinking all these lying in her room on her bed. But now the problem was how they could stay together in near future. 'Will Blue come to Mumbai?' She knew if she called him, he would manage to come. 'But what about Kolkata?' she thought. It was a nice city too. But the industry had pretty negative impression. Mumbai was impressive from outside. 'But let's give it a try', she thought. At night at the dinner table, she told her mother,

-          Mom, I will go to meet people in the industry tomorrow.

-          Do you have contacts?

-          Yes.

-          Okay. But I will take the car.

-          I don't need a car. I'll go by bus.

Her mother did not say anything as she knew that she would not listen to her now. And it was also necessary for her to taste the reality. So she indulged her. Green went to bed that night. Next morning she started calling the rerecording engineers. Some of them gave her appointments and some of them did not. She started meeting them. She was shocked. One of a renowned production studio offered her a job for two thousand bucks, though other studios offered her jobs for eight thousand, nine thousand etc but not more than ten thousand. She was shocked and hated to call herself a post graduate sound recording engineer. She told her mother everything about it. She tried to pacify her by saying to look for other options. So one day she called one of her seniors, who used to do location recording. He told her that she would not be able to survive by working in a studio. The studios are in a business of exploiting people for ages. But he also advised that since she was a girl, she should not come to location recording as the field was totally male dominated and the work involved extensive travelling and hard work. She was frustrated. She told this to her mom one night. Her mother advised her to study further. But she was adamant to do sound. She did not want to leave sound. Her mother then said, 'Okay! Keep trying.' So far she was travelling among the studios and location recording engineers. She also had a phone number of a guy from FTII, who ran a company authorised by Dolby. His name was Anirban. She phoned Anirban and the guy responded positively. He asked her to come for an interview. She visited the office at Andhery on time and Anirban met her. He asked her a few simple questions and told her that he would offer her ten thousand bucks per month as an intern. She asked why so low! He told her that their business was like that. He could not offer her more than ten thousand as an intern but she would be able to design amplifier here at this company. Then she could shift the job or become a manager in that company. She accepted the offer. She came home and told her mother about the job. Her mother was not so happy. But she said, 'It's better to do something than nothing.' She started doing the job. The company was like a small institute.  Lot of people used to work there. They had the main office at Veera Desai road and nearby they had a workshop, where they used to design and test amplifiers. She started doing this. She was not so happy for the money. But she enjoyed what she was doing. There she found some boys, who were cinema engineers. They used to visit places to install speaker system at the multiplexes. She became interested in that job and asked Anirban that she wanted to visit with them. Anirban did not allow her to go with them. She was upset. So at night she phoned Blue. Blue picked up the phone,

-          Hey, what's up?

-          Wait a second (whispered).

-          (After a few seconds) I was watching cinema at the main theatre.

-          Okay. Did I disturb you?

-          Not at all. I've been expecting your call for a long time. What took you so long to recall me?

-          I was struggling in the industry.

-          Mumbai is great, I heard.

-          Mumbai is great. But the film industry is not as great as it appears to be.

-          Why are you saying that?

-          It's completely unorganised sector. A jungle. No rules. Somebody is earning in millions and somebody is earning in coins. That's what it is.

-          What are you doing nowadays?

-          I design amplifiers.

-          That's great.

-          Not great. I earn ten thousand bucks per month. They might promote me in future.

-          That's great. Don't be upset. At least you are doing something. Keep it up.

-          Yes. But I miss you.

-          I miss you too.

-          What happened to that girl?

-          Which girl?

-          With whom you slept that day?

-          I did not sleep with her. She writes scripts.

-          You are lying to me.

-           Okay. We slept for one day. That's it. After that I did not even meet her. I was angry to you.

-          Yes, I know.

-          How is your boyfriend?

-          You know better. He was at the institute.

-          No I don't see him these days.

-          May be he has gone to Delhi.

-          Okay.

-          Can you do me a favour?

-          Yes, tell me.

-          Don't sleep with anybody again.

-          Why do you bother? You will get married soon.

-          No, I won't. I will create my future, and then I will get married.

-          Sounds great. But will you marry me?

-          Yes.

-          Do you know where my home is? North Bengal.

-          I know. Don't do mathematics, please. I told you give it time. Everything will be sorted out.

