Farewell.

May 04, 2015

My Dear Friends,

It is the end of a beautiful journey.

These four years have passed by in a flash, with each year bringing us closer than ever before, strengthening the bonds of our friendship. Now that it has come to an end, I just want to thank you all for the memories. I would cherish them for life.

I already miss the lot of you- miss the times we spent together.

I'll miss the classroom- miss being in a place in which whatever direction I turn, there is a friend, a companion.

I'll miss the secretive chatter during all the boring lectures- miss cracking silly jokes and trying our hardest to stifle the laughter- miss playing hangman with Vishal- miss sitting next to Suhail and see him text his girlfriends the whole time.

I'll miss eating together- miss having at least four varieties of meals every single day- miss Varadha bhai and his three spoons.

I'll miss the frantic preparations for the Assessments and the Semesters- miss seeing Lokesh give a straight faced lie about how under-prepared he is for the test- miss seeing Ragavendar postpone every question to the last half hour.

I'll miss classroom Cricket- miss hitting the paper ball as hard as we could, not minding who or what stood in the way- miss getting out to Vineeth's deceptive slow balls- miss seeing Nanda constantly losing hold of the bat and sending it flying across the room- miss Srini's one handed sixes- miss playing under captain cool Lokesh's leadership- miss being on the opposing team as Vishal and tirelessly quarrelling with him at every given opportunity.

I'll miss playing cards together- miss seeing Nanda and Grooming become full holes- miss seeing Varadha blame the universe every time he loses- miss seeing Lokesh make stupid mistakes.

I'll miss the lab sessions- miss sitting alongside either Srini or Ragavendar and merrily spending my time in pointless chatter and gossip.

I'll miss Varadha's infamous void mode- miss being ignored by him for those few moments.

I'll miss making fun of Ramesh's voice- miss laughing my heart out at all the jokes that he unintentionally makes.

I'll miss picking on Lokesh- miss getting hit by him in return.

I'll miss Kid breaking up with me.

I'll miss the slow walks we did together down the Campus road- miss going out of breath climbing the steep slopes of Pachamalai. 

Ill miss all this and a lot more. It pains to have to leave all this behind, it pains to have to grow up. It'll take a lot of time and effort to fill the void that has now come up with the end of college. But we are lucky, we can still stay in touch. We can still spend time in pointless chatter and maybe meet up every once in a while.

As a finishing note, I would like to say just one thing- I love you, all of you and I'm grateful to you for all the beautiful memories you've given me.

Yours lovingly,

Sanjay Khan.

The most Beautiful!

Beauty has always been a matter of perspective. What appears beautiful to one, might not be quite the same to another. That is why the task of naming the most beautiful girl in our class has proven to be tedious at best. The previous posts about the same, were merely the opinions of two like-minded individuals and as you can extrapolate, those opinions don't hold much credibility to themselves. This time however, every guy from our batch, except a few obvious ones, took part in the selection and the results are as convincing as they can ever be.

To talk you through the voting procedure, every guy who was involved, was asked to send in a list of who he thought were the top 5 pretty girls in the class. The first place in an individual's list (the favourite), got a certain amount of points. The second place got the next highest amount and so on, with the fifth in the list scoring the least. The points were tallied and well enough, we have the results. A total of 18 girls were voted upon, meaning these girls were in at least one of the many lists we received. The listing that I'm now about to put forth is in no particular order, except of course the top 5.

Anitha and Kuralarasi: Coming from humble backgrounds, these two have attitudes that will inspire awe in you. Every girl is beautiful to the right pair of eyes and so are these two.

Jayanthi: She'd asked me not to use her name in this post but as you can see, I'm not listening to her. If a friend is someone with whom every conversation is spontaneous then it would be fair to say that Jayanthi is my first lady friend since I've grown up. She is the sweetest person I've ever met, she's kind and not to mention, adorable.

Revathi: She is the type that is hesitant at first, but if you give her your time, she would repay you with the most beautiful friendship that you could ever get.

Sangavi: She is probably the most exciting of all the girls in our class and is also the most fun to hang out with. Her demeanour is one that will alleviate you off all your worries in the blink an eye.

Prashanti: I was a bit appalled when I found out that not many had voted on her. I guess it's just because her sense of humour over-shadows her beauty and as a whole, people fail to recognize the latter. But I am not one of those people. Prashanti is one of my top 5 and she appears beautiful to me every single day. She also has a heart as pure as anyone you'll ever meet.

Aishwarya: Not every guy might classify her as beautiful, but what truly matters is that she scored one top favourite. I believe it's the most that any girl could ask for.

Priyadharshini: No matter how much she achieves or how great a height she reaches, you'll always find her feet firmly rooted to the ground. Friendship, to her, is of much greater value than any personal milestone. 

Pooja: I see two girls in class having the most pleasing smiles I've ever seen and Pooja is one of them. If I hadn't taken a liking for ebony girls before the start of college, I would sure do now and it'll all be because of her. She looks pretty but when dressed in traditional attire, she looks totally out-of-this-world!

Rupashree: If there ever was an epitome of innocence, it would be her. You would hardly see her speak a word, yet her grace is all but sufficient to gain her a lot of admirers. What astounds me is how far up the ratings she's gotten despite the fact that two of her guy-friends hadn't take part in the voting.

Kavitha: She has the gift of good looks and also a gift for speech. No one is as good as her at making new friends. Her speech is one that's so bewitching that you would hardly notice time fly when you talk to her. And also, her fashion sense is to die for.

Sivaranjani: She is just an ordinary girl but that is only until she starts dancing. The way she gracefully flaunts her curves will leaving you mesmerized and forever wanting for more. 

Swetha: Getting to be her friend is no easy task, but if you somehow manage to make it to her inner circle, you are a lucky person. Because you'll then experience love and affection enough to compensate for a lifetime of misery. If you already have her for a friend, you hardly have anything to worry about, because she'll constantly watch your back, making sure no harm ever reaches you.

The names above are all honourable mentions. They are beautiful, but not nearly as much as the girls in the top 5. The top 5 are the ones that make us proud of being a part of this batch.

Angeline: Time and time again you come across girls who look pretty but very rarely do you come across someone like her who so easily makes you want to fall in love. Her beauty is not just one that will please your eye but it is also one that will straight out eat your heart. No wonder she sports the most crushes out of all the girls in our class. Spend a day's time admiring her and in the next you'll be neck deep in love.

Pavithra: I'd mentioned earlier that there are two girls in class having the most scintillating smiles I've ever seen and in case if you were still hung up on who the other one is...it is her. If I were ever to choose the best between the two, I would mindlessly pick Pavithra, because I believe her smile is her most alluring prospect and it ensnares the heart of anyone who has ever been blessed with the sight of it. I've had her smile at me a couple of times and it had left me in a trance. If you are ever having a bad day, her smile is what you would want to see.

