Fragments
of Time.

I am writing this on May 16, but the ride is still in my head. On May 13 I went to Rishikesh with a classmate. We were riding a scooty between the mountains, pitch black all around, cars still moving, and a thin drizzle coming and going.

We stopped at a liquor shop and got two Monsters, a white one and a pink one. The pink one was clearly more sugary, and I told myself to remember that. We kept riding, and within five minutes we were out of that small hotel-and-people patch. Then the rain turned heavy. It hit so hard it hurt because I was in shorts and a sleeveless shirt. We were drenched, shoes soaked, phones wet, everything.

So we decided to return to that area and sit somewhere. We found a hotel and walked in dripping. People stared at us, totally drenched. We picked a table, and behind it were two guys around 40: one totally drunk, one somewhat sober. The drunk guy called me over, kept saying come brother, sit on my chair, have food, I will pay. I tried to refuse, he kept insisting, so I said okay, jo hoga dekha jayega.

He was trying to be sober and kept talking, "I am your big brother, any problem call me, want dinner tell me, I will pay." Right at the beginning he asked me a random science question: the minimum speed to leave Earth's gravity. I said 11.2 km/s. He was shocked and happy, asked the term, I could not recall, and he said "Escape velocity" and laughed.

He asked where I am from. I said West Bengal, Siliguri, and that I live in Dehradun for college. He got excited, called his Bangali friend, and kept insisting I say a casual slang word on the call. I refused, he pushed and pushed, and I finally said "Bokachoda" softly to him, not on the call. Later he told me his name was Hariom.

Then he told me to have my Monster. He grabbed the white one, poured two glasses, and drank both himself, slowly. He said it was too sugary and it does not suit us, we should have beer in Rishikesh. I asked his age, he said guess, I am not uncle or old, I am bloody young. Then he said he is 40, "Naughty 40."

My classmate passed me the leftover pink Monster. Hariom asked my name, and when I said Shitij he went, "Wow what a beautiful name, top of the sky, always highest, your parents are great." Before that he took my number, opened PayTM, and was actually in his senses enough to find my number there and send me 500 via UPI. He started saving my name as Kshiti, I told him it starts with S, not K, and he argued that you cannot change your name like that.

Then he took the pink Monster from me and drank the rest. The sugar hit him hard. He got furious and said, "Go to hell... with me hahaha. Give my 500 back, you ruined my mouth, this is too sugary." I gave it back. Then he switched again, told me I should have beer, and kept insisting I was 25. I never told him my age.

After that he went into full lecture mode about the human brain and nerves, hind, mid, the rest. He was highly intelligent even while drunk. When I finally asked what he does, he said he is "in the middle." I asked to clarify, and he said "Seimen." No idea what that meant, but he was confident.

Some time in between his sober brother kept telling him to stop and leave. Before it ended, he asked how much both Monsters cost. I said 250 for both, and he promised he would give me the 250 later because he does not leave marks or eat for free. He hugged me once and went out. After about 15 minutes, I received the 250 straight. Later he came to our other table, took a little sip from the cold water bottle we bought, and kept saying we cool, cool and what not. Then he said goodbye and went. What a guy, wholesome interaction.