Dew Drops

                             Episode 1
 “oh…finally…its over” my dad exclaimed. I looked at his watch “ ooph …!!my goodness its 2p.m.”I added. chairs began to move & so did the restless gathering. It was the first day in the college & it was a (boring) welcome function to the  freshers. Jovial,funfilled and packed with mindblowing cultural acts ,it was exactly what the function wasn’t. It was a very dismal function with a series of boring speeches by princi, lecturers and some minister with an important portfolio, guess he was education minister (well one cant expect an excise minister in a academic function ,right?)..Few 2^nd year students showed that they were no less talented in delivering boring words by sharing their one year of experience in the college .

“everyone is requested to please have  lunch before u leave” some girl announced & I gave a wide grin to my dad. he didn’t bother to react . I swore that I’ll take revenge for this sooner or later. We went to the place where the lunch was being served . I’d  my food served on my plate & slowly attacking the delicious stuff from each possible directions I engaged my eyes in searching for some beautiful faces. Hmmm few were god..!!!gorgeous..!!,few were good and the rest were ,hmmm no I dont want to say anything negative about the looks of that class of fairer sex..so they were ok kind of.

“so from tomorrow ,Anish ,B.E.,is what you’ll be called..” my dad said & gave me a grin. And I was waiting for a chance like this & I took my revenge for what he’d done to me few minutes ago. I ignored his words & he felt the same odd way as I’d felt moments ago. I was happy..

We finished our lunch & we hurried our way to the hostel .Admission was still due & there were more than many waiting for their turn to get admitted. My dad’s HMT read “3 p.m.”. I was in the rear end of the queue. Its gonna be late , I guessed. Looking at the the worn out plasters of the wall, cobs  and the dust filled veranda, director in my mind said that it can be a perfect location to shoot a horror or a historic movie.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


“ek pal ka jeena ssssss…” a singer in me was humming ,while I was cleaning my newfound room. My dad had left few hours ago and I was busy in driving away heaps of dust, spider homes from the room. No I hadn’t cried while waving a goodbye to my dad, may be because I’d spent 7 long years in a residential school.

 There was a loud thud on the door &  it flung open. It was allan with football. A football crazy allan, was my roommate. He was in 3^rd year doing his B.E. in electrical. Karthik & ramnath were the other two. The former in final year and the latter in 3^rd, both from mech. Introduction and all other formalities were over long back. No they didn’t rag me but had sounded very friendly and by now in very few hours they had earned a soft corner in my heart.

Our room it was ,room no-30. They say it had a GLORIOUS history. Few years back it was this room no 30 which was (in)famous for ragging. The seniors who were there in the room then, were most dreaded about by others. None would ever dare to even pass by in front of the room. Now I don’t want to speak much about the HISTORY of our room because it’s the subject I hate the most( but still I’d managed to score 90 odd marks in the subject in my class 10^th cbse exam, god knows how…!!! ).

It was 8.45 p.m. & I’d just finished my first dinner infact my 1^st meal in the  hostel.  It tasted good but the way the food was being dumped in the waste bin was giving me a hint that i wont  be saying the same about the food after a week or two.

 I made my bed, laid on it my 5.7” tall,56 kg heavy body. Hearing the music that karthik was playing on his comp , I slowly began to imagine how would my next day in the college turn out to be. Imagining like this had become a routine work of me in this part of the night since the day my class 12^th exam was over. I started a hot discussion in my mind as how should I get dressed up for tomorrow. ( but that doesn’t mean I’d a great wardrobe collection, no I just had 6 or 7 pairs of them). I began giving wild guesses on how will I be ragged. I felt it would be very exciting if a senior girl comes up to me and get me ragged. I even wished somebody would ask me to show my talent  so that I can display my dancing skills, because I always think I’m one of the best dancers in the world…!!playing with all these thoughts, I never knew wen had I slipped into sleep,in wat was d FIRST NIGHT in engineering life.