Jyothsna:

"At the start, nobody, except one particular individual, had given you any real attention. But all that changed when you showed up dressed flawlessly in a green saree on women's day. To say the least, you made our jaws drop. We couldn't help but marvel at the sight of you. Your beauty was so immaculate that it would certainly have brought any man to his knees. The elegant curls of your hair, those deep black eyes, that ever so pretty face, that gorgeous smile twisting the corners of your lips- everything screamed perfection. If anything, you looked like the Goddess of beauty herself and you so easily managed to sway all our hearts. I voted on you as my favourite, not only because of your celestial beauty, but also because you were kind enough to take a picture standing beside Him. You don't know how ecstatic it made him feel and I'm grateful to you for that."

Medhuna:

"During the earlier semesters, at times when the lectures got boring, Nanda and I had taken to this habit of sitting back and admiring you. It seemed then to be the best possible way of making it through the classes. Though it is a thing of the past now, the fact still remains that you're a treat to the eye. Though you're not the usual kind of pretty- the type that would make a passerby sneak a second glance at you- your beauty is one that slowly, but steadily, grows on an individual. And now since it's been three years, you've gained a lot of admirers. You were the top favourite on five lists, the most by any girl. I guess it'd be safe to say that you have entranced many an individual, but I've not quite been able to put a finger on what it is that one thing about you that attracts them. Some are attracted to your voice, some to your attitude, and the others find you attractive just because you are so pleasing to look at."

So that sums up the prettiest girls in our class- the ones that made life in college so much more tolerable. The truth in fact is that this list is actually in order, starting from the bottom and reaching the top. But it's time now to separate the girls from the lady- from the undisputed Queen.

"The reason I first noticed you is because you reminded me of the girl I first fell in love with. You no longer hold that resemblance. You've changed and I dare say in a good way. Your beauty and finesse has evidently transcended far beyond what it had been three years ago. Every girl has her day -a day in which she is inarguably ravishing- but these days flee and the ones that were as radiant as the Sun, soon appear mundane. But you are the one exception. You radiance is so overwhelming that it sets you alight day in and day out. There has not been a single day in which you've appeared anything less than spectacular. Hardly a few girls have had me mesmerized at the mere sight of them and you are one amongst it. You also make it highly impossible to look way. It's not just I that feels this way. In fact, you were in the list of top 5 of almost every guy in the class and the points that you've scored have put you far out of reach of every other girl. No one could even come close to you, no one could touch you. Which makes it rather easy for me to say this to you, Monisha. You are, you were and you will always be (remembered as) the most beautiful girl of the 2011 batch of ECE - R".

Queensland!

Sanjay:

I was livid first thing in the morning when I rang up Ramesh and found out that he was still asleep. I urged him to get a move on and get dressed up. We both had taken it upon ourselves to bring the 5 kilo Birthday cake to Queensland. We couldn't afford to mess it up.

Ever since I was a kid, the thought of going to Queensland or any amusement park for that matter, would give me a spring in my step, but oddly enough, that feeling was absent today. I began to wonder if the day was going to be any fun, if at all.

An hour and a half later, I phone called Ramesh yet again to find out that he still hadn't set off. I was growing more and more restless.

He rang me up at about half past eight to let me know that he was finally on his way. I fetched my scooter to go pick him up as he awaited me at a bus-stop. It didn't take me long to catch sight of him. The sheen of his fully shaven head was unmistakable. We both then set course to Guindy where the Cake shop is at. We were already behind schedule.

The cake was supposed to be delivered at nine, but it was delayed by an hour and a half. I kept cursing and swearing the whole time. But once the cake was with us, it was a mad dash to the amusement park. As we were on our way, our phones kept buzzing with one call after another, but we ignored them all. We both had our hands full.

Nanda:

I went to bed early the previous night, not wanting to oversleep on the all-important day. The moment I woke up, my feet tingled with excitement. I hurriedly check the time, but it was only two in the morning. I was too fidgety to go back to sleep, so I took a walk around my house trying to wear down my excitement. I was finally able to fall asleep again at half past two.

I sprang to consciousness again at five and in the next forty five minutes, I was all packed up and ready for the trip. I rang up Arun, Varadha and Kishore, but no one picked up.

I whiled away the next half an hour just sitting around the house until there was a honk at the front gate. It was Varadha. I waved to him, but still he kept honking. I shouted out to him, yet he kept honking. Turns out he just mistook his horn for a brake (How does that even happen?).

We reached college at six forty and the girls were sharp on time, greeting us at six fifty. We sent them on their way to the bus-stop and Varadha and I awaited the boys. The wait lasted for half an hour and then they were with us, at last. And just as we were about to set off, Dappa realized that he'd misplaced his cell phone. He went in search of it and returned almost an hour later. I was mighty pissed.

At half past eight, we all boarded the bus together and in an hour we were at Poonamalle. Suresh suggested a place for us to eat our breakfast together but then he ditched us ( us: the girls, Ragavendhar and I) and went ahead with the other hostellers to eat at a different hotel (Not that I don't appreciate being left behind with the ladies). We ordered plenty of food and ate until we had our fill. The bill gave me a mini heart attack. It was at Rs. 1650, but it didn't seem all that bad once we decided to split it amongst us.

It was only a short ride to Queensland from where we were already at. Once we'd reached there and obtained our entry tickets, the only thing we had left to do was wait for the cake to arrive.

Sanjay:

The scooter ride took us half an hour, but Ramesh and I were at Queensland, at last. We held the cake high above our heads and pushed our way through the massive hoard that blocked the entrance. By this time, Nanda, Suhail and Ragavendhar had joined us. Once we were through, we opened up the box and I saw the cake for the first time. It was a massive black forest and etched on it was birthday wishes for Kid, BP, Bhai, Tyre, Dappa, Asmitha, Ishwarya, Hemaladevi and Yuvashree. We carried the cake to a small podium and each of the nine Birthday babies were given a plastic knife. The Birthday song commenced and within the next five minutes, the cake was all gone, devoured.

The presents we'd bought for Vishal, Varadha and Arun were distributed and I went with the Hostelers as they got dressed into something more casual.

Our day at Queensland had begun.

The first ride we headed to was the Octopus. As it was a weekend, there was a large crowd, as was expected, in front of every ride. I chickened out, since the last time I took the ride I nearly puked my guts off. The others were brave, however. Kid and I watched from the side rails, as most of my classmates took on the ride in pairs. Once the swirling began, a shrill cry of excitement filled the air. As I scanned the scene, my gaze locked on to Lokesh as his face turned purple and his head dropped to a side. I was certain that he was going to thrown up (but he didn't). Arivu took on the ride all alone and yet was thoroughly enjoying himself. I was disappointed when the ride ended and nobody puked.

It was only Vishal, Suhail, Ragavendhar and I that headed to the next spaceship ride. The others skipped forward to Alphen Blitz. Ragavendhar was petrified of the ride and our words only served to worsen his condition.

"Intha ride la nee setha naanga porupilla".

