[Written in April 2000 for the IITG 2000 Souvenir - Footprints]
Pots of coffee have almost replaced his blood. Music is something he loves and A R Rahman is lucky to have an admirer like him. Movies and fun are the catch words and money is for spending of-course! So keen are his observations that the color of the spectacles frame or the characteristics of the material of the shirt you were wearing last week will be quoted if need be. Yes! I am talking about Venkata Sreedhar (or Buda as you'd love to call him). Never wold you have met such a gregarious guy, I still do not recall the first time I talked to him, but it was his big eyes (Baba says they are romantic), intimidating shaven hear, checkered lungi and banian that made me peep into his room 212 (now mine). During the Southey meetings, this man would seldom speak, but listen with utmost interest and would wear a pleasing smile on his face that would be resting on his palm with the elbows on his legs.
The patient listener in Sreedhar and the serious smile on Bhargava's face would see me as a regular visitor to their room, sometimes for studying also. Talking about organic chemistry, sometimes about biology and genetics were the favorite passtimes then. There were so many things he accompanied me in. My first movie in Guwahati (Terey Merey Sapney), visits to Balaji temple, the Darjeeling, Tawang and Manipur trips, the visit of Vinayaka pandal on the first exam day in first semester (physics). And not to forget the NJP-Kamrup-Darjeeling Mail (mis)adventure. I will remember each one of them forever. He would see me off to the bus stop everytime I visited Utopia.
Music is a passion for this Venkateswara swamy devotee. From Bhakti songs to Hotel California, nothing has escaped his ear. I recall how sorry he felt when the transformer of my tape recorder was accidentally burnt. He'd never think twice before giving his tapes and walk-man to anyone (even to our bus driver). That is probably the reason he had to buy and throw two walkies already. And now he is planning to get a CD man, God save it. How many music lovers out there know the signal processing fundaes behind the octave and its design? I feel the branch of ECE deserved him. So many of my fundaes were cleared by him and they left a lasting impression on me. I once started telling out all that in my sleep (so much so, that my voice woke me up then). Had he not been an engineer, he would have been in genetic engineering or in the film industry.
Small things sensitize Sreedhar. He jumps with joy on seeing a puppy, a kitten, a kid being carried on his mothers back (as in the north-east), or the mad man at Ganeshguri and he'd laugh after a long time recollecting it. He once came to my place to buy a puppy. The idea never materialized though. Though not very punctual, he is an orderly person, clean and neat and in order. From all this childhood pranks that he would tell you, you can easily identify great observation skills and so many idiosyncrasies in him. I thoroughly enjoyed his company these years.
Hope I hear Sreedhar saying, "So did I".