-          Okay. As you wish.

-          Wait, I'll call you after dinner.

-          Okay.

Green cut the phone. Then she called Rahul and she heard a crowd,

-          Hey, where are you now?

-          In Delhi.

-          Where in Delhi?

-          At a pub with friends.

-          Good. Now do as I am saying.

-          Okay.

-          Go outside or to any silent place.

-          Okay. Wait a minute.

Rahul went outside on a lonely street and said,

-          Yes, tell me.

-          Do you love me?

-          Why are you asking?

-          Answer me. Do you love me or not?

-          Yes, of course.

-          Why?

-          What do you mean?

-          Why do you love me?

-          Because I like you.

-          That's what I am asking. Why do you like me?

-          Because I can tell my friends that I have a girl friend. Being single is frustrating.

-          That's why you proposed me.

-          Yes. Why?

-          Will you marry me?

-          When?

-          In future?

-          Yes, of course.

-          Why?

-          Because I want to have kids.

-          What if I work outside?

-          No need. I will work. You will be the home maker. Who will take care of the kids?

-          No I want to work outside.

-          Okay, if you want, you can work.

-          Thanks. You are a nice person. But I'll tell you something now. Don't get frustrated.

-          What do you mean?

-          The truth is I never loved you.

-          What?

-          Yes, do you remember what you said when you proposed me?

-          Yes.

-          What?

-          I love you. Will you love me?

-          And what did I say?

-          'Okay. We will be together from now on.'

-          Exactly. We will be together as friends.

-          No you did not say 'as friends'.

-          I meant that.

-          So you used me (angry)!

-          No you used me to show off your manliness to your peers and I did not oppose it.

-          How can you say that?

-          You just told me so.

-          You are betraying me (upset).

-          Don't get frustrated. We will be friends forever.

-          No never.

-          Better.

Green did not cut the phone. Rahul did not cut the phone either. For a minute they kept mum to each other. Then he said,

-          I need a massage.

-          Go ahead. Find a beautiful masseur.

This time Green cut the phone. She opened her laptop and played a happy music on YouTube. Her mother called her for dinner. She had dinner with her parents. Then she went to her room and phoned Blue again,

-          Hey, what are you doing?

-          I was waiting for your phone call.

-          Hmm, that sounds pleasant to hear.

-          You know what I did.

-          What?

-          I dumped Rahul.

-          Okay. But you had a great future with him.

-          No, he stays in Delhi. I stay in Mumbai. What possible future could we make?

-          He would go to Mumbai for job.

-          I know. But I don't want him. I have decided.

-          Are you sure?

-          Yes, no more mathematics.

-          Okay, that sounds terrific.

-          What font do you like?

-          Pardon?

-          What is your favourite font?

-          Courier.

-          Okay.

-          Why?

-          I will give you a surprise.

-          Okay.

-          Okay. Good night!

-          Good night. Sweet dreams.

Time passed. Sunday came. Green went to a Tattoo shop at a mall and told them to make a Tattoo of the word BLUE in Courier font on her left upper arm. They did it and took a photograph Green took the photo in a pen drive and returned home. Then she sent it to Blue by email.

 In the first six months Green designed amplifier circuits as well as visited one installation site with Anirban at Raipur in Madhyapradesh. As she expressed her will to visit sites consistently, Anirban took her to two sites with him so that she got to know about speaker installation. She stayed in a hotel. At the site she met the electrical engineer. He showed her the speaker termination box where all the wires from all the speakers come to be connected with the amplifiers. He described her concealed underground trench wiring at the projection room. Then she saw how Anirban did the final speaker alignment with the help of alignment microphones connected to his laptop. That was it. She returned from the site after a week. She learned many things. But salary did not rise. Then she finished internship and salary was hiked by 20% i.e it became twelve thousand. So she was happy for learning but unhappy for the salary. She started searching a well paid job. In the mean time Blue was enjoying the life at SRFTI. He was attending classes. He was doing little magazine. He was boozing with peers. And he was preparing for projects. He met many people, read a lot, visited sites for shooting, and talked to Green whenever he had spare time.

