A Stolen Victory & Hearts – By Aarohi Madan

(A sequel to - A (Really) Stolen Election)

Life didn’t much change in the year 1995 or 1996, but some things did come along, that left a huge impact at that time. For example, the legendary movie Dilwale Dulhania Ley Jayenge was released that year. India joined WTO, and in November the city of Bombay got renamed Mumbai and the song Q-Funk became the biggest hit remix song of the year.

The Magic of Govida ruled the box office, and the seniors at VNIT, passed out, from the college, into the real world.

Meanwhile…

The college campus at VNIT or Vallabh National Institute of Technology, was anew with fresh faces and once the daily classes started, anyone can hardly remember the last year’s debacle. But in the hostel, the scenario was pretty much the same. Though the election was won by the third year’s Rahul Party, the heart was won over by the Machhar Party, who in their solidarity, stood against the goons of Rohit and his goons, when they came to fight in the hostel premise and then they had to face the wrath of the principle and the teaching faculty. Their strike together for their rights and the righteousness of their cause that held them together and then the true colours fly when Shrini spoke about the unmoral and kniving way of the third year's Rahul and Party's - “innovative method" they used to win the election in front of everyone.

The applause that followed, showed Rohit, Amit and Shrinivas, that they have come far in their life, during their last year, together.

What followed after that was, something of the astounding.

The ‘Kabza’ of Bhabha Bhavan by Rahul and his Goons was heavily criticised openly after the debate, from last year and though the Rahul gang was seniors this year, they had absolutely no credibility among the younger batches.

The second-year students, after the ‘Kabza’ during their first year, never favoured Rahul and then, the second year batch now in their third year, were also angered by the Rahul Party, because for them the local reputation of the college had gone down during the election.

The college politics in the campus last year had involved Gunday from outsides and now people were thinking if the environment of the college has gone bad?

The third-year students, also fear that if the reputation of the college goes down the value of their degree will also go down with it and the students who have come from all parts of India and all walks of life, to study and later get a job and not to fight in dirty college politics, will get the brunt of it.

Of course, not all third year’s batch agreed with this mentality but the majority did, and so when the election for the post of the General Secretary post happened, the third-year student Madan Sarkar decided to stand against the contender and the winner of the previous year election - Rahul and his gang. He nominated his party and its member, himself and his two best friends and most responsible persons in his year, Lokesh Dasgupta and Saurabh Singh, and his party – ‘Naya Savera’.

When the new faces of the first years came to the hostel the second year and most people from the third year came to help the newcomers, rather than bully them. Everyone remembers their own humiliation of being bullied by their seniors, so they decided to change the pattern by setting an example themselves.

The fourth year came to bully, just like the rest of them knew, but everybody else also knew that Rahul has dropped his popularity, after the debated incident. Though the Machhar Party had are now passed out of college, they marked a special place in this college by standing up against Rahul and his muscle power.

Madan Sarkar who campaigned around with Machhar party slogan of – ‘The Buck stops here, reminded them of how, some of them, stayed with the Machher Party and fought against Rahul, protested with Machhar, when the principal had put up the notice for eviction for fourth year’s and when Madan, with Lokesh and Saurabh, had united everybody (except Rahul and his 'Chelas') on not ragging the first years, students - new and old, remember that and this time Rahul did lose the election.

The next year Rahul passed out of college and joined politics. Though he claims in his speech during rallies at election time, that people always ask him to come to the reunion parties but he doesn’t go because he has no time, but the truth is that no one really invites him.

All the students who use to roam around him in college had now left him and now he is only surrounded by his Gunda ‘friends’.

Madan now in his last year had again, won the election. He and his friend Lokesh and Saurabh are most respected by their juniors and also by teachers mostly because of the harmony on the campus.

Students start coming up to them for their problems. Earlier the only point of winning the election was to form a student committee, that remains most active in the cultural fast.

But now students living in the hostel see them differently.

The anti-ragging squad, thanks to their help, have now much more participants. When the fresh term started, barely any complaints came of ragging.

Madan Sarkar has decided that he’s far too much of a free spirit to work under someone and live by their rules. He had decided that after he gets his degree, he’s going to use it for the welfare of the community. He wasn’t sure what he would do, but he had started to believe in luck and in himself more than before.

Lokesh Dasgupta, who didn’t have any real friends before found himself in a group where the bond is thicker than blood.

