#rounak

This is Rounak's Profile. I am interested in computers and technology. I am so-called computer genius working on many websites. As they will be completed i will share them with you. I like to learn computer languages and spend time on writing coeds.

Orco Guha lives in the kind of building in Mumbai which would blend in extraordinarily well with the bland skyline of the central suburbs, in an apartment with his parents. His room is a tangible form of the ambivalence he lives in at every passing moment of his life, adorned with portraits of him as a young child, the same band’s poster pinned since 2004, awkward photographs of him with his numerous relatives, and a prized caricature of himself he obtained for a 100 rupees at the Kalaghoda art festival last year. His academic progress is stagnating to the point that he has lost any sliver of interest which he ever had in it, and he has gained six kilos of weight in the past year. Orco, however, to comfort himself, has learnt not to care much for looking into such bygones in his rather mediocre life. Instead, he obsesses with trivialities and spends the greater part of his time crafting worlds out of nothing in his mind.

In his dreams, day and night, Orco is a suave, poetic Casanova- admired by all and desired by many- and in an attempt to convert dreams into reality he makes pseudo-artsy blog pages on the internet, laden with verbosity and sparsely connected words that appear to be post-modern prose. He plays the guitar, seeking refuge in its rusty, outdated, 80 rupee-strings and dry fingerboard, strumming chords that are by now almost subconscious. He writes songs about love and loss even though he knows none of it. He knows that any educated musician would scoff at the mere sound of it, calling his music juvenile and thematically underdeveloped- but in a world overridden with musicians singing about issues plaguing humanity, Orco finds himself to be almost like comic relief and continues to romanticize in his world of rhyming lyrics and simple chord progressions. Girls would never be able to resist the temptation of soppy music like his anyway, so it was quite a profitable position for Orco. To distance himself even further, he listens to music that no one else does, painfully scouring the internet for the most obscure artists on alternative music websites, because there’s a bizarre thrill in doing things others don’t.

He often plays Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne on repeat before going to sleep, marvelling at the artist’s poignant words and haunting voice in the distant, sleepy meanderings of his mind, yet all the while knowing that Hank Williams’ I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive is a more suitable soundtrack to his life.

Orco is Bengali, and all throughout his life, there has been no deficiency of invitations and weddings where he watches in horror as drunken middle-aged men and women celebrate at the expense of unhealthy food and flamboyant decorations.

He assumes various personalities to appease various people; in some ways he is an enigma of sorts. And whilst everyone else is left perpetually unsure as to whom Orco really is, he himself struggles to answer their questions. Orco has met numerous suitors throughout his life, who all seem to agree on the fact that he is excessively shallow, superficial and too bewildered about himself, let alone anything else. Disgruntled, and baffled, he strives to understand who he really is, and asks internet forums and god why his life is so unusual. He complains that regardless of how hard he tries, nothing ever seems to get better, and questions remain unanswered. He desperately attempts at making sense of the disjointed events in his life. He ignores his friends, puts away all of his pointless pastimes and scrutinizes every minute detail of his life, frantically looking for a conclusion. Orco decides to take a soul-searching trip around Mumbai in a local train, hoping that introspection will take place en route.

Then, quite unexpectedly, as he makes his way toward the Kurla Local, I abruptly stop typing out the story of my newly created protagonist’s life. Microsoft Word indicates a semantic error with a wavy green line. 

Orco’s brisk walk comes to a stop as he stands in the middle of the platform, surrounded by a swarming crowd of commuters.