HOTC Ch 5: Step Back to Ponder

I've lost count of how many times I've thought whether it's time I should put this chapter down in HOTC. I've often pondered whether 'some' happenings in S5 was a step back in our college career. But no, they were indeed the times we stepped back to ponder, to be better.

We shifted (college policy) into a new class, but this time around none of us were happy. The class is a wildlife sanctuary - no I'm not talkin about us. During our stay in it, we must've atleast seen 3 generations of Pravukal. Any love for pravu would be over after a year in it. They made nests in the roof ventilators, trained the little ones proffessionally over the ceiling fans and shit (pardon me for offensive language) on our already cramped benches. Nice situation to be in when you're bored by lectures and pondering whether anything's coming your way from the sky. Not much problem afterall, cuz we spent more hours outside than inside. :-D.

Moving onto the other species in the class: We made the most of what we had, sat on benches, jumped over them to move about and concentrated more on..not studies. Maveli arrived early in CET as usual (the real one, not our staff advisor). That years onam celebration didn't have the verve of previous year. Many had gone home and hence participation was less. That didn't dampen the spirits and we had a nice time walking around for onakazhchakal.

As soon as college resumed after onam vacation, planning started for next tour. All of us were really pumped up reminiscing the superb tour we had the year before. But from the beginning the tour was doomed. Two opposing parties came up vouching for the right to conduct the tour. Cold wars came up as both sides refused to let go. Uncertainty continued right up to two days before the tour and finally one side conditionally ceded.

Thus we started off on a tour crisscrossing South India. First to pondicherry, then Bangalore, Mysore, Goa and back to Trivandrum. The atmosphere was kinda subdued on the first night of journey. Pondicherry is a nice place and we had fun at the beach. But the accomodation left much to be debated, especially for gals. That was put up in discussion and discussions about such things during tour is not a good sign. As a group, we had fun throughout the tour. But elsewhere, things didn't improve going onto next place. Efforts were put into force and the tour seemed to be moving for the better. But the final few days proved otherwise. Controversies that would not be forgotten in our college life, that too involving some of my best friends.. I'd better stop at that.

It took a while for the atmosphere to calm down. We didn't have much time 'cuz Shaastra was coming up and this year we were determined to participate in the robotics event. The robo event we took up was Get a Grip. During the first few days of preparation, we understood that we'd hugely underestimated the magnitude of the problem. Finally after reading the problem statement properly, we got off to work on the robo. Aluminium sheets framed our days and dreams during night. Measurements went awry time after time. The whole thing was built and rebuilt and redesigned and rebuilt. I concentrated a huge amount of my time on a circuit which wasn't used ultimately. Few days and sleepless nights later, our robo was still incomplete [did i mention we had stuff and plan to build 2 robos?] - without even proper motors - before departing to IITM.

The Shaastra days still remains some of the most enjoyable days I've had. ur job on the bot wasn't over even after reaching IITM. The final touch took the whole night before the event. I was put in charge of controlling the bot and to my surprise it went smoothly. But tragedy struck in the form of our slightest misjudgement. The blocks we'd to load and unload got stuck onto the foam tape we attached on our gripping mechanism. We took the anticlimax in our stride and enjoyed the next few days to the fullest... Spencer Plaza, Tiffany's, CCD, chatting on hostel roof after 2 am, Ah I can't wait to go for next Shaastra.

We returned back to the boredom of classes and shut down our grey matters for the next few weeks. That year some of us went for IFFK - awesome movies. University exam came unanounced as usual and I don't remember having christmas celebrations. There was nothing much to do in class other than making fancy hairdos and waiting for the KU to postpone exams enough number times so that they get to schedule it right before the biggest hollywood release of the year.

-JFx


Coming up: Ch 6 - Of Nothing Much At All..

HOTC Ch 2: 'Dare' Remo Jayan

That Christmas was the season of dares and crushes. Every other boy had at least a small crush on someone. As the 9 gals in our class wouldn't suffice, there were even crushes in other classes. Though I'm not much informed about the gals' crushes, some of the names have surfaced.

I don't remember who introduced the dare idea, but it must've originated in the LH. Anyway each person had to dare another to perform something in class. That's whe Jayan got a dare from someone (Later revealed as Sreekesh). He was to propose to V, Remo style. His friends added an additional dare to do it in front of Jaseela Ma'am (a guest teacher ;-).

Jayan, who already had a crush on V couldn't resist the offer. He came in the period after lunch. Jaseela Ma'am was standing in front of the class, about to start teaching. Jayan said " I love you, V" and gave her a 'Remo' kiss in front of the whole class with teacher watching.

