1998-99 was my college year, the year of Armageddon; as the movie was running successfully in theaters all over the world, I was dealing with one of my own.
Those days Engineering colleges were not commodity, entrance exams were still high value than money and I was certainly short by a few points, eventually had to fall back on a bachelor’s degree. Although now I feel it was a good thing , Kerala is no more the place where you want your kids to be studying Engineering.
I had to compensate my aspiration to keep up with technology by joining a computer course. The only two options were Aptech & NIIT. Had to spend many days comparing & picking the right course for myself. The options were plenty, right from Windows 98 & NT, VB , Web Technology that was mostly HTML & JavaScript. Microsoft had included the MTS in Windows NT option pack, it was fun to do something with it on a LAN . Most fun part was the internet via the awesome V.90 modem that connects via a phone line. Every time it fired up, it made the squeaky sound of a newborn robot baby. Every 3 minute was 1 pulse that was payable on a slab, had to keep track of time. Web technologies was catching up & I still remember a conversation from one of my seniors from college who was very proud of how he could do things with the <a href> tag and the potentials of how it could so many things. There was a boom of internet browsing centers all over the city and it revolutionized the concept of payable observatories for rejoiceful neddies (no pun intended) a.k.a browsing centers. Satyam(Sify) was handing over dial up promo cards & offers, kids who had a landline phone and a v90 card were considered cool. Now I look at the FIOS Ad kid & the fact that internet speed has increased 16,000 times in 20 years is a miracle in itself.
I used to carry a small notebook where I had some very good websites categorized, I also had a text file on my first computer where I stored all the interesting links. I used to teach fellow buddies on what they should do if they had access to internet. Parents would pay their kids pocket money to browse the internet, the browsing centers were full with gamers and web surfers.
The Daily Commute
Being a resident of a geographically isolated defense factory office quarters had its own trouble & benefits. Being away from city meant extended travel time to reach any destination. Those long travel times were very useful to take a quick pause & watch the world around. Most part of the travel was through rural areas touching the life’s of many hard working people. They all had no connection to technology of any sort, having any battery powered devices like a torch or a FM radio was a luxury. Initiating a conversation with anyone was quite normal, some days I would find people who talked about how world was changing from a socially interactive place to people trying to race against time.
Joining the evening college was the best option to use the daylight efficiently, although morning just went in anticipation of what surprises would be in store for evenings. Our heroes were the bus drivers who could drive the fully packed bus at 100Km/hr with passengers even on the foot board , good music system was important as it meant that more students will travel. The most famous bus service was “SJT” well maintained, clean and super fast.
I was too soon out in the wild: from a very civilized CBSE schooling system, it took a while to figure out the world. It was quite astounding to find out the fact that the college system was exactly opposite of school, first semester I was the good scoring well behaved FOB guy sitting in the front row and by second semester I earned my way to the back bench by roughing up myself with other qualified fellow citizens. By third semester I had grown strong to be kicked out of classes by a psychotic teacher who was always annoyed by unparameterized scenarios. Only later I found that he had a specific bias & dislike for kids who wore a ‘tilak’ on the forehead. Although it was a religious thing, traditionally a tilak was a symbol of attentiveness & respect.
Meanwhile I kept my ’tilak’ and was religiously getting kicked out of class every day , as sad as it sounds I was quite happy to walk to the nearby Ayyappa temple where I patiently spent my ‘outstanding’ hours meditating & wondering where all this is leading me to. It took a few weeks for me to find out what was tipping him off as I saw other fellow college mates roaming around with similar concerns. I did not want to change my habits for his anger was of OCD category & I didn’t care a whit. His lectures were anyway worth missing.
Ayyappa Temple Trichy
Among all the noise & chaos in the city stood a temple that was iconic to historic ethos and resilient culture that prevailed on the land , originally founded & funded by a veteran army personnel. Maintaining discipline was the most Important theme here. Even at the peak hours, the visitors would maintain pin-drop silence. The place had an aura of its own, the volunteers and staff working there were always found in a joyful meditative state. A majestic open meditation hall where you can experience a cold breeze on the hottest days. The only sound that would be heard is of the temple bells or the distant rendition of music maestro Ilayaraja-Yesudas classic ‘Amma EndrAzhaikkadha’ song. It was a very unique feature of this temple , an isolated section behind the meditation hall where you can repeat play this song at the press of a button , the place could accommodate just one person amidst the decorations of ever blossoming marigold flowers. One could stand with eyes closed and meditate on the omnipresent feeling of selfless love that we all know as ‘Mother’. I have noticed how people end up in tears towards the end of the song. It remains an unsolved mystery that how humans do not value the present & then find ways to honor things that they have lost in past. It was a lesson to me that if I don’t do what I should for my parents, then I am coming back here & crying for what I could not.
