Tribute to our Sankar

My stint with RIT started on a Sunday evening when my father dropped me in a “hostel”; a house named Kochuvadakekkara (KV). I had first  joined Adoor engg college and got transferred to RIT after two months as per the options I indicated at the time of interview.

I was greeted by an Ammachie and Achayan (owners of the said ‘house-de-hostel’) and other guy named Anwar, a budding civil engineering student of S1S2, who came from the northern side of Kerala. I was told that there were few other house mates, who had gone their native place on the weekend not in the spirit of seeing their parents but to evade the grooming sessions called ‘ragging’.

I was trying to get acquainted with the new surroundings and gather more information from Anwar on the ragging sessions in RIT.  Just then the door bell sounded and we moved to the foyer to open the door thinking that it could be one of our house mates on their return from home. When I opened the door, I saw a tall, handsome guy with a sports bag on his shoulders. Along with him was his father, a well built, tall personality, seemed like a politician with a high degree of command. Also with him was his mother, a sweet and caring lady carrying a bag probably the luggage of this guy.

Yes a new entrant to our house! We took them to our landlord. His name was Sankar S, Mechanical Engineering, from the capital of our state, Thiruvananthapuram. Just before the parents left, his mother warned him of bad friend circles and advised not to indulge into any bad habits such as drinking, smoking etc. She also advised me and Anwar that since we are away from home there are chances that we may fall into such traps. When Sankar went to see them off to the Nedunkuzhy bus stop, I could see an obedient guy, walking just behind his mother nodding to everything his mother said. Yes Sankar could be a ‘Moms baby’, I thought. His looks told me the same too.

After some time Shankar came back saying “Machu, you got a matchbox?”

I could see a white long cigarette on his lips. We dropped our jaw in gape. Shankar was smiling and searching for a matchbox inside the kitchen and other rooms. As he was lighting the cigarette, there came the next question.

“What a place is this? How can I treat my friends here?”

“What happened?” Anwar asked in an innocent and surprised voice

“No, my friends from Thiruvananthapuram wouldn’t like this place. Machu, how can I invite my friends to stay in this place”? Shankar asked.

“Do friends come so often, that too from TVM?” Anwar couldn't see the point.

“Yes. You know, I am a party guy and cannot leave without them”. Hearing this reply I felt I was from another world. As for me, I couldn't think any of my friends from my native place that was closer to Kottayam than TVM would come to party with me at this place, not even once in a year.

“Forget about boys, what about the girls..!! They are ready to come here for a two day bash once I got a house to stay in” Sankar said.

Anwar stood silent, mouth wide open.

Did I forget to tell that Sankar resembled a chocolate hero in Bollywood may be like Fardeen khan!! Yes, for him girlfriends cannot be just a mirage like it was to us. I was somewhat thrilled with the joy of staying with him especially when girls quite often pay visits and hang around for parties. But for Anwar, it was something dreadful, for he was sure such a guy who will attract seniors and cause a miserable life. Two days after, Sankar left KV to stay in ‘White house’ another ‘house-de-hostel’ more tidy and neat than KV, near Nedunkuzhy and later to ‘Wall house” another ‘house-de-hostel’ hundred times messier and lousier than KV.

But there were no girls and not even boys,  as I imagined in many of my initial nights in KV. Not even a single party like what he claimed on his first day!

That was Sankar.

A guy after joining Whitehouse was caught by locals alleged of using a binocular (you know for what) and became well known among locals.

A guy who stood with his spine straight and declared that he will not be an SFI, inviting attention of all seniors who were in SFI that time.

Who got admired by the girls of our batch, on account of a mockfight and other such activities in class.

Who smilingly admitted to the principal that he tried to ‘copy’ for the series test and accepted a suspension with happy face becoming a hero for his batchmates.

Courageous enough to go up and talk to any girls (no matter junior or senior), who comes in his way.

The first one in RIT to use a cellphone

The only one in our class who enjoyed the ‘present’ by living each moment in its full joy.

One guy who was always happy.

One guy who could chat up any person and impress them, and leave a pleasant awe about himself - of course who often referred to himself as Awesome Sanker.

Sankar left us 11 years ago this day: 06 Sept 2001.

MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE

A rooftop party

The roof of our hostel was our favorite place for spirited get togethers. Since there were partitions on the roof, 4 or 5 groups could easily hold there own individual sessions with out disturbing the others. The cool air and moonlight provided excellent bar like settings. The roof top parties were regular and mostly dutch.

One night about 10 of us gathered in room 407 for a party. The room was the farthest on one side from the common activity area. After the bottles arrived we decided to go to the roof top. Chatting , singing and all the drunken antics went on till about 11:30 P M when we decided to pack up and go down. Oolan and poocha were cleaning the terrace when we walked down. We all reached the lobby on the second floor and were walking towards room 407 when karumadi stopped and declared “ The professor from electrical who made fun of us in the lab today is sleeping inside. lets bang on his door and we’ll at least get the satisfaction of disturbing his sleep. We all volunteered, but Karumadi wanted to execute the idea himself.

We all stood ready to run and karumadi dashed towards the professors bedroom door. We expected him to bang on the door a couple of times and run back to us. But he ran towards the door in full force, jumped up and gave a flying kick to the door. The door was not bolted. In a split second the door opened and karumadi disappeared into the darkness inside the room. He flew through the door and landed on the professor who was sleeping. The professor must have got the scare of his life. We were all dumbstruck and couldn’t move a muscle. Frightened shrieks of both the professor and karumadi could be heard. We all stared into the darkness beyond the open door. Suddenly karumadi came dashing towards us covering his head with the professor's blanket. He left the blanket in the corridor and sprinted to 407. It was only after karumadi dashed past us that we came to our senses. We also ran behind him. The professor came out and just had a glimpse of us running into the room.

At that time, nobody used to lock their hostel rooms because hardly anybody had valuble possessions like mobile phones or purses with money. We could have run into any of the nearby rooms and sir would not have seen us but in the panic we followed karumadi to the farthest room from the crime scene. Oolan and poocha were seeing all this from the steps and they ran back to the terrace.

The professor was angry like hell, He could make out some of us but since he was sleeping and all of this happened in a split second he wanted to make sure. He walked to 407 and tried to push open the door. We had just bolted the door with difficulty when the professor banged on the door. We all remained quiet. The professor shouted “ Open up, you rascals. I know you and I want to kick you out of college this instant”. KD whispered “ We should not utter a single sound, he might identify us by sound” We all huddled in the dark, frightened. The professor banged furiously, he was venting all his anger on the door. KD whispered “take care that you don’t cough or sneeze. Be extremely quiet”.The professor banged again. That’s when we heard somebody shout “Ethu thendiyada rathri manusyane urangan sammathikkathe”. The sound was coming from our room. The professor banged again. “Iniyum Kathakel muttiyal pulle njan ninne kollum. Eda m..” before he could complete the dialogue we all jumped on top of the bed from where the sound came. We covered his mouth and tied him down with our bodies. That was vegudu. He had got drunk before everybody and was sleeping in the room when we ran in. He was unaware of all that was happening and he woke up frightened when we fell on top of him. He might have thought that somebody is trying to kill kim so he tried to shout and wriggle out of our hold. The next half hour was a night mare. We were struggling with vegudu and the professor was still banging on the door and shouting. We were struggling to keep quiet and hold vegudu down. After sometime the banging ended. We waited for 10 or fifteen more minutes before we released vegudu. The moment we loosened the grip, vegudu sprang up and dashed out of the room in his underwear. His mundu had fallen off in the struggle. Since he was drunk he ran into some other room and slept there. Oolan and poocha were watching all this unfold, hiding behind the staircase. They came down after the professor went back to his room.We also walked to our rooms, switched off the lights and fell on the bed. We just wanted to sleep and cut the world out of our thoughts. We were settling on our bed when Poocha asked

“ Da enikku oru karyam manasilayilla. Nee ellam kudi a pavam vegudune entha cheythe, avan jetti ittondu irangi odunna kandallo”

I did not have the strength to speak. So I pretended I was asleep. I slowly slipped into sleep thinking about the person, who is going to get the scare of his life when he wakes up the next day and finds an underwear clad vegudu sleeping next to him.

Back to RIT on 12 March 2012

As planned we we re in RIT on 12 March 2012.