I paired up with Vishal and when our spaceship was up and running, he gave me zero control over it. He held the lever back and it stayed that way for the rest of the ride. He is an even bigger scaredy cat than I am. I was at least free to steer the ship as I desired and so I turned it around to face Suhail and Ragavendhar, who were right behind us. I gave out a good laugh when I saw Suhail attempting his best to make Ragav sick to his stomach.

We four then moved to Alphen Blitz and joined our classmates who were lined-up in front of it. It was here that I noticed Prashanti walking like the dead. The Octopus had taken its toll on her. I was glad.

Ragavendhar sat beside me on this ride and Toufeeq and Akash were to my front. Ragav was worried. I figured that'd be his case for the rest of the day. Toufeeq grabbed his Smartphone and started recording us. The coaster started to roll and it was deceptively fast. Ragav held his head down as the train sped below and around it's loopy metal tracks. It then came to a halt at an Eighty degree angle and Ragav leaned his weight onto me. I hardly felt him. I, however, gave out a silent prayer to the pity soul that got paired up with Lokesh ( It was Nanda!). Toufeeq was slipping out of his seat a bit, but he had a firm hold over his cell phone and the video kept recording. Everyone was glad when the pause ended.

Next up was The Ship. I've ridden on it twice before and at both times it turned my stomach inside out. But I was coaxed into riding it again. This time however, I was fairly confident that I'd make it through. As we were in the queue, Vishal kept taking pictures of himself with his present- a Cricket bat, signed with all our names. Varadha and Arun had gotten Sunglasses.

Vishal hadn't the nerve to ride the ship, so he agreed to do the video recording. We planned the ride in such a way that it was only us occupying the whole boat. Lokesh was now at my side. The ride began and our screeches filled the air again. To my surprise, I began enjoying it. Once the boat reached full swing, Lokesh squealed "Machan, ennala mudila da". He was purple again. I urged him to shout, but that didn't seem to work.

Once the ride was done, we hurried to have a drink of Pepsi to calm our guts. We then headed to the Dashing cars. I was with Loki again and he agreed to let me drive. Nanda went with Vishal and Ramesh with Suhail. Once we were on, it was total chaos. I steered my car as far away from the others as possible and then drove in to ram everyone. I had my eyes set mainly on Vishal and Nanda. We had a good couple of collisions with them. It was good fun.

After Dashing car, it was time for the dreaded Centrox. I don't know what had gotten in to me, for I decided to ride it. Never have I ever ridden it before. And as I expected, I threw up as soon as the ride ended. We were given free Pepsi as part of the ride, which was good and also, getting too see the automatic seat belts struggling to lock into place against Lokesh's massive tummy was hilarious.

Ragavendhar:

I waited in line for the Roller coaster alongside everyone else. I looked at it from a distance going up and down and sideways along it rails and as I did, my intestines knot up in the pit of my stomach. I was going to have Varadha Bhai for company, which was not bad. Once we were on it, the Roller coaster picked up pace, moving upwards to a height that brought the horizon within my sight. The knot in my stomach tightened. Varadha started muttering a countdown from three and before he could hit zero, the raft plummeted. For a moment there, I didn't feel the seat that I was on. The raft rose up to height again, forcing me against the back as it went, and the thrill ensued as we were taken through many other steep dips and crazy turns. There were also a lot of unexpected halts that almost jerked me out of my seat. I've never ever felt so alive, not even when journeying on an aircraft. It was my first ever ride in a roller coaster and it felt exhilarating. When the ride ended, I felt different. I was scared before, but now I was teeming with confidence. It truly was a ride of a lifetime.

Sanjay:

I spent my time throwing up as the others went on to the roller coaster. Riding it was going to be the most daring act that Ragavendhar was ever to commit. But astonishingly, he held up quite well. 

We then waited for the others to group up before we headed for lunch. I saw Sivaranjani lying on someone's lap. It turned out that she was nauseous (or maybe she just secretly missed Srini). Being an expert on nausea myself, I gave her a few tips to overcome it.

Lunch was ordinary. We'd already drained our wallets on soft drinks and so we hardly had anything left to buy food with. The hostelers were at an even dire situation. In came Varadha to the rescue. He bought lunch for all the starving hostelers. He is now revered as a God!

Once lunch was dealt with, it was finally time for water amusements. We hurried to the Himalayan water ride, but it was way too crowded. We decided to head to the swimming pool instead. Lokesh and Varadha decided to stay behind. It was their loss, because our time at the swimming pool turned out to be spectacular.

Varadha:

The Himalayan water ride is a main attraction of Queensland and I was eager to try it. There was this all too predictable crowd in front of it and it was hardly thinning. A lot of my classmates got disheartened and decided to leave to the swimming pool. It was only Lokesh and I ( amongst the boys) that decided to stay behind.

We were getting bored soon, so we headed to look for company. We found Arun and Satish standing in queue for the Go-kart. Lokesh went on to join them, but I was uninterested. As a result, I was left to guard their bags. After having a good time, they came back to me. We agreed to head to the swimming pool to join the other boys, but by then there were also a few girls with us and they wanted to check out the Himalayan water ride. We came to decision and agreed to head to where the girls wanted. Luckily for us, the crowd had thinned and we made it to the front soon. There were a few fourth graders ahead of us, but since they had no teacher to accompany them, we were called forward.

Six of us were made to sit on an over sized inflatable and we were pushed into a series of caves that sprinkled cool water on us. The ride bumped against the rocks and curves, and we were yanked forward and back. The swimming pool soon came into sight and I could see the boys having fun. I did a shout out to Nanda, but then realized he couldn't see us even if he wanted to. The ride was over before we knew it. It wasn't all that thrilling but it sure was fun. Once we were done, we went in search for our buddies at the pool

Sanjay:

We decided to enter the pool through the slides, so Suhail and I procured a couple of swim mats and hurried to the top of it. The fast paced descent and then the cool dip into the water felt refreshing. We then climbed a floor higher to find Nanda and Grooming standing in line for an even bigger slide. The line was long and so was our wait. We gradually moved closer, but the closer we got, the lamer the ride appeared. I started regretting coming up there. Our turn finally arrived and Suhail and I mounted the inflatable (Nanda and Ragav had gone ahead). We were pushed into a curvy tube and the first words that both of us yelled out were, "Mavane! semmaya irke!".

Once we reached the bottom, we unmounted and headed for the far side of the pool where all our friends were gathered. They had made balls out of t-shirts and were hurling it at each other. It had been Suresh's idea. I joined them and it was the greatest fun I'd had in a long time. At first, we were just hurling the ball around at random but later we formed teams. One team went shirtless and I was one amongst it, so were Ramesh, Madhu, Venkat, Suresh, Gnana, Akash, Dinesh and Arivu. The opposition had Vishal, Nanda, Suhail, Kishore, Karthi, Naveen, Gautham and Ragavendhar. A fierce battle ensued and there was no mercy. There was an intense rivalry going on between Gnana and Naveen and also between Gautham and Madhu. Our team was clearly at a disadvantage being shirtless. The hits we took burnt a lot more. But no one was targeted more frequently than Ramesh. His bald head just begged to be hit. Kid and Gnana started going at each other like wild boars. The battle was so intense that Gnana ended up kicking Vishal in the nut sack! (accidentally!). A lot of other hostellers were targeting Kid too. There was this one moment when I and Ramesh cornered Vishal from the opposition. Ramesh was sizing him up and I pleaded with him to pass me the ball. But he was adamant, he wanted to do it himself. He took aim at Vishal but before he could shoot, the second ball that was in play came crashing into the side of his head like a wet blob of freshly dumped cow dung. Vishal and I broke into a laugh that took us a good five minutes to subdue. The laughing nearly choked us. Ramesh was so disoriented by the throw that he forgot all about Vishal. 

