First time I heard about Prisoner's Dilemma
From my friend Himadeep
(who now indoctrinates students at Vassar College)
Sitting in Rendezvous cafe
Oh my the anguish I felt
For being stuck in MBBS
My heart sank in my mouth
Those were such heady days and times
When what seduced one was ideas,
Theories, the joy of discovering
What the world was all about
What we were all about
What romance was, what freedom was
Listening to a Bihari speaking in chaste Hindi
In the student elections at JNU, oh my,
Watching my friend Manoj smoking weed
For the first (and last?) time, again in Rendezvous cafe
While I and Himadeep sat across the table from him
Trying to see what effect that would have on him
And it seemed to have no effect, darn!
Manoj now writes books on caste and such other issues
And has blocked me on WhatsApp
And so has Himadeep, these childhood friends I tell ya
But I am no innocent guy
I have now blocked everyone on WhatsApp
Except a few (make that 8 people).
Then, borrowing the biography of Ramana Maharshi
From my school buddy Nandan (running now a CA firm)
Courtesy his elder brother's good book collection
And borrowing the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
From my buddy Narasimha, now a Supreme Court judge,
Courtesy his father's collection
Not to mention the thrill of borrowing The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
Again from Nandan
And the saturday ritual of borrowing from Sanjay, now a Supreme Court Judge,
Hardy Boys, Alfred Hitchock and the Three Investigators, Agatha Christie books
From his father's library, along with R. Madhu,
Listening to Pink Floyd at Satish's house and discussing a bit of Marx with him
Only to later realize he did not let me know then
How much more he understood about these than me
Topping his batch at JNU as he did, now retired from Osmania University.
The going to quizzes with Sachin
And debate competitions with Bharat and Leela
My only two saviour engagements going through med school
Except for maybe a little fluttering of the heart
With other good friends at the med school
And the second shows at the movies with Jaikishan and Bharat;
My roomies at the Univ in Gainesville
Kiran and Ramaswami
Discussing and learning from them many a thing
Including "proof by contradiction", etc.,
And those days at Johns Hopkins
The days with Mariam, Mary, Ilyse, Marisa, and Arnab
Watching artsy movies on weekends.
Nothing was understood clearly during those days
Everything was virgin territory (no sexual innuendos you silly)
The intellect was hungry for more
Be it Socrates or Boethius, Shankaracharya or some Upanishad
Everything kept me going, the road seemed long, if not winding.
But having landed in the 60s, nothing seems to hold one's attention
Except maybe getting a little bit of love and affection from others.
Know Thyself 