Cheeku, Ani, Cheek-ling, Andy, the list would never end and with every season, I had a new name for him, but he stuck to one, JATI, dunno where he got that one from and let me assure you, it wasn’t the suave’est either. Its taken me quite a while and a lot of strength and attempts to pen down a few of my thoughts and I feel its time for me to finally accept that you are in a happier place up there making all the gods laugh till they fall off their thrones.
My earliest recollections of Ani date back to Anuji’s house in Bundi and then in Alwar where both of us were madly in love with two German beauties, I think I was 12 yrs and you can imagine Ani’s age, but love it was and mind you, true love at that. A big jump in time and my next best recollections of Ani were in the Venky college toilet where we both met a certain Mr Dabas and that’s a story in itself that Ani and I would rather keep to ourselves, for that Mr Dabas ran the moment he saw Ani every time after that little toilet tete`a tete. I remember the times when we bumped drinks off rich bf’s of pretty girls at pubs, Ani was amazing, he had women who were madly in love with him AND he had their boyfriends feeding us with booze and eats knowing very well that all Ani had to do is ask these ladies out and they would dump their richie rich’s like hot cakes, but Ani was smarter than that and so we enjoyed our Saturday nights in the midst of pretty women and rich boyfriends.
Jump in time to the UK and that?s where we spent a lot of time with each other, he would come over and Sumi and Jayanta would feed him amazing ghar ka khana, I remember mom and shail bhabhi came to Sheffield for Diwali and fed us Aloo Paranthas. This was also the time when Ani and I used to speak for hours over the tele, he told me everything from the women he was dating to the part time research assistant?s job that he was doing and most importantly to what he did with the money he earned from the research assistant?s job, needless to say it was Halleluiah time at the Uni pub in the eve with beautiful ladies by his side.
Even though I was nearly six years older than Cheeku, somehow I always felt and knew that if ever I needed anything I knew whom to ask, Till date I don?t recall even for a moment if Cheek-ling ever said NO for anything, if I would call him from my regiment and tell him that something needed to be done, he would first say yes and then listen to my ridiculous demands, that was him and that?s what made him such a darling, he genuinely cared for people, I remember I wanted something special planned for my girl friend but I was stuck on the border, I had in all two days of holiday time in Delhi, he booked us into this really posh hotel, ordered a bucket of the finest wine, told Shail bhabhiji the car is off-road and has been left in the Mechanic?s shop where-as it was with us incase we wanted to go out, (sorry Shail Bhabhiji) and came ten times to check if we guys were comfortable, this when I just called him once and he said, ? JATI leave it to me dude?.
I have a very interesting interview that I did with Cheeku in England when I was doing a story on why British Asian women hate Asian men, will uplink it online for all to hear. He was the star interviewee in that story of mine, interestingly I had no Asian voice in that piece and suddenly I thought of our young man, he had had a late night in Cardiff and was in bed when I called, by the time we finished, he gave me the best and the funniest interview of my life, he completely changed the look of the story from being a boring little no-good story to one that got me a small little prize. That was Ani for us all.
Lastly Ani, this is for you, you are the only person I know who has left us yet in your absence we don?t cry and feel hurt but we love you even more and feel you in everything we do, you were never a regular, you were special man and whilst physically we might not see you, we feel you, we talk about you, we laugh about you and the best thing is that you laugh back, and we know it man, we know it !!!
We all have lived through tough times but for me, the toughest has been to break the news to your dad and mom, I still shiver when I think of that day in your house in GK, I miss you Cheeku, Ani, Cheek-ling, Andy, I really miss you dude.