Life

Life

47 mins
367



Preface

 I didn’t want to start off writing anything soon nor did I think that I would continue this habit nevertheless I wanted to enhance my typing speed, put into use some new words that I had learnt and also maybe correct my wrong notion regarding the spellings of some words. Well, let me start off with no hope of whether this will continue tomorrow.....


Chapter 1

I was never too confident in me doing anything useful by myself but the first time I gained this confidence was when for the first time I lost my weight which I accomplished owing to the great depression in my life which came from my bad rank in the Common Entrance Exam.


Let go off certain aspects of my past. I wish to begin from where I underwent a radical transformation. I would like the people reading this to realise that in this I am possessive and the entire thing is going to be focussed with respect to me. Even if I wish to withhold this from others which I most probably would not, I would like to read this after a while, just not to forget the experience. I would have told this to myself and many other people many times but no problem listen to me again.


I was a good student, a typical nerd till 10th grade then in the 11th and 12th grade I underwent a change which I thought was for the worse initially but now I feel that it was for good, enhancing my belief in the saying “whatever happens, happens for good”.


When I was in my 10th grade before my boards; my dad suddenly woke me up from my slumber and asked me to get ready. I woke up brushed, ate and then changed my clothes not knowing where I was going. My dad took me to Themnahallli, there at the entrance of a building with a banner “.........” (I don’t wish to disclose it) which was to become my future college, he said to me that I was going to write an exam there, which is to be some kind of an entrance exam to that college. I was shocked for I had not prepared for any kind of an exam as such and moreover it was one of the very rare times that I was going to write a paper not set by my school.


My school life was not a very exciting one. I was good in studies or so my teachers felt until I reached my 6th grade. My company and most importantly the distractions at that time (which I would not like to elaborate) kept me aloof from studies because of which I got the least in my 10 years of academics, a mere 58%. After that, I quit playing (outdoor and videogames) and extracurricular activities literally and devoted my time only to mugging up my notes and textbooks. My mom was very sad with the result of my 6th grade which was one other reason why I gave up all sort of recreation because if there is one person whom I love in this world it is my mom.


I used to take part in quizzes but after the 6th grade I never bothered to take part in them and after I entered into the 8th grade I was surrounded with an inferiority complex and a feeling that I was nothing but a below average student because no matter how much I tried I could not be on par with the topper. So I also gave up attending inter school competitions thinking that with so many awesome children in the group the teacher would never pick me and if at all she did what was I to do, there are people better than me anyway so might as well never try.


Now coming back to the college entrance exam before even writing it I was sure to be a major flop show disgracing myself, my family and my school. Then I entered one of the college classrooms and a lecturer entered the class and began his class on trigonometry. Against the expectations of my test, the portions that the lecturer taught was something that I already knew well, I also had the upper hand owing to the fact that I was an ICSE student and most of the others were SSLC students who had not heard of trigonometry. The teacher started by asking about how the students generally felt about the subjects that were taught in the class. Immediately one of the boys with long uncombed hair and spectacles exclaimed that biology was tough but maths was as easy as pie. I was wonderstruck as I always felt biology to be one of the easiest subjects owing to my usual style of mugging stuff; which was what I had to do in the case of biology. I thought to myself “if this kind of a person comes to my class I would be dead beat”. Searching for reasons to be a loser was very typical of me at that time.


Immediately after the class the question papers and blank sheets were given and the exam commenced. The paper was pretty much based on what the lecturer had taught except for 2 questions which I didn’t answer, other than that I felt like most of my answers were right. We were then asked to leave the classroom so that the evaluation of the answer sheets could take place in classroom. I went up to my dad and said that the paper was pretty easy. My eyes then happened to glance at the huge board on which were printed “CET - AIEEE - IIT”. I asked my dad what this was and he, in turn, gave me a blank expression. We then went up to another parent standing close by and asked him what “CET – AIEEE – IIT “ meant and he gave us a brief introduction on that. We were then called by the dean of the college to her chamber where she showed me my marks “19/25.....I cannot give you IIT but I can put you in AIEEE”. That was when I could correlate what the parent spoke to me earlier and what the dean said to me. It seemed like the college was offering me 3 courses IIT, AIEEE, CET out of which I could not choose but the students were segregated based on the entrance exam marks......voila now I got it! I was happy for 4 main reasons one I managed to do the exam reasonably well, two I got a seat in the college without any preparation, I learned something new in trigonometry and also about the courses and lastly the boy who said that maths was easy would definitely be in IIT section or so I thought.


My dad told the dean that he would think over it and tell her his choice in a couple of days. We went home gradually everyone forgot of this test and I concentrated on my boards. I secured 92% (the struggle to get this and the reaction to the result I must share another time).


Chapter 2

Finally, after a lot of drama at home I ended up in the same college I wrote the entrance exam. The college premises seemed pretty fine when I first went in for the entrance exam but on the first day, it seemed as if the building was a jail where the inmates kept begging us to go back but we freshers paid no heed. My first day began with me entering the class late because there were so many classrooms that I was confused with which one to enter. I entered the classroom, the lecturer paid no heed to me so I sat down in the last second bench though my heart craved for the first bench.


