Time 3 PM, Room No 113, South Hostel, UCE Burla, 5th Jan 2001
‘What do you say? Let’s go, man. I am pissed of with this Maths paper. Who was the idiot who set it? Hardly 50% of the question was from the syllabus. I know I am going to fail.’ said AB in his irritated voice.
‘No yaar. No one is going to fail. They will surely give some grace marks for the questions out of our syllabus. Anyways we have the Electrical Engineering basic exam (EEBE) in 3 days. I haven’t touched the books. Need to study man.’ said D.
‘See, don’t worry about EEBE. We shall start tomorrow morning first thing. 2 days will be enough and who knows, there could be 100% question out of syllabus this time’. AB said like a true engineer.
D moved his head down and thought. ‘Hmmmmm’
‘Abe what are you thinking man? Let’s go. Just imagine, we shall watch a Shah Rukh movie in the theater after 6 months. And that too a Yash Chopra movie. It will refresh our mind. SD and AM will join too. Chal’
D had to agree. He was also disappointed with the paper and was frustrated. These were days before he touched cigarette and liquor. So movies and music was the only way he could divert his mind. Plus a Shahrukh movie can never be avoided.
Time 4 PM, South Hostel front, 5th Jan 2001
‘Do we have to wear these formal full shirts, pants and shoes to a movie? I am just a tie away from attending an interview.’ said D.
‘See, it’s either this or no movie. Anyways it has been 6 months since we have been forced to wear this by our seniors, anytime we go out of hostel. Last week I was out of toilet soap and had to wear all these formal stuff without washing my hand and go out of the hostel to get it. So why are you complaining now?’ was AB’s reply.
‘Man, you shouldn’t have said that. Now don’t dare to seat near me during the journey or the movie’. SD said.
‘Ok stop this and let’s go. Why isn’t the bus coming? I am bored.’ said AM.
‘Asshole. We haven’t even started and you are bored. Itni jaldi bore hoga to shaadi ke baad kya karega’. Came the reply and all of them started laughing.
Time 5:30 PM, Ashoka Talkies, 5th Jan 2001
‘Ok. Tickets are booked. Lets get in. I have heard there is a very nice song at the beginning’. Said D. As usual he was the most knowledgeable among the group, when it was about movies.
‘What the hell yaar. This place smells of pan (Indian mouth freshener). People in India will never learn etiquettes. Mark my word, this country is going down.’ SD was in his India bashing mood again.
‘Haan haan. Ab bas kar. Let me watch Aishwarya and Shah Rukh making love. I mean romancing.’ said AB.
‘Oye. Don’t say anything bad about Aishwarya. I will kill you. She is your Bhabhi.’. D, the Ash lover said.
‘Yeah. Salman Khan is my brother.’ AB was not someone to back down.
‘Stop this crap. Let’s watch the movie.’
Time 8:30 PM, Ashoka Talkies, 5th Jan 2001
The song ‘Pairon mein Bandhan hai’ is being played on the screen.
‘Abe how long is this movie? It has been 3 hours and still no sign of a climax.’ AB was getting irritated. But in the same breath, he added ‘Abe Shah Rukh. Why are you singing alone, when all these Bachchas are dating their girlfriends? Catch hold of some girl and Puppy Le Le.’ As they say, engineering students will never change.
‘Shhhhh. Do you know we have 17 seniors occupying the whole row behind us?’ said AM.
‘WHAT? How do you know?’ SD was scared.
‘Why are you shivering? Even if there are seniors there, how does that affect us? For them, we are local people only. They don’t know us personally’. AB said with an air of confidence.
‘Ok. Keep quiet and lets get out of here, as soon as the movie ends’.
Time 9:30 PM, Sambalpur Bus stand, 5th Jan 2001
‘Movie was good. Dinner was perfect. Dekhna, next exam will go fine’. AB after a heavy meal generally talks nice things.
‘Damn.’
‘What?’
‘The same seniors are in this bus. What will we do?’
‘Look boys. Its 9:30 already and it is the last bus. We have to board this bus or we shall have to stay here all night.’ D said.
‘Let’s sit in the front. They have occupied all the back seats. They might recognize us from our dress. So let’s sit as far from them as possible.’ AB’s strategy had some sense.
All 4 of them went to the front. But there were just 3 seats available. The conductor signaled SD to move to the back. There was 1 seat empty and it was between 2 seniors.
From where D was seating, the seniors looked like the monsters from hell. He was praying to God that the monsters would let them go home (hostel) in safe & sound condition today. He had heard many stories of how seniors used to beat up juniors, when they were found alone. Just a month back, B had returned to the hostel from an evening walk with reddened face. All he could say afterwards was that he had been slapped 42 times. Here there were 17 versus just 4. His fear was not unfounded.
