We had been promised accommodation in one of the halls of residence at IIT Kharagpur. But what happened was the contrary. The warden plainly said in a mixture of Bengali and Hindi that all rooms were full and none could be allotted to me. I stood there with my luggage wondering what to do when divinity showed itself in the form of Ingle Chandrashekhar, a guy from Maharashtra who had come there with a similar purpose. He had checked in an hour before me and had been lucky to get the last room available. He led me to his room and eased me off my luggage. He compelled me to have a bath, which I refused. He then gave me company wherever I went. We were together all the time in that godforsaken place. I now wonder what I would have done in his absence; maybe roamed around that mammoth campus with my luggage under the merciless sun.
We were famished and decided to have our breakfast at a nearby canteen in the campus. Again, being vegetarian, both of us could only choose the Tandoor cuisine and we ordered some naan and panneer butter masala. I was shocked at the amount of panneer that was going into my body. But I was helpless. The waiter brought the dishes and laid them in front of us. That brought more shock to me. The gravy in the side dish was okay, but the panneer! Oh! I saw for the first time, generosity at its best. There was a piece of panneer, only as big as a computer mouse. Shekhar and I exchanged glances. What else could we do? We divided the panneer and the gravy and started the feast. The first thirty minutes went away in desperate attempts to overcome the cohesive forces in the naan. The next endeavor was to try and eat it with the side dish. We sat there for about forty-five minutes and finally finished the meal.
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