Since the class had already begun and as the children in front of me were busy writing notes, I was blinded by their dedication and began taking down notes as well paying little care to even introduce or even look at the faces of my fellow bench mates. The class ended on a happy note atleast to me. Then in the interlude of the arrival of another lecturer and the farewell of the lecturer present, a time where most of the social interaction and information sharing took place between children, I decided to shake hands with my fellow bench mates. As I looked into their faces I could see a sigh of relief on their faces, an expression which suggested an expression “1 down 6 more periods to go”. Irrespective of what their facial expression was, I shook hands with the person on my right as the person on my left had moved on to another bench.


I told him my name and he said that his name was Pradeep. The teacher entered the class and commenced teaching. After 2 classes there was a break. During the break I started talking to Pradeep, he asked me what my ambition in life was and I said that I wanted to be a mechanical engineer. I thought that most of the people in the class would reply that they would want to become an engineer but much to my astonishment he said that he wanted to become a DJ. I had not fully recovered from the shock as to why a boy who wanted to become a DJ was here when I saw my classmates who had studied with me from 5th and her friend who had studied with me from 8th Tina and Priya. What more could this college offer to surprise me?


Though I was in a coeducational school I had barely spoken to a girl in my life for the principal and the teachers of the school considered the conversation between boys and girls to be taboo. So when I saw them I didn’t speak anything to them. Behind these 2 girls was another girl Harshini. Wow, I had joined college where I already knew 3 girls. Just when I knew that the people in the college could become no more familiar I met Rohan my classmate from 8th and Meghana my class’s 2nd topper. Though I used to speak to Rohan a little in school I was never close to him for I considered him to be of a person who preferred keeping things to himself and moreover he was the 2nd topper among the boys of the class creating a professional rivalry. I thought to myself “why didn’t I ever know that these people were joining this place?”


I had a personal grudge against Meghana because I could never beat her in studies (that was typical of me at that time). Though I refrained conversation with Meghana I spoke to Rohan. That was the end of the first break. Though the classes began followingly Roshan never invited me to sit next to him in the 3rd bench, maybe because there was no space but I did not care. Pradeep was feeling bored so he tried to start a conversation with me but since I was engrossed in listening to the class he gave up the attempt of speaking with me and began gazing outside the window. When the period got over Pradeep looked at me and said: “You are giving me your notes of whatever happens from now on and teaching me all these stuff tomorrow”. I agreed and from the next period on he put his head down and dozed. I was surprised by the guts that Pradeep had to put his head down during class. I could never do it.


 During the lunch period, most of the children including Pradeep went to the canteen but I had brought my lunch from home and so sat down alone on the bench and finished my lunch. I did not bother to begin conversations with other people in the class. The rest of the day I was pretty much alone as Pradeep continued his beauty sleep.


The next day I entered the class with a firm resolution to grab a seat in the first bench but unfortunately, it was already taken, so was the second bench. I sat on the third bench and in came 5 other boys: Atif, Samuel, Manish, Sandeep, and Arham (whose names I came to know only after I introduced myself to them). Atif was a fatso, he looked like a snowman but he was not very fair and also sported a moustache. He had long curly hair. Samuel was a short boy with medium length hair and unhygienic body. Manish was taller than me, fatter too and had lips so pink creating an impression that he used to use lipstick. Sandeep was a boss; he was of the same height as mine but had broad shoulders and strong arms which showed that he used to work out a lot. Arham was shorter than me, had hair a little longer than me and had a complexion the same as mine. The class started and so did the conversation between the 5 boys. I was a little surprised because each of the 5 boys came from different schools and with 1 days familiarity they were having a hearty conversation, but they also took down the notes. “This is where I belong,” I said to myself.


I looked back at Pradeep and saw that he was dozing. During the classes, I not only understood all that the lecturer taught but also took down the notes and most importantly got very familiar with the 5 boys. Samuel and Manish were kanadigas, Sandeep and Atif were malayalis and Arham was a tamilian. Even though I was a malayali myself I mingled with everyone without any bias. In my gang (so we called ourselves) Atif was the centre of the fun, despite his large size he was very innocent and never took seriously the things that the other boys in the gang said about him. Any fat girl in the class was Atif’s present or ex-crush according to the gang. Though I was part of a friend’s circle I still kept many things to myself so did Arham but Samuel and Manish shared everything to each other like they had known each other for ages. Rohan came up to me in the lunch break and I introduced him to my friends. On seeing that I was already in a friends circle and that he was not, he kept aloof from me.


Chapter 3

 The days went on in the company of my friends. I managed to make a couple of friends in the neighbouring benches but I went l alone home because I used to go home by cycle whereas others of my gang except Arham went by cab. Arham’s house was close to the college. When I thought that my journey back home would be only in solitude I met Karthik and Roy. Both of them were tamilians and lived very close to my house. They used to sit on the second bench. I never spoke to them in the class but I can never forget the way I met Roy. I was moving along the road by cycle when in front of me was a huge overturned truck. There was a crowd and among them was a boy whom I felt Iike I had seen in the college, it was Roy. He came up to me and said: “Sup da you are from .....(I told you I am not disclosing the college name) right?” I said “Yes bro” then we spoke about where we lived and came up with the idea of coming from and going to college together.