11. Hyderabad

 Then one day she got a call from a senior Sandip, with whom she worked before in Kolkata for a Bangladeshi documentary. He got her phone number from one of her juniors, Amit, who started working in Kolkata, since he was searching for a sound teacher for a Hyderabad based film school RAFT. She responded positively. Then she received a call from the production coordinator, Shyam. He first said that she would get fifty thousand rupees as salary. Then he told that for the living apartment that will be provided to her, they will cut some money. She heard it and did not give it much thought since she was looking for a better salary. He told her that she had to come on 31^st August, since the classes will be started from 1^st September. She was suggested to take a low cost on time air line Indigo, since the fare would be paid back. He also told there was a canteen over there, where she could have food for the whole day. So he told her to come as soon as possible. It was 20^th August, when she received the phone call. So she was in hurry. She went to her office and met Anirban and told everything to him. He said, 'It's okay. You have learned many things. Now it's better to earn money. Go there and find the situation and then decide.' She started packing. Sandip was in her friend list on Facebook. They chatted once before leaving Mumbai. He said that he would guide her since it was far from the airport. So she bought the ticket for an evening flight on 31^st August. She landed in Hyderabad after almost two hours. She booked a prepaid cab from a counter and started for RFC, Ramoji Film City, where RAFT is situated. Sandip sent an sms giving the detailed direction to reach the housing. He said to come to a place called Guda, not RFC since those two places have different routes. She told that to the driver. The driver said, 'Okay.' Driver knew the road. He brought her to the RFC gate. The gate was closed. The gate keeper's office was attached to the big gate. He came and opened the gate. Then she called Sandip. He told to take right and come to the last building. She went to the last building, and Sandip was waiting there. She left the car and took the luggage and went to the second floor with Sandip. Her apartment was not locked. Sandip unlatched the door and switched on the light. It was a nice room with a television set, a telephone and two almirahs. Sandip asked,

-          Did you have dinner?

-          No.

-          Why? You should have taken something from the airport.

-          Yes. I forgot.

-          I have cooked mutton and rice. Will you have it?

-          Yes. Why not?

-          Come to my room.

Green latched the door and went to Sandip's room. It was in the attached apartment –same type. Only Sandip arranged it in a different manner. While she was having mutton and rice, Sandip informed her that some boy students used to stay at the ground floor and a small bus took them every day to RAFT. It would leave at 8:10 in the morning. She heard it and came back to her apartment thanking him. She found there was a kitchen, two big bed rooms and a bathroom in that apartment. She opened her bags and stuffed the empty almirah with her things. Then she went to the bathroom and got refreshed. Each room had an iron bed with cushions and pillows on it. But there was no bed sheet and pillow cover. She chose the middle room as a bed room and slept on the cushion. Next morning she woke up at seven and got ready as soon as possible. Exactly at 8 am, the calling bell rang. Sandip was calling her from outside. She said, 'Coming.' She was ready. She took her laptop and wallet and came out. She did not have any lock. So Sandip asked,

-          Didn't you bring a lock?

-          No.

-          Do you have anything expensive at the room?

-          Mostly clothes and some jewellery.

-          Bring the jewellery and keep it in my room.

She went inside again and took the jewellery box with her and gave it to Sandip. Sandip kept it in his room and locked the door. Then he said, 'There are some shops nearby, I will show you in the evening. You should buy a lock.' She said, 'Okay.' They boarded the bus. Some students got up and the driver was not there. He went to have a leak at the office of the care takers. Sandip phoned him, since they were getting late for the breakfast. The driver came immediately and they started. After five minutes, the bus stopped near a huge hotel Sahara. Two girls were waiting there. They boarded the bus and the bus started again. It was a mountainous region with mostly green bushes. Sandip told that this time is the best time of Hyderabad. The weather was cool. The bus stopped at the gate. It was huge with entry machines like Kolkata metro. But she had no identity card that needed to be scanned at the gate. Sandip took her to the security office. The staff asked her where she was going. She said RAFT. He told her to call Shyam. She phoned him and gave the phone to the staff. Then she was given a pass. After that she entered the premises. Then the bus came again and they boarded the bus again and reached RAFT. She entered the office. Sandip showed her the cubicle. She kept the laptop bag on the table. The caretaker boy Ramu gave her a coupon. Shyam just entered the office and said that she could have free food until she got her identity card prepared. She just needed to take coupons from Ramu. Sandip told that the canteen would be closed soon so they rushed to the canteen

