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.

The Butterfly Effect

It is said that the flutter of a butterfly wing can lead to a storm at a completely different faraway place….

The flutters:

The first one was of course the mock fight between me and Sankar which destroyed the class furniture and almost made the only girl in the class to discontinue her course. This story has already been told.

The second one is a bit more interesting. Our first year class was in a long hall with asbestos roof and separated by 3 walls. The electrical Engg: class was in the room adjacent to ours. We used to enjoy ourselves during boring lectures by throwing chalk pieces and paper rockets to the electrical class through the gap between the roof and the partition wall. One day during civil class Venu threw a paper rocket to the next class. But it hit the partition wall and fell on the teacher. What happened next was dramatic. We have been doing this for a couple of months but this was the first time we were caught. Teacher picked up the rocket from the floor and turned to face the class. It was pin drop silence. Everybody was trying to figure out what would happen next. Venu started sweating. The teacher with a very angry expression came a couple of steps forward and asked in pure Malayalam “ aaranu ee Vanam vittathu”. The whole class was silent for another fraction of a second and then…everybody burst into loud laughter. The teacher was stunned and so were we, but nobody could stop laughing. This made her angrier and violent. She again came forward and shouted above the sound of our laughter” enikku ippo ariyanam…aranu ente methottu vanam vittathennu..”The sound of laughter only increased. There was utter chaos for the next couple of minutes. The teacher was standing in front of the class holding a paper rocket in her hand. The whole class was laughing, vegudu was clapping his hands due to extreme happiness, and venu who was ducking under the table to escape being caught, was lying on the floor and laughing.

In this commotion nobody noticed the teacher leaving the classroom. We really felt bad for her but any class full of teenage boys would have done the same.

The third one happened a couple of days later. After the vanam incident, throwing things to the next class almost ended. Venu used to throw a couple of chalk pieces just to show everyone that he wasn’t afraid. Now most of us resorted to the most common past time ..sleeping. In one such class, I, Sankar and Poocha were peace fully asleep in the last bench. One of our classmates was trying to impress the teacher by asking a lot of questions. He was interrupting the lecture and also our sleep. After a while I was completely irritated. I woke up Sankar and Poocha and said “ da oru Samshayalu irangittundu, we need to do something immediately or else my precious sleep for a good couple of hours is going to be disturbed”. Sankar looked up and said “athu nammude pashu alle, onnu paranjal avan mindathe irunnolum”. But pashu was not turning back for even a casual glance. He was sitting on the second bench on the left corner of the class near to the window and we were in the middle row last bench. Poocha tried throwing a couple of paper pieces but didn’t succeed. We were all looking for something else to throw and suddenly pasu stood up to ask another question. We were searching on the floor to find something to throw and through the corner of my eye I saw Sanker take something from a bag. I sat up straight thinking it was a pen or a piece of chalk. Pasu had finished the question and the teacher was just turning to the blackboard to explain. This was our moment. Sanker stood up and took aim and suddenly I saw what was in his hand. It was a small glass bottle in which somebody brought curd. Before I could stop him, he threw it..There was a large sound. I thought Pasu’s head broke. I didn’t have the courage to look but then I realized that the sound was of breaking glass. I looked up. Pashu was safely seated, his speed saved him, the glass window near him was completely shattered, the teacher was looking directly at us and … Sankar was still standing there in Parasuraman's pose enjoying the outcome of his throw. It took a couple of seconds for him to realize that the whole class was looking at him. He looked at everybody, then at the teacher, smiled and said “sorry miss, I missed”. The teacher couldn’t say anything and she quietly walked out of the class.

The storm

All these small innocent flutters (might not seem so innocent to others, but it truly was) was causing a great storm to build up in a place we least expected..in the principals mind. She was a task master and strongly believed that the Mech department was responsible for all the disciplinary issues in every Engg: college. All our senior Mechanicals up to the then final years were typical proof to her theory. The last two batches were relatively quiet and then we came. And all these incidents brought her violent attitude towards Mechanicals back with a vengeance.