A few days went by and then came to my friend Arjun’s birthday. We did not know that it was his birthday until during the short break he said: “Bro it is my birthday today, the evening lunch is on me”. It was the first time that I was being given a treat and Arjun really wanted me to come so I did not refuse going outside the college for lunch. The period before lunch was maths, we bunked the period my first class bunk in life and 7 of us strolled on the road. Though most of my friends wanted non-vegetarian, Arjun was a herbivore so we had to settle down in a vegetarian hotel. We ordered gobi, aloo, paneer, mushroom and baby corn manchurian.


 Since there were so many people in the hotel and also because we had placed a large order the waiter got confused and offered us an extra plate of gobi manchurian. When the waiter served us an extra plate of gobi mmanchurian with so much of love, who were we to refuse. After a heavy lunch, we strolled again for a while and then returned to college 10 minutes late to the physics class (the class after the lunch break).


Arham said that irrespective of whether it was a movie or class he wanted to witness it from the beginning and that he was staying outside the class. Manish joined him too and the rest of us went to class. When we entered the class the lecturer had his back turned to the blackboard and was writing a formula. Atif and Sandeep got in and seated themselves in the last bench. Just as I was about to enter, the lecturer turned and said “Get out ...Just get out”. So the rest of the gang including Arjun stayed out. It was the first time that I was thrown out of class. If I did not have so many friends with me outside the class I would have wept, but friends were so happy to be thrown out of class. We all went out to the ground and played basketball. I felt bad for Arjun as he got thrown out of class because of us and that too on his birthday, which I thought was a dreadful experience but he didn’t care at all. When I apologised to him he said: “Chill bro, this is the first time that I am having so much fun on my birthday” and threw the basketball to me and asked me to join them.


After a couple of minutes, in came Atif and Sandeep asking for permission to join the game. When I asked about why they bunked the class Atif said it was because he and Sandeep missed our company but actually it was because the lecturer later came to know that there were no children in the last bench and that these 2 had barged in with us. Furious the lecturer asked them to leave the class too. The reason they came late to the ground was because they were begging sir to sit in the class not because they wanted to listen but for the class attendance. After the game of basketball, we were all tired so we went outside again to have a coke. When we came back to the campus all relaxed; we were 20 minutes late to the class. This time no one went back to the class we all continued our game of basketball but with a change of team.


Two periods after lunch, 1 more to go then we all could go home. The bell rang and we stopped the game. We all were sweating profusely and everyone had their shirts tucked out. We all reluctantly entered the class. Atif, Sandeep, and Manish dozed off 10 minutes into the class. After the class, Arjun and Samuel stayed back and forced me to do so. After many children left the class Samuel went up to Karthik who was the class representative that time and asked him to stay back for some time to explain what the lecturer had taught. Karthik reluctantly agreed and they left to the library. Meanwhile, Arjun secretly crept up to Karthik’s bag opened it, took out the attendance register and asked me to give me the red pen from his bag. I gave it to him and he asked me to stay outside the class and signal him if Karthik was to come from the library. The lecturers usually put a dot in the attendance register for those children who were absent. Arjun converted the dots to “P” for me and others of the gang which wiped out our absence in those classes.


Chapter 4

Each day grew better. Gradually Arjun too became a part of our gang. When I thought that college life could not get better, this is what happened: I clearly remember the day as though it happened yesterday. Samuel was very sad when he entered the class. When Manish asked him what the reason was, he said that Amazing Spiderman 2 was releasing that day and he wanted to watch it the first day but his dad did not let him bunk class to watch the movie (whose parents would?). So Manish and Sandeep decided to bunk the classes from the first hour and go for the movie, Samuel was thrilled on hearing the plan. Everyone except Arham agreed to bunk the classes and watch the movie. No matter how much we begged him to join us he just would not, fearing that his parents might come to know.


 We did not want him to stay back because without him the gang would not be complete. We all had our pocket money and there was not much crowd for the evening show because of which the tickets would be cheaper, about Rs.150. We tried to book the tickets online through Arham’s phone but it didn’t work so we left college. We had time but we did not want to leave Arham behind, so Atif cooked up a plan. After about half an hour after we left the college, at about 9:00 am Atif took out his phone and sent a text message to Arham “Bro....Arjun accident...please help ..not enough cash..please”.


Almost immediately we got a call and I spoke to Arham and asked him to come to the junction near the college where there was a hospital not saying to him what had actually happened. To enhance the seriousness of the situation I faked gasping over the phone. In about 18 minutes we could see Arham running towards us. When he asked what happened to Arjun, we all burst into laughter and told him that it was our plan to bring him to the movie. Though initially, Arham was confused and angry he later calmed down and we traveled with us to the cinemas. The theatre was about 3 kilometers from the college. There were theatres closer but Manish was adamant on taking Samuel to the one near Samuel’s house. We traveled to the theatre by bus. The rest of the gang stood outside the theatre while Manish and Samuel went to collect the tickets.


