It’s an account of Nostalgic Sizzlers from College Life

 

It’s an account of Nostalgic Sizzlers from College Life which will make you stroll in wilderness of happy and happening memories from those happy and happening days. Lohri, the fire of exubereance, is the perfect way to deal with shivery mood of  January.

Gwalior is always chilling in January. Mouth and nose work like a chimney of some steam engine as trails of thick white smoke-like vapour would get continuously pumped out through them. 

Packed in woollens, I along with SM, SD, Pummy, Vijay Thakur, Basu, Saini, Golu and Khushal, passionately consumed in discussing the crazy dance moves of the nautch girls what we had seen last night at Nautanki Theater in the Mela, were heading to mess for dinner. We were again set to go to Mela to stroll and watch one show of Nautanki Theater.

Dinner was done, Tharkies were set to move and were standing on the porch of the mess. Then we were astonished to see our Sardars Amritpal, Tamanjit, Prince, Ravdeep, Parvinder Brar, Amrit Singh Sahi and Sukkhi together, attired in typical Punjabi style, carrying some bags in their hands, were heading for somewhere in jubilant mood.

“Looking so happy and bright, where are you going, bhai?” I called Tamanjit my bench-mate.

“Pahadi, come to the open area behind the Gym building,’’ flying looking Tamanjit said loudly.

“What is there, bhai?” I asked.

“Lohri celebration is there, come-on,” jubilant Tamanjit said while all happy looking Sardars kept walking.

“What is there in the bags?” I asked him.

“Bags are full of Popcorns, Revris, Peanuts and several other items, you all please reach there in some time,” Tamanjit said invitingly and moved.

“How is Lohri celebrated?” I asked my Tharki boys as I had no idea about Lohri celebration.

“Lohri is the most vibrant festival of Punjab,” Pummy, a non-sardar native of Punjab, enlightened us.

“People singing and dancing around a huge bonfire on the beats of Dhol is the main attraction of Lohri and there will be a party of Popcorns, Revris and Peanuts also.”

“We must go there, it will be great fun,” Pummy’s Punjab connection suddenly started sparking.

“What about the dance of Nautanki Theatre?” anxious SM asked as he didn’t want to miss the dance at Nautanki Theatre, even we also didn’t want to miss the same.

“Okay, we’ll go to Lohri, stay there for some time and if we do not enjoy it we’ll go to Mela.” Pummy convinced Madari.

Now we all were heading towards the area behind the Gym, many boys were heading towards that side.

We reached there, a good gathering of boys had already taken place there and we could see girls also had started pouring in there which was a happy and thrilling surprise as in a chilly night presence of girls at an isolated place at the back of Gym was something unexpected. At the centre, a gigantic pile of woods had been arranged and senior Sardar students were in command of the preparations.

The place was not properly lit as only a big halogen light at the top of the backside wall of the Gym building, which must be at a distance of over 40 yards from there, was the only source of light. Many boys and girls were looking clad in sparkling attires, shining bright in that dimly lit place. They must be Punjabi, we guessed it correctly. 

But the eyes of SM got stuck at lively and lovely looking Sonica ma’am. The atmosphere was brimming with exuberance. “I’m not going anywhere now,” SM declared with a smile.

Then a group of teachers led by the Dean Prof. Ajmer Singh itself reached there. LNCPE was flourishing with the presence of dazzling and impressive Sardars all around. Prof. Ajmer Singh flanked by magnificent and jubilant looking Prof. T.S. Brar, Prof. B.S. Brar, Dr. Ghai and Dr. Gill and the presence of other teachers was making the occasion a special one.

Magic of Dhol Beats

Soon the two Dholis with big Dhols slung over their shoulders and wooden sticks in their hands appeared there. Perhaps they had been called on payment. As soon as they arrived, and produced some of their introductory loud and rapid signature Dhol beats to make their presence felt and to pump musical adrenaline in the people there. Dhol beats started infiltrating into mind and body and its results were visible as arms and legs of most of the people around had started doing some rhythmic moves involuntarily, exuberance in air started getting vibrant.

Meanwhile, with some Punjabi rituals, Prof. Ajmer Singh lit the divine fire in the gigantic pile of wood and enthusiastic Sardar boys and girls were chanting some Lohri verses in Punjabi amid intensifying Dhol beats.