All professors were asked to teach us a lesson. Anything and everything we did ended up in suspensions. In total 23 of us (out of 40) got suspensions that year. She suspended 5 of us for unruly behavior, then 17 for disrupting a lecture, 5 of us were suspended for copying in the series test. Our session marks started touching single figures. I and Poocha were among the lucky ones who got 2 suspensions during the period and our parents even considered taking season tickets to meet the principal. This continued through the first year until the Principal was transferred.

Tail peace: A notice on one of our suspensions was put up on the notice board and while I was passing that way, I saw oolan staring at the notice board. I thought he was depressed because of the suspension and went near to console him. I told “Da this is nothing..don’t worry, I have been getting suspensions from 4^th standard and so don’t feel bad about this”. He gave me a strange look and said “ poda m***e. I have always tried hard but this is actually the first time I am being officially suspended from college. I was thinking about how to open the notice board lock so that I can take the suspension notice with my name on it and keep it as a souvenir”.

A Fight

It was just a couple of months into our long RIT journey. We still were not acquainted with every body in class. One of my first friends was Sankar, because we traveled together from Trivandrum. There were other guys from Trivandrum, like Pothen, Pichathi and Poocha but they had to sit through the long journey listening to Oolan's 'Quarters' stories and vegudu was always getting ragged by mostly our batch mates and girls.

One day I and Sankar was walking to college and saw a couple of our friends trying to fight, like its done in films. One person was swinging his hand a mile away from the other persons face and the other would sway his head in the direction of the hand and cry out. This was supposed to look like a real hit to the face and I cant explain their facial expressions as they were repeatedly acting out the oldest trick in films. We walked on and saw a second group doing that. By the time we reached our block we saw many such groups. Every body was busy practicing the trick, in class, in front of the labs and a select few, even in front of the electrical class to impress the girls. We went to the nearest group and asked what this was all about. Somebody told us about how Oolan and one of his senior friends did this trick during freshers day and fooled every body. He told me that oolan is still going around teaching his newest trick from 'Quarters'.

On our way to class Sankar told me “ Da we will show them what a real fight is like. Its time we stop Oolan's Jada”. When we reached our class there was about 10 or 15 studious members of our class and Makru. Sankar looked at me and said “Lets start”.I pushed him on to the front desk were Makru was sitting. He fell over the desk. Every body was startled with the sound. Makru shouted and ran back. Sanker got up, jumped over the desk and pushed me over the teachers chair. I picked up the chair and threw it at him, but made sure that it fell far away from him. I threw him on the black board and it broke off from one side. Foul language and threats were exchanged all through out. In about 10 minutes a good crowd had gathered around the class, almost all the classroom furniture was in disarray, the black board was broken and Makru was crying. I was trying to hit him with a broken piece of furniture. He got hold of it and whispered to me “Da I think its enough, its better we leave now, professors may come soon”. I pushed him to the floor and stormed out of the classroom. Later we met up at Hobnob and laughed almost for an hour. We were happy that we fooled every body and this time it was better than oolans filmy trick.

The next day I got ready, caught the college bus and went straight to the hostel. (classes were obviously not the first in my agenda) . As soon as the I entered the hostel, a couple of 8^th sem Mech's caught hold of me and started asking me about the previous day's fight. I told them all the lies I could make up within that short period. Then as I was walking into a room, some other guys came to me and introduced themselves as Jesus youth members. They started advicing me on the importance of controlling my anger. I was fed up of all this and went to Hobnob for a cigarette. A couple of second year Mech students was there. They were trying to convince me that I should join Solidarity party and they needed people like me to take on SFI in the campus.

The excitement of the previous day had worn off and I was confused. I was sitting there alone and still smoking when Sanker walked in. He seemed happy and excited. He asked me how my day went and I replied that I was getting fed up with all the advices and we wont even have the fun of fooling any body now, since nobody is going to believe that it was a joke. and I asked him why he was so happy. He told me “ If advices come from the right places you can actually enjoy it”. He continued “ You should learn to cash in on opportunities. You are a fool, you went to the men's hostel after such a show and what more did you expect. I asked him “ where were you? He said “ I took a couple of rounds by the electrical class and the advices I got, was from those beauties. I am already friends with some of them . He continued “ OK I am leaving, have to meet ----- near LH. I hid my disappointment and said “ Ok good for you”. On the way out he said “ Da I am planning to continue the counseling sessions for a couple of days more, so we’ll not let anybody see us together for the time being. 'Pinne' u don’t have to get disappointed. Even if you had come to college today you wouldin't have got as much attention as I did”. I asked “ Why” and he replied “ninakku ente athrem Soundaryam illallo”. I wanted to kick his ass, this time for real, but by the time I got up, he was half way down the road to LH.