  The canteen was divided into two sections – one for general staffs another for managers. The managers' section was called MDR. All of them except Green collected coupons by scanning their identity cards on a machine with computer screen. Then they stood in the queue where food was being served. They took ceramic plates and napkins and chose the food to eat. There were many types of food – mainly Idli, Poha, Luchi and Bada with Sambar and Potatoe curry. Green took a plate of Poha and Potato curry and sat around a table with Sandip and Shyam. Shyam was a talkative person. He could talk about anything though on a superficial level. And he was a blind supporter of the ruling party of India. He had opinions about everything and kept talking continuously. Green listened to him patiently and then stood up to get a cup of coffee. After the breakfast she found, people were taking sweet aniseeds from a container kept on a table near the serving place. She took some of it and kept chewing it.On the way back Green found a weighing machine at a corner near the exit of the MDR. She weighed herself on it. It was quite okay. They climbed up a small staircase and entered the building of RAFT. At the lobby a man was sitting at a desk. Shyam introduced Green with him. His name was Francis. He was a staff of RAFT. Meanwhile dean, Mr Manvi had arrived. Shyam told her to go to his room. She went to his room. He knew that she had arrived. When she opened the door of his chamber, he recognised her and said,

-          Come. Come.

-          Did you have any problem coming here?

-          Not at all. Everybody is so helpful.

-          Okay. How is Ghoshal?

-          He is okay.

-          Everything is okay at your home?

-          Yes.

-          Okay, we will meet the students now. Then you should meet the other teachers here. One more thing. There is a big sound studio here called Symphony. But it is almost defunct now because of an idiot and egotist sound guy, who is the in-charge of that studio. You will find him soon. He will ignore you. You better ignore him too.  He is here because he had no other option. So be smart and don't face him.

-          Okay.

-          Let's go.

Manvi stood up from chair. They walked to classroom. Sandip joined them. Manvi appeared to be a soft spoken humble and nice guy. Students were sitting there in the room. They sat in three chairs before the students. Manvi started speaking. He said, ' ...we three will be available everyday!' with many other things. Then Sandip spoke. Then Green spoke. Then they left the room. Sandip used to schedule the classes. He said to Green that she had a class in the afternoon. It was almost 11 o' clock. Two other aged teachers came and met Green. They were Jatla, the direction teacher and Guha, the editing teacher. Both of them greeted Green. Both of them were from FTII. Jatla was a Telegu and Guha was a Tamil. Jatla used to sit in a cubicle just in front of Green. He started talking about many things. He was a diehard fan of Ray. He was also quite braggart about FTII. However, Shyam came and took her to a small sound studio, where she was supposed to teach software. She saw the studio and then entered the editing lab, where Guha was working on an iMac. Guha was a very humble guy and talked about everything. Then they had lunch together. They tried to make a combination of South Indian and North Indian vegetarian menus. First day Green tasted everything in a little amount. Classes started. It was a one year diploma course on digital film making. So Green was asked to provide a syllabus. She made the syllabus from a British book that she had carried with her in the bag of her laptop. Then she kept it in the drawer of her table. In the evening she returned to her apartment in a car provided by RAFT. Sandip took her to the market. It was a small village market with a few shops at a crossing of Guda. She bought a few necessary stuffs along with a lock with three keys. She came back and took the jewellery box from Sandip. At night she went to the canteen again with the students in a bus to have dinner. Next day she did not find Jatla and Guha. They used to come every alternate day. Instead two other teachers came. They were Sriram and Pandey. Sriram used to teach screenplay writing and Pandey used to teach direction. Green used to meet them quite often in her free time. This way time was going. They took her to the corporate office for capturing her photograph for the identity card; they provided her the identity card; she started using it at the canteen like everybody; they connected her laptop with the internet. But, most of the time she used to spend in the studio and she used to call Blue and family at night. She had to take a Hyderabad post paid phone number. So she bought a small phone. She was also getting frustrated to have vegetarian food every day. So she decided to go to the city to purchase utensils and induction oven. She planned with a girl student one day and went to the market. The student came to Guda from Sahara in a seven seater. And they met at Guda. Then they boarded a bus and got down at LB nagar. They went to a shopping mall at Uppal by an auto. Then bought some required stuffs for day-to-day use. But they did not found the induction oven and the utensil set in that shopping mall. So they went to another shopping mall near LB nagar crossing. They found those items in a much cheaper rate there. Then they had chicken biriani at restaurant. After that they returned. Green started cooking. One month passed. She got a cheque of thirty thousand rupees, where Sandip got a cheque of fifty thousand rupees. And every other teacher got cheques of fifty thousand each. She went to Manvi's room and asked why this kind of discrimination. Manvi immediately shifted position and told her that they had that egotist idiot as a teacher. Now as he got busy, she was hired. So he tried to say that they were being kind to her. So, this was the world of sound in India, Green thought again. After a few days she felt the need of a refrigerator. She tried to buy an old refrigerator from OLX, since she smelled uncertainty about the job when Manvi told her about the egotist idiot. Francis used to sit in the internet lab most of the time. So he helped her finding some contacts. Then when she asked Shyam about those addresses one day, he arranged a car for her and he, Guha and Green went to that address in the city for checking that refrigerator. They rejected the refrigerator and told her to buy a new one in instalment. But she did not listen to their remarks. Why should she listen to them? They get a higher salary. So their thought was different. She came back that day. Next time she did not take anybody's help. She found a address on OLX and went to his house with a student and bought the refrigerator and brought it to her place in a small truck. She did all those things alone with the help of the kind student.

