Growing up days – exposed to the outside world

My joining college coincided with a new phase of my life. We had shifted to our newly constructed house in Lake Town which was, at that time, a gradually emerging township. It was situated on Jessore Road and was not too far from Shyambazar where we stayed earlier. There were any number of private buses that plied – these were long distance buses and many of the conductors were not even aware of the location of Lake Town.

Anyway, the fact remains that the distance from my house to my college in Park Street was long – it would take at least one hour to reach. Moreover, I would be getting hardly two rupees for daily expenses from my mother and that had to take care of not just my bus fares but also snacks in the college canteen.

And – in addition to these I had to have some money for going to movies plus a few cigarettes.
Yes, by that time I had got addicted to smoking – because others smoked and, there used to be impressive slogans like ‘live life king size’ or ‘good to the last puff’ or ‘made for each other’. Moreover, dangling a cigarette in between your lips used to look good on the cinema screen and appeared to be impressive. (to be continued …)