First meeting with the mother of machines

May I have the single honour, double pleasure, triple satisfaction with multiple ejaculation in knowing your good, great, gracious name sir? Please…

Every fresher at that time would have written this imposition hundreds of time. This was how we should ask the name of a senior, if permitted to ask. Along with this, there were Newtons laws numbering till 10 and certain ‘Slogams’ which had to be byhearted to get exempted from the ragging sessions.

One day myself and Kuttachan were going to the society store operating in the ground floor of admin block for buying pencils. As we reached near the store, we were caught by a few seniors. Upon knowing that 4 seniors in that group were from Mech department Kuttachan gave each of them a royal “Mech Salute”. Seeing what my partner did, I too jumped to the maximum height possible and when reached the highest point, used my left hand to hold my balls and gave them a Royal salute with my right hand, same way Kuttachan did, exactly how a Mech Salute is to be delivered. Giving four such salutes took away all the energy I had.

Seeing our obedience, the seniors asked us to go. When we were about to move, someone from the group asked us politely whether we could buy a thing for him from the store.

“What do you want sir?” Kuttachan asked

“Buy one lathe for me”. My mouth felt dry as the senior told this. How much will this instrument cost?

A drafter cost approx 200 Rs. Will this instrument cost more than that..? I looked at kuttachen. He too seemed perplexed. We have not heard about this instrument yet. We were asked to bring scales, drafter, pencils of various grades (H, 2H, HB and B) big set of compass and A3 size papers for the drawing classes. Now comes lathe. We thought that this lathe is a big brother of the drafter and should be used in our higher semesters.

“Take this and don’t forget to give the balance 5 Rs when you bring the lathe.” Saying this, the senior took a 20 Rs note from his pocket and handed over to us. Thank god.. we sighed a relief. “What a good senior..!! He is ready to pay for the instrument. Thank god, the Mech salute really worked”. We thought ourselves.

Store was crowded that day. I asked in my loud voice “Chetta, oru lathe tha”. Everybody in the store gave us a perplexed look. Some started laughing.

“Ividilla, mech workshopil poye chodikku...” answered the store keeper.

“Stock theernu poyathano chetta..?” Kuttachan was eager to know. Everybody in the store laughed. We didnt understand anything. We decided to reach the mech workshop asap. The seniors were not seen when we came out of the store. We marched straight to the mech workshop.

“Eda avide vere store undo..? avide stock undakumo..?” Kuttachan was full of doubts.

We reached Mech workshop. Seeing a senior I asked him “Sir, ividuthe store evideya?”

“Enthina” his reply was fast

“Oru lathe venam”

“Aarka”

“Oru senior ina” Saying this I took the 20 Rs note from my pocket.

“Ethu type lathe venam?” such a question was not expected from him.

“4 jaw veno atho 3 jaw ullathu mathiyo?” he asked. We stood puzzled. Finally we decided to go back to the senior and ask him which type he wanted. We bunked the next hour and after roaming around the campus for 30 minutes we found him and asked which one he need.

“3 jaw is enough. Get me the lathe in another 10 min. If you are late, bring the lathe to my hostel, Mathathil buildings in 8^th mile after 8 pm.” This time his sound was rude. Going to his room at 8 pm was beyond imagination.

“It’s dreadful to go to a senior’s room at 8 pm.” Kuttachen said. I too thought the same. We ran towards the workshop and saw the senior there.

“Sir, please show us to the store. He want 3 jaw type lathe”. Kuttachen requested. I stood beside with the 20 Rs in my hand.

“Self centered or independent?”. he asked.

I felt my head spinning. Going back to the senior without the lathe will be fatal.

