May 14, 2009
IT-BHU
Standing in front of the foundry shop with a bunch of
smirched papers in his hands he checked another tick on the No-dues form after
getting it signed from one more shop. It was a long, crispy yellowish form made
of a very thin sheet that easily caught wrinkles. He held it firmly with both
his hands and checked it again for left out spaces. There was one blank space
left. It was against the I.C Engine lab. He has tried to defer it so far,
thinking of avoiding it forever, but now had no other department left
un-checked to further delay the confrontation.
At the I.C Engine lab, after Vijay dropped him there with a wooden box,
two bags full of castings of aluminum, batteries, wires, a tool box and many
other items, in the left hand and Billo in the right one, he stood there for a
while. He didn’t remember for how long. It was a silent afternoon at the laboratory;
a shaft of sun ray lit the far end of the corridor where three rows of benches
were arranged with a black-board in front of them for the small lectures that
were read there to the students. On the left side immediately as one enters was
the office of Prof. H N Gupta opposite to which was placed a rotary piston
engine with webs all over it dictating that it has been untouched for many
years. The space that followed had rows of cut-sections and working models of
different aggregates of an automobile on both the sides. The lab attendant, who
was still un-familiar to him even after the 4 years that he had spent in the
mechanical department, looked at him with a questioning brow through his
glasses.
“I am here to get the No-dues signed”, he declared.
“Very well, do you have any dues from in here? What’s your roll number?”
“05000625, I have a model car with me to submit”
“Well than hand it over to me”
“No, I will keep it myself. Show me the place”, he moved towards the
store room.
“There you go, find a place and keep it. Lock the room when you are
done”, the attendant said as he opened the door and went back to his seat.
After arranging all the items
carefully in the wooden-box, he went back to sit on the bench with Billo placed
on the table. It’s front left tire resting on a metal piece, slightly above the
rest of its chassis. That’s how he has always liked it standing.
“So this is it. The time has finally come when I have to leave you here
little friend. It has been the most wonderful time of my under-graduation
working with you. I know that I have rammed you, thrashed you, overhauled you
and even threw you off the table many times but that was only because I
believed in you. I trusted that you won’t fail against any obstacle and of-course
you have failed me many times but in the end we’ve won a few races. I hope you
know that it was not winning the races that mattered for me, it was
participating in the event and improving and understanding you that was of
prime importance to me. And we have had a good time all along”, Billo kept
staring as he went on talking.
“Remember on those cold nights of January, when you would refuse to
start at all even after incessant cranking. We had to play your favorite song ‘Bhool
Bhulaiya’ and then you would start at a single try. And once when we didn’t have
that song with us out in the street, we had to get you warmed up on the
left-out heat in the stove of Limbdi Corner.”
“Aren’t you done yet? It’s time to close the lab. Please make it fast”,
exclaimed the lab attendant. He waived at him and asked for one more minute and
continued his farewell biding.
“Anyways leave all that. Here are some points I want you to remember. I
have prepared the correct mixture of fuel and stored it in a bottle in your
box. It’s enough to last one more season. The rear right shocker is broken
which I had plastered with M-seal so don’t go off-road too often, it may come
off completely. And you know why your front shockers have gone stiff since last
month? After we rammed you into that pole at full speed a month ago, both the
front suspensions leaked out. I thought of filling them again with Castor oil
but then I felt that ketchup would be more fun, so when Vijay would ram you
next time it would look like you were bleeding ;). I hope you won’t mind it at
all, the stiffer suspensions have given you more height in the front and I
suppose you have liked it. The carburetor’s settings are currently perfect as
per Varanasi’s humid weather and the fuel ratio with NO nitro. Please don’t let
anyone disturb them”, he felt a stab of regretful pain when he failed to find a
look of assurance in Billo and realized that it was but a mere machine. All
these precautions were futile. Students of next batch have shown interest in
working on this project but they intended to fabricate a bike using its engine
and differentials. He nonetheless acted as if it was all untrue. That car was all
what he has thought about and worked upon for the last two years, understanding
all the sensitive settings that changed its behavior vastly. And now the
knowledge that it would be dismantled forever hurt him deep inside the heart.
He threw the car into box from his natural height. It was not an act of
disrespect but of honor because he knew that he had worked on the suspensions
and chassis to handle that much load. The car fell on the front two shockers
and rested the rear tires subsequently; the chassis didn’t touch the ground. No
harsh sound was produced as the suspension took on the impulse bravely. A leaf
of paper followed the car on the ground. It was checklist and precautions that he
had prepared for the car. As he handed over the keys to the lab attendant, he
stamped the form and had it signed from the Lab incharge.
“What do you think will happen to this car”, he asked the attendant.
“Some students have been inquiring about its availability. I think it
will be issued to them within a week”, the statement had confirmed what he had
been afraid of since long. His hold of the un-finished spur gear that he has
kept as a memorandum in his pocked went tight. It was inevitable; the model had
to be destroyed so that the next batch could work on it from scratch again.
This didn’t bother him, it was his possessiveness that kept pinching him in his
chest. He knew that this feeling was supposed to be unlooked at, so he took a
deep breath and walked out of the lab at an increased pace without stopping or
looking back at the first love of his life.