Time 10:30 PM, Power Channel Road, Burla, 5th Jan 2001
‘Let’s get down’. SD came and said.
‘Are you crazy? The hostel is still 2 KMs away. Who would walk that long?’ AB as usual.
‘I am not suggesting. I am informing. The seniors know who we are. They told me to inform you to get down from the bus here’. SD was sweating.
‘How did they know? And why should we get down? What do they want to do?’ too many questions were popping in their mind.
‘They recognized me from the Electrical Engineering Seminar and due to my dress. Probably more due to my dress. I had to tell them the truth’. SD was on the verge of crying.
‘Ok. Let’s get down. We can’t avoid this.’
All got down from the bus.
On one side of the road were the huge landscapes of MCL with big buildings. On the other side, the huge power channel coming from Hirakud Dam was flowing. The reflection of Moon on the water, the slow sound of flowing water and the cool shade of the trees on the bank of the river made the place quite romantic.
But romance was the last thing that was on D’s mind. The monsters in the moon light looked scarier.
Senior1/Monster1(S1) said ‘where are you looking at?’ looking at D. ‘Look Down. At the 3rd button of your shirt. If I catch you looking up again, will not spare you’.
S2 caught hold of AB’s collar & asked ‘Where are you coming back from?’
‘From the movie’
‘Didn’t you have an exam today? What were you doing at the cinema?’
‘We went after our exam. The paper was bizarre. So just wanted to divert our mind’
SLAP.
That one sound was the last thing D wanted to hear at that moment. It meant that the monsters were in the mood. D could not look up, but could feel AB’s pain.
SLAP. Another one on AB from S1.
S1 said ‘So does this divert your mind?’
D could not hold himself back. ‘But we were only watching movies.’
SLAP. Another one on D this time. ‘Did I ask you? Do I need a reason to beat you up? I can be beat you anytime I want? Bada aya movie dekhne wala.’
S2 suggested ‘Let’s split up. Let’s teach these bloody junis a lesson’.
This guy looked like a born leader. The strategy was at once approved and executed. Each of the Junis was distributed among the groups of monsters. Poor D was dreading this. S1, S2 along with another huge lad literally dragged him to one side of the road. After the distribution got completed, each of the groups started walking towards the hostel.
S1 asked to D ‘Keep looking down. If you raise your head by even 1 inch, I will show you my real power. So how did you find the movie?’
D said ‘It was Ok’
SLAP. ‘OK. You know what, Shah rukh is my favourite. How dare you call his film OK? So how was the movie?’
This time the reply from D was almost inaudible. ‘It was a great movie’.
‘What? We can’t hear you.’ said S2 and SLAP.
‘It was a great movie’. It was audible.
SLAP. Again from S2 ‘Great movie? Huh. It was so fucking boring that I want my money back from Chopras. So how was it?’
Silence followed. D knew whatever he might say; he is not going to be spared. They did not want the movie’s review. They just wanted an excuse to beat him. What he could not understand is WHY. What had he done? He didn’t even know them. .
But what he did not realize that Silence is not something these monsters were familiar with. The result was quite expected. Another SLAP.
‘Chup kyun ho gaya? Something in your mouth? Achha tell me, who is your Favorite heroine?’
The reply took some time and even though D was looking downwards, he could see a hand fast moving towards his face.
“Aishwarya’.
The hand which had stopped for a fraction of seconds on hearing his answer continued with its trajectory and the SLAP was completed.
‘I hate her. How dare you take her name in front of me?’
SLAP. SLAP. SLAP…..
This continued for the next 15 minutes. At last they reached the South hostel gate. D had lost count of the number of SLAPs he had received and that too without any reason. His parents had never beaten him and here he was getting beaten by strangers. Tears had started flowing way back and even that did not stop the monsters.
Just ahead of him, he could see AB, SD and AM in similar situation.
When they reached the gate, S1 said ‘Ok now go and let your batch mates know what we can do. Show them your face, they will understand. Go, you Bastard’.
‘What do you say? Let’s go, man. I am pissed of with this Maths paper. Who was the idiot who set it? Hardly 50% of the question was from the syllabus. I know I am going to fail.’ said AB in his irritated voice.
‘No yaar. No one is going to fail. They will surely give some grace marks for the questions out of our syllabus. Anyways we have the Electrical Engineering basic exam (EEBE) in 3 days. I haven’t touched the books. Need to study man.’ said D.