After a couple of minutes, Samuel and Manish bumped into us. Samuel looked all pale, when inquired on what happened he said that his dad had come there to buy tickets for the same movie!!!! We were all scared because nothing flies faster than a complaint among a chain of parents. All were pale faced except Sandeep. He was as cool as a cucumber. He said that Samuel’s dad had come there to buy tickets for the night show so that the entire family could watch the movie when Samuel came home after college since Samuel was so bent on watching the movie on the first day. So we waited for a couple of minutes outside the theatre and after about 15 minutes we could see Samuel’s dad driving off. Sandeep’s notion came true. Now we had to decide whether or not we were to go to the movie. Atif and I were of the opinion that we should watch the movie, as we had travelled so far for it in the first place. There was no other good movie worth watching at that time so we all went for the movie. We watched the movie and then returned to the class. Samuel ended up watching the movie twice.


Chapter 5

Out of all the classes, the most boring was the language class. We all wanted to bunk the classes but now the scenario had changed. The previous stunts which revolved around bunking were possible because there was no watchman at the gate but now there was a watchman at the gate and on each floor, there were floor in-charges. Initially, the floor in-charges were very friendly but then some of the students managed to piss them off because of which the floor in-charges started confiscating our phones and mp3 players and handing them over to the dean. The watchman was another pain as he would never be absent for his duty.


People used to try all sort of plans to skip the language classes. Many would hide in the restrooms but would eventually be caught by the floor in-charges. This tactic seemed to work out for the girls though as there was no female floor in-charge. There were three languages: Kannada, Sanskrit, and French. Many children would sit in the French class irrespective of which language they chose for their study, as the French lecturer was not strict and most importantly was not familiar with the faces of the children of his class.


The college provided the children with tablets with a software called Edu-smart with e-books and notes to learn form. Arham and Samuel rooted all our tablets and we loaded games in them so that we could play games during the class. We never got caught in class and the floor in-charges could not catch us because the tablets were provided by the college. Once when Sandeep, I and Samuel were in the language class, we saw Atif and Manish outside the door. At first, we thought that they were thrown out of class but after we saw most of the French students outside we realised that they had a free period probably because the lecturer was absent and they were having games instead.


Manish came into the class and told the Sanskrit lecturer that the dean had called me, Samuel and Sandeep to her chamber so we went outside the class and went over to kannada class for Arjun and Arham. When we peeped through the window we could see that the lecturer was shouting at the class and Arjun and Arham were standing and giggling. Atif went into the class and got Arjun and Arham out the same way they got me out. We all went into the men’s restroom and Sandeep asked Arjun what was happening in class. Arjun said that as soon as the lecturer started the class both Arjun and Arham started playing a game of chess on the tab. The lecturer observed that both of them were up to something and asked them to switch off their ‘laptop’ (obviously he did not know what the difference between the laptop and tablet). He then started lecturing the class: “I have no hopes in this batch because no one is performing. You wait and see, all of you will fail in the final examinations. All you people do is sit in class wearing shabby clothes chit-chatting or play with laptops.” The last line tickled Arjun’s funny bone and he began laughing. Arham added fuel to the fire. The furious lecturer made them stand up but they still could not stop giggling.


We went down to the ground floor and I called in Roy and Karthik (who were French students also) and we started playing football with a tennis ball. This was our favourite game. Arham was the man in this game as he was very swift and agile. I was below average in attack but I was a good defender. Roy always managed to attack well whereas Karthik was the person who did the most fouls. The game was not too aggressive, did not inflict much damage to the people nor did it demand much resources but the problem was that the ball would at times venture to the nursery classroom and the maids there would be annoyed with this. Whenever this happened, we always used to send Atif to bring the ball. He had a knack to beg the maids to give them the ball. Samuel said that Atif was always successful in getting the ball because the maids had a crush on him because he was plumpy.


The game began and went on in full swing. After every match, the teams changed. The first team to shoot 3 goals won the game. We stopped playing and were about to leave Arham and Atif stayed back for one last penalty shoot. Arham shot the ball way to fast, Atif missed to catch it and it shattered the glass of one of the windows of the nursery. Sandeep screamed, the maids came out and took the ball away. That was least of our concern, the floor in-charge rushed to the scene of the crime; we were all caught and taken to the dean. Even when we stood outside the dean’s chamber we didn’t give up having fun. Sandeep said, “Atif, if you had used a third of your charms this case would have been closed and the maids would be under our control.” Atif was angry, just when he was about to catch Sandeep’s collar I intervened as the dean had arrived. We all went into the chamber and after a lot of discussion over the matter, the dean decided to suspend all of us for a day and pay a fine of Rs.1500.


Karthik was the class topper because of us he earned a bad name. The dean was very displeased with him but what were we to do. After leaving the dean’s chamber Arham and Atif apologised to everyone for getting us into the mess. After class that day, we all gathered nearat a juice shop and decided what was to be done. We could never let out this news to our parents, so as per my plan we decided to say our parents that the next day was a college holiday because there was a workshop in the college for the arts students and that the science students need not attend the workshop. The cash would be paid by the 9 of us out of which Atif and Arham would pay a larger share. Problem solved....


