Ambrocia

Ambrocia was the place for our regular khadda.. Usually after our school hours, we waited a bit for the accumulation of our khadda-buddies... then the stroll began from our school-gate along the long merlin park row...it is a maximum 2 minutes walk, but after school it took about 8-10 minutes, because we walked real slow, stopped, looked back, strolled back, came back, sat back, did everything we could to go back to the school gate and look for more khadda-buddies,.. not because we were too tired to walk, but because we used all our energies, dedicatedly, in chatting, khistey-ing, joking (I always gave the most ridiculous ones.), and talking rubbish that seemed to be the most important diplomatic discussion of the time, and also waited as long our tongues could wait to be pampered, to have more guys so that per-head share reduces a bit, and hoping for the best- to get hold of a "murgi"! (now I know, those who achieved in making me one are not at all repenting the fact...I would laugh if they do so... :-D)..
Ambrocia's chicken rolls came at 19 Rs. And the interesting thing about "pre-khawa" part was the payment process.. I can quite guarantee that our payment process was one of the most complicated ones, more than latest business economics gyaan at Harvard... you need to be a little more attentive to understand the whole thing...
It so happened that, we at first calculated a total price by multiplying 19 with the head-count. Then we divided the total price with our  head-count again, to get the per-head contribution required. then in most cases one of us (usually me and deeba) had the idea of a cold-drink.. this being immediately regarded, we cancelled the whole  multiplication-division, and started with - "tahole koto porche?"... this "tahole koto porche?" - is one of the most difficult relation to solve...in most cases we didn't have a solution anyways, solving "tahole koto porche?" , required great skill and practice of mathematics, mathematical manipulation, economics, communication skills and a fair knowledge about the pocket-market, which included the share-status at the canteen. Now, you may think that "tahole koto porche?" can be solved by a little advanced mathematics, but  it was not that simple, mathematics said one thing, but in reality it hardly followed the answers... for example- Deepanjan usually said- "amar kichu porche na, amae momo khawachhe".. then Soumyadip said- "AEE (he always started with a very emotional article in the beginning of a sentence, it is actually a momo-version of "A"...) ami toke last week khayiechi..bhule ja.. nijer ta nijer ..".. At that very moment Anish happened to recall and stated the fact in such a manly manner that Deepanjan got startled- "By the way Deeba, tui kintu amae 25 taka owe korish.."... this sudden unexpected demand from his dear friend Anish completely peplexed Deepanjan, and he gave a very uncomfortable confused void-of-confidence grin and said- "oo..acha, tahole to cos theta khawabe.." .. All this being happened made the whole damn calculation get out of my mind and Uddalok declared that "jar jai hok, ami 19 takar besi debo na.."



Take a break, things will go even more complex.. ;-)



Well, as I was saying, Deepanjan lost a hand from his faithful friend Soumyadip, he also took a 25 Rs apparently soft but extremely hard punch from Anish, Uddalok immediately made his ground clear. So it was a none-but-God-and-Cos-Theta-can-save-me look on Deepanjan's wide grin projected towards me..  Hence eventually I had to be the God (doesn't matter- I am atheist all along) and decided to give 9 Rs out of Deepanjan's 19 and amazingly, probably inspired by my philanthropy, Anish and Soumyadip decided to give the other 10... Good Luck to me..

Now came the physical part of the whole thing.. Usually I and sometimes Anish had a 100Rs note and none had 19 Rs change and thus came a very important economic issue- the most interesting- mutual agreement, namely "pore die debo" .  This problem took little less time to get through as I, hardly could resist my eyes and tongue and stomach, nodded affirmatively at whatever "pore die debo" schemes my friends offered...

Finally, we managed to resolve our thing-of-the-day and I, all by myself, keeping good trust on my friends, ordered 5 chicken rolls..

Now comes the most remembered part that still haunts me in my darkest nightmares...

We waited for the rolls, they came floating through the arms of the man at the cash-counter, finally reached us, and I gave the long-waited bite.. Ambrocia rocked, we went through the rolls, we khaddaed all along, we tore the roll-rolling-papers and criticized the latest i-Pad from Apple.. we finished our rolls, we walked towards the cold-drinks shop beside Tanishq, we went inside the shop, everyone took out their wallet and we all got a bottle of  7up or Sprite.. then we cheered, we drank Sprite, we khaddaed more, then we parted, Anish, Deepanjan and Soumyadip walked towards Anish's car and me and Udo went towards the Bus-Stop... the Bus came, we climbed in. usually I sat and took Udo's satchel.. the bus drove along... crossed the Gariahat Over Bridge, Dhakuria bridge, where we saw Kinkar and Ananda walking on the pavements, and then through Jodhpur Park the bus reached Jadavpur 8B, where Uddalok and I parted...the bus almost reached 8B, slowly Uddalok landed on the stair-platform, asked "kal asbi toh? ", I said "na mone hoy, kal to amar lab nei..".. Uddalok went further to the stair below, saying "o acha, then abar next mongolbar?" , I replied - "tai to mone hoy.." .. the bus stopped. Uddalok just before keeping his foot on the ground left the ultimate thing that still haunts me - "by the way, roll tar jonno thanks a lot..."

Then I realized, the roll being half-through my digestion, Uddalok half through the pavement and the others full through from my reach, I paid the whole 95 bucks!..