SHORT-CUT RAGHU
Vengrai Parthasarathy
Among the memories of my school life, Raghu stands out. A tall, gangling
chap, he was a ‘character’. Breezy and affable, he was a talker, a talker’s
talker,.He will never stand still in one place. .Some part or limb, a finger, a toe –will
scratch, pull, nudge something or other.—altogether a restless soul, hyperkinetic in every way imaginable
At school he was nicknamed Short-cut Raghu. He, Ravi and myself formed a threesome; but he was the maestro. We were always together, be it in the classroom or lunch hall or sports field. Our homes were within stone’s throw of each other but Ravi and I used to go our own ways to school since .Raghu was always tardy. We would never have reached school in time, if we had waited for him to join us. There were two straight paths to the school but Raghu would take a third route, a short-cut through some by-lanes and rail crossings. He would quietly enter the classroom when the teacher was at the blackboard.
Raghu was what you can call a walking ‘compendium’. Short notes, formulae, dates and equations were noted in small slips of paper in his rolled up sleeves and under his trouser waist band for easy reference. His inventiveness was remarkable. Raghu would stealthily use some ‘digests’ (frowned upon by teachers) which condensed to half an hour’s reading of whole chapters and managed to get good marks.
He would cleverly come up with cards the size of a book-mark on which he jotted down important dates of ascensions, battles and thumbnail sketches of historical landmarks, Capitals of different countries, Maths and Physics formulae and so forth. With these ready reference cards he did well in the class tests. He dealt with everything in a short-hand way.
Raghu used to say that the art of living lies in spending minimum of effort to get maximum mileage. According to him the operative words of life were ‘now’ and ‘somehow’. He had a razor-sharp intelligence. Once, accepting a challenge, he even topped the class in a semester exam but he was never consistent or focused.
He inveigled other boys into playing marbles or tops or gulli danda for a wager and
would rustle up some quick cash.. Invariably, he had money jingling in his pocket. When he made a killing he would (in return for helping with his homework) generously treat us to SSC – his acronym for sweet, savory and coffee.
Once, at a Udupi , restaurant after finishing most of the halwa, Raghu produced a strand of hair from nowhere that he placed on the Halwa and demanded replacement for the tainted dish from the waiter. Just for a lark, he would say,. and guffaw.. He always gave me the feeling that when he was around, we were on the edge of something like that was waiting to happen . Raghu was never happy with the discipline and tedium of school life. It was no surprise that he did not go for college studies.
After leaving school we lost touch with each other and the last I heard was that he had joined the armed forces.
It is original characters like Raghu that make school life enjoyable and memorable. A top sportsman, full of vim and verve, he was such a popular guy that practically everyone in the school knew and admired him. Being fatherless, he was somewhat rudderless and deep down, a sad person for all his bonhomie.. His inner world and outer world seemed to be in some sort of conflict.
It was from an obit that I got the jolting news about Captain Raghu’s death in far-of Kargil. His was a restless soul which finally found rest. Raghu was too young to die, but then, he always believed in short-cuts. He kept his covenant with the country and this time found a glorious short-cut to heaven. He has seized his place in military history, and most of all, in the hearts of his friends. He had such a presence that even when he was alive he left something of him hanging in the air.
To us, his close friends, he does that even now