The Bengali from Kharagpur

A month and a half back, one morning, I woke up with a start hearing a thumping sound coming from the basketball court below my window. I was annoyed. Who the hell was playing basketball in the middle of the night, I thought and grabbed the mobile phone to check the time. It was 7:30 am in the morning.

I looked out of the window and saw my neighbor, a Bengali from Kharagpur (let’s call him Bengali A – A as in Apple), playing all alone – dribbling the ball from one end of the court to the other and trying to basket it (he rarely succeeded as he is a very short man). He went on doing this for more than half an hour.

The same thing happened the next day. And the day after that. And it became a regular thing. He was always at it at 7:30 am sharp.

I grew used to it. I no longer thought of it as a nuisance, instead, I thought, ‘Ah, the Bengali from Kharagpur! It must be 7:30 am.’

He worked as an alarm clock for me.

But in the last five days, his timekeeping has been erratic. One day he turned up at 8:00 am and another day at 8:30 or 9:00. This led me to waking up late, and thus being late to office. What this Bengali A hasn’t been realizing is that he’s being a disruption in the daily life of another Bengali who is from Kolkata. Let’s call this Bengali from Kolkata, Bengali AB (A as in Okay, A=O, if you know what I mean).

This Bengali AB is my tea partner and one that strictly adheres to a time-table work schedule. Since we are a two-member tea team, my fluctuating timings have been altering the tea break in the time-table which Bengali AB is not very pleased about. I don’t want to take it lightly either.

I lay the blame entirely on the Bengali from Kharagpur, of course! I see that he’s been sleeping very late at night. I see light in his apartment at 1 am. Not ideal. I plan to have a stern word with him soon.