We the 8 semester students and inmates of top floor of RIT mens hostel were still in bed, lazy n cozy when we heard someone shouting at a sight which was never seen there before.
A well dressed man, could be a Bank manager or an Officer in Govt service (as inferred from his appearance) was coming towards the hostel with his ward, a boy of 17+ years old, neatly dressed in tucked in shirts, full sleeve an expensive leather belt and black formal shoes and a parker pen on his pocket.
Let me first say that no juniors were permitted to enter the premises of men’s hostel. Rather, they didn’t have the courage, even to look to the side of MH while they were in the first years of college life. Now a boy ushered by his father (that too just after filing an application) was coming to evaluate the hostel and its facilities (which could be a part of the evaluation program that included labs, classrooms, library, quality and make of machines / instruments installed in labs etc) so as to decide whether the college equipped to fetch him a BTech degree and fit for him to live his next 4 years.
For us this sight was really enterprising. It turned out as a catalyst which triggered our ‘seniorist’ instincts and we jumped from our bed and darted towards the lounge. There, we found them asking our juniors, 4th semester students, about mess timings, mess workers, cleaning schedules and quality of food etc. The much annoyed interviewees were rejoiced to see us marching towards to them to take control of the situation. They retired and peacefully settled in the big news paper reading table which served as their gallery for the forthcoming events.
We got split into two groups. While one group stayed with the father and answered his questions, other group took the boy to a corner. The group with the boy, made guesses on the brand of the shirt and in order to confirm he had to remove his shirt and show it to all. To make guesses on the length of his belt, the same was also taken out. While removing his shoes, the fathers’ eyes fell on his ward and came for his rescue. Bit tensed on this sight, he advised us to consider him as our younger brother and reminded us of our duty to protect, guide and help him realize his dream of becoming a ‘strong’ and ‘powerful’ engineer.
Soon our colleague, an intellect who scores 80+ in all university exams but 50- in all internals and to whom calculator was a luxury, rose up and told them that, to master engineering one should unlearn all what he learnt earlier. The pride earned when he got selected to a premier college has to be shed out. Praise which fell on his ears while he ejaculated his CEE rank to his family members / friends has to be forgotten. Competitive spirits which helped him secure a good rank has to be buried and capability to gel with his colleagues shall be practiced.
Father and son thought that, what happened was “the unlearning activity” and left the hostel in peace. But to us the real fight started as we were to find out who became the new master for that parker pen.
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