Chapter 13: Its my turn

Middle of 3rd semester expected joining of a fresh batch; new batch means freshers, meaning its payback time. One evening when I returned from the college I saw a new guy sitting in my room with his father. Hostel warden introduced them to us and gave assurance to his father that these people will take good care of him, which was quiet accurate, Me and Mahajan were just 2 humble guys who were looking for some true blood, that’s all. His father left with the warden to go back to the Bangalore City. It was just me and Mahajan who were left with Raman in the room. He was sitting on my bed and looked relieved after warden’s promise because we presented ourselves harmless puppies with innocence dripping out of our faces.

“Sir aap kaha se hai” (Where are you from), he asked me while he pushed his arms back on the wall and tried to get comfortable with his new buddies after his father left.

“Kyo ?? Thane me report likhwayega ?”, (Why ?? Do you want to complain about me to the Police ?) I barked with intense sadism in my eyes.

He was in an instant state of a kick in the teeth, people who were so kind to him a minute before are unexpectedly turned into dementors !!! His smile washed out and he abruptly sat straight up as he looked at me while I bolted the door.

“Aray sir kya hua ?? Mera matlab wo nahi tha” (I am regretful and I did not imply that what you are thinking), he cried in a convincing tone

“Abay saale pehle to khada hoke baat kar” (You Ass, Stand up at once and then speak)

He got up in shock, Raman recognized what was going on and in a little while he started responding to us. He knew if he will respond as we say then only he can get away with slightest damage.

He was our opening prey and since we were also new to this, we did not do much to him but after some extreme sessions with Raman we become skilled at it. The necessary thing to remember in ragging is to establish that you are the most livid person alive and secondly, yell for each and everything. Soon when there were loads of juniors in the hostel we trained them to acknowledge us the moment they see us, Good-morning, Good-afternoon and Good-evening. The ragging gatherings were getting severe day by day, some of us just wanted a first-class evening amusement whereas some hunted for hard core reprisal.

Each sundown we distributed a small amount of juniors among our groups of dementors. Today we were having a contest amid 3 juniors from Bihar. The competition was to abuse the ceiling fan to the degree possible in one minute. It kicked off well with Bodybuilder who abused fan so roughly that if that fan had any hearing capabilities then that fan would have committed suicide in high voltage vicinity!!

A 4^th junior stood in one corner of the room and was laughing in Sin Wave !! Puzzled ? SinX, CosX !!! Ringing any bells !! So the fourth junior, Dutta, was performing like this,

With each Sin wave cannot be of more than 4-5 seconds long that means he would giggle for 2 seconds and then weep for next 2, Creepy !!

Second contestant for the abuse challenge was Mishra, He started with,

“Kutte, Kamine, Gadhe” (Dog, Rascal, Donkey), what I comprehend was a sweet and tender tone with true love for the fan apparent in his eyes

“Abay gaali de raha hai ki Pyaar kar raha hai, Gaali de” (Are you abusing or making love to the fan ?) I screamed deafeningly

“Kutte, Kamine buuuuu hhhuuuuuuu uuuuuuu” he started weeping like a small baby or a 16 year old college girl when she finds out that she is been dumped after very first date !!!

While people were busy in cursing the ceiling fan someone swung open the door and a fresh junior pierced in and declared,

“Hi Guys, I dropped one year and I am your batch mate”, he waved at us and gave an enormous smile.

We dementors looked at each other and barely understood what and why he did that but we gave each other a gigantic smile, following that evening Mondal, who claimed to be our batch mate was serving bread jam and bread butter to every Dementor in their room while he recited “Sorry Sir” every time he handed out a piece to a dementor. Mondal you rocked our world that day, I can never forget that day, you ass

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One evening I came back to the hostel, I was crimson in colour because I was fuming, I was angry because she liked Sammy. I could not let her go and I was annoyed with myself that I was allowing it to occur but there was nothing I could do.

I thumped the door as I entered in my room and there was Mahajan with the latest junior, Sheetle, they were bonding because they were from the same locale, Himachal Pradesh. Everything was going great which was apparent from their bright faces until I entered. I gazed at him and he did not say a word, I went fanatical and bellowed,

“Abay aur kitni baar samjhana padega ki har baar wish karna hai” (How many more times do you want instructions on greeting ?)

“Tum log sab sar pe chad gaye ho, Lagta hai sabki dhulai karni padegi” (I think I will have beat the shit out of you guys)

I did not know what I did or how spiteful I looked and sounded but those 2 lines were very efficient as I had managed make my first victim whimper. He cried like a widow on her husband’s memorial service, perhaps because I spat my rage on him and he was just a day old in the hostel, was traumatized a bit by the ragging and was shoddily suffering with homesickness.

In middle of all that my endurance was started to give up, I could not hold it inside me anymore. I wanted to split open in front of her but I could not, I could not recognize what was preventing me, Fear ? I don’t think so, I am not afraid of anyone !!! I had to meet her.

We had to get some notes Xeroxed in Jayanagar 4th Block. We met at Jayanagar bus station. She came and I saw her, she waved at me and my heart screamed from inside, 

Mannnnnnn what are you waiting for, You will curse yourself for your entire life if you will not tell her,

She looked as gorgeous as always, her beauty was in her minimalism and the way she used to carry herself. She was an 18 year old spoiled brat with tom boyish characteristics and yes I fell for those very features. She was no typical girl and for records I neither was/is a very regular guy.

We went to the Xerox shop, it took precisely 35 minutes, 368 pages and around 110 bucks. From last few days I was finding it very tricky to focus on what she is saying, I rather liked to gaze at her while she talks. Whenever she spoke it felt like each word is like a pearl.

After Xeroxing it was time to say goodbyes because it was getting late. We stood at Yediyur bus stop and my heart started pounding all of a sudden because my heart made a choice against the will of my brain. It took a split second for me to recognize what my sub-conscious mind has just determined and I agreed no more that it’s now or never, I turned towards her and said,

“Hey can I ask you a Question ?”

She looked at me and she said “Yes go ahead”

This is it, I took a deep breath and said ……. to be continued