collegeum Supplyum Njanagalum

SANTHA

2008-07-11T14:02:00.002+05:30

“ Sanji, mollu, mocha, shantha, chimproo, valli, , sheik P**** mutti khan, kanjan, ganjan, tauba, soda, pashu, aana, despu, don jabi, Mandan , johar madan, theetam thooti, karikalam kothesh, son of chandran& shekaran a.k.a maadu, paille, maapi, Julie, KK, China, Matta, Vava, amminni, harami, unda, gaaaru, SP, kunju, pookalam, jetti, aaandy, paandy, KC, mechan, mookan, cleo, ulatha, kozhi, kaapi, kochapi, flooji, solly, SK, kaaatu, sreekuty, pug, patti, PCP, KamD, Kunju, moopan,chaps,peru………..” the list goes one. Well any guesses to who these bizarre sounding creatures are? They are none other than the species of NSS College who made life merrier and worth cherishing. Who named these guys? And how these came into being? well, some of them are highly classified and any attempt to divulge more details on certain names will ultimately end up as a disaster for me, I might be shot at, and even if I survived by some sheer luck, then I will be shot again, so I wont disclose the entire names but yes, some are worth mentioning, including my nick name. Sigh! I guess it’s high time that I shared the secret; I have been carrying the pain and agony of that name for more than four years. Among the many blunders that I have committed, I guess that this one is arguably the worst. I should have never let my friend pookalam, read that letter, which I gave to him on that ill fated day. So with this let me introduce to you all ‘Shantha’.

Well, yes, that’s my nick name (the most prominent one). That name still sends a chill down my spine. What an ugly name! How did I get it? To cut a big story in short, there was a home nurse in my house to look after my aging grandmother, her name was shanthi, and well, yes, it happened that I got a letter in Malayalam, from her which was, well I did rather put it this way, it was a bit high on language, and its verses were quite difficult for me to fully comprehend. So in good faith, I took help of my dear friend pookalam, which turned out to be a disaster. The news traveled, and it happened to reach Mr. Unni’s and Sodas, ears. That was beginning of the end, I did rather say, that, because from then onwards, for a long time, I was at the receiving end. These two morons, made a totally fabricated story, and changed the name from shanthi, to shanthamma, and highly publicized that letter, they made up a different letter and posted it on the hostel notice board. Well that was the last straw. I became ‘Shantha’. Well, it’s almost four years since we are out from college, but that name still ricochets’ in my mind and might be through the corridors of hostel along with all the other names mentioned above. It is said that when you share things, you feel light, but I still feel awkward. Its not only me who has had trouble with the name, but people who call me also have encountered some humorous incidents, like for example, Harikrishan from A batch , was touring malampuzha dam along with the entire class, and all were pedal boating across the placid waters in the hot afternoon sun. He did not go boating ,as he along with a few others which includes me, had visited the place a couple of days ago, so when others from his class, especially the girls insisted that he take a boat ride, he retorted back by saying
“Illya njan illya, kazhinja aayecha njanum shanteyum ivide boatinginu vaanatha”.
Well can you imagine, what must have been the girls reaction, well first of all that name is very awkward, and besides that the next question was, who is shantha?( as most of the girls were not aware of that, at least that’s what I presume). Hari faced a tough time that day. So that’s my most prominent name.

Then lets see where else do I have the liberty to divulge more details, without treading on troubled waters, hmmmm aha got it, well I know that if he reads this, he will blast me. He is quite a witty chap, quick on humour, in fact he has a pleasant sense of humour, never sarcastic and neither does he give any scathing remarks, the stud of civil and the curator(The custodian of a collection) of NSS , ladies and gentlemen let me present to you ‘SANJI’ aka Vidyanath Vinay V (?). Once someone asked him what the last V stands for and he, just said ‘athu chummadha” so that's why I have the question mark. Well how he became ‘sanji’…… lets just say by pointing out one of the incident that happened way back, there was a power cut at hostel, and it was not the normal load shedding, so eventually soda found out that one of the transformer was missing. Later it was found that the transformer was lying in the ‘sanji’. Those who are smiling after reading this will surely understand, the others well I am sorry I can’t put forward any more details. On a finishing note, rumours are out that the tallest building in the world the ‘Burj Dubai’ is about make a disappearing act, well the reason, Sanji is roaming around there. God save Burj Dubai!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now let me come to my favourite guy, any guesses, well yes that’s Unnikutan. I can go around telling things about him till the end of time. But for now lets stick to his names, the most popular being Unnikuttan, but as you know he too has a lot of names one amongst them is the ‘Sheikh al P****an mutti khan’ coined by shabbu. Details are highly classified so sorry, and the saddest part is all his nick names are highly classified so I will have to deviate from him, and he has also earned a lot more names recently in Dubai, like britolli unni etc…