Chapter 6

After about a month since the class began, we received the timetable for our tests. We had objective questions. Some students, including me, were really tensed about the tests. I studied for the test, not with great effort but with an intension to pass it. When I went into the classroom designated for the test there was no one, so I decided to meet my friends. Manish was not in uniform because he thought that the test was another week away. It was only when Arjun called him over the phone to clear a physics doubt that Manish realised that the test was the next day. He told his parents that there was no college on the test day and that he was going to his friend’s house for combined study. He did not dare to say his parents that he had a test because his parents would kill him for attending the exam without preparation.


Manish had just finished his tale on why he was not in uniform when Atif entered. He had a huge book of objective questions of physics, chemistry, and math. Sandeep exclaimed, “Is the book heavier or lighter than you?”. Atif asked me to look back and see if his dad’s car had gone. I looked and saw a white Mitsubishi lancer go off in full throttle. I told him that the car had left. Atif closed the book with a sigh of relief and said “My dad bought this book when I joined the college bro. He said that if I did 10 problems from this book every day, from each subject during the weekdays and 20 problems during the weekends for 2 years I was sure to crack JEE-Mains. I had never touched the book, but just to show my dad that I was studying something and that too from the book he gave me, I took this and came here. My dad usually tells me a lot of stuff regarding how to write my exams and all that....but today he saw that I was busy reading so he didn’t utter a word.”


The bell rang sharply indicating that we had to move into our respective classrooms allotted to us for the test. We wished each other ‘all the best!’ and went into our respective classrooms. After about 2 hours I finished my paper and started looking at others writing their paper. What was I to do anyway? I had prepared only so much for the test and I never would copy. There was Karthik, he looked neither left nor right and limited his vision only to his question paper and answer sheet. There were people of my own kind too. After they finished their paper they turned towards each other and lipped “Passssss?”Some of them gave a confident nod (though the paper was objective our college considered 40/100 to be a pass) whereas others replied with a finger (you know which one) while others held their thumb in front of their neck and swept it horizontally.


I was confident that I would pass. I was bored looking at others so I happened to look out of the door just in time to catch the scenic walk of Manish behind the dean. After the exam, I met the gang. Everyone had their own tale to say. Arjun was sure that he would fail so he crushed the question paper into a ball and kicked it. I went up to Arjun to comfort him. Just then he received a call which was most probably from his dad. Sandeep and Samuel were arguing over the correctness of an answer which would decide who among both of them would pass. Since I did not attend the question they left me out of it. Arham was confident that he would get a minimum of 80 and was clearing a few doubts of the girls. Manish was stood on the stairs adjusting his hair and Atif was seated on a step with his hand over his head. I went up to Atif and asked: “what happened bro?”


Manish laughed and said, “My baby forgot to bring his hall ticket because his dad did not remind him, as he was busy watching his son study for the first time in his life”. Atif went into a rage and said: “Country fellow like you wrote the test”. I was shocked “What Manish? You didn’t write the test?” Manish said “That lady came to our class and saw me not in uniform so she asked me the reason. I told her ma’am er....birthday. She was like soooooo??? What are you 5 years old? Get out don’t write the test. From where does she hail from chucking a 6-foot tall boy for not wearing uniform?” Atif said “Shameless fellow doesn’t even know to lie ....birthday it seems. You should have said that you were out of station and that you just came to the college directly from the railway station.....dummy.” “At least I was not dumb enough to forget my hall ticket,” said Manish.


“Stop it you two what are you going to say your parents?” I asked. Manish grinned and said “whose gonna tell anyway. This is just a test bro, nothing serious they don’t even see this in finals or anything. This is the first test. We are going to have a test of a similar type every week so chill.” Hearing this I sat next to Atif thinking to myself what???? All this preparation for a nonsense class test “who told you?”. “Seniors” exclaimed Manish smiling “Anyway my parents think that my test is next week I will do my next test awesome and show them the marks.” So all these people are discussing over and crying for such a petty issue. We have a test every week that is 4 tests every month, all of which is just to give us the practice to write objective papers. I shared this with the rest of the gang. Most of them were happy to hear the news except Atif. Atif was sad because his dad would still take the test seriously and the fact of him not bringing the hall ticket would start world war 3 at home.


Chapter 7

The tests were all over and forgotten. No one cared about passing or failing because it was only one of the minor tests that we were going to face; there were many more tests to come anyway. Atif never forgot to bring his hall ticket for any of the exams from then on. The first test made such a huge impact on him. Though he never told what had happened in his house that day; we all knew that he would have received a huge doze of advice and reprimanding from his dad.


Each classroom had a wall mounted TV to display the objective problems to the students. In the beginning, the students tried watching movies on the TV by copying movies into a pen drive and plugging into the TV strictly against the rule of the college, but eventually, they all got caught. This was such a lame violation of the rules. Our gang, no our gang was different. A mere violation of the rule would be an insult to the gang.


Everyone in our class hated the physics lecturer. We all knew how primitive he was when he asked one of the students to help him set an alarm on his newly bought android phone. He being not so well versed in operating the technology around made him an easy target to pull off yet another stunt; giving all the students much unnecessary entertainment at our expense. This prank, however, was unplanned and pretty much uncalled for by anyone of the gang.