Shyam told her that Manvi used to earn two lac rupees per month, though he used to work in television too. She realised the situation once again. However, she was doing her job efficiently. Blue was struggling with his diploma film. He was not finding suitable actors for his project. That night Blue called her,

-          Hey, what's up?

-          Good. Really getting to know more about sound. By the way who is doing your sound?

-          Dhiman.

-          Okay.

-          Why are you sounding so upset?

-          I thought I would marry you soon. But situation here is not so certain.

-          I am not thinking about marriage so soon.

-          Are you sleeping with girls again?

-          Not at all. But I want to do something and then want to get married.

-          You will do something for sure.

-          I want to make feature films.

-          Great dream. I know you have a script. But I would like to ask you a few questions?

-          Okay.

-          Do you have four five crores?

-          No.

-          Can you write for money only?

-          No way.

-          Can you become a partisan?

-          No.

-          Do you know how to turn black money into white?

-          No. Why are you asking all these questions?

-          Answer me.

-          Okay.

-          Can you say to your crew members that you will pay them in the next project since this time you have no money?

-          Why need I tell that? I will get a financer.

-          Okay. What if your financer wants you to say that to your co-workers?

-          I will never say that.

-          Can you sell copyright of your script?

-          Copyright cannot be sold.

-          Then who will finance your movie?

-          I don't know.

-          Do you realise where you are now?

-          I know. I have already started feeling the heat.

-          So dream big, but take small steps. Marry me!

-          I can't afford you.

-          Come to Hyderabad and stay with me for some days.

-          They will not allow a man in your room?

-          My neighbour is a bachelor, an SRFTIan, our senior. And a great human being.

-          Yes, you told me that.

-          So we can manage.

Blue was excited. He went to the nearest Ambuja Market Complex. He found a shop of a travel agent. He asked for a ticket to Secunderabad as soon as possible. The agent searched online and said that all trains from Howrah were full. Only a few seats were available for a weekly train that used to leave from Shalimar station. It was a full AC express. He booked two tickets, to and fro, immediately. Then he came back to the hostel and started preparing. But he was in the middle of the pre production. So, he gave the diploma script to Dhiman, the sound guy and Arindam, the camera person and requested them to do the shot division. He met the editor, Tinni and told her that he would discuss about the rhythm of the movie after the shot division was prepared. That time there was no producing department in SRFTI. So he met Prasenjit and gave him a copy of the script for getting the contacts of some actors. He also posted on Facebook asking for actors. Then he told all of them that he was going to visit RFC for some days for a change. They said it was okay. He also informed Green and his father. So he reached Secunderabad station in a cool evening. He took a cab and travelled almost for an hour to reach RFC housing complex as Green directed. Shyam became quite friendly to Green. So she informed him and Sandip about Blue. So, Sandip said all of them that Blue would be staying with him, though it was not a big deal since shooting teams used to keep on coming at this complex. Green was standing at the gate. She was wearing a black sleeveless kurta and a red cigarette pant. The cab stopped at the gate. Blue saw the Tattoo on her left upper arm. They smiled at each other. Blue opened the door and she got in the cab and directed the cab driver to turn right and get to the last building. They got down. Blue paid the driver. While climbing the staircase Green asked,

-          How was the journey?