‘Eda randum peerum ore alla’ that’s what shabbu said when we asked who chandran and shekaran were from his name sabarish chandrashekaran. So he is the son of chandran and shekaran. It also happens that once he sets off from his home, on his scooter to college, it’s similar to a cattle being let off to graze, so he is our ‘maadu’. He stops only to eat and talk. Well yes he had invented a quadruple omelet. While we were have single and double omelet at ikkas hotel, he suddenly ordered ikka to gve him a quadruple omelet, to which ikka said ‘moone naalu moota, vere vere tharaam athu maathiyoo’. He also ordered a milk shake from a milk shake joint at changanachery, while we were visiting unnikuttans home, for which the shake owner latter made a separate menu called supreme milkshake, that was because our dear shabbu custom made a shake for himself. Such is the capability of our dear friend.

Kanjan, well that’s anybodies guess, tries to remain aloof, quiet surrounded by a halo, not because of enlightenment but due to smokes emancipating form his cigarette. So he is called Kanjan. Alternatively we have ganjan, which is Nirmal, called so because of his looks which have a Stallone and a bit of a druggy kind of eye. He is also called tauba , because he has a very bold and masculine voice , filled with high bass with which he tried to sing a very melodious song called ‘tauba tumhare ye ishare’, and yes it was an utter disaster.

Then we have the widely known and esteemed Kozhi, why is he known by that name, well even I don’t know that, what I have deduced is that, he jumps around like that fowl, well he is also termed as a Godzilla, any guesses for that kozhi. I guess he too might have forgotten that name.

Then we have Chimproo, what does that mean, hmmmm sample this, the face of a chimpanzee and the lips of the old West Indian pace bowler Curtly Ambrose. Now try and mix it together and think of Ragesh R. well I guess now you might have figured out the name Chimproose. We used to send his ‘chundu’ to milli stores from hostel to buy cigarettes.
Then I can go on rattling out the names especially that of gireesh, dinesh, thotti, KK but I do have a factor called fear, and I fear for my life and also it will eventually get on the nerves of people like you who have spent some time reading this, so I did rather not go on babbling like a two bit squeezer. So I end this post right here, I am waiting for some very nice comments, hey guys , if in case you do post some comments, please be nice to your old pal ‘SANTHA’

Pushers

2008-05-27T11:50:00.000+05:30

Yesterday we had dinner at Ragesh’s house; Minu was doing all the cooking while my better half Anjana was serving mangoes to us. I was busy playing some car racing game at his playstation along with Gireesh who was miserably losing. Ragesh used to take a break from making chapattis and run along to play a game while a totally disgruntled Jojy was scorning at us all the while coz he did not like Video games, playstation and all such things and as far as he is concerned he always states that he is an agricultural person and will pursue that profession in near future. This claim of his till this day, I regard as a cock-and-bull story, highly implausible and he also goes to the extent of watching some dumb karshaka programme on Saturdays and Sundays which annoy us even more. In between Gireesh mentioned about his recent trip, with his sister Greeshma and her husband, the newly wed couple of the block who were honeymooning, and also took Gireesh along with them to Bandhipur forest and some falls nearby. Gireesh was mentioning that they were traveling in a small circular boat called kotta vanchi and the rower took them to the edge of the falls very near to the precipice and blocked the boat with the row and made them have a view of the falls, well at that moment I chuckled and when I looked around I saw Jojy too was smiling that’s when I thought that ‘Pushing’s are a style of NSSians’. So this is all about some famous pushing’s (boasting or rather speaking of ones accomplishments in superlatives) that have been scripted and etched into our memories. So ladies and gentlemen kindly meet the biggest pushers who have been an integral part of our college ta da ta da………..

“Oru kayil Cigarum matte kaayil Benzinte streeingum aaayi njan oootyiude roadil poovayirunnu” well there are no prizes for the people who have guessed correct ,as to who made this up. I won’t name him and if the person who said this happens to read my posts please don’t take it in a bad sense coz I must say that you have the greatest imagination and of course you were a great entertainer. Well that’s not all he was the greatest conjurer of all time with tales such as research activity of VSSC going on in his shed, of him saving a kid while he was driving his twin suspension (it’s the engine that’s suspended) bike, of his childhood friend sobhana (film actress), of his V- shaped body and so on, these are some of the classic example which I am sure will be a Herculean task to forget.

