Four-year transform – Part 1

Must thank Prasanna for getting me to write on the topic of what we did during four years of college or rather hostel- our “happy days” sans tamanna :P.

It all starts with the day after my CET counselling… Fully impressed with the college’s main building (MRD block or A block) and soft spoken Vidya Madam from the Office (remember the lady who collected mess bills??, we hadn’t seen Ganesh a.k.a. east-west then).  Praveen was in his TotalTension avatar that day.  That was the day  “self-confessed Father of all PESIT hostelities(sic)”  – The Warden asked the fundamental question which later went on to become his signature style, the question –

What is ragging?

Later, we were to know more about his other bizarre ideas about gem-of -a-student etc.

Talking about the A block and hostel, I must mention Malaprabha (or Stynx, the rivulet to river Styx- which is more appropriate considering the mark of terror and death that marked the hostel mood with all the rules and Discipline ). The rumours about Princi giving a haircut to “somebody” at 12 in the night and his daughter who was studying in AMC who ran away from her house. LOL!!

The first spike in the spectrum is when you are ragged by people you think are your seniors, who look like Mohamed Ali ready to pin to death George foreman (poor, yours humbly) but only more aggressive.  And to bear the humiliation for life on discovering that these were your classmates … Nuff said, I guess.

After the initial shock and awe, “I-have-to-have-a-morning-bath” fiasco and once the dust literally settles down begins the “Masti” of hostel-life. Some people have to go to a movie and sit through it alone. Well, it’s better than watching it with others who pretend to not get the non-veg jokes, I guess.  The joy of rushing to get on board the Intercity after the internals were to get over at 12:30!!! Flicking the motherboard batteries of your seniors so as to reset the BIOS password. And getting caught… Varun Murthy telling us that Vinay(sports director) was actually Jawahar’s son.

The trek to Acharya mess at night to get vegetarian food.. Settling to watch a movie on Star Movies after that and the palpable tension in the dining hall if there happened to be a “scene” running on TV. Watching Upendra’s movie (Upendra) with people who do not even understand Kannada and the effort of explaining his dialogues and actions to them… Watching all of India’s Test matches during study holidays and having bets about score etc which were never ever settled.

Visiting the local Hye-on-Wye, our beloved Avenue road to get textbooks and the helplessness of never knowing how to bargain. Well, the rumours about how Prasanna and Bharath who were roomies would try and avoid the other from studying an extra minute than himself… And talking of studies, I’ll never forget the toy-car from National Market (decrypt this !!!)

Me and Anush Shetty getting GPL on Dinu’s birthday (Anush had brought dumbells that day and I’m sure not even God can explain why)…

Srinivas Jantali’s cellphone obsession.. Talking of Cellphones poor Sangram fell for the Guess-who-am-I trap and had to wait for “Nitisha” at Cubbon Park on a rainy day.

Rushing to the browsing center which was so busy… Me creating an e-mail id for Pradeep with his name misspelled…

Listening to taped casettes on Nagraj’s Walkman when “Preethse anta” was a hit.

Not even Meghna ( from Jaane tu..) could’ve ever imagined how a piece of thermocol can serve as Football but trust a bunch of hostelites to imagine…

Getting Asian Age or TOI from Warden’s office on Sundays. Waiting at the only phone booth near Aman Rasoi, boasting about IA marks to parents. Chatting with Varun Murthy and Pradeep on First floor bridge till the watchman drove us away.

The joy of the first-time college fest feeling. Prasanna correcting Praveen that the video cam wasn’t a geodimeter. I guess Madhurima was the first outside eatout we discovered .

I’ve never watched a match at a stadium but the kind of Josh that filled the room during India-Pak and Ind-Aus one day series (second semester, i think) can never be forgotten.

Amidst all these we had lived through a semester and were ready to face another set of exams. I remember, me and praveen looking at the syllabus (start of 1st sem) and wondering how on god’s green earth were we going to study 60+ subjects in 4 years!!

For some strange reason our second sem exams stretched on for the course of over 15 days and all i remember of it now is the study room chatter between me, prasanna and pradeep. Pradeep came back from ‘trical exam, found he had gotten some problems wrong and expressed his rage ( the same kind he let flow on the villains in Max Payne the later year) on the VTU question paper. If i only had a camera phone then!!

Set in an Indian college cricket must figure a lot in the plot. In our case the setting was the newly made “pride-of-pesit” cricket stadium.

And on that cricketing note I end this post, for that is how the year ended for us as well. The day exams ended, prasanna absconded to avoid bday bums, we (me, aditya ganguli, praveen, sangram and pradeep) played Cricket all night long in the hostel corridor. Well, if you didn’t understand how such a simple thing could be so complicated as to deserve remembrance let alone a mention here, i have this to say : “you know nothing of PESIT hostels”. And if you people are smirking at this: ” Kya re!! Taakat dikhaata kya??”.

That, my kids, is the story of how i finished first year!!!

Update:

Thank you babies is all I can tell my readers who proved that they’ve read it by also making the following corrections: Firstly, the b’day in question wasn’t Dinu’s but Srinivas’. Guess, when u receive kicks on somebody else’s day-of-glory marking an anniversary of somebody else’s joy, it doesn’t really matter. Or perhaps it does. (The CompSci teacher’s quote). Secondly, Sangram only went so far as O.A.T before he was crowned G.O.A.T for the rest of his life… Well, a bit of artistic license…. And, Prasanna again corrected me that it wasn’t a geodimeter but a “theodeometer”…. Some people never change. ROTF.