When he had entered into VNIT, he had only hoped to secure a job from his education, so that he can return home, be proud of his parents and live an ordinary life. But during the years of his college, he had learnt the true meaning of friendship and now in his last year, he dared to dream another dream. To be with his friends and not leave this friendship behind when college is over.

An evening he decided to let out his fear.

“Saurabh, what have you thought about the future?”

“What about it? All the masti and extra-curricular was for last year, this year is our final. We have to get serious and start thinking about our future seriously. I have decided, my Mama, who lives in Mumbai had sent me a letter telling me that after I get my degree, he might be able to put forth a request for me, in his office. All I need is good results in my exams.”

“But what about us? Our friendship?” Lokesh asked in a sad voice.

Saurabh looked uncomfortable but he still answered –

“Life goes on my friend. We meet new people at every stage of life. Some we left behind as we move on. It’s nothing to get sad over it.”

But he sounded pretty sad and looked a little sad too.

“What about you Madan? Will you also forget about these days when you move out?”

“No,” Madan said in a calm voice.

“I will never forget those days, nor will I forget about you guys. I came from UP to this seaside town. And with you guys, I stayed in this hostel and it became my home and you became my brothers. When I missed my family you guys were there.”

“Remember the first year when I got sick after drinking all that ‘Toddy’.”

Lokesh and Saurabh laughed together remembering the old incident.

The fourth-year found thought that since all the northers that have come to the south for the first time needed to be introduced to the local speciality – ‘Toddy’.

Madan being from the north didn’t know at the time the sour white drink his seniors were forcing him to drink, during his ragging, was actually alcoholic.

He had no memory of what happened after he got drunk. He only remembered the stomach ache he suffered from vomiting all night and waking up the next day with a mighty headache. His first hangover.

Saurabh had come to his rescue that night. He was from the south and though he was not a heavy drinker he had drink Toddy in his life. The seniors didn’t bother him much but their plan to enjoy their evening watching drunk Madan came to an end when he started vomiting that night.

He vomited on two of his seniors who stood closer to him and then everybody else started panicking and wanted to run away from him. Lokesh who was next in the line for the drinking prayed to gods for his luck that he did not have to drink that horrible stuff that was making someone vomit so bad.

That night Madan couldn’t vomit on any more seniors but he left the gathering hall, where the seniors had called everyone to witness the bullying of the first-year students, stinking with vomit and the evidence of Toddy.

The next day when the sweeper came, the mess was reported to the principal, who knew what had happened at once. Thinking, since the seniors would be leaving soon the principal didn’t punish them severely, but he did give them a lecture.

The seniors knew they couldn’t do any more damage to Madan, but they were angry at him. So, to vent their anger, they would call him names, would spread lies about him but it was nothing he had not seen before, growing up. But as time passed, he started getting adjusted to the new life and made friends with Lokesh Dasgupta and Saurabh Singh.

Madan looked at Lokesh,

“Why are you laughing so much? Did you forget how we saved you from ‘Tharaki Raju’s problem?”

Lokesh face turned red thinking about that time.

Lokesh had only one problem in the first year of his college. His roommate in the hostel. His name was Rajkumar Mina. He came from Jaisalmer. At that time everyone called him only Raju. His designation was later added to his name when people found out his weakness for dirty magazines.

Raju with his books had bought a bundle of magazines that had women drawn in them with little to no clothing and in very suggestive style.

He had offered Lokesh to read his magazines and out of curiosity, he had read a few of them. The story structure was very basic, the heroine, whether a princess or a widow, was always in need of rescuing and the man who rescues her gets to sleep with her.

There wasn’t much to excite Lokesh, but Raju was addicted to it. He had a friend, who would send him every month a bundle of new magazines, to keep him entertained and Raju would read it deep into the night, sometimes hiding under a bedsheet reading in a torchlight.

Raju never talked much. Whatever time he would get outside his studies he would read those magazines and would sometimes draw those half-naked pictures too.

At first, it wasn’t a problem but as people started to find out about Raju’s addiction, Lokesh became fearful that someday it might bring him a problem.

The problem came in the second year.

The books would circulate in the hostel once Raju had read them. Some would read, some would be torn out the pictures. Somehow the sweeper, who rarely visit the boy’s hostel, got hold of some pages of those magazines.