---

The hot girl in black T-s & a 7/10 lower (don’t know the exact ratio, but that’s how the length seemed to be) was one among the many seniors girls surrounding me. “you are not supposed to come to college so handsomely dressed. You are killing us with your looks” she said & I started blushing. I could sense seniors guys were rising all smokes out of jealousy. I couldn’t help but laughing. And there he was like villiain in every college based movie ,a guy with spiked hair. ”Hey you , out there..!!come here” he ordered me with an authoritive tone. “huh..you don’t know me..!!!one punch and I’ll flatten your nose. Don’t mess with me buddy” I wanted to say him in a filmi hero way, but his towering height and his rippling muscles didn’t let me say it. “ye..ye..yesss..coming” I said and walked towards him.

      GIVE ME AN OXFORD.

  I DON’T KNOW THE MEANING OF “GENTLE”

His T-shirt read. ”Down..50 push ups” he ordered. I removed my shirt, and positioned myself down. “my god!!! Hey look at his packed abs..!!he’ looks sooo…” I could hear many gals saying it , or at least something similar.

“…48..49…50” I gave a wide grin to the spiked guy and asked “want more…???”. He was embarrassed and had turned pink. All gals at once rushed at me. “will you be my boy friend .??” I heard a sweet tone. I turned my head to see the source of the sweet tone. suddenly whole ground started shaking. ”earth quake ” I guessed. “planned to get screwed on very first day???” some familiar face was there in front of me. it was allan shaking my cot wildly to wake me up. he grinned. “ well ah..huh..ah…” I was searching for words and settled for a grin. I cursed him for waking me up from such a b’ful dream. But since I’d the dream in the morning , I guessed it would turn into real. I’d heard many say it. And that was a cause of delight.

Gate was wide open. No sentry at the entrance. I joined my steps with those of others who were heading towards the college building. It didn’t take me long to find a guy who was admitted to the same class as that of mine. “hi..Anish. , ISE fresher” I stretched my hands, towards the guy standing next to department notice board copying 1st sem time table. “thomas” he obliged. We went on to search our class room. After digging hard for 10 odd minutes we finally managed to find it. Thomas was beaming as if he was colombus, and after a great voyage he’s just discovered America. We warmed the first but one bench. The class strength didn’t appear encouraging. Only 40 odd people could be seen. Introducing myself to my newfound classmates, I was eagerly awaiting for the seniors to make a filmy style entry and commence the ragging session . 

Suddenly out of nowhere they appeared. A couple of dozens of guys and gals with uneven skin tone, dress code and height. I was sure the time had come. The most awaited ragging session.

                       Episode 2 

All of them were standing now in a line as if ,they were about to perform a drill. A guy stepped forward. “hi my name is pranam. 3^rd sem IS. Welcome to …. .. “, “hi.. “ , “hello.. “ , “myself.. “ , “I am “ and it went on and on and on. Twenty three minutes , forty seconds that’s precisely the amount of time which they ate. Every one of them drilled holes in our head with their words.“get lost ,you a*******”, I felt like shouting many a times . But as always I couldn’t. My courage quotient has always been at the bottom of the heap.

And now I was really disappointed. The indian ragging prohibition act ,1996 had surely played a spoilsport. After the seniors left nothing much happened.We continued to warm hands with that of others and making frienship. Just then he entered. 5.5 something, fair, partly handsome with tightly tucked shirt. “Morning sir” everyone jumped to their feet. I joined them. The gentleman obliged. We all sat. “ I am prof. Joel . and I will be handling the Cprogramming. Until last year junior lecturers were handling  the subject.  You are fortunate enough to have a professor handling your subject in the very first semester. “He smiled. “Signs of boasting” I whispered in thomas’ ears. He didn’t respond.

