Sumeet Deshpande

Tatya,Despo,Sumdi,Desai-ka-tillu, etc. are some of the 30 odd names i can think of Sumit.Nobody on this planet has more names than him.Nobody on the planet has as much talent either.A very bright student throughout his life takes academics as just another class 4th arithmetic problem.It comes naturally to him.Now sumit may not agree to this and try to be modest, but guys this really is the truth.He is one guy who has a great brain between those funny looking ears.

I was the first person from our school to be introduced to Sumit.It was 9th standard when Sumit migrated from his Amravati School to mine.I very well remember the first day of Sumit in our class.I was sitting on the 3rd last bench with Anand and the 3rd seat was empty.Sumit had no other option.As normal 9th standard guys, I and Anand were a bit averse to let an intruder into our private and very exclusive group.We behaved formally with him and asked him some stupid questions to which he gave answers in english.It was a tough task to control the laughter.Nobody dared to speak in English with us MAN!! That did it.We guys decided to rag this newcomer and the senior members of the group like Anup and Sudarshan (Thats what they considered themselves to be) started the proceedings with some adult questions.I remember the gesture Sumit had shown us as a depiction of his vast knowledge about the stuff and i still laugh thinking about it.Little did i know then, that this alien creature was destined to be one of my best friends.

This total prankster, fun loving, adventurous, crazy, whacky and wild guy, became an integral part of our so called GROUP.I remember Sumit's first prank was to spray ink on the shirt of chavanni (our P.T. teacher) and im still proud of him for doing it.The man with the hair of steel (He holds the world record for breaking the most number of combs, metallic ones included !!!) , record breaking 'longest hair on feet' and teeth of Bugs Bunny is also a voracious eater.Man take him to a Savji restaurant or for that matter any place and just watch him eat.This 5'7 hunk of 60 kgs can devour an entire Chicken or maybe even two, making other stalwarts in this industry like Ashish and Sudarshan look like nappy clad new borns.At any dinner, he is always the last man standing.. i mean eating.

Sumit is the latest entry in our group (7 years) but has, with his great qualities of a true and caring friend, never made anybody realize that.In fact i think there are many facts about him which nobody except us know about.He is a very good singer and has absolutely no stage fear. He has this unique activeness and enthusiasm in him which makes him an ideal person to organize group events and functions.He is a guy who will always think of the people around him before himself and this un-selfishness has enabled him to boast of one of the largest friend circle, gathering friends wherever he has gone, be it Schools & Colleges he has studied in and the Colonies he has lived in.

Tatya is also a sports enthusiast( like the other members of the group) and loves to play any game be it Cricket, Soccer, Carrom or even jogging.He is also a fitness freak just like me and was my jogging partner during our final enginering semester in Nagpur.Im sure he misses those days and those rounds of VRCE ground, those chats with the new girls we had be-friended, those kegel (our secret, guys!!) exercise we did everyday as much as i do.

He was the first person to leave Nagpur after getting graduated and I had a very bad time saying good bye to him.I hope nobody saw the moisture in my eyes, the day Sumit left for his job.But destiny brought us together when he got himself posted to Pune and I cannot express how happy I was when I came to know about this.

Guys I guess i should stop here before this story becomes too long to be interesting.