It was a Tuesday and we had 2 back to back periods of physics. The lecturer was a pain too as he would step into the class as soon as the previous lecturer left the class as though he was waiting anxiously for an opportunity to fire his gun of lameness at us. His teaching was boring; he paid no attention in clearing our doubts (not even Karthik’s); adding fuel to our fire of disliking him was the fact that he did not provide a minute’s break to his 2 periods.


I was really tired after maths period, the period before the 2 back to back hours of boredom and the only thing that stood between me and my journey home was the 2 physics period. The lecturer looked like a snake at 98 between the pawn (me) and ‘HOME’ in the game of snake and ladder. I shared my frustration of having to sit in the class with Arham and he, in turn, spread it to the whole gang. Arham went up to the lecturer with courage that he had mustered up on the spur of the moment. The gang thought that he was going to save us by asking for a free period but much to our dismay he asked for permission to go to the restroom. The physics lecturer giving permission to anyone’s request to go to the washroom was like rainfall in the summer. Much to our surprise, Arham was given permission.


He instead went to the custodian and asked for the remote of the TV of our classroom and came to the class with the remote in his sock, the pant over the sock concealing it. The lecturer had already started the class. With a sigh of regret, he allowed Arham to enter the class. He sat next to me, gave me the remote and winked. I was overwhelmed by this act of his. It was not highlighting the characteristics of a good student nor of an ideal friend, but to me, at that time it was something great. Taking all that risk, just for the sake of me not wanting to attend the class was something no one had ever done for me. I was about to take the remote from him when Sandeep snatched it from Arham’s hand and when the lecturer turned his back to the blackboard to solve the problem on the TV, he switched it off.


After a while when the lecturer turned to the TV and noticed it be switched off, he thought it was some fault with the HDMI cable connecting the TV. He waited for a couple of minutes adjusted the cable and then asked Karthik to switch off and switch on the TV via the switch on the switch board. When Karthik switched on the TV we used the remote to make the slide appear on the screen again. A smile grew on the face of the lecturer but when he turned to the blackboard we switched off the TV and this cycle continued. After about 2 times the same thing repeated, the lecturer was annoyed. Gradually the smile disappeared from his face and grew on that of the gang’s. We were now taking turns on who should operate the remote.


Though everyone knew what was happening, none including Karthik uttered a word. He put his head down, maybe he too didn’t want the physics period to take place. The lecturer chucked the chalk piece and went out of the classroom. Almost immediately the students began their buzz of relief. Everyone was engaged in their own conversation. After a few minutes, the lecturer entered with a book in his hand. This was like the heights of atrocity. It was like he took the saying of John Cena ‘never give up’ way too seriously. He kept the book on the desk and stared at the TV; with a sudden resolution switched it off and then on. This time Samuel stood up and switched on the TV via remote. The lecturer had his gaze fixed on the TV so he didn’t see Samuel but someone else had his gaze fixed on the class, the floor in-charge!!


The students could not believe their eyes; we were for the first time ambushed!!! that too by our physics professor. “Ha! Caught you” said the floor in-charge. The lecturer turned his head like the velociraptor in Jurassic park 3. He was suspicious that it was someone playing a prank in the class because the TV always got switched off when he turned back, so he had called in the floor in-charge to spy on the class from the door. Since all the students faced the class none saw the floor in-charge in stealth mode. No one even in their wildest dreams would have expected the lecturer to plan so much or even execute the plan. Samuel was dragged to the dean but what followed after made a lasting impression on every one of the gang.


When Samuel reached the dean’s room he saw his dad there. He was very confused as to how his dad was in college. His dad had come there to pay the PU fees and waited in the lobby so that Samuel and he could go home together. In the dean’s room, Samuel stood like a stone without uttering a word, his mind was preoccupied with thoughts about what his dad and mom would regard him because of this and what would happen when he went back home. No matter what happened he didn’t say anything about the rest of the gang or about Arham. The dean suspended Samuel for 2 days. That was least of his concern because when he came out of the dean’s room he saw physics lecturer talking to his dad.


The lecturer took his entire anger on the class onto Samuel’s dad as though Samuel was the main reason that the world considered him to be lame. The lecturer blamed Samuel for all the mishaps that had ever happened in the class irrespective of whether or not Samuel was involved in it. Samuel stood there and watched his worst nightmare come true.


Chapter 8

The next two days not even a moment went by when we did not think about Samuel. The class had forgotten about him but not us; how could we. No matter how much we called him or texted him, he just would not pick up our call or respond to our message. The day Samuel was to come to college; we all came to college early. He didn’t turn up early though. He came in 5 minutes late to the first class and seated himself in the last bench. He didn’t speak to anyone in the class for the first 2 periods.


 We confronted him in the break after the first 2 periods and asked him what had happened. He placed the books that were lying on his table into his bag and walked out of class. We followed him; he went into the men’s washroom and washed his face. I asked him “What happened bro?” He looked at my face and said: “What is there to happen?”. His voice sounded like it had cobwebs, as though he had not spoken for ages. “Please tell bro,” said Sandeep. “Did your dad scold you Sam?” asked Manish. “Sorry bro, it’s because of me...” said Arham as he folded his hands before Samuel. Samuel took Arham’s hands and held it tight. Having placed his back against the wall, Samuel spoke “Dad didn’t speak anything to me in the car. After we got home, he asked mom to get dressed and they left off in a hurry. Mom tried asking me what was up with dad but I didn’t have the courage to look at her face; I went into my room and shut myself. Dad and mom left and closed the door behind them. I didn’t feel like coming out of the room at all. I don’t know how an hour went by. They returned back home and I opened the door. Dad and mom sat on the sofa and asked me to sit in front of them. My hearting was pounding as though it would burst out my chest.