The battle continued on and no one seemed to grow tired. Arivu stood himself at the centre of the whole thing hoping to get a hold of the ball a lot more, but all he ended up with was more bruises. Gnana packed so much force into each of his throws that the look of it scared me. Instead of ducking or dodging, Akash just started catching everything that was thrown at him, he was pretty good at it too. When threatened, all Dinesh did was to dive under water and hold his breath for half a minute by which time his attacker would lose interest in him.

After the game, we stood under the pool's waterfall for a while. I body slammed Ramesh into the water a few times as I was requested. We then tried to built a human pyramid, but we were shunned by the life guards and so we proceeded to form a tight circle with our arms over each other's shoulders and we started yelling in unison as we spun. We may all have had our differences, but at that very moment, we felt as one, we felt inseparable. There was this brief moment when I remembered that all of this would be over in a couple of months. The mere thought of it hurt so much.

It was then time to leave the pool and we had to drag our heavy feet out of it. It was depressing. We got dried and dressed, had tea and snacks that Suhail brought us and then started our slow walk back to the entrance. The sky had grown dark. Suhail got an instant crush on some girl he saw at the pool side and kept nagging us all about how divine she looked.

We decided to take a group Photograph to serve as a reminder of the wonderful day we'd had.
As the day drew to a close, everyone felt a bit heavier, weighed down by emotions. It was a marvelous day, we all had a spectacular time, but in the end all of it was just going to be something that we will all dearly miss, something that we can never have again.

It was one of the best days of my life.

'The' Life

Strolling on the searing sands of the Marina- at about three in the afternoon of a scorching summer day- made me regret our decision of choosing to go there. But as we were there already, we chose to stick to our course and headed closer to the shore. We had a bottle of 7up, a cup of Gluco-plus and a cigarette-for Gowtham, as company. I was under the impression that he'd brought me there simply because we had nothing else to do, but once we were perched on the relatively cooler sands, a few feet away from the salty waters, he opened up. Blowing out a stream of smoke into the gentle breeze, he started a somber narration of the events that had unfolded in the past few months of his life.

He'd come across an old schoolmate of his on-board public transport, and she'd flashed him a smile that'd had him going nuts. He'd then ransacked his contacts, got in touch with some of his old friends and managed to coax them into giving him her contact details. He'd then started having long ardent chats with her and eventually he'd proposed his love for her. But before the girl could develop any significant feelings for him, one of her guy-friends stepped in, and boy did he mess things up! Sensing that the girl had begun drifting apart from him- thanks to his new newly found rival- he'd come out of his shell and confessed his undying love for her, which'd then screwed things up and left my friend fending for himself.

All the while he was lamenting, I could do little else than to stare into the distance and give him occasional nods of recognition. I was well aware that only time healed such wounds and that I was of little help. As he was pointing out to how better off he would've been if it weren't for that girl, storm clouds slowly began invading the late afternoon sky, and gradually made their way towards the horizon. The offshore winds from the tainted skies started overwhelming the sea breeze and we were left craving for a rain storm. If anything could soothe a tormented soul, it was a tropical shower on the shores of a beach. But the rains kept us waiting and we were losing hope. 

Gowtham then told me that he needed to spend some time alone. I couldn't deny him the pleasure and so we started walking separate ways, heading in different directions. Before long, a drop of rain hit against the back of my palm. As I looked to the skies with a keen sense of joy blossoming within me, the heavens opened up. The people on the shore were scurrying to find cover but I stood my ground, allowing the rain to dowse me to the last inch. It was exciting, enthralling, absolutely exhilarating. The droplets extricated me off of my dumbing numbness and an overwhelming emotion gushed to my surface. The weight of what Gowtham had described hit me and I could feel his pain of having to cope with a broken heart. But the cool shower was unrelenting and I could feel it cleansing me off of every vile emotion. I wanted to laugh out loud, I wanted to roll over and cry my heart out, I wanted to pray. The sight was so beautiful and the shower so refreshing, it could make any grown man cry. I couldn't remember the last time when I had my emotions heightened to such an extent. Gowtham ought to have enjoyed it as well. 

I strode along the shore on a lookout for him, all the while stifling a laugh- a laugh that kept popping out of nowhere with no need or purpose. I guess I just wanted to laugh at how extra-ordinary life can turn out to be at times when you least expect it. I caught sight of Gowtham at a distance, diving into the torrents. I half jogged, half sprinted to join him. We got rid of our t-shirts and allowed the waves to wash over us. We then screamed as loud as we could afford, alleviating us of all our pent up emotions. The storm brought with it an array of lightning and there was every possibility of us getting hit by at-least one of them. To be honest, I was a bit scared. But then I reminded myself, what better way is there to die? We danced in the downpour like mad men until we were exhausted. 

The rain slowed down to a drizzle and later halted. Not minding the showers, I'd taken out my cell phone and had snapped a few pictures of our outing. After all, what better way is there to remind myself of one of the best days of my life? 

Operation Silvia!

Sarbudeen was apparently very impressed by the prank that I had carried out with Aravind, but he was morose for not having got any part to play in it. So, a month later, he said, 'Dei innoru thadava panlan da' and suggested Bivinlin's name. But I knew Bivinlin was a tough nut to crack and my perceptions were indeed right, he was on to our plot even before it started. I accepted defeat, but Sarbudeen wasn't disheartened, not by a long shot. 'Dei Sam irukan da' he said the next evening. I wasn't really in the mood for a prank that day, so I vaguely replied 'Venam da, bore adikuthu'. But Sarbudeen was persistent. I decided to comply only when he agreed to do majority of the work himself. He also came up with a brilliant story.

"Silvia is a pretty girl from class 12T. She is one of the toppers of her class and a good friend of Sarbudeen. She very recently requested him for Sam's contact number. So Sarbudeen (being a good friend) tells Sam everything good about Silvia and also sends him her contact, asking him to await her message."

Sarbudeen spun the tale to perfection and then asked me to get into the act.
'Hi Samuel' I said, from my mom's mobile (Sam didn't have that contact).
He replied, but I don't remember what, it must've been something mundane. We had a quiet chat that day, but in the day that followed I decided to hit the groove,

'I saw you at the entrance today, you looked so charming' I said.