-          Too long.

-          Yes, I know.

-          You have put on weight.

-          Yes, because of the food here.

They reached the apartment. Green unlocked it and they entered. Green locked the door from inside and switched on the light. Blue kept the trolley on the floor. She said,

-          Am I looking too fat?

-          No. A bit.

-          Yes. I have to eat lunch every day in the canteen.

-          Wanna get refreshed? Take a bath.

-          Okay. Where is the bathroom?

-          Come with me.

Green showed the bathroom. Blue said,

-          Okay. Let me take a half pant.

-          Why do you need a half pant (smiled).

-          Don't be silly.

-          Okay.

Green sat down on the floor and tried to unzip Blue's trolley. Blue said, 'It's locked.' She said, 'Give me the key.' Blue picked the keys from his pocket and handed her. She opened the trolley and searched his half pant. She found an ash coloured one. She handed it to him. He said, 'Give me the towel.' She said, 'Use my towel. It's there in the bathroom.' He said, 'I will use that. But I want to remove my pants here.' She said, 'Okay.' She found the chequered towel and gave it to him. Blue wrapped the towel and removed his pants. Then he removed his shirt and banyan. Green took the trolley to the last room, and kept it on the bed.. Green fixed some nylon ropes in this room to hang the used clothes. He followed her and kept his wears on a rope Blue entered the bathroom. Green changed into a purple maxi. Blue used her soap and face wash. Then he came out and hung her towel on a rope. He picked up a yellow tee shirt and put on it. He found Green was sitting on a chair in the TV room with two glasses, a wine bottle, a flavoured spicy cigarette packet, a lighter and a bowl full of cooked chicken pieces on a wooden dining desk attached to the wall. There was another empty chair before her. She said, 'Come and sit.'

-          What did you do?

-          Nothing much. Open the bottle.

-          Yes, sure.

Blue opened the bottle and poured the red wine in two glasses and then kept it. They clinked the glasses and said, 'Cheers' to each other. Blue said,

-          You are looking beautiful.

-          Thanks. Then why don't you marry me?

-          I want to. But...

-          No but. That's all that you want to. That's love.

-          I know dear. But what about struggle and earning money?

-          That'll happen in a way or other.

-          Okay I will marry you.

-          That's it.

Blue picked up the cigarette packet and took out a cigarette. Green asked,

-          Won't you offer me?

-          Do you smoke?

-          Yes, I do.

-          Okay.

Blue offered her the packet. Green took out a cigarette. Then he lit hers and then his. Green asked,

-          It seems you are in deep trouble?

-          First of all, I never thought I could fall in love. Then I never thought I would marry before I earn money and I never expected a girl like you in my life.

-          It happens. Life is never mathematics

-          I learned it from you.

-          Thanks. Let's have dinner now.

-          I am not so hungry.

-          Shut up. Boys are always hungry, though I have prepared chicken and rice only.

-          That's enough.

-          Wait.

Green went to the kitchen. She brought a pressure cooker. Then she brought a pot filled with chicken curry. Blue said, 'Let me help you.' She said, 'You don't know the kitchen. You will mess up.' Blue said, 'Okay.' Then she brought two steel plates and a spoon. She said, 'Pour some wine.' He did. Then she was going to serve the food. But Blue said, 'I can take it.' She said, 'Okay.' They started eating. She said, 'Tomorrow, I will take you to RAFT. Bus will leave from here in the morning. I will wake you up. Enough space is there in the bus. You will sit alone and when you reach RAFT, you spend some time with Sandip. We will have breakfast, and lunch there.'

   After dinner Green was taking the utensils to kitchen and Blue said, 'Now I can help you I guess. Let me do the dishes.' She said, 'Okay.' He washed all the utensils. Then Green arranged them in place. They came to hall. Blue sat on the chair. Green said, 'Let's go to bed.' Blue said, 'I can sleep in this room.' She said, 'Don't irritate me.' Blue said, 'Okay as you wish.' They went to the bed room and slept together.

