'Maine Pyaar Kiya' was released in 1989 and the villain taunts Salman Khan that a girl and boy can never be friends, we all like many others took Salman's side and applauded at his macho man demeanor but somewhere deep inside our heart we questioned that statement ourselves. Though we would never admit it in public as we want to portray ourselves as broad-minded modern individuals.
Opposites attract and men and women are the epitomai of distinctiveness, so love trickles down the minuscule of gaps, and boom we have a love story.
This was the widely accepted theory as we find many such people around us who prove it right and one such fellow is the protagonist of this story as well.
'Amaar Shonaar Bangla'. Well, this story is not about West Bengal but two people who were from the city of joy i.e. Calcutta. The era when this story had begun in the 90s and in that time Calcutta was the right name to be used.
In a posh park street bungalow in Calcutta lived Neil Roy, along with his parents Bhaskar Roy and Nivedita Roy. Neil's dad was a charted
accountant by profession who was brainy enough to be qualified to practice both in India and in the UK. Actually, Neil was born in the UK so he is the lucky Indian with a British passport but when his grandparents got old, his family moved back to India. Neil was just two years old then.
The Roys were not the only residents of their Park Street bungalow, they lived on the upper floor while the ground floor was given on rent to Shekhar and Tapur Mukherjee. The couple was newly married when they rented this house by the senior-most Roys i.e. the grandparents. Shekhar was a doctor and Tapur was a homemaker.
But when Neil's family moved back, Shekhar and Tapur were already towards the family way, and just in few months their only daughter, Alia Mukherjee was born.
The Roys and Mukherjee's got along very well, with their children growing up together. They were literally like chuddy-buddies.
Neil was almost ten years old when after the death of his grandparents, the Roys decided to move back to the UK for their son's better education and for better career opportunities.
However, the Roys used to visit Calcutta in every school holidays. So that will make it up to thrice a year - Easter, Summers, and Christmas.
Visiting India this often, it felt to Neil that he never missed out on anything. He was still in regular touch with his school friends and would hang out with them whenever he would be around and this was pre-social media days. Calcutta was Neil's party place.
Being the only child of his parents, Neil was spoilt to bits. He was the apple of his mother's eyes. One frown on his face resulted in new lego sets and the latest Nintendo games and he used to bring all his new toys when he came to India and naturally his Indian friends would love to hang out with him.
Among his Indian friends, one of them was Alia. She was the complete opposite of Neil. While you can say Neil was a bit of a spoilt brat, Alia was the ideal daughter of her parents. Having been taught the value of money from a very young age, she was never really fond of Neil's rich Indian friends as she always thought them to be a bit over the top and snobbish, people who are miles away from the reality of life and Neil was aware of that.
Neil and Alia were very good friends and he could be 100% himself around her. He would treat Alia as one of his guy friends and there would be no filter what so ever he spoke to her. He didn't feel the need to act in a certain way as he did with his snooty rich friends. He knew that Alia would never judge his actions. He was a simple guy at heart but it was only with Alia that his simplicity would shine through otherwise he would behave in the same way as his friends to fit into their group. This habit of Neil would irritate Alia to the core but she would not say anything to him, after all, it was his life.
When Neil was 16-17 years old, during his holiday trips, he got exposed to the wild side of Calcutta, oops sorry now its Kolkata, with late-night parties and a bit of social drinking. Alia would be his safety blanket, who would protect him from any trouble at home. That says a lot about their frienship.