Seeing our desperate looks the senior said. “Self centered will be enough for him”. We felt relaxed. We felt a deep sense of gratitude for this senior.

“Thankyou Sir” Kuttachen expressed his gratitude.

“Sir where is the store” I asked.

“Go inside and take it. These are the lathes”. Saying this he walked away.

We entered the workshop and looked in the direction he showed. Mighty machines were fixed on the floor.

Our first meeting with the mother of machines.

The Mechrani

This is not a story, rather a tribute to the indomitable spirit and truimph over difficult circumstances through determination by a person; Mechrani.

First day in class; my wandering eyes focused on that girl sitting alone in first bench with moist eyes, looking towards the door, for every footstep heard in the corridor, with the anticipation of the arrival of one more female companion. The expression of hope doomed in the first week itself and replaced with the reality of inevitable. My legs were rooted to the ground whenever the thought to console her occurred. Muthu elevated himself to front bench closely followed by Maman. They gave company to her throughout the college life with others chipping in with useful contributions shedding their rough and tough image.

Occasional disagreements moistened her eyes and tears rolled through those bubbly cheeks, but she never lost her cool. As time passed by, those tears never fell from her eyes, although it moistening occasionally. This always reminded us of the feminine side of the Mechs. After first year, I saw her lose the control of this act only on two occasions; on hearing the news of the demise of our great friend and classmate Sankar and on the final day of our college life; our farewell day. She let go the control on emotions and wept like a child and forced us to follow her example.

She was the link between the studious ones and the underprivileged as far as learning was concerned. She was more than willing to supply notes and assignments to others when in need and we were in need most of the times. The machismo of Mechs only compromised for her and in her presence we were vulnerable as any Electrical, Electronics and Civil guy. As days passed I thought the machismo will have its effect on her, but she managed to keep her feminine charms in tact. She mastered the art of safeguarding the information on LH girls without annoying her fellow mechs who were too eager to know the proceedings in LH.

She was the first RIT girl to enter MH and under watchful eyes of Mechs she was more secured in MH than anywhere else in RIT. Though she didn't return the favour, many had dreamt that. Thanks to her, our pranks were never limited to MH.

Going back in time, if I get an opportunity to change anything in my college life, I want to go near her on that first day, sit beside her and announce to her in a voice audible to the whole class. "Please stop looking for another girl. We will never let you feel that you want one for company". Although we achieved it, the announcement was missing.

Flirtoragg

Ekalavya is a fascinating character in Mahabharatha who was asked to cripple himself by Drona for embarking self-study to learn the art of archery in the presence of a clay image of Drona. Unruffled by the demand and with due humility, he cut his right thumb and placed at the feet of Drona as a 'Gurudakshina' thus sacrificing the immense success he could have achieved as a skillful archer.

Those who possess status symbols had gained a definite edge over the others in college, like the one in our class who owned a bike. From the very first day, he and his friend came to campus together in bike and we called them 'Biker Boys'. They were welcomed by unruly political scenario of RIT campus and it took two years to settled into their grooves.

Beautiful fresher girls were at the receiving end of their newly found freedom. It was only an extension of their flirting which had dated back to first year and we named it 'flirtoragg', the combination of flirting and ragging. The girls from our batch had managed to escape the flirting with some lame excuses, but freshers were forced to suffer the 'kathi'. The general perception among others was that eventually the girls will complain to HOD or principal. Our college had strict rules against ragging and we waited for something disastrous to happen.

Contrary to our expectations, they fared well in flirtoragg and there were no complaints. Many credited that to their friendly mannerisms and good looks. Their popularity grew manifold. Fellow students looked up to them in awe and referred them as masters of flirtoragg. I was one among them.

I had tried my hand in flirtoragg with most of the sessions ending either with the girl crying or I getting frustrated. These unfortunate results prompted me to learn the art of flirtoragg from the masters. That day I finished my lunch and went to first year classes. I saw the Biker Boys standing in the corridor and I placed myself on their side. They were least bothered by my presence and got into their usual business. As a bunch of fresher girls passed by, they called the gorgeous one. I truly admired that choice.

The first question "Did you finish your lunch?".

The girl was tensed and answered "Yes".

