Jahid Akhtar's Blog, page 4

Last Khep

The evening times were more fun during our hostel days. As it started to get dark everyone came out of their room one after another, went downstairs to the nearby dhaba, popularly known as Honu/Manoj dhaba. Some of the popular evening snacks those days were Singara Bhujia ; well, it’s nothing but mashed somosa shallow-fried with chopped onions, green chilies, egg and finally decorated with chopped coriander leaves. Some of the other popular snacks were Maggi, paratha-sabji, bun-omelet, boiled egg, single fry, double fry and a few more.
After the sumptuous snacks, guys used to buy cigarettes from Honu/Sahabuddin’s shop. Snacks, cigarettes and everything else was always on credit for most of us. After returning to the hostel guys usually used to relax at the staircase. Someone would light a cigarette and then immediately someone else would request "my first khep, okay", then another would say "my second khep", "third khep". Khep is an informal term which is frequently being used among the buddies from our place. Even though the term is applicable in different situations, the meaning is more or less the same. In this case you must have already understood that the burning cigarette should first go the guy who said "First khep" from the original hand, then it should pass to the second and then to the third khep guy. The booking was usually up to third khep, and after that someone would usually  say "okay, my last khep". Last khep is actually interesting, it sounds more decent and also with the guarantee that you are going to have that last puff.

As I said the term khep can be used in some other situations as well. For example if a guy is trying on a girl, his friends wouldn't hesitate to comment "asshole is trying a khep".

Friends who try the khep thing pretty often are tagged as 'Kheparu'. We all have experienced Kheparu friends at some point of life. I remember we had some hostel buddies who were not regular smokers but were always the first ones to say "first khep" or a "last khep". 

Those were the days when the joy of friendship simply blossomed around the campus. The long meaningless gossips, the cigarette sharing, the late night teas and what not? Wishing all my friends a very Happy Friendship Day.



Grab a copy of my debut book Story of Tublu from Amazon or Flipkart. It is a Contemporary Fiction novel, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd. The book has its share of drama, that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions that defines the amazing journey that is, life. 

Story of Tublu, excerpt 4

The fun simply continued and then one of the seniors lit up a cigarette.

'Do you guys smoke?'

Tublu was silent but Raja replied 'Yes, I do.'

The senior offered him a cigarette and asked him to light it. Raja was about to do that when few other seniors warned him about the dire consequences if he lit the damn thing. Well, as per the hostel rules, the juniors couldn’t smoke in front of the seniors until freshers’ night. A little later, the senior who had asked Raja to light the cigarette got furious and picked up his hockey stick.

'You bloody Mother fucker, if you don’t light up this cigarette, I will bloody smash your head,' the senior warned Raja, while holding his collar. Raja was sandwiched between the seniors. He had already received some tight slaps on his face and the music was still playing on. Raja was aware of such ragging tricks, but still he panicked. Then, all of a sudden, he lit the cigarette and had a long drag. There was absolute silence in the room. Raja exhaled his smoke, making some perfect interlacing rings. Everyone kept looking at the smoke rings till they got vanished in the air. Tublu was scared to death. The seniors were silent too and then Raja took his second long puff. The seniors asked Raja to explain why he chose to lit up the cigarette.

'Well, I had no other choice. In either case I would have been bulldozed. My brain stopped working and I just wanted a drag,' replied Raja.


An excerpt from my debut novel, Story of Tublu. It's a contemporary fiction book, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd. The story has its share of drama, that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions that defines the amazing journey that is, life.


You can grab a copy from Amazon or Flipkart.