Then we have our ever green hero the ubiquitous Unni who is arguably one of the greatest storytellers of all times. After a series of fisticuffs, strikes and other issues plaguing the campus due to the ongoing election campaign pressure, we were trying to rope in on votes of the first year students, now who else would be a better candidate than Unni to talk and bring in a major number of first year students with his amazing capability of storytelling. Just visualize this scenario, first hostel, room number 45; we have at least 20 prominent first year students sitting and listening to campaign strategies, and then we have unni sitting on the desk in a tantric pose and a wills on his lips, he was listing out the things to do with his usual diplomatic style when one guy from the crowd asked what if someone tries to indulge in fights with them if they campaign for us in their hostel?, I though that the kid is smart and it was a good question! To this the unfazed unni replied “agane vellathum undayal onnum nookenda thatti kalanjere, atha ente reethi! Than ivide poothi ye tha alle, ivide choodichal maathi kaaryam ellam avar paranjoolum”
Well I was really amused and taken aback ,coz when I thought of him as a terminator and all, but I kept my amusement to myself and we all piped in and said “ athe athe atha athinte reethi”. Now Unni is also famous for his other stories like his great grandfather was the only person in Kerala, back in those pre independence days who had a car apart from the erstwhile Cochin maharaja. He also mentioned that when his great grandfather used to smoke cigarettes (it seems that cigarettes was not known to the locals at that time!) ,people mainly the servants and other lesser privileged would wait in nearby bushes, and trees hiding. As soon as his great grandfather was done with the cigarette, he would throw it away. Then at this very moment all these people would jump to have a puff of that cigarette. He is also stated to have said stories of him playing tennis with Sheikhs in the Arabian Desert, also going desert hunting on camel top and enjoying drinks with Lebanese waitress at his uncle’s bar in Dubai. Well apart from all this there is a famous dialogue by him which is something like this “hoooo ithu entha ithu? Puttu kuutiyo!!!!!!” Well if you want an insight into this kindly contact him.

We have had vivek saying that his great grandfather used to roam around on horsebacks and used to chop off robbers head as he was a big zamindar.

Then we have Chimproo who is reported to have got a praise from the film actress Abhi Rami, well the story is somewhat like this, after a workout at the gym chimproo was showing off his muscles when the actress walked up to him and told him “ ooooo ragesh waaaaat a baaady!!!!” (He said this in Trivandrum slang).

Then we have Kozhi mentioning that the same actress is his classmates and she does everything only after consulting him. The same kozhi also used to say that his usual past time is to study codes for windows operating system and also that he is developing some thing in multitasking, threads in windows, kernel and what not…… well i must admit that he is doing something similar in his present company although not for Microsoft but some firm in the US.

Lijith was also no exception, once while we were having a walk we happened to see a plane flying with its hazard lights on. Upon seeing this Lijith retorted that it is a satellite and when we ridiculed him he said that it was told to him by Paaputy sir his physics lecturer!!!!

Sabarish was no exception with stories of his school days, high school days, kinder garden days, nursery days and during all these stories he is the protagonist and the hero with lots and lots of girls all who love him and he was always in a fix as what to do.

Then we have push pai whose pushing’s are famous all throughout the campus. So these are some of the great Pushers whom I can recollect at this moment. So let’s keep the pushing’s alive by honoring the pushers and until the next post its cheers to all of you……

Exams

2008-05-22T15:38:00.000+05:30

Recently our friend from mechanical (Sreejith alias Aandy) managed to select a girl (Litha) with whom he got married and we were lucky enough to be a part of the occasion which was solemnized here in Bangalore. As usual the most vociferous crowd was the NSSians. Now during this function I happened to meet Ranjith who was/is affectionately called Pookalam. It was a rendezvous with him after a long gap and he had changed a lot and I hope its for good, anyway I wont delve much into any personal issues or any philosophical stuff which is unwanted for at this juncture and especially in this blog. Now what happened here was free flow of old talks and humours which has in turn tempted me to jot down on a couple of instances that happened back in those wonderful years at a wonderland place called NSS Palakkad. This blog is all about examinations and how we had prepared for it.