I apologised for my mistake and told him that it was the first time that I had done such a thing in the class and that I would never repeat it. But dad didn’t respond, he clenched his teeth and looked at me as if I was a disgrace to him. Mom remained all too silent. Dad didn’t speak anything to me at all, he just got up, went to the bedroom and shut the door.” A tear went down Samuel’s eye. He wiped it and continued “Mom gave a sigh of relief and took me to the kitchen. She spoke very softly so that dad doesn’t listen and said it's ok Sam, dad didn’t mean what he did. I know you wanted to have some fun but don’t repeat this again. This is not a good way of having fun. I cried and hugged her, she gently caressed my hair then smiled and asked me to watch a movie or play a game on the laptop without making any noiseand forget the things that happened. That night dad got a call and he left for a business trip to Mumbai, he will be back tomorrow. My mom took me outside and we went to the mall the next day, she was normal but it’s my dad whom I am afraid of.” We were all partly relieved, as we had imagined things worse than what had happened. We all consoled Samuel.


His dad returned from the trip. It took some time for them to start speaking again and even longer for us to get our old Samuel back. Things were finally beginning to go smoothly when there spread a rumour in the class that one of our floor in-charges used to visit the ‘Silver Oak Bar’ after his duty every day. This was just a rumour but that was enough for me and then gang to get working on our next mission.


We all waited for an hour after the college waiting for all the staff to move out of college and then when the floor in-charges were moving out of college we followed the suspect. But we could not do so for long because he had a bike and we had to walk. So the next day Manish brought his bike to the college. After college Manish, Arham and I went to Arham’s house changed our clothes and returned the college just in time to catch the suspect (floor in-charge). I and Manish followed them on Manish’s bike and asked Arham to stay behind, at the college. We followed the floor in-charge and saw the truth in the rumour. He got in the bar and we followed him to take a picture of him red-handed but what we saw in there shocked us.


The floor in-charge sat on a chair and after a while came in the physics lecturer and the floor in-charge who caught Samuel using the remote. They talked for a long time and drank. Manish and I took a lot of pictures of them drinking and speaking in the bar with Manish’s phone and returned back to college. When we got there Arham rushed to us and exclaimed: “You won’t believe what happened to me”. I and Manish eyed each other and asked Arham to continue. Arham said “A few minutes after you left I saw the physics lecturer and the floor in-charge Gopi (that was his name) come out of college. He asked me what I was doing here and I said that I had cricket practice. He wanted to say something to me but Gopi asked him that they should leave soon. It was a close miss man!!!! I was so scared”


We laughed and I said “Do you know why they were in such a hurry? We met them at the bar having the time of their lives.” We went to Arham’s house and created a facebook account with the physics lecturer’s name and put his profile picture with him holding a glass with drink on one hand and his other hand on Gopi’s shoulder. The cover picture was “Save water drink beer”. We wanted Samuel to be our guest of honour in sending friend requests to all our friends of the college, to Gopi and the floor in-charges. We could not wait for the next day. Samuel came and in the short break, the 7 of us assembled in the restroom. Arjun said “we have a surprise for you” and told him our master plan. Much to our astonishment Samuel looked at us seriously and asked us to delete all the pictures and deactivate the account. Atif asked “why broooooo????” to which Samuel replied, “I know you guys love me very much and I really appreciate all that you have done for me, but this is not right man. I was really disappointed when I got insulted but that was only in front of my parents. If we were to do this then he would get publically shamed, we don’t want such guilt on our hands man just forget and forgive like my dad and mom forgave me. We will have fun but not this way”


 We all understood our mistake apologised to Samuel but Samuel just said “Don’t ask me for forgiveness but ask God for forgiveness, now let’s tinkle and forget this nonsense. We have classes to attend.” We were not that good children but we were willing to change for the good and for our friend.


Chapter 9

After two months we had to write an objective paper, which was like a term exam. This one was important as the results of the papers would be sent to the parents via mobile SMS. The paper was usually easy but the second term exam was very tough. The reason was that the lecturer’s especially the female lecturers were very angry on the students; juniors and seniors alike.


One day when the dean was absent, the secretary of the dean and some other staff members called a roadside cloth vendor and started looking at the churidar tops that he had in the lobby. A few of the lecturers joined in too. This went on for quite some time and the lecturers forgot that the lunch break had started. Though the culprit is unknown, one of the students took a picture of this and mailed it to her under the mail id sherlockbond007@gmail.com. The dean unleashed her anger on the lecturers in the picture and also on the other female lecturers and they, in turn, had their revenge with the term exam paper.