Next question "What was special for lunch"?

She started describing the lunch in detail. Biker boys listened carefully encouraging her to continue. Slowly her apprehension made way for candor and they were into flirtoragg in full flow.

"Brilliant!". I told myself.

After 15minutes long session, biker boys finished the conversation with the punch line "It was so nice to know you more". I could see the girl smiling all the way back. That's the way to execute a successful flirtoragg. As I turned to leave the scene, I saw another girl. Her hair hung in delicate curls around her white shoulders. She was talking to other girls and the dimple in her face made her smile so cute. The moment I saw her there was a rumbling in my chest and mouth was as dry as a desert. She really fit into my particular favourite type of girl.

She was the next target of biker boys. In my enthusiasm to see her and know more about her, I went close to biker boys and stood there.

As usual they started: "Where your father is working?"

"He is in gulf", she answered

"Mother?" enquired one of the Biker Boys .

"She is in Trivandrum".

The girl was getting comfortable. I started to feel left out and in an impulse to join the party I asked "How could it work?"

Biker boys were surprised by that question and burst into laughter. The girl was taken aback and started crying. Before I could explain my innocence, a hand fell on my shoulder. I turned around and stunned to see our HOD standing there.

He took us to his office room and warned us against ragging. After asking biker boys to leave he said to me in his monotonous voice with little variation in pitch and tone "If you go near that girl again, I will suspend you". It shattered my hopes of going to her and making me clear on the issue. As I left the office and moved back to hostel I could see biker boys standing in the corridor and in serious flirtoragg with another damsel.

The severity of Biker boys actions were diluted by my comment and forced HOD to issue only a mild warning enabling them to continue with their flirtoragg sessions. All his anger was directed to me and I ended up giving the ultimate 'Gurudakshina' to Biker Boys for learning flirtoragg ; comparable only to the one given by Ekalavya, my favourite mythological character.

An invited supple

Supple aka ‘supplementary paper’ is a friend, most of the engineering students carry alongwith during their course tenure. Though mechanical engg students used to have enough such friends, we Rumboys never liked them to be with us during our first three semesters. Later we became used to it and our aversion to "supple" was totally taken away by MOM-II (mechanics of machines -2) where only 7 people got passed that too with marks between 40 and 45.

Many of us, who preferred to stay out of classrooms, bunked series exams and never submitted assignments, studied hard at the time of exams to obtain good grades. KD was one such guy who never attended the classes but aspired to get good marks. For him supple was considered an insult to his manhood.

It was the electrical machines lab of fourth semester. As usual, KD could not get enough time to study all the tests and hence was forced to skip two experiments; one, load test on three phase induction motor and second, OC and SC test on transformer. Being a mathematician who scored 85+ for both S1S2 and S3 and an adept in probability theorem made some calculations and found that the chances of getting these two experiments was less than 12% and with much confident on his probability calculations, marched happily to electrical lab.

KD was the tenth candidate as per alphabetical order and was the last one in his batch. When he approached the desk, there were three folded papers lying in the table which determined his fate in the lab. He looked around and saw no one standing near the 3 phase induction motor and transformer. He was now sure that the three papers lying in front of him had the two experiments he skipped and his winning percentage dropped down to 33 % from the earlier 88%. With trembling hand he took one paper and it read “Conduct Open circuit and short circuit test on transformer and comment on its characteristics”. KD, who didn’t know the primary and secondary of transformer, earnestly asked for a change in experiment. For him, as per the probability theorem, his success percentage would raise to 50% if he is allowed to take a test from the other two.

Seeing the sad looks of our KD, the external examiner agreed for a change in experiment. KD again with trembling hands took one paper. With high expectations he read “Conduct load test on three phase induction motor and plot its….”. He couldn’t complete as his eyes got soaked with tears. Totally ditched by the probability theorems, KD moved towards the three phase induction motor and stood there staring at the motor. It was the first time he saw a three phase induction motor in his entire 20 years. KD drew a circuit diagram based on his logic by connecting a voltmeter, ammeter, load, AC source, a switch and off course a motor. He also started writing a procedure which he believed to be the procedure for conducting the load test. As he didn’t know how to conduct the experiment, he was forced to stop after wrote how to give connections as per his circuit diagram. With this our KD felt sure of getting a supple for this lab. Deeply frustrated by the thought of his first supple, he went to the examiner and confessed that he didn’t know how to do the experiment and asked her to mark him absent. As the attendance was marked and experiment being allotted, the external examiner informed her inability to mark him absent and requested him to do what best he know on the load test.