A lot of us have the habit of keeping things till the last and the best example is me. I used to keep things till the last and finally when it’s almost time for the exam I will not be even equipped to pass the examination. It all started with the internals , as most of us were struggling to get the magic figure of 35-40 (35 internal marks and 40 university the minimum needed to pass or it must be 50 university). Since we were a bunch of hard(ly) working students most of us were always short of internal marks. If we happen to enter an exam hall prior to any internal exam there will be the usual studious guys frantically studying for it in the front rows and some of us who were lazy enough to study occupying spaces next to people who had done their homework. Then we had the self sufficient guys with their ‘thundu’ creeping into the corners. One of the most efficient guys in this context is our Unni, mind you he is just the tip of the iceberg if we rummage then we can have masters at the art of copying ,and I had the privilege of watching him live in action back in the third semester. It was an internal exam for electronics by Sheila Madam. I was diagonally across Unni and I was watching him, he was very efficiently scribbling down all that was with him in the answer sheet. Alas and unfortunately while he was at it he happened to miss the graceful madam waltzing across the hall towards him. He thought that he was doing his stuff very professionally which I admit he was but I think he couldn’t do anything about the devious look on his face which a very veteran madam could easily distinguish. I still remember that day when Unni was copying from the piece of paper in the corner of his hand by looking at it through inconceivable angles which are by no means a normal feat for a normal person, it was at this moment that madam had reached near unni and she was watching him doing his tricks. “Entha ado thante kayyil” that’s all that madam said in a very feeble voice which was polite and yet strong at the same time. To this unni suddenly jumped from his seat then in his stereotype style shuddered and stood like a zombie for a couple of seconds wondering what to say, then finally after recalling his senses he said with a pathetic smile “ sorry madambit aanu madam inji repeat cheyilla madam , sorry madam”. He was shown the door and he scored a duck.

There is this instance which is quite hilarious and which makes us wonder how could have we been so stupid well I presume that Girish is the one who has to answer this. It was the fourth semester Maths internal exam and the madam had asked to prove Cauchy integral theorem or something pertaining to it, we had all working at this. Now a small flashback before we enter the exam hall. Jim had seen gireesh loitering around the campus and it was reported that gireesh had no intention of appearing for the exam. Jim being a good Samaritan pushed and heaved Gireesh into the hall saying that he had the stuff needed for the exam and will help Gireesh while in the hall. So heeding Jim’s word gireesh entered the hall and to be very candid he is one of the most pitiful copiers in our batch. After a moment of sitting idle in the hall gireesh started getting the creeps and he began pestering Jim who finally passed on the answer sheet to Gireesh. A very satisfied Gireesh started copying oblivious of the fact that he was in the exam hall. Pretty soon the madam noticed this and thankfully due to some Gods grace gireesh too got wind of the fact that he was noticed and he returned the sheet back to Jim. Noticing that something shady was happening she inquired with gireesh whether he had copied, to which he innocently replied “illya madam njan copy aadichillya. Njan paadichittu annu vaanathu”.
To this the madam nonchalantly replied “ annoo Gireeshe enna pinne eeyal para than enthu theorem aanu derive cheyuthe Cauchy integral theorem aano atho Cauchy differential theorem aano”. Hmmm you should have his face that’s what all say it had turned pink with guilt and the feeling of being trapped coz chances are that he had heard that for the first time but our dear gireesh didn’t stop there he sheepishly replied back “ athu ippol Cauchy integral theorem undu , pinne Cauchy differential theorem undu athu kondu njan ippol prove cheythathu athu…….” And so on. The teacher got the wind of it and he too was shown the door.

Of all the copying attempts for lab exams none will be more amusing than Ragesh (Chimps) doing his Fluid lab. He had all the experiments wrapped up in all parts of his body. So when he got the experiment he went to the store took all what he wanted and helped himself to the experiment by simply copying in all the values, graphs and all data needed. To anyone it was a feat very well done and also a good experiment sure to get good marks. Alas like a thief who leaves a loophole for every burglary committed he too did something which seemed innocuous to him. He went to the lab in charge and returned a stop watch which was needed to measure the revolution of the energy meter saying that it was not needed. This changed the scenario and the sir got suspicious and started questioning him, and within seconds we heard chimproo exclaiming “Sir enne veruthe vidoo sir! Bit undu sir! Sorry sir!” He too was shown the door.
Also one another thing worth mentioning here is that the same chimproo while giving his university exam (this time without copying) was caught in the wrong line of sight by the invigilator whom we all affectionately call Mr. Bamboo. The sir thought that chimps was copying and began bothering him and after sometime of mindless bothering ,chimps lost his cool and did something out of desperation which was quite humorous. He exclaimed
“Hey man! Please don’t disturb me!!!! Njan exam ezhuthikotte! That actually was a surprise for Mr. Bamboo and after some verbal exchange with him, chimps finally said sorry and he then left him alone.