The exam was bad for everyone in the gang worse for me, Atif and Arjun. “Well, what can we do about the paper? it’s over man. Let’s go to the ground and play some cricket.” said Arjun. We all agreed. I called in Roy and the 8 of us went to the ground near Arham’s house. Me, Atif, Manish, and Sandeep were in one team. Samuel, Roy, Arham, and Arjun formed the other team. We first played a game of 4 overs, in which we lost. After the first match, we didn’t change teams but continued 2 more games in which 1 was a tie and the other we lost again. What were we to do anyway, they had the best bowler, Roy. After 3 games we went to the bakery near the ground for our drinks break and returned to the ground, the fire to win ablaze in the heart my team members.


Just as we were about to start the fourth match, Arham ran off to where we placed our bags and started searching desperately for something. We all went to him and he exclaimed: “Bro my house key.....it’s missing!!!!” “It should be in your bag bro,” said Sandeep. After a couple of minutes, Arham said: “it’s not here man; I don’t remember where I kept it”. “Let’s go to college, you would have misplaced it in the college. The custodian or floor in-charge would have found it” said Atif. “You guys go to the college, we will check here in the ground,” said Samuel. So my team went to the college and Samuel’s team began searching on the ground. We asked the custodian, the floor in-charge, checked the classroom that he sat for the exam and also the restrooms but didn’t find the key.


When we returned to the ground we saw Arham sitting on the steps, his face all red while the others were searching for his key. “Take off that sweater bro you look like a penguin in the desert,” I said. But Arham didn’t pay heed to me, he was all too preoccupied. Both of Arham’s parents used to work and left him all alone in the house. He missing the house key was not such a big issue because both his parents had spare keys; they could eventually get in the house. But the problem was that he had already lost 2 keys that month (that careful Arham was) and was afraid that his mom would chop his head off for losing the 3rd key that month.


After about an hour we gave up the search and asked Arham to tell his mom the bitter truth. But Arham was determined to keep the news concealed. He rose with a sudden resolution and asked the friends close to his home, to come to the ground. In about 10 minutes, 5 people arrived at the ground and the 13 of us went together to Arham’s house. One of Arham’s friends Shariq opened his bag and took out a huge toolbox. He took out the screwdriver and started unscrewing the locking mechanism of the door.


The plan was to remove the locking mechanism from the door somehow and get the door opened, Arham would then enter the house and Sahriq would screw back the locking mechanism. Arham could lock the door from the inside and open it when his mom arrived home. He could then take the key from his mom’s purse without her knowledge, make a duplicate out of it and keep the original back in the purse.


When finally Sahriq reached the last screw of the locking mechanism, Arham from the side shouted “Woah!! I found it”. Shariq stopped dead in his tracks. Apparently, Arham had his keys in his pocket and checked for the key everywhere except his shirt pocket. Arham was perplexed, so Manish asked him to do the famous ‘all is well’ move of 3 idiots and when he placed his hands on his chest reluctantly he felt something on his chest. “what in the world were you thinking Arham? The first place to check for anything is the pocket man” shouted Shariq. Manish could not control laughing. “Soooo sorry guys for getting you all in this mess,” said Arham.


 It was about 6:00 pm and in another 30 minutes, Arham’s mom would arrive. Shariq started screwing back the locking mechanism onto the door. When it was about 6:20 pm Atif and Sandeep went and stood in front of the road which led to Arham’s house just in time to see Arham’s mom getting off the bus. “Hi, aunty” they exclaimed (Arham’s mom had known us, for we had frequent gang meeting in his house as it was the closest to the college). Atif and Sandeep kept her in a conversation speaking to her about how bad the test was and the reason that the paper was set tough, providing Shariq some extra minutes to finish his job.


They did a good job and managed to hold on Arham’s mom for about 10 minutes and when finally she reached the house, she saw all of us standing in front of the door. “Wow all of you are here,” she said and opened the gate. “Come on in,” she said, opened her purse and took out the key. Opening the door, she spoke to Arham “why are you making them stand outside, why don’t you bring them in”. All our hearts stopped as she was opening the door because Shariq had screwed in the locking mechanism back but we didn’t have time to see whether it worked. All of us were staring at the door, when finally she opened the door we all gave a sigh of relief. “Why are all of you so silent? You guys always keep talking usually. What happened to you people today?” “No mom it’s just that we are tired, we just got here, I was about to open the door when you came,” said Arham and eyed all of us. We all entered and Arham’s mom served us food. We all ate heartily and parted ways.


Chapter 10

We had been surviving whatever the college had been throwing at us for 5 months now. Our maths lecturer left the college and the new professor arrived. He was a very short-tempered person. He used to insult the students in the class irrespective of whether they were in the wrong or not. He would never solve a problem fully, he would write a few starting steps and ask the students to complete the sum at home. The next day if the students went to him with doubts, he would say that we were all idiots, that we could not solve even the simplest of problems and that we were far from clearing JEE-Mains.


One day in the assembly the dean announced the details of the fest and that we had to choose a lecturer among the candidates, to lead us in the fest. This was our moment. Our gang would definitely not attend the fest. We informed all our close friends from different classes to vote for the professor to lead us in the fest though he didn’t contest for the post. .......


I know I am not ending the tale abruptly, but I have to stop this here. I am not promising to continue the tale but I had fun writing it, hope you had fun reading it...


-To be continued



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