His reaction wasn't that very scintillating. I tried saying other stuff, but he stayed glued to his I-don't-give-a-fuck act. Although, he would send me an odd forward every once in a while, forwards that he didn't bother sending to any of his other friends. The conversation got really dull over time, so I started curbing my replies. One fine day, I stopped altogether. I didn't think it would make any difference for him. 

Sarbudeen however, texted me a few days later and asked me why I wasn't returning Sam's messages. I bluntly told him that I wasn't interested. For this he started scolding me, trying to get me to play along, but my heart was just not in it.

The next day at class, I sat beside Sarbudeen and he asked me again, 'Dei en da avanukku reply panna matra? Avan romba feel aavuran da'. I gave out a throaty laugh and said 'Neeye paathuko da'. For which he said 'Nee than da ponnu, nee illana onnum panna mudiyathu'. I had nothing meaningful to reply him with.

Seeing that Silvia wasn't replying, a worried Sam had asked Sarbudeen about it. Now Sarbudeen, being a master tales man, cooked up yet another impressive story.

"Silvia got just 85% (EIGHTY FIVE PERCENT!!) in an English test that was recently held. Her parents, being the usual demanding type, took away her cell phone, wanting her to pay better attention towards studying."

Once I reached home that evening, I checked the inbox on my mom's cell (I hadn't bothered doing it for the past couple of days). It was full with Sam's forwards and other 'How was your day?' texts. The real reason why I wasn't returning his messages was because texting wasn't free of cost on my mom's mobile. I despised having to quarrel with her for blowing up the bills. So, I didn't reply for those texts as well.

A few days passed by and I totally forgot about operation Silvia. The only thing that reminded me of it again was Sarbudeen's text. He just wouldn't stop nagging me.

The next day at school, me, Sarbudeen and Sam, sat side by side on the last row, during the interval. I was lazily brooding over my first love and Sarbudeen, who sat to my right, was having a chat with Sam, who sat at the far end. 

'Naa avala love panren da' Sam said about Silvia (I wasn't paying attention to this though). However, Sarbudeen's roar of laughter brought me to my senses. He pointed his finger at me and said 'Adapavi ivan than da antha Silvia'. Sam's face grew pale in an instant, as he gaped at me. He swiftly turned his gaze away from us and hit the desk, covering his face. I and Sarbudeen had the laugh of our lives. I honestly hadn't contemplated Sam trusting our act, leave alone falling in love with Silvia. Sam's reactions fuelled our laughter beyond comprehension. He however, was deeply hurt. I felt bad for hurting him, but come to think of it, that was the point.

That evening, I had a chat with Sarbudeen again, 'Naa appave sonnala da, ava feel avuran nu' He said 'nee olunga reply pannirunthu avana innum konja love panna vechirukalam da...cha!'

That Rainy Rainy Day!!

It was a rainy day. The downpour was in fact so heavy that more than half the class absented itself. But it was the usual (aka. exciting) day for me. I set course to carry out my morning routine of procuring the Leader's report from the Head's office. As I made my way, I happened to come across Akshaya (Oh her grace! Oh that face!). I was in a daze, as I strolled back to the classroom. Now that I had seen her, I genuinely believed that the rest of my day would be a breeze, if not a let-down.

The first hour teacher must have taken a leave of absence herself, she didn't drop by. A PT teacher took over in her stead. He had nothing meaningful to say, so he asked us to submit our hand books. He said he wanted to check for our parent's signature on the previous day's homework reminder. Just about then, I realized I was a defaulter. Aravind, who sat to my left, was meddling with a pen in his hand. I quietly gave him my handbook and said, 'Parents sign pottu kudra'. Without much ado, he took the handbook and flipped to the previous day's column. He then started penning down his signature at the bottom. And now of all time, he decides to heed to every tiny detail. Before he could finish, the PT busted him. 'Enna panran avan?' he asked, gesturing towards Aravind, who quickly slammed my handbook shut. 'Enna parent's sign ah?' he asked, as he moved in to grab the handbook. 'Illa sir, vera oru edathula than eluthitu irunthen' Aravind lied. But it sounded pathetic. The PT clearly didn't buy his excuse, yet 'Entha edathula eluthuna nu kaami' he said, after having a short glance at the signature. Aravind then frantically searched my handbook, trying to find some sort of writing in black ink, but there weren’t any. If only he had used a blue pen, he would've had some sort of luck. However, he did find some black scribbling at the margins. But the PT saw right through his little act. He asked Aravind and me (yes, he read the name on the handbook) to accompany him to the Head's office. That's when Aravind started weeping like a bride who just lost her husband. I panicked myself, but not anywhere as close as him. 

The head's office was (to our appeasement) empty. The only person there was Malathy Rayan. The PT reported us to her and quietly made his way back to our classroom. Malathy started enquiring us, we didn't try to deny anything, Aravind's sob however, was winning us her favour. She then took hold of both our hand-books and asked us to retrieve it later from Mr. Muruganantham. An overwhelming fear hit me as I heard his name. I knew for a fact that he wouldn't be remotely polite in dealing with us in the matter.

We were back in class and Aravind still didn't stop crying. Everyone had a wonderful time admiring his dismal state. I too would've, if it weren't for the trauma that I was in. I gradually recovered from it though.

It was Tamil hour next and Vijayakumar sir walked into the room. He noticed Aravind weeping (not that he was trying to hide it) and started questioning him. Aravind found it hard to speak with all the emotions choking his throat, so the others helped him with it. 'Nee nalla payan aache, nee en apdi panna?' Vijayakumar asked. Aravind had nothing to say. I felt relieved to see him not pointing fingers. 'Naa avanga kitta poi unna pathi nallatha solren' Vijayakumar boasted, as always (But he did nothing). We boys, being too few in number, occupied the last row for that hour. The class began and a short while later, Vijayakumar cracked a nutty joke. Someone made a loud funny noise, trying to humiliate him. The outcome was an infuriated teacher. With a belligerent tone, Vijayakumar asked the culprit to reveal himself. None responded (obviously). He asked the same a couple more times, still no luck. As his best guess, he then picked out Sarbudeen, Samuel and Mahizan. Those three sat to my far left, so I had no real idea of who actually did it. Bringing his so called investigation skills into play, Vijayakumar individually called each of those three out on to the corridor, starting with Sarbudeen. A few tense minutes of inquisition and then it was Sam's turn. Mahizan followed soon after. 

When it was all over, Vijayakumar walked in with his head held high, he apparently figured out who the culprit was.He called Sam forward and spoke in a soft tone, 'Naa appave surrender aaga chance kuduthen, but nee kekala'. Sam tried to protest, but before he could finish his sentence, Vijayakumar landed six vigorous slaps on his face, three on each side, special delivery from hell. Sam made no fuss whatsoever about it as he stuttered back to his place. However, he didn't take his hands off of his cheeks for the next couple of hours.

The interval arrived and we all gathered around Sam, curious to know if the slaps had hurt. 'Dei innumum valikutha da' he said. We couldn't help smirking. We then had to turn our thoughts towards more pressing matters. How do we get our handbooks back?

