Arup and I got on a phone call this morning to celebrate what would have been Georgie’s birthday (19th July). The one thing Arup’s been puzzling over the last few weeks has been the precise back-four formation of the last two benches in the middle row of class 11B & 12B in school. He’s asked me at least thrice if Georgie sat next to him or me (or was it Swastik), was it the last bench or the second last, or was there no fixed seating arrangement among the four of us in the last two years of school?
In a way, my fondest moments with Georgie are perfectly captured by the Whatsapp groups we shared. The oldest group we shared was called Back Benchers. I'd completely forgotten (Arup reminded me) that when Georgie found something funny, he’d laugh uncontrollably (with his entire body) & we’d have to wait for him to regain his shape before we could continue.
The other group we shared is called Quiz Questions (Arup, Atideb, Davis, Georgie & myself). For our school year, it was usually some lineup (of 3 or 4) among the five of us that would show up to Calcutta quizzes for our school. As a team, we’ve had some good outings, some profitable ones (I remember the quiz where Georgie, Arup & I went home with computers, bicycles and what not), we’ve also had some monumentally bad ones. Ultimately, I think it’s the most embarrassing, cringeworthy answers we’ve blurted out on stage that made us look back and laugh the hardest. Note: we blame Barry O’Brien for most of these mishaps. And we found out the hard way that more often than not, in a Calcutta quiz, the answer to most questions is JBS Haldane.
Over the years, when I’d come across some quiz-worthy material, I’d find myself thinking if Georgie & the others would find my question funny/interesting enough (should I make it easier or tougher? Should I throw in a hint?). Georgie was the no-nonsense, know-it-or-you-don’t sort of quizzer, he’d usually produce a flurry of guesses (and on whatsapp, he’d immediately demand a hint if he got it wrong).
During the pandemic, Arup, Georgie and I started spamming this quiz group with our daily Wordle answers - which got us kicked out, so we set up a third group called Wordle (just the 3 of us) for Wordle, NYT’s pangram, a daily movie quiz (Framed), and the Guardian’s Wordiply.
Back to what Arup’s been fixating on. I can’t be sure of the exact seating arrangement of the back benches in school 17-18 years ago, but I’m sure there have been more common whatsapp groups that we’ve shared & I’m sure there are many more memories of Georgie that’ll come back to me over time.
To my dear friend Georgie, you are always with us.
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