My Association With Yoga

Yoga came into my life quite early. I did my schooling in a private school till my seventh grade and later moved to Kendriya Vidyalaya. My old school was popularly known as "Menon School". It was originally started by a Malayali couple. They lived a major part of their life in Bongaigaon, my hometown in Assam, before they returned to their native place in Kerala. The school was run by Mrs Menon. Everyone called her Head Madam; she was quite well known for her strictness and discipline. Yoga was preached seriously in Menon school, the credit definitely would go to our Praveer sir, the yoga teacher. He used to live a disciplined life, was prompt in helping others, always greeted people with his charming smile. Praveer sir also had his own yoga school and all his students showed him great respect.
I also remember those Sunday morning yoga classes, all thanks to the Mahila Samiti of that time, of which my mother was an active member. The all women organization took the initiative of starting Sunday morning Art and Yoga classes for enhancing extra curricular activities of children. It was quite annoying to wake up early morning even on Sundays. But we didn’t have a choice, particularly few of us whose mothers were the key members of the organization. After the Art school we rushed to our home, riding bicycles to watch the Mahabharata serial on TV, which used to come at 9 am.

When I joined Kendriya Vidyalaya, my association with yoga turned slightly different. Yoga was still a part of school curriculum. That was the time when we were little surprised at the school authorities, as they started encouraging our classmate girls to wear slightly longer skirts rather than knee-length/above knee-length ones. Also, Salwar Kameez was mandatory, part of school uniform for the girls on yoga days, which was weekly once or twice. But many of the girls often violated the not-so-strictly-followed rule. The boys enjoyed some eye candies during the yoga class, particularly while the law breakers performed Chakrasana. 

But soon these things turned embarrassing for us. I remember one incident; few of the senior girls were practicing long jump for the upcoming Annual sports. We were waiting for our school bus. Our friend Santosh was very interested to have a closer look at their practice session. One after another the seniors ran towards us with full speed, strength, and then jumped to leap as far as possible. We enjoyed every jump, particularly for those who were wearing skirts. We clapped on every occasion to cheer them up. Everything seemed to be fine but then all of a sudden a couple of girls approached us.

"Dudes, what are you guys doing here?" one of them asked.

"Nothing, our bus hasn’t come yet. We are simply watching your performance. You girls jump really well," we replied nervously.

"You boys can watch us, no problem with that, but just look at the position you guys are sitting at. You can watch us from a different place; common, you boys are no longer kids, you’re quite grownup now"

I think yoga was compulsory till our Eight or Ninth grade, I don’t remember exactly. In the later phase I often bunked the yoga classes along with few other friends. I couldn’t realize how yoga got disassociated from my life. The recent development is more about political yoga; I mean the kind of promotion, the kind of debates going on. Whatever the reason maybe, it’s nice to see yoga becoming a brand; nice to see yoga getting an international recognition. I think we should take it as an opportunity, it’s high time we start practicing yoga. After all, everyone knows the benefits of it, and our own health comes first before anything.

Wishing you all a very happy International Yoga Day, specially to all yoga teachers and the passionate yoga practitioners. 
Picture courtesy: Google Images


Grab a copy of my debut book Story of Tublu from Amazon or Flipkart. It is a Contemporary Fiction novel, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd. The book has its share of drama, that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions that defines the amazing journey that is, life. 

Ek Shaukeen Bangalorean Auto Driver

Yesterday I went to collect my Asus Zenfone 6 from the service center. I purchased it from Amazon some four to five months back. Right from day one I had a feeling that they sent me a defective piece. The battery drained off super fast, generating tremendous heat. The service center was pretty far from my office and the route is also quite confusing. Instead of driving I thought to take an auto. I got my phone without much wait. Except for the touch screen it seemed they replaced everything inside the phone. Well, Amazon indeed sent me a defective piece. Now my phone is working absolutely fine. 
The auto ride back to my office was pretty interesting.

"What's the time?" the auto driver asked.

"3:30 pm" I responded.

"Accha, isiliye mereko bhukh lag raha hai,"  my answer only made him realize he was  starving.

We chatted for a while and then he asked for a help. Actually he recently purchased a LED TV with the option of ten interest free installments. The dealer asked him to submit ten post dated cheques, The guy was very confused and worried to give duly signed post dated cheques without even mentioning the amount. Being a veteran EMI wala, I took the privilege to clear his doubts, and felt contented as well.