I and Aravind faltered towards the head's office again, but there was no one there yet. We were exasperated. The wait would only worsen things up. But thank goodness Aravind had stopped crying.

Hours rolled by and it was evening before we knew it. We stood in front of the heads office yet again, but Muruganantham sir was nowhere to be seen. However, we did find TamilVaanan sir idling outside in the corridors. We confronted him with a casual façade and asked, 'Sir, our handbooks are in Muruganantham sir's cabin and he is not here. Ummm...can we take it?' We tried to not give him any insight whatsoever of what happened. 'It's ok, you go take it' he said in his breezy voice. I was finally able to ease my tensed muscles. Before Muruganantham sir could return, we rummaged his cabin and found our handbooks. We then ran for our lives. When we were at a safe distance from the head's office, we both heaved a sigh of relief.

I am glad that day is over!

The Mount.

The vivid images of our visit to Kerala were still so crisp in memory. I found myself reminiscing as I lazily made my way to college. My cell phone screen lit up as I got a text message notifying me that classes stood cancelled as a result of the recent down-pour. And just then, when I was about to make my way back home, Nanda cajoled me into meeting up at college.

We both sat at Ragavender's room, enjoying a movie. Suhail got a phone call from his girl and so he decided to part with us (Good riddance!).

Movies weren't really doing justice to the marvelous climate that loomed overhead, so we decided to take a walk. We had a little snack at the canteen and then bought the Record-Notebooks that Ragavendar needed (It was already the end of semester). As we strode back, Ragavendar exclaimed 'Semma climate da! Trekking pona super ah irkum'. He has always been the one to come up with such fascinating ideas. We readily agreed. We were on our way to St. Thomas mount.

We bought our train tickets and the travelling turned out to be a total bliss. The cool breeze buffing against our faces had our legs afloat. We disembarked and had to cover some ground before we could reach the hills. I wouldn't say the stroll was pleasant in anyway, but Ragavendar ought to have had a wonderful time, after all, walking is second nature to him, he could walk as easy as he could breathe, he could walk all day without shedding so much as a drop of sweat. 

St Thomas mount happens to be a hill that stands overlooking my primary school. As I strolled through the streets with the well acquainted buildings on either side, I was hit by a nostalgic vibe, I felt like a child again. Ragavendar, who was guiding us to our destination up until then, seemingly ran out of directions. But I knew that place like the back of my hand. We had no troubles reaching the hill. Though I couldn't help noticing how everything around me had shrunk since the last time I laid eyes upon them. Maybe it was just me who grew bigger.

Climbing the footpath to the hill-top was no easy task (except for Ragavendar of course). We were dowsed in sweat by the time we made it. But it was all worth it. The view from the top was nothing less than spectacular. We moved to a spot where we could let the winds invade every nook and cranny of ours. We took a couple of pictures of ourselves (maybe a few more!) and then went on to rest our butts on a grassy slope which held a Runway in sight. We had already had a fair share of seeing Air-crafts take off and land, so we didn't really give them much notice. We hardly carried any money, so buying anything whatsoever was a clear red sign. We had no need for it any-ways, we already felt as if we had all the luxury in the world. Ragavendar handed me his Record-notebooks and asked me to put a cross on it (If you don't already know what it is, you will shortly). If he were to get the records signed this late in the semester, he obviously needed a lot of blessings, and what better place is there to seek it, than in a church? 

Then came this time when Nanda asked Ragavendar to take a picture of him as he ran, but Ragavendar was so horrible with a camera that the picture he snapped caught Nanda in the most awkward of all positions. It was a good laugh, but Ragavendar continued to torment us with his photography skills. There was only so much we could tolerate. We finally made a decision to never opt him to be the one behind the camera, ever, unless of course, we were left with no other choice. We spent a couple of hours idling away in peace and then it was time to leave. 

Walking down hill was a real pain as well. Gravity was no friend of ours. But Nanda came up with an idea that we later called 'The breaking system'. We arched our spine backwards as we walked down the slope. This way we got the leverage required to keep us from speeding out of control. The only down-side of this technique is that it made us look like pregnant women. Oh well..!

The train ride back was a breeze as well. It was over-all a perfect day.     

The Friend that never was.

It was year 2009. I don't exactly remember why, but I sent Aravind a text message. He replied saying 'who is this?’. Only then did I realize that he didn't have my contact, but I knew for sure that he had my mom's number stored under my name. My eyes went ablaze as I sensed the opportunity.

'I am Abi', I said.

'Which Abi?'
'Abi from your class'
'lol, who Abi?'
I got really frustrated at this point and I mindlessly replied, 
'Dei naaye, Abirami da'
'Oh, Hi'
What the... how did he not smoke me out for that? Any-ways, now that he acknowledged my fake identity, I was exposed to a world of possibilities. Later, he asked, 'Who gave you my number?'
'Raj Kumar' I said, making a mental note to later ask him to play along.
I then sent Kishore, Bivinlin and Gowtham a text each, asking them to suggest me the name of girl, a classmate, around whom I can spin a tale. I also notified them about my attempts to make a fool out of Aravind. They sent me a name each, but none rang a bell whatsoever. So I selected one on my own. After a few minutes of mirthful confabulation, I was certain that Araba was genuinely falling for my trickery. When the time felt right, I said 'A girl from our class is so madly in love with you'. His reply didn't take long to come by. In fact, none of them did. But if it were me or some other boy that were to text him, it would've taken him a lifetime to respond. 
'OMG, who?' He asked.
'It’s Raasi'

On learning this, he started dowsing me with all his exasperating exclaims. I had to bear with them all. We then chatted till nightfall, nothing intimate though, I had decided to save them all for the next day.

It was a fabulous Sunday morning and I woke up with a spring in my step. And guess what? Araba had already dropped me a message. I wanted to spice things up that day and so I asked my friends to send him a text which contained something like…
'Dei Raasi unna love panralame?'
He obviously asked them how they knew. They just blatantly replied that Abirami had started exchanging texts with them too. And Of course, he enquired the same with me (Abi), but thank goodness he didn’t linger on that topic for too long. To add even more Drama, I sent my mom's contact to Araba and asked him, 'Do you know whose number this is? He keeps nagging me with all these texts and he doesn't even reveal himself'
In no time at all, I got a reply,
'lol, it's Sanjay'.
There, I somehow managed to bring myself into the story.
'But how did he get my number...?'

'Dei Abirami ku text panriya? Ava number epdi kedachuthu?' Araba's message flashed on my Mom's cell.
'Gowtham kuduthan da' I said. (I also replied to the few other questions that he later asked).

Enacting my script kept me so preoccupied that day, I hadn't been that busy in all my life. I had to simultaneously text Araba from two different mobiles and also had to keep my friends posted every now and then, they were hungry for news. I later took my mom's cell out of the scenario as it proved to be too much to handle. However, Araba was relentless in asking me all those crappy questions like, what are my favorite colors and this and that. I was inclined to reply (psst!). But I still craved for the day to be even more exhilarating. So...