 “I am strict with my attendance. Bunking, from now on should only be a dictionary word for you. I expect pin drop silence in my class “. For the first time I felt a chill over my spine. “You people being in engineering should study very hard. From the very first sem your concentration should be on placements. If you don’t study, do you know what will happen?? “ . “What else!! we end up here as faculty , just like you” I just wanted to whisper. But god knows how, it escaped!!! It escaped my lips. In fact loud enough.!!! The whole class grew silent in shock. The professor looked embarrassed. Ouch!!! I was literally shaking on my grounds. His eyes, now red were glaring at me. I tried to hide behind Thomas. But in vain.

 ” Come on, Up. What’s your name??”. “Err..!!! Sir..!!! “I was searching for words. “Anish sir”, thomas said in a loud pitch. “ I didn’t ask yours. You people don’t know how to behave in class. Not at all disciplined “, he chided thomas. I tried hard to hide my laugh. “But sir...” thomas tried to explain. “shut up. Just shut up” he stopped him in middle.       “You, tell me your name?” he asked me. He was breathing fire. Without a second thought I replied “Thomas sir”. Half of the class exploded in laughter. “Sir, he is lying . its my name.” thomas tried to say. But the Professor threw one more glaring look at him, and he grew silent. “ Thomas , is it..!! fine.” He waved his pen in the attendance register, I couldn’t figure out what he did. Thomas was now looking tensed. He was throwing a look which conveyed that he has sworn revenge against me. It however didn’t bother me much.

The class got over. ” You bas****, why did you tell my name to him instead of yours??? He has marked my name. That means he is gonna screw up my internal as well as external practical marks” jumped Thomas. He was fighting his tears, at the same time blasting me. I didn’t respond. “You ******, he asked your name and you told mine.!!! I will go and complain to princi now. You have ruined my career “, he shouted.

 “Ey, hello.!!! You seemed highly enthusiastic in telling my name!!! What was the need to!! It was you, who did yourself in. not my probs. And if you wanna complain to princi, you are free to. But one word of caution my friend. Taking a complaint to the princi on the very first day of the graduation will drop your standards to the bottom. He is gonna kick my ass for sure. But he will definitely keep an eye on you. That means you are equally screwed in the long run “I said in one breath.

All that I was trying to do was to avoid him going to princi. I was trying to sound cool , but I was already feeling the heat of the would be consequences , if at all the princi and then Proff Joel comes to know about it. I kept my fingers crossed. “Fine, I won’t. But this has definitely invited revenge. I swear revenge. “he said and left the class. I was happy, for now. On the very first day I had made a friend, earned red eye of a professor , escaped from the professor by taking the former’s name and turned that friend to a vengeance filled enemy. A mixed day, I felt. And I sped away to the hostel.

 

                    Episode 3

  After  standing in the mile long queue for half an hour finally I was near the counter. The guy in the counter slapped three chaphthis on my plate. Another guy topped it with a banana. “May I have one more chapathi?? “ I asked him. It sounded more like a plea. “Yeah!!! Not one. But you can have all three. You can have it tomorrow ,as a regular quota. Now better fled the scene, before I pick abusive words for you”. That was a worst possible reply that one can expect. I was embarrassed. 

“sleeping or what?? Didn’t you hear him?? Move fast before I kick the shit out of your ass “ said the guy two meters behind me, in the queue. My pulse rate increased. Blood rushed to my head. “mind your lingo, buddy. Don’t make me smack your face with my fist”  the words gushed out. A seconds later did I realize that it was a senior.  But it was late, In fact too late. For the first time my courage quotient had soared to an all time, but on a very wrong person. I was cursing my fate.

and by now I was surrounded by a dozen of guys. I was shaking on my grounds. “What did you just say?? How dare you speak to a final year student like this!! “ one of them held me by my collar. I started to compare this situation with that of the morning, where seeing dozen of seniors in my class I was excited to be ragged. But now my heart was pounding hard. Here I was praying all possible gods irrespective of the religions. Moments like this always contributes to the secularism. But secularism and communal harmony was not the thing which was on my cards. All that I wanted was ,someone to save me from these bloodsuckers.