Cracking the code of sessional exams-A divine intervention

Sessional exams were conducted very seriously in RIT, though many of the students lacked seriousness. Lack of sincerity towards the exams resulted in poor marks for the first sessional exams and the significance of the second manifold. After few papers those hopes were also shattered and I could see sorry faces all around me. Next day was the last exam, the toughest of the lot; Power Plant Engineering (PPE). Somehow I had to crack that. I prayed wholeheartedly for a divine intervention.

As I walked alone to hostel with a dejected look, the question paper of the afternoon exam fell from my hand. I retrieved it after running behind it, as the wind blow the paper to a long distance. I got hold of it and looked at it. To my surprise it turned into a PPE paper. I pinched myself. No, I am not dreaming. It is definitely the PPE paper. I turned it around and on the other side I found the question paper I just wrote.

I ran to hostel and announced it to all. At first nobody believed me as they have never seen me going to church or praying. I showed them the paper. They gathered around me and read the paper. No use; they were yet to open the book. They checked the details on the paper. It was matching with the details of the paper they just wrote and the date was that of tomorrow. After consulting with Maman, our topper, everybody agreed that it was the PPE paper. I went to church that evening accompanied by a number of non-believers to thank god for his gift.

The news spread like a fire. Muthu send a copy to LH for Mechrani. Weral started negotiation with local Mechs for a copy of paper and finally settled the matter for a huge sum. Everybody except Maman stopped studying and keech started. As time passed by, I started to get tensed. "If it flopped, I will be crucified by all".

The exam day came. I waited anxiously for the paper and collected same from the examiner with shivering hands. "It was the same paper". My prayers resulted in a divine intervention. I could see all faces turning towards me and respect in those faces. I decided to go to church every day and to increase my praying hours from nil to maximum.

Biker Boys were standing outside the exam hall. They came late and got the copy of the paper very late .They were busily reading the answers after a thumbs up from ‘post’ inside the exam hall. Our Course Coordinator (CC), who was making a last round of inspection, saw Biker Boys standing outside the exam hall and reading. He went towards them and urged them to go inside. In their rush to hide the paper, it fell and he had a glimpse of it. I, sitting in the front bench, was sure that he didn't recognise the paper and sighed.

A few hardcore football fans compared the happenings to the infamous goal of Maradona in 1986 world cup football, where he scored first goal via an un-penalized hand ball known as ‘Hand of God’. Those filthy stories didn’t discourage me and I continued my visits to church. My reply to them was the Bible quote. "Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours" (Matthew 21:22)

One day suddenly CC came to class and announced with a very serious tone."Some malfunction had happened in PPE exam. Somebody had stolen the paper from staff room and distributed among students. Whoever it is, if he want to complete the course, should come and meet me in the staff room immediately". He left the room and after consulting with friends I decided to tell him the truth. "If God had given me the paper, he would look after me and would save me from all trouble" I thought.

I entered the staff room with the paper in my hand. I handed over the same to CC and as he had gone through it, I explained him the things in detail. He listened to me carefully and finally allowed me to leave the scene without much fuss. After that meeting my belief in god further strengthened.

It didn't last long. The ‘Hand of God’ turned out that of a press worker who mixed the papers and printed. Once the hype surrounding the paper was over, many such stories surfaced. They all kept quiet during exams and scored good marks. I ended up with pass marks in PPE. This revelation didn't subside my belief, though shaken it.

Our CC decided to give the contract to another press. The news that the press owner, whose house is situated on the way to church, is on the look out for the person responsible for him losing the contract, completely dampened my belief and visits to church.

Suspension!!!

The principal and the professors had taken note of our class. They had decided that our pride needs to go down. All our professors were on the lookout for reasons to take action and we did not disappoint them. The reasons for suspensions were all regular ones which usually happens in all colleges.

But one story needs to be told. It’s the story of one man, or rather child, Dhanush kodi. The story starts and ends with him. He was the only ray of innocence in a class crowded with rascals. He was weak at heart and his short stature and smile complimented his character. The only strong thing about him was his thick framed glasses which helped his eyesight and also prevented him from flying off. He was the only person in our class who didn’t laugh when the teacher asked about the owner of the vanam… that should sum it up.

