By Koumudi C. Georgie loved to walk. In fact, our friendship began way back in 2006 in St. Xavier's College, when we decided to take a walk together from the back gate of our college to the Maidan Metro Station on our way back home. Since then, I was lucky to cover many distances on foot with him, while in Calcutta and then subsequently in Mumbai when he was working there briefly. From Camac Street to Ballygunge, from Colaba to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, he was never tired of walking or of sharing stories of everyday people while on the go. He often joked that he should be made Johnie Walker's brand ambassador, since their tagline is 'Keep Walking'. His sense of humor never failed to amaze us.
He would have never cared for popularity, but the truth still remains that he won the title of Mr. Freshers during our freshers party in college. He won an incredible challenge where he had to be draped in a saree and had to pretend to be Basanti (Hema Malini) from Sholay. He sang one line of 'Haan, jab tak hain jaan, jaane jahan, main nachungi' with utmost ease, while dancing in that saree. A feat, I see no one achieving with that panache.
He loved puchka and we would often mark our favourite puchkawallahs in various corners of Calcutta. We once got into a competition to eat puchkas from a puchkawallah in Ekdalia. He ate 32 puchkas - that's a score I would never forget. We both had a shared love for Shah Rukh Khan, and often rooted for him even in the worst of his times. While mainstream SRK lovers would pick Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge as their favourite movie, Georgie would pick Baadshah and Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na. He would shrug and say, 'there isn't any private investigator cooler than Baadshah'. He was of course right. Time and place never mattered for being friends with Georgie. His conversations could make anyone feel at home, setting aside any time spent apart. He would chuckle and say 'People find it hard to resist my incredible good looks'. May be. Or may be it was the light of his kind heart, with which he surrounded everyone, wherever he went. When we were exchanging Wordle scores, I would often get stressed if I didn't get it in 2-3 lines. He would tell me, 'Games are meant to be stress busters. If a game adds to the stress, it's no good playing and it's just better to take a break'. There was no winning with Baba Georgie on logic. After all this gyan, he casually pulled off a 100 day streak on Wordle, just like that.
He had once told me that my name, Koumudi, translates to 'Nilava' in Malayalam. He said, 'if you keep repeating it without a stop, it'll sound like vanilla'. That has stayed with me since. He would always notice miniscule things such as this and instantly derive joy out of it. All of these little stories made Georgie unique and special. He had the ability to drive anyone's blues away with his infectious laughter, unbelievable PJs or with obscure quiz questions that no one knew answers to. Here's hoping that he is bothering a zillion people up there, and working his magic the usual.
Koumudi.
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