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”.