No matter how much i tried i couldn’t cease my awe. It looked as if I was standing amidst the sets of one of the American Pie movies. There was a DJ playing the latest tracks, the whole campus was done up and colourful posters adorned the campus walls. The fountain at the centre was doing its bit by adding visual pleasure to the whole scene. Right at the entrance was a row of computers with Internet access and yes there were also a couple of telephones in case the mobile addicted generation needed to make a few phone calls. Guys were wearing low waist jeans that were a tad too low to showcase their CKs and Tommys (That’s the international brands for underwear with which the ones who want to look cool swear by).
People had piercings and all on strange places. Some had their lips pierced, some had their brows pierced. I also saw a girl with a pierced tongue, ewww! I wonder what was that for. The tank tops helped in showing the pierced belly buttons of most of the belles. Wow man was that foe al. I pinched myself real hard. It was.
Standing over there in my formal ironed checked shirt neatly tucked in my jeans that had a flair starting just below my knees and which increased till it reached my ankles – Hey!!! Don’t laugh coz’ till date I had the intuition that college was meant for studying and since I was bad at it, okay very bad at it, I thought if I at least looked studious it’ll help – I was feeling completely out of place.
And standing next to me in complete contrast was Rohan – he was wearing an fluorescent orange body hugging T-Shirt with a baby pink colored tight jeans, I still wonder as to how did he manage to get into one of those, anyways so the jeans was held in place by a belt with a super sized buckle on which it was written “Come to Papa”. Yaa now you must have guessed as to why was he not interested in staring at girls like me, well he had other inclinations.
The two of together standing at the gates were looking complete aliens – off which he still looked as if he had landed from Mars and I was looking as if I had come from Pluto, I guess some far off galaxy will be much more appropriate.
I immediately made a mental note that this had to change – and I was to do something about immediately… coz’ if I didn’t then my dreams of losing my virginity before college ends would never come true (actually speaking truly I had still not come out of my American Pie’s dream and had taken the plot a little too seriously). I signaled Rohan that I had something important to share and rushed outside – Rohan followed suit. On reaching a safe distance away from college I confessed in front of him
‘Dude I’m completely fucked… man did you see the crowd inside – and look at – just look at me I look like a complete chutiya… Fucking each one of the guysare dressed to kil – they look like Hrithik Roshan, or John or Shaahid or Salman and look at me… Fuck man – I look like Amol Palekar – only during his era the word “COOL” was meant to state the temperature and not the attitude…’
‘yaar take a chill pill man… don’t get hyper saala. A little bit of this and a little bit of that and you’ll look cool too. What matters is not the dress that you wear but how you carry it off…’ Rohan said trying to console me.
Suddenly the guy whom I had known to have the worst dressing sense in the History of mankind was all of a sudden talking sense. Did he actually mean what he just said? I looked at him closely and he actually meant what he said. In a jiffy I was no longer feeling like an alien. I thanked god for giving me a friend who cared for me.
Out of emotions I hugged him and within a moment let him go as i felt his hug to be too tight to be confortable.
“thanks yaar. Your pep talk really helped. So tell me what little bit of this and little bit of that should i do to look cool?”
“How the hell do i answer that? I just repeated what i saw on MTv Style Check the other day…”
So this is where Mr. Fashion No(n) Sense gathered all his sense from. But whatever it was it did instill a sense of confidence in me.
I turned around did a little bit of adjustments – I ruffled my hair, unbuttoned the top button of my shirt, loosened my belt , pulled my jeans a bit down, untucked my shirt and crumpled it a bit – and voila I turned back again with a BIG stupid smile on my face –
“So how do i look now haan… ” I quizzed Rohan…
“Wht the heck have you done… cool yaar super cool. Straight from Amol Palekar to Abhishek Bachchan…” he replied checking me top to bottom.
I really didn’t know if it was a comment or compliment – Abhishek Bachchan – but then whatever it was it really felt nice. So off I went back to the college much more cooler and much more confident. I had not even started my college life and it already taught me that tp look cool you don’t have to wear a CK or a Tommy under your pants – you can also wear a Rupa or a Balaram or whatever and ‘Be Cool’ – its the confidence that matters.
Standing once again at the gates I quietly declared – mostly to myself – ‘Watch out guys – Raj has arrived…’
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