Chapter 5: End of First Semester

In hostels, especially in ours, senior to seniors are known as “Super Senior” and senior to them are called “Super Duper Senior”   !!! There was a Bengali group of 3 super seniors. This event is about one of them, A.K. I never liked the guy just because he was always mean and selfish. Ragging is not about physical or mental pain. It’s about breaking ice amid seniors and juniors. Many seniors never comprehend this. For some of them fresher is like a plaything, mode of amusement. A.K. was no different. I always wanted to

He once called all of us and asked us to get him single plate of chicken 65 on a daily basis. One junior every day must delight him with that, bought from close by restaurant. I remember him saying, “Don't hesitate in doing this, it’s like treating your senior. Consider it as an respect”, WTF!!!

On one more occasion he declined to return the cricket ball to one of our south-Indian friend but our friend anyways went to AK’s room for the ball and AK slapped him. We were told in each ragging session that even if someone touches you in ragging you can protest. When we heard this we were all red , we determined to take matter in our own hands (By the way I could not participate because I had a major cramp and was bedridden). All juniors decided to go head on with AK . “Joint” became the head of the crowd who aggravated everybody to go not in favor of AK. They formed a large crowd outside AK’s room. “Joint” knocked AK’s door,

“Thak Thak”.

“Kaun hai be” (Who is that?), AK shouted vociferously from his room.

As soon as the mass heard this they began to run in all directions   and in no time Joint and 2 more were the only people standing opposite AK. I do not know what AK did to them. Joint if you are reading this then you can comment .

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During first semester exams, 3 of us (Me , Rambo and Guabha , in fact its “Guava” the fruit but the day he pronounced it “Guabha” rest became history) used to study till 1-2 am but “DD” used to study only till 11 pm and had a practice of keeping an alarm for him for 3 AM, so that he can wake up at 3 and commence studying. But being Rambo’s roommate you cannot imagine anything regular. EVERY SINGLE DAY whenever DD used to go to the bed at 11, Rambo altered the time to 2 am . As a result, at 12 pm it will be 3 am in DD’s alarm clock. This went on for few days until DD realized why we are studying more and why its taking little too longer then normal for the sunrise.

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It was almost end of first semester and we 6 had a good understanding with each other, we 3 guys and the 3 back bench girls. By hook or crook I manage to persuade girls to come with us for a movie on the last exam day . We decided for the movie “Style” on a sort of a double date, me with PK and Mahajan with Deeps, you may ask why ?? The response is that the love story hadn’t gone on track yet.

When we arrived back to the hostel from the movie there was something unusual. People were looking at us and smiling. 4 eyed dementor, Acharya, cornered me and asked,

“Kyo beta, kaha ghumane le gaya tha?” (Where did you go out on a date).

I wondered why he asked me that but later I came to know that before me it was “Acharya” who held the record of going out on a date within 2nd Sem and I unknowingly broke that record , I went out on a date within 1st sem, so he was resentful.

Exams got over and results were out. I was just scanning my result and out of nowhere Bhutani emerged and screamed satisfied,

“Pass ho gaya yaar, thank god”.

Guabha was sitting with a rotten sulking face . When I asked him what happened he said,

“Fail kar gaye yaar” (I failed).

I was surprised to listen to that, 3 time IIT attempter, how can he not pass ?

I asked him how many marks did you get and he said, “78%” and I went again, “WTF”

That day I came to know about this strange Bihari habit (No offense but I have seen this only in a true Bihari). Bhutani by now was airborne and was pleased outrageously because no one had got better marks then him, till now, excluding Guabha.

Bhutani asked me, “How much have you got ?”

I said, “75%”

The announcement of 75% hit Bhutani like a tracer bullet and his “I am the best” smile faded away within 1/10th of the second . That rest of the entire day he was telling everyone how he could not study and how he scored not as much of marks. In first semester people thought I am a looser and am good for nothing but I guess I have proved them wrong over the course of time .

We celebrated the results and came back to the hostel. I went to my room and I met Rambo, who briefed me that DD is fuming because he botched in 4 subjects. All of a sudden door opened and DD entered with Red eyes, he said,

“Sab tum logo ki wajah se hua hai” (It’s because of you I failed exams)

“Abay saale padega nahi to pass kaise hoga” (How can you pass without studying ?), said aggravated Rambo .

“Dekh yaar sab theek ho jayega dont worry”, I tried to cheer him up.

“Nahiiiiiiiiiiiiii, ye daag itni asaani se nahi mitega” (No, I will not overlook what happened with me), he yelled and showed us his arm.

We both were disgusted to see that he had blistered his arm at 4 places by cigarette, what a looser in life .

The result for Thapa also wasn’t brilliant, he also failed in 3 subjects. he went to the Ranjini bar (Only bar near to the hostel) and got drunk in grief . Next morning when one of the batch mate saw his miserable face, he asked,

“What happened ?”

And he said, “Nothing yaar, I failed”, in a very cheerless tone.

His astonished batch mate said, “Fail!!, I don’t think so”

Thapa, “Why?”

Batch mate, “Because I have seen your result and you passed !!!”

Thapa sprinted from hostel to the college. He rapidly searched the result chart for his roll number. He could not believe his eyes, yesterday he matched his roll number with the total marks of the roll number just below his, who unfortunately failed. As soon as he saw this he was filled with delight and wanted to celebrate so he went back to the same bar and got drunk again in contentment, hick .