'I have a huge crush on a boy from our class' I told Aravind.
'lol, who?' he asked.
'Samuel'
I hadn't got to know Sam as much as I would've wanted to by then, so I was having second thoughts about bringing him into the scenario. Anyways, it was already too late to take back what I said, so I decided to play along with it.

'What doing?' Araba asked me that afternoon. It was a very pleasant evening, a perfect time for romance. So I said 
'Just fantasizing a duet with Sam'

'lol, carry on', he replied.
Knowing my school, where objectifying a girl in any way is punishable by death, if the real Abirami were to know I misused her name, and if she were to file a complaint with the school authorities, I would certainly have to face suspension. The thought of it made a chill run down my spine. I wanted to take all possible precautions, and so I told Aravind 
'Just because I text you, it doesn't mean you are free to come talk to me'
'lol, I have never had a conversation with you, why would I want to do it now?' He said.
'Good' 
That went really well.

It was dusk and I was sprawled in bed with my earphones on. Araba sent me yet another text,

'Hey I lost your contact number, call me once so I can store it'. To help him with his pesky problem, I gave him a call and quickly cut it off before he could answer.
'What did you just do?' he asked. Only then did it hit me that I'd been made a fool of (I still can't believe I fell for that stupid trick, It must’ve been because I was so involved in the day’s events). I didn't know what to reply, I was stranded. Araba sent another one,
'I didn't know you were this stupid'.
For this I had an appropriate answer,
'If only you knew how stupid you really are!', I said.
He didn't understand what I implied (Of course not, how would he?).

The hour was getting late and I had almost reached my messaging limit. I had just one more free message left in my pack. This is when Araba asked me 'Shall I tell Sam about all this?'

Hell no, moron. 
'No, please don’t' I said.
That drained my message booster. But the faggot replied 'lol I already called him, he knows'. It seems so juvenile to think of it now, but I almost had my heart in my throat when I read that text. I swore under by breath will all profanity and then, not minding the charges, I sent him another text.
'What did he say?'
'lol, Nothing'

I was anxious at school the next morning, as I briefly narrated the weekend's events to Gowtham. I also kept chanting silent prayers for Araba and Abirami to not converse with each other on their way to class. When Araba laid his eyes upon us that morning; he went straight for our feet, saying 'Dei yaaru kittayum antha matter ah sollathinga da' (I heaved a sigh of relief). It felt so alleviating to know that he didn't screw things up for me. Later, Sam entered the class, headed straight for Araba and they started hissing to each other. Bivinlin (who arrived a short while later) joined me and Gowtham, and we started cracking jokes together. I don't exactly know what Araba filled him up with, but Sam stood up from his place, glared at all three of us and blurted 'Ithukulam ivanunga than da karanam'. Sam almost made me believe that he despised being adored by a girl. Such acting!

Once the bell rang, we were lined outside the classroom, preparing to head to the auditorium to attend our cycle tests. We didn't fancy having any loose ends in our play, so we struck up a conversation with Raj Kumar and asked him to lie to Araba about giving Abirami his number. One tiny mistake we did was to not heed the presence of Araba right behind us.

And that is how our perfectly good plot came to an end. And that is the day since when we started teasing Aravind with Raasi.

lol.

Hail Baba.

It was the official start of our final year of schooling. Thanks to the generous hand of the transfer students, we had already earned a reputation as an unruly pack of mongrels. We were well aware of the jeopardy that we would land ourselves in, yet we overlooked the need to curb our incessant chattering. Little did we know that we would have to pay a hefty price for all our recklessness, for in came the Destroyer, a man hell bent on bringing us down to our knees.

Life was good at Velammal, but then Mr. Ramesh Babu walked in through the doors.

A grim faced thin man with darkened eye sockets and pronounced cheek bones strode into our classroom. An eerie silence fell upon all of us. The looks of him gave us an escalating sense of foreboding. He started moving around the room, like a ghost in the wind, curiously tailed by our unwavering gazes. A few moments passed by in excruciating silence and finally the man, who gave us the impression of a psycho killer, coughed out his first words to us.

I strained every last muscle in my body trying to put off the impending laughter. Sam and Gowtham's muffled snickering from behind wasn't really helping. The man, with all his belligerent looks, sounded like Alvin and the chipmunks. But thank goodness! Our snorting went unnoticed.

He carried on avidly, describing about himself, about how he is the new Vice Principal of the School and about how he is the worst possible teacher that one could ever have. Just about then, when I was feeling a surge of relief for not having him as my tutor, he informed us that he would be assuming the role of our new Math teacher from that moment on. My heart sank in despair. Having someone as moronic as him for a teacher, I could very well give up my hopes of scoring a centum in Math. By the way he spoke of it; he had no greater knowledge about the subject than I did. I could almost sense that he would put us to ruin. It was by all means inevitable.

I found it hard to digest all these horrendous turn of events, but Sriram wasn't the least bit concerned. Unfortunately for him, he had to face the wrath of the Serpent as a consequence. ‘Dei Dog’ is how Babu addressed him.

We knew we would have to put up with the Snake for an entire year; we embraced ourselves for the rough ride.

Baba was the weirdest of all the Math teachers I've ever had. He would at the very most, solve a single problem each hour. At such a staggering pace, it would've been no surprise if it had taken us seven lifetimes to go through the entire syllabus. Though it was easy to comprehend his teachings, his methodology had me worried sick. He spoke about centums as if they were a stroll in the park. According to him, even a kid could do it, provided it has his tutoring. He looked like a man on a mission, but i just couldn't bring myself to trust him.

Coaching classes weren't really meant to nurture the entire class, but the serpent forced it on us. Of course we were free to walk away, but we knew better not to. His stern gazes warned us of the nightmares that he would bring upon us if we were to bunk them. He made us oblige to his every command. He made us realize that a man in power is capable of doing anything.

Teachings aside, there was a lot of other stuff that Baba did, that helped keep our tongues rolling. Whenever he got too tired of working out math, he would put everything apart and start reminiscing. He would take us back to his time and describe to us what a failure he had been. He almost flunked his high school board exams and in order to save himself and his parents from the shame, he had convinced his family to flee the neighborhood. He had then put all of his thought and actions towards getting into a reputed college. After months of mental strain, his perseverance paid off and he cracked the entrance exams of MIT, chrompet. But once inside, he went astray again. He bunked classes, roamed about town and went to spectate cricket matches when he ought to be preparing for his semesters. His grades were a disaster. He had to watch all his college mates fly away to far off countries, while he was spanning the streets in search for a job. In due time, he realized Teaching is the only choice he had left, but that too didn't come by easily. He had to face harsh criticism at every step, but he started learning from each of them. He had started learning how to survive.

Babu's stories were always interesting, they helped us take our minds off of daily proceedings and more importantly, they reminded us that our lives were only just beginning. 

