Apart from having a common name I have one more asset to which I get pretty awesome reactions i.e. my hometown – Ghaziabad. I really don’t get it when people say,”Oh my God! You are from Ghaziabad!” Yes folks every bit of mine is from this city, I’ve been living in this not-so-good-in-reputation city for 20 years.
When we meet people , two very common and obvious questions which we are asked or we ask are: What’s your name? And where are you from? Most of the answers go unnoticed but not for me. I have the privilege of seeing weird faces (these include poker face, the constipated look, the confused look, the oh-my-god-I-am-so-sorry-for-you look and others) and an awkward silence which ranges from 15 seconds to a few minutes in which I presume the listener digests the answers given by me.
The first day at college is memorable for everyone. For we dream about the freedom, craziness, love affairs, friendship, bonding. We can say that we dream of a very positive and ideal environment in college. But life always gives you lemons, whether you are prepared for it or not. I reached college 25 minutes earlier on the very first day, not because I am very punctual but because the local train’s time table didn’t match with my college’s timings. So here I was at my college gate still trying to digest the fact that my college building was smaller than my school’s building! Now for the crowd and considering first day at college hype I was hoping that new comers would be welcomed in a Karan Johar movie style (this was too much but I would have been more than satisfied if I had got even 15% of it) but my college management appeared to be a big fan of Anurag Kashyap movies – They were on a very tight budget.
I saw around 10 students scattered around the front gate in pairs mostly. I was really eager to find someone of my stream, but even after 20 minutes of inquiring I was unsuccessful. So I went to relieve myself. While I was busy aiming at the bull’s eye while peeing (yes guys do that) guy in the adjacent partition to mine asked, “Hey, are you from CSE branch?” I was surprised at this as I believe that toilet is not the right place for any small talk with strangers. So I replied reluctantly “Yes! I am indeed from CSE branch” I don’t know what made him so happy that he tried to do a handshake but since I was busy in something more important I saved this handshake for later and he too understood it. “What’s your name? Where are you from? Dwarka, eh?” these were his next questions. “Abhishek and I am from Ghaziabad.” This was my standard reply. Till that day I didn’t know that Abhishek and Ghaziabad should not be included in the same line, but that guy’s reactions made me believe it. I don’t know which fact about me did he find strange but I can assure you that upon hearing my answer his eyes bulged a bit extra and the hand which was so eager to do a handshake with me even though it would have been awkward, slowly went behind the partition and got busy into something which it was supposed to do.
This was my first encounter with people reacting strangely to my identity. But this was just the starting; following is a list containing few among the various incidents/punch lines I come across quite often:
- When I introduced myself for the first time and the word Ghaziabad was halfway through my mouth I could see half of the class turning towards me just to see this commonest Abhishek from the very uncommon Ghaziabad. When the seniors went away I was looked upon by amusement/anxiety/suspicion by some of the classmates and one of them came all the way from the last bench to greet me while constantly shouting and laughing –“Hey Ghaziabad!” If I were to describe this in one line there is a very nice phrase in Hindi –“bawle gaon mein unth aana ( arrival of camel in a village of fools) “.
- For the next few days I was asked on an average of 10 times a day as to why I chose this college over others in my own state and it seemed none of my answers could satisfy them.
- Next 6 months were spent trying to explain how I reach college daily much before the scheduled time in spite of the fact that I live in a place twice the distance as theirs.
- For some of them public transport meant only Metro Train or DTC buses. Riding a shared auto or Gramin Sewa (as they call it in Delhi) was similar to committing a sin, so these few special people of the lot had a really hard time imagining me in a local train.
- For most of them it was quite amusing that I took almost every possible public transport available just for coming to college – Considering that we don’t have boat service in Yamuna and Hindon River and it is impractical to come by an airplane or helicopter. (This startles me as well!)
- Even today many believe that you need a special Visa to come to Ghaziabad. Some believe that if they step in Ghaziabad there are 200% chances that any one or more among the following will happen to them (kidnap/loot/rape/molestation/chain or purse snatching/victim of gang war).
- One of my friends has a number of fictional stories about the people of Ghaziabad; he can go on days narrating his creations – his most popular one states that we play Buzkashi with girls. God bless his creative mind!
The doubts stated above aroused in my friends naturally in the beginning, but now they ask questions intentionally which are even more hilarious and idiotic (sometimes) just for teasing me. But I love all the attention, love and teasing I get from my friends. I just wish they get placed in Ghaziabad sometime in their life and find the answer to themselves. I would be so happy to ask them their experience then.
Abhishek Singh 
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