“Sorry sir.” I wanted to say. That’s how the seniors were addressed, With a SIR suffix. But only my lips moved. Voice didn’t make its way out of my mouth. ”see this guy. He is not even apologizing.” The guy who had my collar in his hand gave me jerk, with a fuss. “sir , that’s my birthday shirt . please don’t tear it” I wanted to say, but I realized that it was my life which was at risk at present. “these days juniors don’t seem courteous. They should be taught a lesson. Bring him out” shouted one more senior. And before he could complete his words the guy with my collar dragged me out of the dining hall.

It seemed it was ages, since they played there last game of soccer. I was lying on the ground. And they were kicking my ass from all possible axis. They were hungry for my ass’s possession. They were fighting with each other to kick my bottom, like street footballers do. I had lost the count of the number kicks I had received. My ass had swollen into a big pink pumpkin. I wondered if the swollen thing would fit into my 30 inched trousers. “stop people..!!! hey stop!! “someone came shouting.  At last someone to help me. I fought my senses to open my eyes, to have a look at the “SUPERMAN in flesh and bones” who had come for my rescue. Allan it was. He wrestled out for some forty seconds before he could take a hold of me. He slowly made me get up. I thanked him. I was on my feet now and now I could see more than half of the hostel strength staring at me.

“Is there any dinner left?? I am feeling very much hungry... “I asked one of them. Hearing it everyone broke into laughter. I seriously didn’t know why!!! “Oh... Guy..!!! We all are bothered to know if you are fine and all that you are bothered about is your dinner. You won’t get better. Come to room. I will ask someone to bring it for you “said Allan. I followed him.

In the room, he asked me what exactly happened. I told him my side of the story, where that senior was glorified as a villain. And I was very much innocent as per it. He looked convinced with my narration. “How dare he touch you, my roommate? that too, when you were innocent. I will make him repent his deeds. You just wait and watch” he said gripping his teeth. I worked out million calculations in my mind and concluded that if ever he comes to know that I was the guilty, then I will be at the receiving end of his anger. So with a timely wit I said “no need bro. why to dig out that matter again. Let’s forget it. God will take care of such cruel souls.  Let us not waste our time on such cheap creatures. Pleaseeehh…” I pressed his hand and smiled. God!!! How much of overacting had I pumped in .“ fine ok. Have your dinner and sleep” he replied and slipped under his blanket. 

Lying on the bed ,I was now introspecting. And since now I had enough of the dosage of it,  I decided that I would never ever crave to get ragged. slowly I slipped into sleep, don’t know when.

                           episode 4

All were busy typing things on their keyboard. It was our first lab. C programming lab, it was. And the best thing was that Proff Joel wasn’t the one to handle the lab. The keyboard and mouse clicks if not deafening, were certainly irritating. Everyone was thumping his/her fingers hard on the keyboard. I was done with typing my part of the code. The program ran fine and it gave the expected output. I was waiting for the lecturer to come to me, so that I can proudly show her the output.

“You finished typing?? So fast!!! “Deepak exclaimed.   “Yeah..!! I even got the output.” I replied with my chest held high. I knew that everyone was envying me. I was the first and only one to finish it.  “Wow!! That’s just a WOWW!! How did you manage to do it, so fast??” he asked blinking. I was inflated. “Well, I love coding. In holidays my cousin had taught me few basics and I used to work a lot on it. In fact I enjoyed working on it”. I didn’t even bother to think if it was a relevant reply. I was just waiting for the lecturer to come. I was hungry for the word of appreciation from the lecturer. But she was busy munching at her dosas , and it appeared that its gonna take few more strides from the minute hand of the clock, before she could have it all.

“Can you help me type it?? “ Deepak asked me.  He was winking at me. I looked at everyone. It seemed that everyone in the lab wanted the same from me. I very much wanted to help him. But right now what seemed more important to me was the pat on my shoulder, from lecturer.  I pledged not to help anyone of them until she has a look at my monitor screen. “Try your best. And if you can’t then I will help you at the end” ,that was a perfect diplomacy. “well.. “ he said, and nothing more.