‘See, don’t worry about EEBE. We shall start tomorrow morning first thing. 2 days will be enough and who knows, there could be 100% question out of syllabus this time’. AB said like a true engineer.
D moved his head down and thought. ‘Hmmmmm’
‘Abe what are you thinking man? Let’s go. Just imagine, we shall watch a Shah Rukh movie in the theater after 6 months. And that too a Yash Chopra movie. It will refresh our mind. SD and AM will join too. Chal’
D had to agree. He was also disappointed with the paper and was frustrated. These were days before he touched cigarette and liquor. So movies and music was the only way he could divert his mind. Plus a Shahrukh movie can never be avoided.
Time 4 PM, South Hostel front, 5th Jan 2001
‘Do we have to wear these formal full shirts, pants and shoes to a movie? I am just a tie away from attending an interview.’ said D.
‘See, it’s either this or no movie. Anyways it has been 6 months since we have been forced to wear this by our seniors, anytime we go out of hostel. Last week I was out of toilet soap and had to wear all these formal stuff without washing my hand and go out of the hostel to get it. So why are you complaining now?’ was AB’s reply.
‘Man, you shouldn’t have said that. Now don’t dare to seat near me during the journey or the movie’. SD said.
‘Ok stop this and let’s go. Why isn’t the bus coming? I am bored.’ said AM.
‘Asshole. We haven’t even started and you are bored. Itni jaldi bore hoga to shaadi ke baad kya karega’. Came the reply and all of them started laughing.
Time 5:30 PM, Ashoka Talkies, 5th Jan 2001
‘Ok. Tickets are booked. Lets get in. I have heard there is a very nice song at the beginning’. Said D. As usual he was the most knowledgeable among the group, when it was about movies.
‘What the hell yaar. This place smells of pan (Indian mouth freshener). People in India will never learn etiquettes. Mark my word, this country is going down.’ SD was in his India bashing mood again.
‘Haan haan. Ab bas kar. Let me watch Aishwarya and Shah Rukh making love. I mean romancing.’ said AB.
‘Oye. Don’t say anything bad about Aishwarya. I will kill you. She is your Bhabhi.’. D, the Ash lover said.
‘Yeah. Salman Khan is my brother.’ AB was not someone to back down.
‘Stop this crap. Let’s watch the movie.’
Time 8:30 PM, Ashoka Talkies, 5th Jan 2001
The song ‘Pairon mein Bandhan hai’ is being played on the screen.
‘Abe how long is this movie? It has been 3 hours and still no sign of a climax.’ AB was getting irritated. But in the same breath, he added ‘Abe Shah Rukh. Why are you singing alone, when all these Bachchas are dating their girlfriends? Catch hold of some girl and Puppy Le Le.’ As they say, engineering students will never change.
‘Shhhhh. Do you know we have 17 seniors occupying the whole row behind us?’ said AM.
‘WHAT? How do you know?’ SD was scared.
‘Why are you shivering? Even if there are seniors there, how does that affect us? For them, we are local people only. They don’t know us personally’. AB said with an air of confidence.
‘Ok. Keep quiet and lets get out of here, as soon as the movie ends’.
Time 9:30 PM, Sambalpur Bus stand, 5th Jan 2001
‘Movie was good. Dinner was perfect. Dekhna, next exam will go fine’. AB after a heavy meal generally talks nice things.
‘Damn.’
‘What?’
‘The same seniors are in this bus. What will we do?’
‘Look boys. Its 9:30 already and it is the last bus. We have to board this bus or we shall have to stay here all night.’ D said.
‘Let’s sit in the front. They have occupied all the back seats. They might recognize us from our dress. So let’s sit as far from them as possible.’ AB’s strategy had some sense.
All 4 of them went to the front. But there were just 3 seats available. The conductor signaled SD to move to the back. There was 1 seat empty and it was between 2 seniors.
From where D was seating, the seniors looked like the monsters from hell. He was praying to God that the monsters would let them go home (hostel) in safe & sound condition today. He had heard many stories of how seniors used to beat up juniors, when they were found alone. Just a month back, B had returned to the hostel from an evening walk with reddened face. All he could say afterwards was that he had been slapped 42 times. Here there were 17 versus just 4. His fear was not unfounded.
Time 10:30 PM, Power Channel Road, Burla, 5th Jan 2001
‘Let’s get down’. SD came and said.
‘Are you crazy? The hostel is still 2 KMs away. Who would walk that long?’ AB as usual.
‘I am not suggesting. I am informing. The seniors know who we are. They told me to inform you to get down from the bus here’. SD was sweating.
‘How did they know? And why should we get down? What do they want to do?’ too many questions were popping in their mind.