Nobody liked him or talked to him in the hostel. He had a creeping habit of snooping through people’s things without their permission and if he found something of interest, he would blackmail you with it and afterwards he will tell the principal about it.

His sole purpose was to snitch on students. So, everybody called him ‘Rat’ behind his back.

When ‘Rat’ found those pages, he went straight to the principal. Coincidentally, someone saw him with those pages, when he took them with him and he informed everyone about it.

A cleaning session started that day since it was morning and the principal was busy with his work he could not come faster enough, so the hostel was sealed down and a thorough inspection was to be held in the evening.

Lokesh who heard the news last went into a panic mode. He knew if his roommate got caught, he would get in trouble too. At the very least, he will be held responsible simply because he kept quiet about the magazines, at the worst, they would think he was involved with Raju in this magazine business and he might get rusticated from college for this.

Lokesh sat in his room, his head in his hands, waiting for the sun to set on his future too. Madan came into his room and sat down beside him, Saurabh came too.

“What’s your plan for tonight?” Madan had asked and Lokesh just sat there like a stone.

“Tharaki Raju has made up a plan to put the blame on you. Many students have also agreed to speak against you.” Saurabh said as Raju entered the room.

“Lokesh, I am sorry. But I am the only child of my parents and I had to take care of them. If Principle gives you any harsh punishment, I will pay you ten thousand rupees for your troubles, but please save me.” Said Raju.

Madan stood up in anger.

“Is this how you ask for help? You are asking him to ruin his future to save yours and you would pay him money for that.”

“So, what do you want me to do. It wasn’t like these magazines were the only illegal things in the hostel. Others have things too. But only I got caught and now my whole future is hanging by a thread. What do you want me to do in this situation? What can anybody do in this situation? Do you have a plan that could save me and Lokesh?” Raju asked in a frustrated voice.

“Actually, I do have a plan in mind but for it to work we all have to work together.”

Madan said while looking at everyone in the room.

A plan had been formed for the attack.

…

In the evening when the principal came to the hostel with the security guards and other helpers, except for some cigarette butts no other illegal object was found anywhere in the hostel. The search went on for all evening to twelve in the night but nothing was found.

The frustrated guards and more importantly the ‘Rat’, couldn’t find anything to incriminate the students and left the premise in frustration.

After the authorities left, the students stayed in the open grounds of the hostel, blowing their warm breath into the night’s chill air and watching it turn white in front of their faces. Everyone complain about how cold it was and what a nuisance it was to stand in the cold being accused of something they didn’t ever do.

They knew that the ‘Rat’ is watching their every move. He was expecting them to run away to the secret place where they had hidden their magazines but what the ‘Rat’ didn’t know, that none of them needed to go anywhere to know if the magazines were discovered or not. They all knew it was safe because they all carried it with themselves.

“Instead of putting blame on one person why not carry the burden together.”

Madan had said to the room. Everybody looked at him to explain more.

“See we cannot throw them out nor can we move them to any hiding place. We are under watch. And when they will come to search our hostel, they will look at every place but not under our clothes.”

“It’s winter now, we will be covered in sweaters and jackets. We can hide magazines inside our clothes, tuck in our pants or strap them to our torso with the help of a belt. If each and everyone carries few, we can make the whole pile disappear in minutes.”

“And what if someone gets caught?” Someone asked.

“Then we all reveal ourselves. If only one gets caught, he will be rusticated but if we all jump in together, we will survive. They can’t throw out all of us. We will swim if we all stayed together.”

Lokesh who sat still all this time finally broke his posture and embraced Madan in a hug.

Raju spoke, “Madan has spoken the truth. Together, we all stand a chance of survival. So, we will follow Madan’s plan.”

They were all lost in the thoughts of the past when someone knocked on the door from outside.

Saurabh stood up and opened the door. Two girls stood outside their room looking scared, asked if they can speak to Madan. They need his help.

It was late in the evening and girls were never allowed in the boy’s hostel but the urgency on their faces warned Saurabh that something big had to happen for them to come here so late and in violation of the college rules.

“My name is Richa and this is my friend Srishti. We are doing electronic engineering and are in the second year. There is a problem we are facing in our hostel that we can’t talk about, to the authorities, so we need your help.”

“Speak freely, anything you said to us will not be spoken outside this room and I will try and help you in any way I can.” Said Madan, with utmost sincerity.