"It's a general procedure, no need to worry." I said.

The auto guy was happy but he had one more doubt. As soon as I reached my destination the guy showed me the bill, together with his confusions.

I tried to clear his doubts. In the meantime  I was pretty amused, kind of embarrassed as well. The auto guy had purchased a TV worth Rs 70,000.

"Iiitna megenga TV?" Expressing my shock was simply inevitable.

"Ab, shaukh hai, to kya karein?" smiled the auto guy. He was kind of obsessed with modern day big screen trendy TV's, build with latest technologies. The guy said he had already sold his previous TV for Rs 2000/-, which he had bought for 10,000/- just a couple of years back.
 Picture courtesy: Google Images

Grab a copy of my debut book Story of Tublu from Amazon or Flipkart. It is a Contemporary Fiction novel, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd. The book has its share of drama, that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions that defines the amazing journey that is, life. 

My First Mobile Phone

It was the year of 2003. I just passed out of Engineering college without a job in hand. Those were the days when mobile phones were still considered a luxury. But for me it was becoming more of a necessity, particularly for the smooth processing of my job hunt. My elder brother transferred me money to get the phone. I had a few choices but I opted for Nokia 3310. Even though I was already familiar with the epic snake game which was inbuilt in all Nokia handsets those days, it was only after I had my own that I gained expertise it the game. The game was more than just time pass, it was an addiction, it was a reason for pride. I had a wonderful four years of relationship with my first mobile. It slipped from my hand many times and almost every time the battery came out. But my phone was strong enough; as soon as I reconnected the battery it came back to live instantly. During the last phase of our relationship its entire keypad turned absolutely blank and colorless, but I was so much used to my darling that I was able to text any message and was able to dial any number, without any slightest pinch of discomfort. Most of my friends already had various colorful trendy handsets by now. Well, I was also tempted for those latest sexy models and waited desperately for my phone stop working. But the wait was getting kind of never ending and ultimately one day I took the painful step and betrayed my cellular.

Over the years I had many short term relationships with various trendy models, but with my first one it was a different matter altogether. A couple of months back I ordered an exotic looking, wide screen with a high resolution camera - Asus Zenfone 6, from Amazon. I felt some negative vibrations out of it from the very first day itself . The battery drained off exponentially and the heat it generated was scary. My friends suggested to ask for a replacement. Out of laziness I delayed and by the time I realized the urgency, I learned that Amazon only give ten days window for such replacements. Without any other choice apart from visiting a service center I simply continued. Pretty soon I got used to recharge my phone three to four times a day, sometimes even more. Couple of days back the situation turned worst, my phone lied dead and no power could bring it back to life. So I went to one of the Asus service center far away from my office, they have only three in Bangalore. They kept my phone and said it would take minimum fifteen working days for the fix. 
I missed my first mobile phone and wanted to have it for the time being. The same evening I went to a shop; I couldn’t get the exact model but I’m pretty sure it is one of the cousin sisters that I have now, an old Nokia model with only the basic features of voice and text.


Grab a copy of my debut book Story of Tublu from Amazon or Flipkart. It is a Contemporary Fiction novel, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd. The book has its share of drama, that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions that defines the amazing journey that is, life.

Story of Tublu, excerpt 3

In Tublu's hostel, life was a little different; loud music kept escaping from almost every room, guys desperately looked for a matchbox holding cigarettes in their hands, and blistering laughter, and frequent boozing – not to mention smoking ganja (grass) – was popular. There was a huge gang of grass devotees in Tublu’s hostel. Tublu also tried it a few times, but he somehow couldn’t tune in to the frequency of grass, the way he had tuned in to nicotine and alcohol. He was scared of marijuana and was very cautious while smoking it. During their freshers’ night, one of Tublu’s favorite seniors had advised him not to develop an affinity for ganja. Even though the senior was totally drunk and was behaving like Socrates that night, Tublu took his advice seriously.

