When we Stole the Stolen Election

The grown ups were once again back to their wild age of college as the narration of the iconic memory of Culfest’s debate competition ended. The room once again filled up with hooting and clapping. The whole room chanted Srini’s name proudly while Srini smiled, adjusting his round glasses. A feeling of warmth softly rushed inside his body. He felt that he was back to the year 1994. The memories of him, standing on the stage while the auditorium roared with cheers of his name and applauses (which went on for nearly a minute,) flashed before his eyes. “Nothing had really changed in these past Twenty years.” Srini thought as the crowd now chanted “Machaar Party ki Jai!” repeatedly with the same enthusiasm they had Twenty years ago. Swearing, Laughter and chanting remained there for few more moments until Amit Sharma or our Lambu spoke grinning, “Bhaiyo, Kahani ka sabse majedar hissa toh abhi baaki hain!” Hearing this the crowd hooted and whistled, while some continued to lowly murmur. Srini, with a slight gesture, signalled Lambu, who was narrating the sweet old memory till now, to take his seat. Srini then made a quick glance at everyone across the room, resting his eyes upon the leader of the Machaar Party, Rohit Gupta or our Machaar. With an exchange of gestures of eyes with him, he spoke “Chalo ab aa bhi jao!” And with that, the Leader of the Machaar Party, rose from his seat.

The Final Chapter: When the Stolen Election was Really Stolen.

After the debate, the grounds of the Cultural Fest transformed into a typical celebration of an Indian Festival. Before even winning, the place, filled with fourth-year students, was full of chatting, praises, laughs, and new confidence. From moment to moment, everyone’s excitement increased as the time of the result came close. It was obvious to all that Fourth-years had a better performance in the Debate and they would possibly win and with that thought the Third-years were cussing and fuming with anger. Not only they were losing the Fest but also were exposed in front of the whole college. First of all, the First-year students boycotting, complaining and revolting against the Rahul Party and now the Fourth-years bagging the victory; Rahul wanted to call his goondas and start fight with the Fourth-year students, but what held him back was probably his already torn reputation. Everything running inside his mind was how to drag down the Machaar and his companions but no matter how much he thought, what was destined, happened. The Victory of Fourth-years was official when the results were announced and the cries of “Machaar Party ki—”, “Jai!!” echoed everywhere. Pure emotion of happiness glistened in the face of the winners. They worked hard to achieve what they wanted and their hardwork paid off well. Soon after the announcement of the Winners, the Culfest was wrapped up. It was the end of the Day but for the Achievers, it was the beginning of the celebration. It was almost Eleven at night and still dancing like a drunk, singing like a dying goat and whistling like a pressure-cooker continued in the rooms of the Fourth-years. The next day was a rest day, declared by the Manager of the Institute, so all of them were care free, enjoying themselves. Around Twelve at night, the thought of sneaking alcohol inside their building roamed inside everyone’s mind and so, Machaar, Lambu, Rajesh and Raghu, forcefully pulled Srini with them and were off to sneak out of the building.

“Maa kasam agar hum log phase na, tum chaaro ko jaan se maar dalunga mein!” Srini whispered to the four, who were trying to spot the watchman at the gate.

“Chal bay Srini, abhi Ritu ko Milne ko Jana hota toh tu udd-udd ke jata!” Raghu teased.

“At least meri girlfriend toh hain,” Srini uttered sarcastically.

“Isse humme seekh milti hain ki debate walo se kabhi panga nahi lena chahiye” Rajesh sniggered looking at Raghu and then Machaar spoke, “Srini, tension mat le, kuch nahi hoga” as he dreamingly thought about Reshma.

Watchman was nowhere to be spotted which was a good signal for the boys to race out of the gate. “It is risky but it is worth it.” Machaar spoke enthusiastically, “Remember guys, joh Darr gya, woh marr gya” Lambu added on. The gate was closed and opening it would make a lot of sound, so the boys ran towards the low walls of the institute and jumped outside, landing almost together. They all looked around and saw the empty roads with the light of street lamps falling on them. A local shop of Beverages was not too far away from their institute, so their destination was fixed. Running on the streets as the lamps flickered, in no time the Five were outside the shop and to their surprise, they saw a lot familiar faces. Rahul Singh, Ashwin Kulkarni, Tiwari and almost Nine to Ten people from Third-year batch were sitting their on the benches placed outside the shop.

“Shit.” Raghu uttered out, too loud and the visitors came into spotlight of Rahul and his gang.

“Kya sahi timing pe mile hain yeh sab.” Rahul smirked and let out a small laugh, “Aaj toh saap bhi marr jaega aur lathi bhi nahi tutegi.”

Machaar, not losing his composure said, “Dekh Rahul, hum apne kaam se kaam rakh rahe hain, tum apne kaam se kaam rakh.” He didn’t wanted to turn a mood of celebration into something petty, so he tried to solve the matter calmly and everything went silent for a moment.

“Abe Bhenchod, tumne apne kaam se kaam rakha hota toh mujhe abhi yeh thodi na kehna padhta.” Rahul spoke, breaking the silence and moving towards Machaar.

“Best Team Jeet liya toh kya, abb joh hoga, uss se pata chalega best hone mein aur chutiya hone mein kya farak hota hain”

If the situation results into a fight, it was going to be five against fourteen-fifteen, which was super unfair and the probability of getting beaten rather than beating was more for Machaar and his mates.

Rahul clutched collar of Machaar’s Shirt to which as a reaction the rest four of them were going to take an action but Machaar indicated them to not. Heating up the situation would create a mess, so it was better to play smooth and calm. Machaar twitched slightly as Rahul’s grip became stronger as he stared at him with his anger filled eyes. Everyone was tensed, thinking about the turn this fight would take but then, suddenly, to everyone’s surprise, Rahul was pulled apart from Machaar.

“Bas kar Rahul! Kitni apni aur hamari bezatti karega!” Ashwin scowled. “Rahul, I swear, I’m very proud to say that I’m over everything and your every nonsense buckchodi and I won’t support it from now unless it’s for the good.”

Machaar and his companions were surprised seeing the tables had turned and Rahul just stood their confounded. Ashwin and Tiwari, who were Rahul’s biggest supporters and wingman were opposing him.

“Bhai, dekh unhone joh bhi Kara abhi Tak Bina kisi buckchodi ke kiya na, toh tujhe kya hain? Tujhe doosro ke kaam mein aag lagana kyu pasand hain! We all have been frustrated listening to you and your nonsense and I think we all are over this.” Tiwari shouted at Rahul and took a deep breath. “Rahul, it will take time but get this fixed inside your brain that your Buckchodi stops here.”

The verbal fight lasted for at least fifteen minutes and it was admitted by all that it was quite painful hearing Rahul, Ashwin and Tiwari arguing with each other, so Machaar and his gang quietly left the spot and headed back without any drinks. They were all still confused and quite a bit in shock about the Ashwin and Tiwari actually fighting in their favour. “Was that a dream?” Srini asked while, “I don’t think so..” Lambu said, himself being confused, “I guess, they finally got some sense.”

They walked as the wind swiftly blew.

“I thought we won’t make it out alive.” Rajesh said as all of them let out a small laugh and joked around for a while.

“Everything aside,” Machaar spoke, smiling wide, “Can you actually believe that we Stole the Stolen Election?”