Babu had one simple rule- obey me or be destroyed. Every once in a while he would ask us a simple math question, like 'what is a straight line?’ We would tell him the answers we know, but none of them would gain his approval. He would tell us the description in words of his choice and would order us to write them down a hundred times. It wasn't that stupid a technique; I still remember every imposition he had us do.

We all became regular coaching class students, we attended each and every one of Babu’s classes, except this one time when we took him for granted. But we had to suffer the consequence when we tried to attend the coaching class the following day, he wouldn't let us in. What was worse is that he ordered us to go back home. We would've gladly excercised his command. But we knew Babu had a twisted, conniving mind. If we were to leave, he would take that up as a reason to torment us in the future. In a short while though, he had a change of heart and let us in (phew!).

The extra classes did help us get to know a lot about him. This one time Babu punched Surendher in the chest, who, with moist eyes, went on to describe it as A One-Inch punch. Another time, when Naveen sundhar wronged a problem that was assigned for us, Babu said a legendary phrase that will forever be inscribed in our memory 'Enna da Baadu mathri sum potruka?’ Babu was our hero. But Surendher went on to complain about Babu's atrocity, to his dad, who later gave Babu a visit. Rumour has it that Babu almost peed his pants that day. Another dignitary of the coaching classes was Sriram. In the time it took us to revise both 10 and 6mark problems assigned to us, he would complete one quarter of only the 10 marks. Calling him a slow poke would be an embellishment.

During the special classes, Babu would train us only in a few hand-picked problems. With other teachers usually being the ones to prepare the questionnaire, there was always possibility that those select few question might not feature in the paper. But we had no need to fear. As cunning as he is, Babu would use his authority and modify the paper for us. Other Math tutors started sending forth their students to request us for those select questions. We were free to order them around as we pleased. Babu made us feel like kings and queens.

We were making the usual commotion one afternoon and Muruganantham sir stepped in to shut us up. He gave us the usual piece of advice and then started straying off topic, to Babu. He told us that almost every relative of his perished since the time he joined the school and that Babu hadn't yet been blessed with a child. Not to mention the wad of health issues that had accrued in him. He also quoted Babu saying 'romba kasthama irukku aiyya'. His narration was so saddening that we had to literally blink back tears. Our perspective about Babu changed since that day.

The Board practical exams were being held, and Jayagopal was struggling with his experiment. Babu walked up to him and drew out a small sheet of paper from his top pocket. ‘Enna da, venuma?’ he asked as tried handing over the ‘bit’ to him. I mean who does that? Babu made Jayagopal shit bricks that day.

The Final exam preparations were hectic. We put all our faith in Babu as we started preparing for only those 50 or so problems that he hand-picked for us. If his predictions were to misfire, we would curse him for the rest of our lives. But it didn’t.

Babu is one of those few teachers whom I really respect. He is our Destroyer.

Amma Laptop.

We stared down at the feedback slip in our hands with a malicious grin on our faces. We had received our free laptops a few days ago and now we were asked to comment on it. Our minds were going astray, we knew very well that the feedback sheet would have to go through SPS, and that he wouldn't consider turning us in as an option. Moreover Arivu had already commented,
‘Ellame free ah kadaicha, aen ulaika vednum?’
He was our biggest inspiration. So after not much thought, I pulled out my pen and jotted down, ‘Vaalga valamudan’. I seriously have no ideas why I penned down that quote. Then it was Vishal's turn, he snatched the pen away from my grasp and scribbled down, ‘Beauty’ (A Synonym for our most loved... in fact the only loved Math teacher, Mr.Prabakaran). Nanda strained his forehead, trying to squeeze out something catchy, he came up with, ‘Amma'vukku nandri’. After all, she is supposedly the one that got us the laptops. Suhail was void of any such ideas, so he copied Nanda, almost word for word, ‘Ammamma Vaalga’.

We knew SPS would set out on a quest to find us once he lays eyes upon our scribbling. We were half hoping for it to happen sooner rather than later. 

We were in the midst of a wide eyed slumber during the Computer Architecture lecture the next day, when SPS came about knocking the door. Suhail as usual had absented himself from the day’s classes, so it was just us three. SPS read out from a list of names and asked for us to gather in the neighboring room. To our surprise, Nanda's name wasn't read out. But we knew for sure it was a mistake. There was no way he was sidestepping from this. 

We gathered in the adjacent lecture room as requested. SPS called forth each of us individually and started inquiring our stupidity. There were a lot of girls in the gathering too, but their crimes were not as notorious as ours. Dinesh was called for, I tried to pry on their conversation, but SPS was as always, inaudible, but I was able to ask Dinesh what he'd written once he was sent back. 'Company laptop ah iruntha nalla irkum'. I couldn't help smirking. Then it was Vishal's turn. I could see him straining not to giggle at what he'd written. SPS gave him a whitener pen and asked him to edit the comment (Dinesh had been asked to do the same). After him, it was me. I stood, looking down upon SPS as he sat on a bench. He pointed at my comment on the feedback sheet and asked,'enna pa ithu?'. I had already rehearsed my answer, 'Sir, Vaalga valamudan is tamil for thank you'. I didn’t even care if I was making sense. I was hell bent on trying not to laugh. Breathe, breathe. After hearing what I had to say, SPS glared at me at first, then his features broadened in amusement. That's it, I burst out laughing, I couldn't help it any longer. What was bad is that I couldn't bring myself to stop. SPS didn’t appear to be getting furious, so I took time calming myself down. Then I apologized to him and started changing my comment. Only then did I remember that I needed my laptop's serial number to complete the feedback. But I had already discarded the cartridge in which the laptop was presented. So after enacting a phone call home, I filled in a random number, it wasn't that hard. Just about then, my eyes stumbled upon two other comments. Ramesh's row had the entry 'Dheivame!' and Gowtham's had 'very worst' scribbled beside a few dashed out words. Both those feedbacks had everything to do with us. We had seen an opportunity and had pounced on it. Ramesh was unaware of our comment and so it had been left unaltered, but it was obvious that we weren't that lucky with Gowtham, for in he had already stroked out Vishal's comment on his behalf, 'Parappalavu Sirithu'. Nevertheless, he was called forth for his edited comment (Actually, everyone who hadn't given 'good' for a feedback were asked to gather). All was well. 

SPS had stayed calm, until the part where he hadn't read Arivu's comment. He then started fuming. 'Nee laptop ah return pannidu pa' he said. Arivu maintained his composure and sat next to SPS and started explaining things rather seriously. I don't know what he cooked up, but SPS didn't take long to let him go. Later, when everyone's turn was over, it was Nanda's time to face justice. Vishal helped summon him and then it was the usual routine. We both stood outside the threshold, smirking at Nanda trying to explain himself. When it was all over, we headed back to class together. It turned out to be a Marvellous day, one that will forever remain etched in memory. 

If our faculty advisor were anyone else other than SPS, we wouldn't have dared to risk doing anything as such. We did it because we firmly believed that he would always treat us as one of his own. This is one memory of him we would cherish for eternity. We would remember him as the professor who would stay calm even if the world was to end in a few hours.