Dhol beats were very inviting and seductive, fire on the pile of wood was intensifying with the intensity of Dhol beats. Sardars & Sardarnis had started orbiting the holy fire with some Punjabi chants and dance moves and offering some peanuts, popcorns and revris in the holy fire and wishing Happy Lohri to each other.  Gradually other teachers and then boys and girls also started joining the orbiting people and soon the whole mass of people was moving around the fire and happy chants of Happy Lohri were all over in the atmosphere. Some senior Sardar boys were distributing the handful of peanuts, popcorns and revris to people there.

Dhol beats were ruling the atmosphere. Sardars & Sardarnis and allied Punjabi folks had come into their real versions with their energetic Bhangra moves.

Jubilant and dazzling Sardars Nishant Deol Sir, Sukhdev Sir, Balraj Gill Sir, Prince Dhaliwal, Tamanjeet Chadha, Amrit Singh Sahi, Parvinder Brar, Dimple Bajwa, Seema Arora, Kiran Salathia, Manpreet Kaur were mesmerising with their Bhangra moves. Here and there everywhere Sardars and Sardarnis were enjoying the Centre-Stage and non-sardars were working like clapping cheerleaders for them. But the intoxicating beats of the Dhol and mesmerisingly dancing Sardars and Sardarnees had infected us with their happy dancing germs.

Three varieties of people

In every community celebration, where dancing is the main course, there are always three varieties of people. The first variety is of the people, who always dance for whatever reason or even without any reason, actually they are so full of dance that dance gets to spill out of them. All Sardars fall in this category by default and there is a strong belief that Sardars are specially blessed creations of the God who are born with a license of lifetime validity to celebrate with lots of eat, drink and dance, and a big bunch of dancing Sardars was there to justify this belief.

The second variety of people are those who have a reserved gear for dancing and there that gear comes into play only when the level of celebration crosses the threshold level of their reservations and inhibitions, and such situations occur seldom only.

Then there is a third variety of people who never dance whatever may be the reason. They could be too introverted or their minds and bodies could be music and dance proof or they may dance but their bodies just can’t pick up the rhythm and beats.

But Dhol beats doesn’t spare any variety of people, it spoils each and everyone same way without any discrimination. It makes everyone break their threshold of hesitation or inhibition.

 

Why Should Sardars have all the Fun

That day I felt the power of Dhol. I realised that there is nothing more exciting or intoxicating than the Dhol-beats as it made everyone lose their control over their bodies. All hands were juggling up high in the air with continuous changing of constellations of fingers and feet had started tapping on rhythms of Dhol. Even the Puritans can’t resist the beats of Dhol from getting themselves spoiled.

Non Sardar boys and girls also had got captured by the rhythms of Dhol, they had started enjoying some on-the-spot juggling of hands and foot-tapping. Many already had joined the group of dancing Sardars around the holy fire, even girls were making their way to be the part of the dancing carnival. Differences of seniors or juniors, boys or girls disappeared in the atmosphere like a bursted bubble in the water.

While Sardars were dancing on cloud nine but Tharkies were happily fixed at inviting dancing moves of Sonica ma’am.

With the idea of ‘why should Sardars have all the fun,’ the Tharkies also joined the party as dance had started spilling out from our within also. As more and more people joined in, it started looking like a swarm of dancing people orbiting the huge flames of golden fire. Soon the Sardars got outnumbered by the non-Sardars.

 

We started enjoying the moments. For first-year students that was a unique experience. Non-Sardar girls also had come out of shades of inhibitions as Monica Negi, Kusum, Rajshree, Sonal, Smita, Prema, Vibha, Lakshmi, Anita, Anjana and many more had joined the dance-fest.

The dancing SM was hovering in the vicinity of dancing Sonica ma’am, who apparently looked happy to find him around herself. They looked like dancing like a couple. One night in the auditorium on Lakshmi’s ‘Afsana likh rahi hun…’ when I had come to know about the presence of dancing viruses inside me but then Prof. B. S. Brar had prevented us from going all-out for our maiden free-style dance adventure but this night Brar Sir himself was inviting boys and girls to get wild with their dancing imaginations.

 

Dhol beats had the magic of getting the body and moves into perfect synergy, whatever style, every style was looking suitable with Dhol. I realised that dancing on Dhol everyone feels great about his or her dancing skills. There was no one left who could afford to remain without dancing.

In every community celebration dance, someone always emerges as an epicentre around whom people knowingly or unknowingly get orbited and relish the fun or razzle-dazzle of his or her dancing moves.

Tharkies were busy dancing their unexplored fantasies. I was happily surprised to find myself surrounded by a good number of folks stirring and cheering for me. I was not dancing any Bhangra like my Sardars, I was busy enjoying some unilaterally accidental random fluky moves on the intoxicating beats, perhaps more than myself, the boys and girls around me were finding that interesting. The Sardars must have started thinking, who is that non-Sardar having more fun than them in the show of Sardars.