He, because of some good reason could not attend the civil lab class which taught plane table survey. We hated the class because we had to stand in the sun for the whole 3 hour class. It was towards the end of the semester and all civil practicals had been finished. So our kind assistant professor allowed us to go home for the day. He also locked the civil lab and went. That’s when Dhanush kodi remembered that he had not attended the class on plane table survey. He did not have any idea about what the thing was so he went to the civil department and asked our professor to let him do the experiment. Some function was about to begin in the civil dept: so he asked Maria teacher to help Danush kodi and scooted from the scene. Maria Miss had to somehow avoid him so she told him that she will not take the class only for one person and if he had to attend the class he had to call all the students together.

Most of us were in the canteen so poor Dhanush did not have to look for us for long. He came and politely told us the situation and asked us to come back to class. We looked at each other. We couldn’t believe that someone would even consider the remotest chance of us going back to a class that was dismissed and here he was…requesting us to go…innocence perhaps. But we decided to go with him, just because he was our only Dhanush Kodi.

Half an hour later Dhanush was back at the civil dept to inform Maria miss that everybody was back in class. She had thought that she lost him but now there was no option but to forget the function and come to a class she was not assigned to.

About 15 of us were assembled in the sun by the road side when Dhanush appeared with the Maria miss. She came to us and looked around. There was Dhanush, about 15 other rascals, the tar road, grass and the sun. She turned to Dhanush and shouted “Where are the instruments?” He was taken aback by the question. He had walked back and forth from the civil dept, endured the sun, gathered a whole mechanical batch together, just because he didn’t have any clue about the plane table survey, and now she is asking about instruments. How could he possibly know where the instruments are? He would have thought that a plane table survey atleast would require a plane table and expected the college to provide that. So he politely said “Ma’am I did not know that we had to bring instruments from home”. The whole bunch of us standing far behind started laughing and Maria Miss got angry. She left Dhanush alone and came to us and asked “why are you standing so far away? Don’t you want to learn? Muthu replied that we had already attended the class and she need to just explain things to Dhanush. She shouted “ So you think you know everything. Then why did you call me? you should have explained it to your friend”. Somebody replied “he didn’t ask us”. She was almost losing her cool and asked Muthu to explain the survey to Dhanush while a couple of others were dispatched to bring the instruments from the lab.

Muthu went forward and waited with Dhanush and the teacher for the instruments to arrive. Half an hour passed and no instruments came. I desperately wanted to escape from the heat so I volunteered to check on the guys who went to fetch the instruments. When I went to the civil lab both of them were sitting on the corridor near the lab and Bosh who somehow escaped from the electrical lab was also there. I asked them why they didn’t bring the instruments and one of them said, (I think it was liju) “Da the lab is locked, the sir who has the key is nowhere to be found”. I asked “then why didn’t you come back and say that” and he replied ”Da it’s illegal to break the lock and it would be inappropriate to go back without finishing the job”. I figured they had a point and decided to wait with them.

All the while an irritated Maria miss, a desperate Dhanush and the whole of our batch was waiting in the sun. After sometime our assistant professor who had the key came that way accidentally and saw us sitting leisurely in front of the lab. He asked us why we were here. We said “To fetch the instruments” “why do you need the instruments, you don’t have class” “No sir Maria miss came for the class and she is waiting for the instruments, with the students” “how long have you been waiting” “Oh don’t worry sir, just about 40 minutes”. You should have seen the look on his face. He rushed to the lab, fumbled with the keys and opened the lab. We were still standing outside and he shouted “you get the things down to the teacher immediately”.

About 40 minutes later we emerged with the plane table and the poles and after the expected scolding the class finally started. The poles were fixed on the grass by the road. Teacher and Dhanush kodi were standing on the grass and all the rest on the tar road a bit far away. I am not going into the minute details and dialogues but now and then the sound of laughter would rise from the group. It was like the laughing chorus of a comedy show, but here jokes were also coming from the chorus and not from the program happening nearby on the grass around a plane table.

Just then our Dhanush stepped on a chunk of cow dung lying on the grass. He wanted to shake if off his legs but did not want to disappoint the teacher who was eagerly explaining things to him and drawing on the plane table. So he slowly moved that leg behind the teacher and started shaking it. For all of us standing a bit far behind, that was a gem of a sight. Dhanush and the teacher were standing side by side and he was desperately trying to get the cow dung off his feat. All of us began to laugh uncontrollably. Maria miss couldn’t take it anymore. She came back and shouted at us. Poor Dhanush kodi did not know what was happening. We also had to vent our frustration of coming back to class. So I, achahan and Muthu made some remarks, somebody laughed, some funny dialogues were said and in a short time we were back in form. The usual procedure followed and the teacher rushed back to the staff room without completing the class. Dhanush kodi after taking so much effort was still left without the knowledge of how the plane table survey was done. All of us as usual had a good laugh and dispersed.

But the teachers and principal were not ready to let this go. They had just let off 5 students from our class with just a warning for disrupting class. The butterfly effect had begun to show. But there was one problem, since Maria Miss was not our regular teacher she did not know who all were present, and in all the commotion she had forgotten to mark attendance. So they decided to suspend all the students who were supposed to attend the class and so the whole batch of 17 including the poor Dhanush Kodi, was suspended along with the five who thought they had escaped with a warning. We had to bring our parents to meet the principal but the confusion in the attendance let us escape the wrath of our parents. All the parents were made to believe that their innocent child was not present in class or was not involved in all these.

As for Dhanush kodi, it is heard that he still hates all tables that are plane.

Missing pint bottle

One day while we entered hostel, the security of MH was seen pinning a circular in the notice board. The circular signed by Principal stated that alcoholic drinking inside the campus is prohibited with immediate effect. We all laughed reading the joke pasted on the notice board and made ourselves ready for playing ‘keech’ our official card game. After some time Oolan and poocha dashed into the room with a serious red face.

“Have you seen princi’s notice?” Oolan shouted as if the circular demanded all of us to wear underwear inside hostels.

“What is the big deal in it?” asked bosch.

“We should not allow the princi to interfere in our personal matters.” It was poocha who said this.

“We all saw this notice and ignored it right away. Even princi knows that none of us will stop drinking by seeing his circular. He too has graduated from an Engg college and he knows all about young students like us” Jotha tried to console Poocha.

“No we should protest”. Pothan told this as he entered the room.

Protest is a very appealing word. Protest means strike and strike meant a legitimate full day keech in hostel. But serving a strike notice for such a reason – Principal to stop interfering in students personal matters / eating habits could be awful but possible.

“Lets collect money from all hostelites and create a mega vellamadi event tonight in the MH portico” Oolans red face was seen gleaming with joy as he said this.

“So no strike..?” Liju said in a disappointed tone.

“No. We will have this vellamadi as a protest”. Pothan told this and the three walked out and we continued with our keech.

Though the proposal of Oolan was not as appealing as a strike, we never said no to any vellamadi. But why the trio gave undue importance to such a silly matter arouse suspicion in the keech table. Keech became interesting and our mind got fully occupied in the keech.

Oolan, Poocha and Pothan gathered money from all hostelites and with the collected amount, one full bottle and one pint bottle of ISLAND Rum arrived hostel. Both the bottles were displayed in the news paper reading table and the vellamadi was scheduled to start at 8.00pm. We few kept our eye on the pint bottle. Our idea was to move the pint bottle to our room, without getting caught in the eyes of the three organizers and other inmates and drink from our room peacefully. KD was assigned the duty to steal the pint bottle at a convenient time and we all tried to divert others attention from the bottle. When KD approached the table he was surprised to see the pint bottle got disappeared.

Daivame… Kaduvaye pidicha kiduvayo..?

We all searched for the pint bottle in the entire hostel. Though nobody knew our plan of stealing the pint bottle, we felt ashamed that somebody did the trick before us that too in front of our eyes. Moreover the fact that we cannot locate the bottle added more to the grief. While we searched for the pint bottle the full bottle was finished in the portico and we didn’t get even a drop from it. The organizers, Poocha, Pothan and Oolan were seen furious when they learnt that the pint bottle was missing.

The trio organizers offered a treat in hobnob for those who found the missing bottle. Next few days we kept our six senses open to see whether any pint bottle (empty / full) emerged in the hostel. All the drunken people were interrogated to know the source of the spirit. All our efforts were in vein. The bottle remained hidden.

Friday evening, waiting for Venad express at railway station, I saw Poocha, Oolan and Pothan with a 1 Litre pepsi bottle sitting at a remote place, sipping pepsi. Seeing me Poocha offered me the bottle with a wicked smile. I tasted the pepsi. It was mixed with Rum. The mischievous smile in Oolans face told me that the organizers had different intentions that day. However the contents of pint bottle which made us sleepless for few nights was at last recovered in the pepse bottle.

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