“There is this old man who sometimes does maintenance work but he mainly works in the hostel garden. His name is Ganesh. He would talk politely and decently enough that girls didn’t mind when he would come into the room and sit there and talk with them. He told us that he was never married and didn’t have any family and now that he’s old he feels very lonely. So, we felt sorry for him and didn’t mind him roaming through our hostel corridor or when he would visit someone in their room uninvited.”

“It started out slowly. We would come to our room and find our thing in a different place from where we had put them. It would also look like someone has gone through our things, not the books or cosmetics or even clothes, which you would think since girls take each other stuff without telling them. But it would be our undergarments that would look unkempt as if someone took them out and looked. We stayed quiet. What was there to be said? Then one day Srishti found a red lipstick, placed between her underwear. The lipstick wasn’t of a brand, that girls of our age used. It was cheap stuff that’s sold in the local market.

We were troubled by all this and decided to tell our hostel warden. After listening to us she told us that the girls of our age are only ever interested in boys. Her exact words were ‘if they are not running after some poor boy, somebody must be going to extreme length to woo them and they are bothered by it. Get your head out of the cloud you aren’t that pretty, instead of wasting your time on imaginary things go and study.’”

“We told about these incidents to the girls and they were more supportive than the warden. It was decided that Ganesh should be informed about this so he can keep a lookout for anyone suspicious.”

The three guys sigh at the same time.

“He told us that he had some pictures of us that he took of us while we were in the bathroom. He never showed it to us but said if we ever talk about him to anyone, he would not only give those pictures to the boys of the college but would also tell the teacher that it was us who circulated those pictures. Even the girls from your own hostel would not believe you and then you will be thrown out of the college.”

“He never tried to touch us and would only say creepy things when no one is around to witness. He would walk into our room uninvited at any time he felt like and no one would find his behaviour weird.”

“We are tired of him. When he is not with us, we constantly worry about his next visitation. Many nights we would stay awake crying or simply unable to sleep. We came here to study after many difficulties but now we can’t concentrate on anything. Please help us we beg you.”

Madan spoke first – “You know what we call Ganesh here?”

They moved their head in denial.

“’ Rat’ or ‘Rat’ Ganesh, because he loves to blackmail students. He also likes to snitch at them but blackmailing is his favourite. He has no picture of you. I can say that with assurance because we have known him for some years now. If he had any pictures, he would have carried them with him to show you daily and enjoyed your pain and discomfort by showing it to you. He would never touch you or do anything serious he just enjoying his control over your life.”

“So, is there no way to help us?” Said Srishti who had been sitting there quiet all this time.

Madan looked at her.

She looked young and scared. She had a fair complexion but looked sickly pale. Her eyes round and big distracted him the most. Suddenly he wanted to leave the room and go and find ‘Rat’ Ganesh and beat him to a pulp.

He forced himself to look away from her eyes and said to the other girl whose name he has forgotten – “There are always ways to help yourself if you really want it.”

“This is what you girls will do from now on. You will go back to your room in your hostel and behave as if this meeting never took place. You will not even discuss it among yourselves in your room. You have to be very careful. You will behave exactly like you behaved normally before you came here, scared, distracted and fearful of him. Don’t worry, you won’t have to deal with him for long. Our main focus now is not to spook him.”

“We will meet on a college campus and that too very discreetly. We can’t do an open meeting like this; it will be out of normal and anybody who sees us will question it and ‘Rat’ might hear of it. So, we have to be careful. I will think about what to do with him tonight and when a plan forms, I will tell you. Until then stay strong.”

In the last line, he said to the scared girl who had big eyes and tears in them.

“Don’t cry I will not leave you to suffer alone. I promise.”

Madan lay in bed trying to think about a solution but found himself keep getting distracted by a face with big beautiful eyes. He was angry at ‘Rat’ for hurting her. And he was also a bit angry at the other girl whose name he had yet again forgotten, because she could have come to them, a bit earlier. But none of that matters now, he will take care of the matter all by himself and she will be happy and she will look more beautiful smiling. He slept that night thinking about smiling Srishti and had forgotten about the other girl completely.

A few days later, Lokesh was waiting for Richa outside her classroom. As she appears at the end of the corridor, he started to walk towards her. When he came close to her, he purposefully bumps into her. He bumped lightly but she was so shocked she dropped her books which she was carrying with her. Lokesh picked up her books and slide a folded paper between it and looked at her when he said ‘Sorry’ meaningfully.