'Drink as much as you can, there’s nothing much to worry. The maximum it can do, it will damage your liver. Well, in that case you can go for a liver transplant. But this ganja fucks your brain and, someday, when each and every part of your brain is terribly fucked, what would you do? You can’t go for a bloody brain transplant, my friend,' the senior said to Tublu.


An excerpt from my debut novel, Story of Tublu. It's a contemporary fiction book, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd. The story has its share of drama, that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions that defines the amazing journey that is, life.

You can grab a copy from Amazon or Flipkart.

The Wanderer

He is a traveller. He's from the city of Mumbai, but he doesn’t like to stay long in the same place. He’s a passionate blogger and quite active on Facebook as well. He regularly updates about his ongoing travel stories. Also, uploads some of the lively photographs captured by his lens. Travelling is not just a hobby, in fact, it is his oxygen. Everywhere he travels he gets involve with the culture, the architecture, the food, the views and the romance. He loves to take photographs of almost everything - Mother nature, human being, food, street and the list just goes on. It seems he already travelled half the globe, but this simply won’t quench his thirst, his thirst for travelling.




Mr Deepak Amembal is a wanderer. I am quite jealous of the kind of life he's living at the moment. A few months back he completed his long motorcycle trip across India along with his group. They even travelled to Bhutan and Nepal. They traveled 13000 km in 72 days. While not travelling and blogging, Deepak Sir loves to read books. He indulge in all these passions full time now that he has retired from a day job that has provided him with funds to satiate his passions. He’s an avid blogger and his blog Mumbai Daily is very popular. If you visit this blog, I'm pretty sure you will get the smell of Mumbai. Apart from Mumbai Mirror, Mr Deepak is also active on two more of his blogs, Instant Words and Pets forever .

I'm so happy that Deepak Sir read my debut fiction novel. Well, it seems he liked the book and enjoyed it wholeheartedly. I am grateful to him that he reviewed 'Story of Tublu' on his blog.
"I enjoyed reading it. It felt as if I was sitting with him for a couple of evenings as he narrated this wonderful tale. Despite it being a love story it is not mushy. The idiom is Indian, nothing fancy in the language which is day to day and practical. I also liked the fact that equal importance was given by Jahid to the girl’s thinking and actions. The pace is consistent and the end of every chapter wants you to continue to the next as soon as possible. It is refreshingly Indian in its language and laid back pace"

To read the complete review please click the below link:
InstantWords/BookReview/StoryOfTublu


 Image courtesy: Mr Deepak Amembal

Grab a copy of Story of Tublu from Amazon or Flipkart. It is a Contemporary Fiction novel, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd. The book has its share of drama, that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions that defines the amazing journey that is, life.

Ek Briyani

One day, I think about a decade ago, I went to meet one of my Uncle from my hometown. It was his first visit to the city of Bangalore. It was already long past lunch time, but my uncle didn’t have his lunch yet. So we went to a nearby restaurant.

"I won’t have dosa right now, will I get rice here?" said the uncle.

Being from a Riceoholic's land, I understood his feeling very well and replied, "you should try Chicken Briyani here, it’s really delicious"

As uncle was new to this part of the world he wasn’t quite acquainted to the great Briyani culture out here. But without any hesitation he was ready for the adventure.

"Ek, Briyani dena," he asked the waiter.

Within minutes the guy returned with an aromatic bowl of Briyani. My uncle was confused to see a boiled egg piece at the top of the bowl, covered with Briyani rice.

"Oh shit, I asked for 'Ek Briyani' and the waiter had given 'Egg Briyani'," complained my uncle.

"Bhai saab, maine to 'Ek Briyani' bola tha, aapne to 'Egg Briyani' le aaya. Actually I want chicken briyani," the uncle pleaded with the waiter guy.

The waiter replied with a smile, "Sir, ye chicken briyani hi hai, egg is free."

My uncle was so happy and his face brightened to a smile.