Next day they went to RAFT. Green took classes. Blue spent time with Sandip. He met Jatla and Guha that day and talked to them. He met omnipresent Shyam. He suggested taking a city tour. So, next day they went to the tourism office of Telengana Government near Koti and booked two tickets for the next day. Sandip scheduled classes accordingly so that they could travel across the city for one day. Then they returned. They had tea at tea shops in the evenings. They walked along the curvy path by the hillocks. Then they invited Sandip one day and cooked for him. This way time passed. They decided to get married after Blue's diploma. Blue left for Kolkata.

  Blue joined the preproduction again. Green started spending time at RAFT. Both of them were refreshed and excited. As usual Green called him one night,

-          Hey, what's going on?

-          Preproduction.

-          Okay. Who is your camera person?

-          Arindam.

-          Hmm. Do you know any camera girl?

-          Yes. Solanki.

-          Who is Solanki?

-          One year junior to us. She is Dhiman's girlfriend.

-          That's great!

-          Give me her number.

-          Why?

-          I need it.

-          Okay, I will forward it.

-          Do it now.

Green cut the phone. Blue forwarded the number. Green called Solanki,

-          Hi, Solanki?

-          Yes. Who is this?

-          I am one of your seniors from sound.

-          Okay.

Green asked her whether she knew Blue. She said, 'Yes, I know him very well.' Then she asked her about Dhiman. They chatted for a while about the institute and told her that she was in a relationship with Blue. Solanki was a chirpy girl. Then Green said,

-          Can you do me a favour?

-          Yes. Tell me.

-          Do you know what fetish is?

-          No.

-          Go to net and read about it. I have fetish for his body parts.

Green meant Blue's body parts. Solanki said,

-          Okay.

-          After you read about it. Shoot his photographs, as many as you can, and send it to me.

-          Okay.

-          Use your creativity. I would like to have high art. Don't shoot porns.

-          Now I guess, I know what you mean (Smiled).

-          No do read about it first

-          Okay.

-          And don't tell him that I told you to do so. Give him some cock and bull stories and get the photographs. I guess you understand me.

-          Yes completely (Smiled).

-          I guess I am not bothering you.

-          Not at all. Don't worry. I will send it to you soon.

-          Thanks a lot.

-          Welcome.

-          Okay,Bye.

-          Good night.

Green cut the phone. Solanki went to the internet room at night and read about 'fetish'. When she put a Google image search, she found some nasty photographs. Now she realised what Green meant. She told Dhiman about what Green wanted. Both of them were very naughty and loved to do what Green said. Next day, Solanki met Blue and asked for his help to find a decent man, whom she wanted to shoot as a model. She said that she wanted to do some experiments. He had some photographs of actors. He showed it to Solanki. But she rejected all of them. Then she said,

-          I think I found the model.

-          Who is he?

-          You.

-          Are you joking? I don't look like a model!

-          Who told you? I will make you a model.

-          No I don't want to be a model.

-          You don't have to be. But couldn't you help me for my experiment?

-          I am too busy to do that.

-          I know you are not getting actors for your diploma. Dhiman told me that. I will find actors for you. Don't worry. I have read your script.

-          Okay. That sounds fantastic.

-          So you will help me?

-          Okay. Tell me what you want.

-          First of all, you will have to buy some new clothes. I will go with you for shopping and you have to have your hair cut.

-          That's too much.

-          Otherwise how can I do my experiments?

-          Take Dhiman. He looks good.

-          I thought for something else. Dhiman is not suitable for that.

-          Okay. I will do it. But I hate it.

Next day they went for shopping and Blue had her new hair cut as Solanki wanted. Then she shot him indoor and outdoor. She sent the photographs to Green. Blue found some actors and went for shooting. Green bought a hair straightener from Amazon.  She bought a new perfume too. Blues shooting got over. Green went home for a week. She told her parents about Blue. Her mother asked,

-          But where would you get married?

-          He will come to Mumbai.

-          That's okay. But you stay in Hyderabad?

-          I don't know how long could I be there? It's a flagship institute.

-          That's okay. But how will you survive in future?