Days passed like this and I was enjoying the routine. Meanwhile at the evening college, I came to know that the fascist nutty professor guy was beaten black & blue by a few seniors who passed out the same year. I am sure he had troubled them too. Tamil Nadu being a more culturally resilient state and tolerating something like this is not normal. After a week of sick leave he came back shamefully as a changed man to make peace with all others. He would still get excited , but had got his ducks in order. Some lessons are only effective when it’s administered with pain, concussion & everlasting shoe marks on backside.
Ruby Miss
In ones academic journey, there would be only very few teachers that leave an unforgettable mark. Ruby miss was one of them. She was a junior teaching assistant then & yet she would be able to control a class of 30+ crazy boys with ease. She was not only good with her knowledge of physics, she was also extremely talented at customizing the tone that each person deserved. She was the angel that carried a double barrel gun: just for fun. I am thankful for the fact that in a world where there were devils, there were angels too.
The Evening Batch
The fact that I was in a boys batch made the evening college so much fun, we did some super interesting things together.I remember Monitor Srinath, naughty Satyanarayan(s), Bala, Purushottam, Farooq, Satish(s), Shankar, tall guy Sadhesh, Madhu, Shantaram and ton of other great batch batchmates. The episode of trying to flick the diffraction scale & walking into HOD room with Raju a.k.a Usha was quite an adventure. We organized the physics department program Surphy 2000, it was a great success compared to the previous years. I am eternally thankful for the wonderful camaraderie.
The micro economics of cutting classes
One ground rule of being in college is to be able to explore & take some risk. Watching movies was the least common denominator of all student-ly risky jobs. Sci-Fi was catching up fast & only way to keep up with Hollywood was to cut classes & secure a front row seat. Those precious seats only costed Rs.5-7(10 cents) although it took skills to navigate the crowd. The key was to plan ahead and fit our schedule into one of those P.T classes. For an active generation PT class was the time when everyone would grab a cup of coffee & sit under a tree, I might as well be catching up. I used to maintain the diary log of those movies in an encrypted text to celebrate the victory of not getting caught or noticed. Destroying evidence was the key , but I kept the bus tickets as a memorabilia of that.
There was a slight difference between the cost of boarding a govt. bus vs. private bus. If we could manage the bus timings for the commute, we could easily save around 4-5Rs a week. Acquiring a govt. bus pass doubled the savings by a big margin, rest of money was liquid asset. When I think back, we could do so much with so little. There was the famous Michaels ice cream shop where you could have a pretty good desert for Rs.1.5(2cents). A unique drink called panner soda was available at Rs.2 & multi flavor popsicle a.k.a peppsi was just Rs.1. The most refreshing & original filter coffee used to be just Rs.3. None of it needed branding , crazy ads or endorsements. If it was good it would sell out good. Although there would not be no fun without a partner in crime , obviously needed someone who had higher level of risk taking capability.
Partners in crime
I still don’t remember when I actually met my good buddy Dipu. One of the very few ‘born-happy souls’ that I know of. Never intimidated by height, muscle, talent or ego. He would happily appreciate everyone and humbly recognize the greatness that lies within everyone. He had no enemies & would be still somehow make it to the center stage of most conflicting situations ; for no specific reason. I still remember the day when the cricket team got into a gang-fight situation & since no one knew which side he was, he was about to get beaten by both sides. Realizing that he looked at everyone & said “enakku tamil theriyadhu 🙂 “, knowing a language was never a criteria for getting beat up and yet he was let go. 
I have some really good memories with him some of which are Math tuitions classes with July Miss, the Maris movie adventures , Neem tree diaries, Cricket matches, early morning study etc..He was ready to jump on any crazy adventure along with me. It’s what great friends do . I am sure he is still somewhere out there looking for more trouble.
Another important name that I cannot miss is Sourabh, he was a very focussed and unselfish Bengali. Although it might sound like an oxymoron, he was a unique piece. I met him in RSK School, his introduction was that he could cook as well. His best dish was Maggi Noodles and Glucon-D, In fact the foundation of our friendship was that I spared myself from strangling him that day for his cooking brag. His story is yet to come, in fact there is good enough story for a movie.
(to be continued ..)