‘They recognized me from the Electrical Engineering Seminar and due to my dress. Probably more due to my dress. I had to tell them the truth’. SD was on the verge of crying.
‘Ok. Let’s get down. We can’t avoid this.’
All got down from the bus.
On one side of the road were the huge landscapes of MCL with big buildings. On the other side, the huge power channel coming from Hirakud Dam was flowing. The reflection of Moon on the water, the slow sound of flowing water and the cool shade of the trees on the bank of the river made the place quite romantic.
But romance was the last thing that was on D’s mind. The monsters in the moon light looked scarier.
Senior1/Monster1(S1) said ‘where are you looking at?’ looking at D. ‘Look Down. At the 3rd button of your shirt. If I catch you looking up again, will not spare you’.
S2 caught hold of AB’s collar & asked ‘Where are you coming back from?’
‘From the movie’
‘Didn’t you have an exam today? What were you doing at the cinema?’
‘We went after our exam. The paper was bizarre. So just wanted to divert our mind’
SLAP.
That one sound was the last thing D wanted to hear at that moment. It meant that the monsters were in the mood. D could not look up, but could feel AB’s pain.
SLAP. Another one on AB from S1.
S1 said ‘So does this divert your mind?’
D could not hold himself back. ‘But we were only watching movies.’
SLAP. Another one on D this time. ‘Did I ask you? Do I need a reason to beat you up? I can be beat you anytime I want? Bada aya movie dekhne wala.’
S2 suggested ‘Let’s split up. Let’s teach these bloody junis a lesson’.
This guy looked like a born leader. The strategy was at once approved and executed. Each of the Junis was distributed among the groups of monsters. Poor D was dreading this. S1, S2 along with another huge lad literally dragged him to one side of the road. After the distribution got completed, each of the groups started walking towards the hostel.
S1 asked to D ‘Keep looking down. If you raise your head by even 1 inch, I will show you my real power. So how did you find the movie?’
D said ‘It was Ok’
SLAP. ‘OK. You know what, Shah rukh is my favourite. How dare you call his film OK? So how was the movie?’
This time the reply from D was almost inaudible. ‘It was a great movie’.
‘What? We can’t hear you.’ said S2 and SLAP.
‘It was a great movie’. It was audible.
SLAP. Again from S2 ‘Great movie? Huh. It was so fucking boring that I want my money back from Chopras. So how was it?’
Silence followed. D knew whatever he might say; he is not going to be spared. They did not want the movie’s review. They just wanted an excuse to beat him. What he could not understand is WHY. What had he done? He didn’t even know them. .
But what he did not realize that Silence is not something these monsters were familiar with. The result was quite expected. Another SLAP.
‘Chup kyun ho gaya? Something in your mouth? Achha tell me, who is your Favorite heroine?’
The reply took some time and even though D was looking downwards, he could see a hand fast moving towards his face.
“Aishwarya’.
The hand which had stopped for a fraction of seconds on hearing his answer continued with its trajectory and the SLAP was completed.
‘I hate her. How dare you take her name in front of me?’
SLAP. SLAP. SLAP…..
This continued for the next 15 minutes. At last they reached the South hostel gate. D had lost count of the number of SLAPs he had received and that too without any reason. His parents had never beaten him and here he was getting beaten by strangers. Tears had started flowing way back and even that did not stop the monsters.
Just ahead of him, he could see AB, SD and AM in similar situation.
When they reached the gate, S1 said ‘Ok now go and let your batch mates know what we can do. Show them your face, they will understand. Go, you Bastard’.
With this, all 17 of them started laughing. D could never forget that laughter for all his life. He had not even seen the faces of the monsters, who had beaten him and his friends. All 4 of them were standing there helpless. At the very last moment D raised his head and glanced towards S1. S1’s face was filled with pride. He was proud of the fact that he is a person, who can beat up people.
At that point of time, D realized one thing ‘How cruel a person can be if given a power to control things and if not provided with a suitable mind to control that power. Power can turn him into a monster. The pride that S1 is feeling is actually so hollow.’ He promised himself that he will never turn into such monsters, when the power is handed over to him. He will be helpful and kind towards his juniors.
He fulfilled what he had promised to himself. He spent the next 3 years in the college as a senior, a senior who loved his juniors, rescued them when they were in danger and tried to guide them towards the right path.
PS – This is a truestory. As you could have guessed, D stands for Dave, i.e. me. :) This was one of the tale from my ragging period in college. People in our college say, if a senior rags you, in later life he becomes a friend. I have never felt that. In the next 2 3 years, I came to know the persons who had beaten us during that night. They even tried to be my friend later. But my heart could never forgive them.