Kutta & Khujli Dance

My unilaterally random dance was only the beginning of a flood of fun. From another side Pummy, the funniest kind of creature of the batch, emerged with a bizarre Kutta-Dance move. He was standing on his legs keeping them curved like a bow, knees bit bent, and hands bent from elbows with palms loosely hanging by the wrists. One moment he would project his lips forward as if he was going to kiss someone, but the next moment he would make his tongue to hang out loosely like a panting dog. He was dancing like a doggy, obeying its master’s order to get some biscuits in return. Immediately Pummy became the epicentre of the bonhomie as euphoric boys and girls were cheering him as he was displaying a bizarre  Kutta-Dance.

As Pummy became doggy, then Gopi started behaving like a monkey. He was pretending to scratch himself like a monkey with badly exposed teeth, as if he was suffering from some serious itching all over his body. His scratch moves were perfectly aligned with beats of Dhol. That funny style of dancing came to be known as Khujli Dance.

After Kutta and Khujli Dance then came the Donkey dance when the beloved baby hippo-like creature Ashok Ram started jumping on the spot with throwing his arms and kicking his legs in the air haphazardly. The amount of atmospheric fun had gone beyond the limit when Anil Thomas started doing jumping jacks and many South Indian boys like Elango, Shitto, Jagan, Shaji who were least expected to dance on any beats, they also had started doing some typical movements soaked in Southy flavour.

That was not the end of fun and frolics as by then Sanjay Doval and Sanjay Mehra started competing by pumping push-ups in the middle of the musically mad crowd, and Sonica ma’am was their referee.  Solanki got started with Desi Dand-Baithak with thumping his chest and thighs like a desi pahalwan of a Dangal, on the Dhol-beats.

January Felt Like June

The atmosphere was of bonhomie with hundreds of cheerful unmindful youth spilling the superabundance of fun and exuberance. All the young boys and girls had gone miles into the wilderness of fun-filled blissfulness. Dancing hand in hands with having so many beautiful girls around was something much more than what the Tharki Boys could have imagined. For many, that must be their maiden chance to dance in the proximity of so many beautiful girls. With having fire within, boys and girls kept dancing in a state of hyper elation around the fire for hours beyond midnight. Nothing could have been crazier than that.

Boys and girls were chilling in the chilling night of January, they were sweating like a scorching day of June. Faces of sweat soaked girls were glowing like gold in the blazing bonfire light and their sparkling eyes and thick white smoke-like streak from their mouth and nostrils was telling how much fire they were containing within themselves.

The Dholis were the craftsmen of beats as they could create so many varieties of waves of rhythms which made the boys and girls to get uncontrollably carried away with the flow of beats and the energy and synergy with which Dholis were playing non-stop Dhol, indicated that they also were enjoying the joyful dance of joshful young chaps and chicks.

The time had gone beyond midnight but charged up boys and girls were dancing like anything and the way they were going, it was looking like if they were going to make it an affair for the entire night. But the merriment and intimacy with which Sanjay Mehra and Sonica Malik were consumed accompanying each other in dance, they were looking like to make it an affair of lifetime, as high degree of affinity and intimacy between the dazzling pair of SM & SM was as clear as the blazing fire in the forest and everybody around there could feel the heat of that fire. Finally Prof. B.S. Brar blew the final whistle. 

After relishing the most pleasurable night of LNCPE we were heading to hostel.

“You were on fire, both of you looked deadly attractive,” Golu said seductively while  hugging SM from behind, “You are in love with Sonica ma’am.”

SM smilingly pivoted, held Golu’s face and placed a passionate kiss on his forehead and hugged him tight, “Yes partner I’m in love with her.” 

“So now we can call her Sonica Bhabi ji now,” Tamanjit catapulted a teaser from behind.

“Yes my naughty Sardar,” SM said with a smile.

“Have you taken her confirmation?,” Golu asked. 

“Soon I’ll do,” SM said.

“Partner, it’s time to strike, iron is hot now,” Tamanjit said like a strategist.

“Sardar darling, you are so concerned for me,” SM said, looking naughtily at him.

We drifted off to left for Pratap, Mehra Doval and Tamanjit walking straight for Subhash.

Before coming to Gwalior I did not have any idea of Lohri celebration but now Lohri had become my obsession as it was the loveliest kind surprise for me. I discovered that Sardars are not only cute but their festivals also are equally cute like them.

I had fallen in love with the joyful spirit of Lohri and Sardars.