Fifteen more minutes had passed. And now she finally got up from her chair. She was done with hogging. By now, almost everyone was done with the typing work. But none had got the output. There were so many errors. I was the stand alone. I was sure to hog the lime light in today’s lab. Only I had got the output.

“Appah!! Finally finished typing. Will run it now” Said Deepak with much excitement. I prayed the good old lord, to prevent him from getting the output. And for much of my delight his program played a fool. It started showing never ending list of 0’s and 1’s. ‘An infinite loop’ is what the engineers call it. He started scratching his head. I fought my laughter. Lecturer was now slowly moving to each person , checking and was scolding them for not getting the output.

“Hey Anish..!! Please help dude” he was begging. She was still twenty seats away. I had enough time to help this guy, I thought. I asked him to swap the seats. “Thanks dude... I will definitely treat you with McD grilled chicken” he exclaimed. “Shh... Not so loud “I hushed.  He grinned in reply. And we swapped our seats. “You people are good for nothing. None of you have got the output right. Can’t you people execute this simple program!! Shameless creatures. Not even one, to stand as an exception!!! “She blasted. The scoldings were very much formal. Not peppered with any word from the slang dictionary.

“Who says ma’m !!! I have got the output..!! “ . No you guessed it wrong. I didn’t say it. It was Deepak , with all enthusiasm and vanity who said. “come and have a look at it ma’m. I have got the correct output”. He repeated.Everyone except the lecturer threw alternate looks to him first and next to me. All of them knew that it was me who had typed and ran it fine. Such a rascal I thought. He winked at me again.

 “you got the output!! Sounds good. Atleast one bright student in the batch, to boast about” ma’m said and approached us. I wanted to shout at that very moment and tell her that it was my work. But I didn’t. She had a good look at the codes and ran the program. Satisfied with the output , she turned to all and praised him for half a minute. He was beaming with all smiles. I felt like hitting him right on his nose. But resisted the thoughts.

But he wasn’t satisfied with the praising I guess. He turned to  ma’m and said “ ma’m look at this guy anish’s  computer.  He has got the worst possible output. Ask him to run the program ma’m . My god! You will have a great laugh.” Turning towards me , he added “ Hey run it man... “. With a wink offsourse. I clenched my fists. What a way to back stab!!! I was taken aback. This guy stole all the praisings which I deserved, and on the top of it now he is getting me screwed from the lecturer.

“Yeah run it.” Ma’m ordered. And I faithfully followed her words. Ran the program. As expected the monitor showed never ending series of 0’s and 1’s on and on and on. Everyone laughed at me. The lecturer switched from highly honored OXFORD dictionary to the SLANG dictionary to abuse me. I was now soaked in sweat. I was pink in embarrassment. I looked at Deepak . He was trying hard to hide his laugh. I didn’t show any emotions.

The lab was over. And Deepak came running to me. I expected him to say sorry. “Hey... Anish. Wait.. Wait. “he was waving his hand and asking me to wait for him. I stopped . “what ??? “ I asked.  I was ready with mile long dialogues to deliver , when he comes up with his sorry. “Nothing man.!! Wanted to say thanx. It was months since I had played any pranks. And you finally quenched my thirst. You fell prey to me man..!!! yay…!! “ he jumped in joy. I was taken aback with surprise. He ‘s gone nuts , I thought.

“Man..!! isn’t it something exciting!! I had my first prey in this college.” He was madly shouting with laughter. I could imagine the plight of all his previous college and schoolmates’ .Felt pity for them. But it was fun to watch him celebrating. All my anger on him melted away in a second. “Come on..!! Cheer up dude…!! A high five on this” he said. I forgot the fact that moments ago this guy had back stabbed me. I forgot that it was this guy who had embarrassed me in front of the whole class. I recalled the way he had fooled me. It churned out laughter. I joined hands with him. I high fived.

“So a grilled chicken in Mcd?? “ I asked. “why not!!! “ he replied. We both laughed. I knew that moment had come, where I found my first BEST friend of engineering life.

        To be continued…… :P