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.
