Arijit is never good with girls, not even today. In a nutshell, he is scared of them. He never accepted this fact, but I have seen him standing silent and timidly in front of any girl talking to her, even a girl six to seven years younger to him. And the other contradictory fact is, he is the most likeable guy in our society. Never for a second, we saw him away not surrounded by girls, whenever we had a public meeting. All the boys, including me, used to envy him for this only fact. And his ingenious quality was even more responsible for the greater coefficients of invidia in our minds.
Arijit was a marvelous singer in our society. He is my friend for fifteen years now. Right from the age of seven, he used to sing at the Durga Puja, our Bengali annual cultural fiesta, in the school and later in the college. I also used to sing in chorus with him but at the age of twelve, I had to leave singing due to my voice changeover. Not only me, but many children left it except Arijit. My aunty says that Arijit’s voice is god-gifted. I still remember his solo song at the age of thirteen in a New Year eve event in our society.
“Kahi door jab din dhal jaae..
Saanjh ki Dulhan Nazar churaaye, chupke se aae”.
I don’t remember how much applauding he received. But I still remember a middle-aged married man in his forties sitting beside me, who was actually sleeping till then, listened the whole song and clapped too. Such was the magic of Arijit. Many a times, we pleaded him to go to the Indian Idol, the annual mega event held by Sony Entertainment Television. We told him that voices like him need recognition in the world. But he never got much serious about it. Actually, Arijit was never serious taking his singing as a profession. He was very good in academics, was doing his degree in computers from Delhi College of Engineering. So, all he concentrated was taking a good job and help out his family in financial crisis. Maybe, he was scared of the risk involved in singing profession where success is momentary.
I also loved music, so after my brief stint with the singing, I switched over learning the instruments. Today, I can play guitar and violin. And we have a small group, band to be specific. On Saturdays, we meet and make some music. Arijit comes out with all the lyrics of our composes and is also the lead singer of our Band. We even named it, “The Vague Sound”. It has been three years we are together, and we are famous in our Bengali society. For three years now, we are allocated one hour in the starting day of Cultural Events. We play some original composes, as well as other songs, and the audience loves it.
…………….
It has been two years now our band has stopped performing. I have stopped playing the guitar and don’t even remember the last time I touched the strings. Ritwik has also stopped being at the drums. Vivek doesn’t play the keyboard and has taken job with a multinational company in Mumbai. And Arijit, well he expired in a bomb blast at the Connaught Place.
We were sitting at the Central Park, when Arijit went to the hawker to get some “Chana zor garam” and the dustbin near him blew off. Smoke and panic prevailed. When we ran to the spot, Arijit was lying fifty metres away, bleeding. We rushed him to the hospital in the havoc, but he was declared brought dead by the hospital officials.
We still miss those Saturdays, but sadly never talked about it when we meet.
