Woh pahli baar.. Jab hum mile..

Valentine's Day has a special place in my life.. Not because of obvious reasons though.. ;)

But because, it was on this day, in 2004, that I first embarked on a journey that would lead to two of the most creative and enjoyable experiences of my life.. It was on 14 th February 2004, that I teamed up with Nikhil and Hemant for the first time.. A team that would be inseparable ever since.. and would work on many diverse projects.. some that hit the bulls-eye, and some that never moved out of incubation.. But the results of our efforts have never dented our friendship..

The students of the erstwhile batch in B-school had decided to celebrate Valentine's Day 2004, in their own unique way.. We had decided to have some fun programmes to mark the day.. like Proposal Writing Competitions, Best Pair Awards, and some Skits/Plays etc.. Nikhil and Hemant, who had done some skits during their student life, decided to do one here too.. After weeks of planning, they had progressed just like any typical project..... They were clueless on the final day.. Even 2 hours before the show, they were nowhere.. the fellow batchmates they had approached for the roles in the play had ditched them at the last moment.. and the script they had been working on was deemed unfit for the occasion.. Suddenly, a brainwave hit them.. They somehow cooked up a script.. and drafted me in to play one of the roles.. Nikhil and Hemant would play the other two characters.. Another batchmate was asked to become the playback singer.. But at Zero hour, we still did not have anyone to play the role of a solitary female.. With minutes to go, we somehow managed to cajole a female batchmate to help us out.. And thus, one of the shoddiest plays of all time (which had an equally shoddy title "To do or not to do? What to do?") finally hit the stage..

The play was about 2 hopeless YFMs (played by me and Hemant), desperately wanting to kick-start their non-existent love-lives. When all their efforts to propose to their crush (played by a female batchmate) fail, they approach a learned saint (played by Nikhil) with a last ditch plea for help.. The saint offers some divine advice, charges a load of money for the same.. In the end, the poor fellows realize that even the saint had tricked them, and they were back to square one..

And thus, this horrendous performance marked the beginning of our life as a team.. A team that would go on to conceptualize MastishK 2004 (It was Nikhil and Hemant who played a major role in this, I was just an assistant).. and then create Arbit Choudhury (with Me working on ideas and sketches, Hemant weaving his Photoshop magic, and Nikhil sorting out the technical nitti-gritties).. We have had our fair share of failures along the way too.. most notable being ShoOOonya Talkies (a brainchild of Hemant and Nikhil).. Though we have often had differences of opinion, but we have never stopped dreaming..

We have since passed out of B-school, and now work from various locations across the globe.. But we continue to coordinate and brainstorm over the net.. generating, refining and implementing our myriad ideas..