-          We will do something.

-          You could have had a better husband?

-          What do you mean by better (angry)?

-          A well established groom?

-          Did you marry dad for money?

-          I am sorry. Let me know about your plan.

-          We will marry after a few months, when he finishes his final project.

-          Okay.

Blue finished his diploma. He left the institute with luggage and all. He told his father about their affair. His father said,

-          Marriage is not a big deal in life. If you have found a girl, you can go for it. But you must think how you will survive in future.

-          I told her that. But she is telling that one should marry the girl, who he loves and I do love her.

-          Then go for it.

-          What about my career?

-          You know it. I don't understand what you have studied. We are old generation. We don't understand these new fields. You should consult with your brothers.

Blue was lying on the bed of his reading room. Green called,

-          Hey, where are you?

-          I am at home.

-          Did you tell about us to your parents?

-          Yes.

-          What are they saying?

-          My father said to think about how I am gonna survive in future.

-          Yes, my mom said the same thing to me.

-          And what did you say?

-          I did not say anything.

-          Quite natural you have just graduated.

-          I am scared.

-          It's okay, take your time. What's your plan now? Mumbai or Kolkata?

-          I don't see any hope in Kolkata. It's dry. Low budget films mean no budget films here.

-          Exactly. And you cannot work in 'I-love-you-will-you-love-me' films?

-          Yes true. But I can't write Hindi. I can slowly read printed Hindi though.

-          That's enough.

-          I will give you a contact. He is our senior from camera. His name is Milind. He is a bachelor. He is a helpful talkative guy. You can stay with him for some days and find a job. Then you can relocate.

-          Okay. That will be good.

-          Yes. I am sending you the number.

-          Okay.

Green cut the phone and forwarded the number to Blue. Blue contacted Milind, and he immediately told him to come to Mumbai. Blue went to Mumbai and stayed with Milind. He shared his small one BHK apartment at Borivali. Milind told him to share only the rent for now. He did not have to pay any deposit. He bought a dongle and took an internet connection. He started searching various jobs. He kept on applying for them. He started receiving calls from various companies. He attended a few interviews for copyrwriter's jobs. He got selected too. But he did not take up those jobs because of distance from Borivali. He was looking for a job at Andheri since his final goal was to make feature films. At last after one month he found a job of copywriter near Andheri for thirty thousand rupees a month. Blue informed Green. She became happy. Blue informed her father too. Blue then took some money from his father and shifted to a one BHK flat at NNP circle Goregaon East. He shared that flat with another senior bachelor Arijit, from Sound. Green became very happy and said, 'Now we can prepare for marriage.'

12. The End

They got married indeed. They went to Darjeeling for honeymoon. They spent romantic time together – some moments of relaxation away from the cruel ego centric world, where somebody sleeps with ego, meets with ego, suggests with ego, talks with ego, advises with ego and alienates with ego. They knew that they have to enter this world again for survival and struggle. But that did not stop them loving each other at least in Darjeeling. The view of Gold Mountain made them forget about the urban pain. When they were sitting in an iron chair before the Gold Mountain, a bald man in black jacket came and sat by them. He asked, 'Where are you coming from?' Blue said, 'I am from Coochbehar and she is from Mumbai.' He said, 'Okay, honeymoon?' Blue said, 'Yes.'

-          Where are you staying here?

-          Maple lodge.

-          Oh that's beside my office.

-          What are you?

-          I am a police officer.

-          Okay.

-          What do you do?

-          I work in Mumbai, I am from SRFTI.

-          Okay filmmaker!

The man got excited. He said, 'My name is Monoj Rana, I am a singer too. I sing English songs.' Green interfered, 'That's great! Do you have a sound studio here' He said, 'Yes we do. This region is full of talents. We want to create a film school here.' She said, 'That's a great idea. Let me know how we can help you.' They exchanged phone numbers. The man said, 'Did you travel across Darjeeling? Green said, 'Not yet.' The man said, 'Would you mind coming with me?' Green said, 'Not at all.' They walked down the hill to his office. He told a man to get the jeep out.  They boarded the police van with Rana. There was a driver too. Rana took them across many places of Darjeeling. He described those places. Then he dropped them at the Maple lodge and bade goodbye. 'A new journey begins!' Green thought.