The message was delivered.

The girls have to steal underwear and bras from other girls of the hostel and put one of theirs too and deliver it to the guys and the guys will take care of the rest.

Though the demand sounded weird and they can’t figure out how it will help them, they still decided to trust the guys and do it.

The girls decided to use the empty bags of sanitary pads to hide stolen garments. And then they wrapped those packets with old newspapers and put them in a bag.

Lokesh was once again waiting for Richa near the drinking water taps. She came hurriedly and left the bag, her face blushing beet red.

When Madan opened the bag at night inside their room with all the doors locked, he too turned red in the face when he found himself holding a sanitary packet. In fact, all of their faces turn red and no one dared to utter a word.

Then he opened the packet and found what was he looking for and blushed again and then he closed all of it and put it in the bag and gave it to Saurabh – “Here you keep it. We will need it in a few days when everything is set in place, the girls only need to occupy him for a couple of hours for us to finish our work and then we will see the fireworks.”

As was planned, the girls avoided Ganesh as best as they can for a few days which made him angry so one day, he went to the girls’ room after sundown.

When he came, they were prepared for him. They knew that Ganesh was being watched all the time and, in the letter, Madan had told them, if Ganesh ever came to their room after sunset, they have to keep him there as late as they can. They needed one hour at the most to execute their plan. So, the girls kept him occupied by arguing with him and threatening him.

They were talking when a loud sound woke the hostel. Soon another one followed and then the night was filled with loud firecracker sound.

Everyone rushed to find out the source and everybody gathered around the hostel quarter of the staff. One of the rooms was the source of all the noise, the room of the gardener, - Ganesh. The warden was present at the site and looked very angry,

“Who did this? Is this a playground or a hostel? Who is so immature, to do this?”

She was screaming when some girls who were looking into the room started whispering among themselves.

“What is it? What happened?” The warden screamed once more but the firecracker had died down and all was quiet once again.

More girls gathered around the room and gasped and finally the warden saw inside the room.

“Whose room is this?” She asked in a whisper.

One girl went inside the room and took off the grey shirt hanging from a nail in the wall.

The shirt was the uniform provided to the helping staff of the hostel. They had all seen that shirt many times, visiting them in their rooms, roaming around in the hostel. The badge which held the name of its owner was still pinned up on the breast pocket.

“What’s going on? Who dared to blow firecrackers in my room?” Came screaming Ganesh. Everyone saw that he came from the hostel's way, where he was not supposed to be.

“Forget about the firecrackers, I want to know about the rest of the things you have in your room.” Said the warden who was somehow angrier than before.

Richa and Srishti stood to the side. They had hurried and come before Ganesh and saw the whole event unfold.

The bag of stolen undergarments Richa had given to Lokesh was placed on top of a pile of magazines that had pictures of naked women on them. The matron after asking Ganesh went into his room and one after another throw the magazines on the floor. Then she simply took the bag from another pile and threw its content on the floor. Every girl who saw what fell out of it gasped, and then someone said – “That’s mine.”

And soon girls started filling inside the room identifying their items of clothing.

Ganesh who stood outside had lost all colour and had gone pale. He couldn’t understand what was happening and had lost all sense of reality.

Richa and Srishti were happy that now they don’t have to ever worry about Ganesh again.

And that’s exactly what happened the next day. Ganesh lost his job and was told to never appear near the college or the hostel, if he did, he will be handed over to the police.

After a few days, something flew from the window into the girl’s room. It was a paper wrapped in a rock. It said to meet the guys outside the hostel in a secluded location near the forest. The girls followed the direction until they saw the guys a few meters ahead standing among the trees.

Richa, when saw Lokesh, ran straight for him and hugged him tightly saying – “Thank you” over and over again.

Srishti stood for a moment before collapsing on the ground but Madan ran up to her in time and held her in his arms as she cried her heart out. Saurabh looked from one friend to another and decided he can hear the story later on. He left the place muttering that his books are waiting for him in his room and that he need them to pass the exam, with good marks but nobody was listening to him.

Twenty years later, at a reunion party...

Lokesh was on the mic telling how he found his one true love in the college and Madan standing in the audience with his wife for seventeen years laugh aloud in harmony. Next to them stood Richa, who was hinting him to come down. Saurabh who was laughing along said to his wife, “They left me all alone in the forest when the girls came to them.”