After some more time, KD again approached the external and said “Madam, this is the first time I am facing a supple. As you cannot mark me absent, please be kind enough to give me zero for this exam. For me getting a zero is better that failing”. Examiner didn’t understand KD’s logic. Still in a composed tone, she checked the circuit diagram and little bit of procedure written on the answer sheet and told KD that the answer sheet in its present form itself will fetch him 25 marks. Upon KD’s silence the external added “Please go and make the connections as drawn and try to do something and depending on how u perform in viva I will try to make you pass” KD had learnt from his past not to trust anyone from electrical dept. Be it the girl who comes in her typical black jeans on all Mondays or a faculty, everybody had equal stand in his mind.

One more appeal from KD made the examiner angry. She shouted at KD which ignited the bruised feelings inside him. Suddenly everyone in the lab saw KD snatching the answer sheet from examiner and made a glamorous ‘strike through’ on the circuit diagrams and procedure. With the entire expectation of obtaining a zero, he handed over the paper back to the external and told “Madam, now you may please give me a zero”. Seeing this the externals’ face got red and she in a very scary tone told KD “You will get zero for this answer sheet, but I will give you 15 for your record and 5 for attendance and make your marks 20”.

KD was dumbstruck. Though the external was happy on not giving his desired ‘zero’, KD was disappointed with the examiners last words. If she told about the 20 marks before, he would never score the paper and would have passed with the 25 marks he deserved for the diagram and procedure. First ditched by the probability and secondly by the examiner, KD walked out of lab, face down, into the world of supple.

Preface

14 years ago, there were only 14 engineering colleges in Kerala. One of them was at Pampady, a sleepy town near Kottayam, beside the KK Road. The college was under the shades of rubber trees and surrounded by hills. Like its students, the college was also in its developing period Buildings were only slowly coming up and so were the labs. There was only one permanent building - that was the Civil Block. That was where the seniors had their classes. The office staff and the Principal sat out of a temporary office building near the entrance. There were only 4 branches (Mech, E&C, EEE and Civil) with batch strength of 50 each. For S1-S2, there were two temporary class-rooms at the foot of the hill that houses Mech Block and the Workshop, and another classroom inside the Workshop building. The time table was scheduled in such a way that at least one batch was out for Geometrical Drawing, Workshop or such classes that are outside of the classrooms.

In 1998, a group of students joined that college. They were the first batch to have had all Lab classes in RIT itself (the seniors had to go to MA College, Kothamangalam to see how machines work). During their time, the administrative block, the Mech Block, the Library building, the Canteen etc. came up. The dependence on the PTM School ground for games was replaced by a small ground within the campus (they called it K. R. Narayanan's Varavu Memorial Ground because the ground was initially prepared for hosting the then President of India, Shri. K. R. Narayanan to formally inaugurate the college in a function which, never happened of course). They grew along with the college and by the time they were ready to face the world, the college had also grown independent.

The four formative years of their life they spend with this college. The college was part of their life. The ragging sessions, classrooms, hostel, canteens, library, drawing hall, festivals whatever it be, everything left lasting impressions in their minds. They were part of everything. They felt the pulse of the college in every heartthrob. They remained true to each other. They lived together, they dreamed together and enjoyed the happiness of being together - for four long years.

In 2002, they moved out from the college. With heart full of memories, they stepped into the life that awaited them. Life that was truly molded by the college, in return to their love. College days retreated into their memories and they donned a nostalgic smile whenever they met and recounted the times which were so dear to them.

10 years later, looking down the lane, those funny deeds arouse the same depth of nostalgia. Scribbling down those funny deeds, they could hear someone from deep inside their heart saying, “those were the best days of our life”.

We are sure; these stories will take you too to your college days. Those innocent, youthful, colorful days of your life.