Grab a copy of my debut book Story of Tublu from Amazon or Flipkart. It is a Contemporary Fiction novel, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd. The book has its share of drama, that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions that defines the amazing journey that is, life.

For The Sake of Humanity

life was different then; loud music escaped from almost every room, guys desperately looked for a matchbox late in the night, holding cigarettes in their hands; those blistering laughter and the frequent booze. If one would take a stroll around the hostel in the evening, he could have possibly got a taste of all form of music including folks songs, Bollywood numbers, modern/classic Regional songs, Pop, Rock and Metal music amongst others. There were quite a few Metal freaks including my room-mate, Nair. We worshiped Metal songs regularly those days. Well, this is the kind of music which can be enjoyed best at a little roaring sound. Our room had two big speakers attached to our music system.

We had a senior named Houkib. I hope I've spelled the name correctly. Houkib was from Manipur and he was a true Christian. He was a guy of cool temperament and during our stay in hostel we had never witnessed a moment when Houkib da drifted away from his coolness. Quite often he was occupied in his room reading or singing Gospel songs together with his friends. His room was a coupe of rooms away from ours. Houkib was among the guys who sleep early and wake up early. After dinner, it happened quite a few times that I and Nair were inside our room, enjoying some metal songs, relaxing. Houkib da would enter with his usual smile, but also with a little bit of discomfort on his face, this time. I and Nair were little curious as he wasn’t a frequent visitor. Houkib da would stand near the music system, pick a few audio cassettes one after another and had a close look at them. After a few moments he would reduce the volume, smile and say "For the sake of humanity!"



Grab a copy of my debut book Story of Tublu from Amazon or Flipkart. It is a Contemporary Fiction novel, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd. The book has its share of drama, that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions that defines the amazing journey that is, life.

Anirban Nanda

Anirban is a final year student of Electrical Engineering at Haldia Institute of Technology. He lives in Haldia, West Bengal. Though he is a technical student he loves to read novels more than his Engineering textbooks. Reading books has always been his favorite pass time. Anirban fell in love with writing when he was in class twelve. He has published some of his stories in his college magazine. His anthologies "A Phase Unknown Women-A Tribute Season 2" , "Dream-Castle" and "The Paid Eminence" are due release in April, 2015. He has also become co-editor of an international magazine releasing soon.
One good thing about studying in an Engineering college and experiencing hostel life is that you would remain a student throughout your life. No matter how hard you try, no matter how older you get, you simply can't get that hostel boy out of your life. Sometimes in one situation or the other, the boy inside you will show his presence. Even though hostel life is more or less the same in any college, but there's something different about life in an Engineering hostel. The best part is we never study, but somehow everyone pass the semester exams. 
My debut novel "Story of Tublu" has a glimpse of hostel life. Many readers even felt that the novel is about the life of an engineer. I always had the intuition that guys who experienced hostel life are definitely going to enjoy the book, at least our engineering guys. But then I am totally overjoyed that Story of Tublu is also liked by many others, beyond campus. 

I am glad that Anirban read my book. It seems he enjoyed it wholeheartedly and also shared a review on his blog.
"It's a wonderful debut for any writer. The tag-line of the story says ‘an amazing journey called life’  -an apt tagline indeed! It is literally a journey of life; filled with every human emotion possible -love, pain, loss, friendship, hate, jealousy and more. The story shows the transformation of adolescence to maturity which is done quite brilliantly for both Maina and Tublu -our central characters. The jokes of Ganesh and mischief of Pranjal is so funny that it will make you laugh like a mad. Hostel life is described nicely and it will compel you to take a walk down your memory lane. It's a fascinating and gripping story till the end which can be finished in one sitting. If you want a fast and good story in a simple language; grab this one"

To read the complete review please click the below link:
Review of Story of Tublu by Anirban Nanda


Grab a copy of my debut book 'Story of Tublu' from Amazon or Flipkart. It is a Contemporary Fiction novel, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd.