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.

Alamuttiyal Cherayum Kadikkum

Oolan was a prankster who always made even the richest of the pranks appealing. Poocha was a romantic who approached every moment with wild exuberance and joy. Pothan was the self proclaimed leader who with his air of superiority and heavily built structure demanded it. They stayed together in hostel, sat together in class, dined together in canteen. They formed the deadly 'Gang of Three', with fearsome reputation in college.
Pothan was an active member of Keech club, so was Oolan. Poocha never really cared about cards or any other games and spent most of his time outside the hostel. Their room was the official room for any card game. When you walk into that room you will be welcomed by dirty laundry. The room is filled with cockroach and bed bugs and foulest of smells. Oh, watch out for rats.
When one of their pet rats died, it became unbearable to play in that room anymore. Even after hours of search we failed to locate the dead body. It was decided to shift the club to another room, a better and cleaner one. Long debate followed, many rooms were discussed and finally the decision was unanimous. My room! Unfortunately I had three roommates, one of them was Maman, the topper of our batch. I wrecked my brain trying to think of reasons to revert the decision. Too late; Pothan took cards and started to walk. Six of us entered my room led by Pothan and the game started. Generally every game is followed by heated arguments and shouting. I hoped the situation will be different in my room. In no time my hopes shattered by the loud shouts.
Maman was studying there in the room in the midst of chaos. He was trying to concentrate on his studies. May be that posture made Pothan to raise his voice to high decibels. Maman came towards us and in a calm and polite manner requested us to reduce the voice. This made Pothan very angry and he immediately left the room. I was afraid that I witnessed only the first phase of conflict and I was right.
Pothan took that incident as a gross insult to his macho image. As a vengeance, with the help of Oolan and Poocha, he decided to play a prank on Maman. As always, Oolan was the mastermind and poocha the executor. That evening after latching the door as Maman went to mess for tea, they locked his room. Maman got stranded in corridor as the lock was too strong for his liking and couldn't break it even after repeated attempts. He got angry, but in vain. He had no proof against the culprits although he suspected the Gang of Three behind this act.
Other roommates and I did not show any keen interest on the proceedings as we knew that gang of three had pulled many such pranks successfully on others. They always selected such victims who were unable to react to their deeds. Maman fit into that category perfectly. Being studious he never really participated in any pranks neither was he on the receiving end as all the hostel mates depend on his notebooks for exams. This was a completely new experience for him. Bosh tried to pacify him and managed to take him to his room.
Meanwhile Poocha located the dead body of rat and after cremating it, Pothan gathered everybody in his room to continue the game. There was one problem. Cards were still in my room and it was locked. Pothan volunteered to bring the cards from my room. He went to room, opened the door and entered inside. In no time Maman came running and locked the room with another lock and shouted, "If you want to play any game you must be willing to be played". He was referring to the prank.
Things were getting more complicated. Oolan and Pocha came running to the corridor. Pothan was hitting the door in full throttle. I requested Maman to open the door to avoid the situation getting out of control. Maman was adamant in his refusal to change his mind and he had his share of supporters who gathered at the scene.
After one hour Bosh intervened and persuaded Maman to handover the key to him by terrifying him with the description of the muscle bound arms of Pothan, a quality Maman clearly lacked. Bosh opened the door and entered inside. There was total silence, just like the lull before the storm. Pothan came out of the room , surprisingly with a smile on his face. He went near Maman and told "It was a good try." He turned around and left the scene followed by Oolan and Poocha. Maman sighed in relief. Bosh exited from the room and on seeing me puzzled, announced with his famous Kannur slang "He was very angry. I told him that the trick to survive the situation is not to let Maman and others have the satisfaction of knowing that the prank worked on him. Pothan will be hitting his bed after reaching his room in frustration".
Cherayanengilum Mamante kadi kollendeduthu kondu!

The Underdog

The table was dealt for 4 people. Achachan, Weral,Machu and I.Players took their cards and 'keech' started.

Folklore is that the Keech,the most famous card game in RIT hostel, was originated in Weral’s village. He used to watch and (as he later claimed), became a legendary player in Keech. When he joined RIT, financial shortcomings due to his extravagant lifestyle forced him to find other sources of income. After successful stint with seasonal activites of income like ragging and selling old books at exorbitant prices, he was in search for a permanent source of income. So keech was introduced in RIT hostel and it enjoyed immense success and popularity due to its simplicity and huge money involved (as per RIT standards then).Weral's winning keech strategy was to mark the back of the cards with his long nails and identify them during the distribution for getting a fair idea of opponents cards.

Achachan mastered the art of Keech and was a regular player with an untarnished reputation in Keech circles. Being an ardent fan of Keech, he was too keen to popularise the game and used to explain things that happened during the games to friends, bringing his strong analytical skills and the probability theory with skillful narration.

What to say about me!. The story goes like this.The keech is played in pothan's room and my room was at the other end.The games end only after midnight and by the time I reach my room all the people in that floor used to wake up by the sound of coins I carry after winning the games.It was only a matter of observing the playing styles of opponents for me.

Machu was a late entry into college as he came 3 months late after getting a transfer form calicut university.First year proved to be difficult for him and resulted in 'supples' which followed him for two more years.By the time he got away from supples, others had gained considerable expertise in keech.That day marked his entry into keech.

3 cards were dealt for each player.Initial betting amount was 50 Ps. After viewing his cards the player can either place an additional bet or fold and leave the game.Triple 'A's are the highest hand followed by triple 'K's,'Q's and 'J's.Then comes 'TIN',in which A,K,Q will be of different types.Then 'COLOUR',i.e the cards of same types followed by double A's & K, double A's & Q and so on.Player holding the highest hand wins all the money.

I was happy for getting triple 'J' and observed others reactions.Achachan was deep in thought, presumably a less hand.Weral had his trademark smile,a high hand for sure but not the best.Machu was worried,sweat dripped down his face and seemed disappointed.I felt sorry for him, he is going to loss a lot of money today. First round went with everybody placing additional bets.It went for one more round.

Third round; weral doubled the betting amount.Achachan followed,so did machu and I.It went for 5 more rounds.Well, I began to get a little concerned about it.As per the rules of the game the play continues till two players remain and either of them asking for a showdown.I went on to loss Rs.10 and finally I backed off.After folding my hand I went to achachan who was holding triple 'Q's .Achachan was in full spirit as his probability theory predicted very less chance for either Machu or weral holding 3A or 3K. After losing 10 more rupees he folded his probability theory. Together we went to weral. Weral was holding triple 'K's.

Weral was very confident because he had noted that the 'A'' s marked by him were not distributed and chances of 3'A' was impossible.After couple of rounds and betting on Rs25 Weral asked for a showdown, and to his shock, three aces emerged from Machu's hand.Weral was heartbroken as he failed to identify the right markings on the back of the cards. I asked Machu about his reaction on seeing the hand and he told "I WAS STUNNED". I got it all wrong, neither achachan's theory nor weral's tricks worked .What a way to lose money!. I was only happy for the fact that both Weral and Achachan lost more money than me and the story remained underground.

Reputation does matter!