We hadn't realised then, the importance of that moment in the HOTC. V was shocked and reacted with an outburst. Jayan was both furious and heartbroken. Our group united for a common cause for the first time - to support Jayan (avane thekkan :-). AS, Varun, Hari etc. moved to our side to join in the fun and thus the incident brought our gang together. Jayan on the other hand found a partner in crime by accusing (not completely falsely) me of having a crush on V. In the following months, U and V became close friends and what we call a 'pair'.

To summarise other relationships, Jisha broke with Jaleel and became friends with Gokul. Nothing came out of Gokul's crush on Remya. LnT-Gemo melodrama continued in the background with most of the class (excluding me and some others) unaware.

The college sprang alive with events like genesis, techfest (Dyuthi), our first class tour, Ragam '06 and the election. Those were the times when we played dumbcharades and cricket in class. Cricket ended in Principal's room below us and the dumbcharades made Suraj Baachi. The election revealed for the first time a rift in our class. Two sections in our class were in cold war with each other due to political and other reasons. Thankfully not enough reasons surfaced for a physical fight in our class, but the college was thrown into turmoil. Thus ended S1S2 with university exams approaching.

Coming up: Ch3 - A Cultural Awakening

FORSAKEN SOUL II

Chapter 2

The best part...

Eros,son of Aphrodite had cast a spell on me,a weak one to begin with.

It was in those hasty and apprehensive years of 10th board that i saw her again.She was so cute and chubby and tiny.

I had totally forgotten about my experience thanks to the pressure from my parents to do well in 10th,they ain't cool like me.Tenth standard means study,study and more study, for my parents of course, and for the damn school as well.So like a ritual they would keep classes from the moment we finished our 9th final exams.

That afternoon,after the extra class,i was walking back home and look who's here,"Angel".

"Oh wow..excellent..",i thought.I set my grey matter conspiring how to enter her head and venture into her heart.It so happened that we were both heading home and we almost had the same route (her path + lil twists and turns =mine)*.The first day i would watch her go.But the arrows of Cupid were hurting bad and so i decided to comprehend the extra twists and turns.So the second day i followed her ,but i had no courage to talk to her,she was so beautiful and awesome.The third and fourth days went the same.On the fifth day i decided,"no more fooling around asshole..come on......",my alter ego was strong.That day after school i set forth in search of the elusive prize.But no...i couldn't do it,the fucking under-confident asshole i was all these years,discouraged me from the doing it.

This was the time to leave the past behind and that's what i did."No don't give up buddy,don't give up..she's your destiny...".In a life-threatening move at a crucial juncture,a turning point where we would have split,i found myself talking to her.Yeah....finally i made it.

"Hello,I'm Hari",i introduced myself in a very courteous manner.

She was my first love and i had never talked to a girl like i had to her.I had redeemed myself,from previous failed attempts to know her,and had gathered sufficient courage .My heart was pounding like a..eh..pounding heart and little droplets of sweat had appeared on the periphery of the area where moustache was supposed to grow.I also suspect a few drops to have covered a considerable altitude before reaching the ground from my forehead.

After a moment of silence she put her hand out and acknowledged herself ,"Hellooooo",with a probing eyes and precautionary glance she said,"I'm Prakriti"."Hey but do i know ya??",she added.

Now what, i had never thought of the response before.It had happened so very spontaneously and instinctively that i found myself scrambling for words.So i had to bring out the best mugger in me to stay on my errand.Such lovely voice and language command she had i was totally spell bound and immersed in the potion of love.Her attitude really left me wonder struck and love struck.

Cool..cool..yes she was really cool...

Me dropping her home became a regular affair and our relation grew stronger. Secrets don't stay long esp when the secret is a weak something like this one.Soon the whole school knew of our "friendship" and it was not too long when we would talk in the open.In the evening we would meet at the official hang-out of the school ,Nearazhy, and would leave together from there.

My friends circle grew ,especially the no. of girls .People would know a boy called Hari was a student in the school.And my name would be among the studs of the school.

I was a stud..yeah a stud..always surrounded by girls,always cheerful.

A good side to the friendship can't be without a bad one.Along with the gals came the anti-heroes and slowly my possessiveness started proving costly and i found people change like season.Sob sob ..this was the cheerful part of the story....

*Hari's equation for short-cut to a babe's heart(the length of twists and turns depends on the gravity..of love).

This is the third chapter.....

And this the first