There are n number of instances which due to the lack of time and some amount of laziness I am not mentioning, but surely the most interesting one will definitely go to (Mad Dog, Pe Patti) Nitin and his ‘C’ exam. This one incident is a classic. Well to cut a long story short it was university exam of C and the invigilator was none other than ‘Paal kaaran’(no offenses here, Well I must say that he is a very caring sir). As usual even before the exam stared a master plan was developed and it was agreed that nitin would carry an old C question paper with him. Once he gets the new one he would throw it out of the window which would then be collected by the person outside and he would write down the answers in the answer paper which again would be thrown out along with the question paper. All this procedures went well with clockwork precision and somehow they collected the stuff nitin had thrown but during this melee that happened within fractions of seconds, Sir suspected foul play as nitin was involved and went straight to him and saw that he had an old crumpled question paper that too three year old one. He asked “ entha do? ithu paazhye question paper aanu allo?.” Well we all wondered what would happen at this juncture coz if caught then he had to face dire consequences. To this day even after nearly 4 years I still wonder from where he had come up with such a terrible reply , this is what he had said “ Athu sir eenikyo ee puthiyee paper onnum aariyillya… eenikyo pazhe question paper maathrame aaariyoo, sir athu kondu vesham kaaranam njan pazheyethu kaalenjo, sir please sir njan ee pazheythu veechu ezuthee nookette sir chelleepol pass aavom sir, please sir”. Well guess what he was allowed to continue and finally he won for the day and managed to make it through. Well he can thank his lucky stars for that incident.

Well the above mentioned were copiers but we had one another breed called jojy who used to loiter around without studying ,I was also no exception but still better coz I might have managed to finish 2 modules. In one such instance taking pity on him during the fourth semester examination I called him up for combined study and mentored him and together we both would study at least half of what was required and the end result was that he passed and I flunked. From that day I stopped a combined study with him. Then took support of Pug(Nilby) coz I though that it will be better here ,again he passed and I flunked so finally I started studying on my own and also taking backup ( bit) like vivek who studies also takes all the four modules with him. It will be like a belt bomb around him. Sometimes I used to borrow unnis bit coz he used too take great pain in making them and it would be clear and neat. Also he wouldnt destroy any bits till he had passed that exam.

The list goes on and I will continue this section as soon as more incidents come across my mind and since my non billable periods at office are reducing I do wonder when I will get more time, so until then all out there who will use Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy paste items this is just a gentle reminder of how we used the copy paste during those wonderful years.

PADAYAPPA

2008-04-29T11:35:00.000+05:30

“Vaandi niruthada nammuke On The Rocks Addikyam” Well, any wild guesses what this means. To mere mortals this might sound gibberish but to the Padayappas of NSS this is one among the many famous quotes that has evolved to become a cult of its own type.
Now what are Padayappas? Well it’s not a Rajni fan club, nor it’s a society or theatrical club, it’s just a word coined by Sabarish while we were at one of our drinking (Vellamadi) Spree. After a couple of round of drinks when we had all become ecstatic the big mouthed Shabbu started yelling “da njan padayappa aayi “. That was it! From then on whole new breeds of Padayappa’s were born. I now dedicate this post to those moments where we spent time being Padayappa’s.

If I rummage through the pages of history of the time in college, then I assure you that an awful lot stories will pop out wherein numerous humorous incidents can be chalked out. So let’s have a brush up of some of the incidents that I can recollect. Many issues arise after a couple of pegs be it politics, romance, personal animosity whatever be the occasion there is always a padayappa lurking.

I still remember the first time that I had become a Padayappa was with Unni and Vivek at our tharavadu Govardhana in malampuzha. Well as usual we were enjoying Honeybee Vivek’s all time favorite and after two rounds I and unni became tight and started acting tipsy. Unni was talking smooth as he does I was thinking that I was the pathetic one; can’t even manage two rounds of brandy. With this anguish in mind in gulped down one more large. Bells tolled and birds flew the earth seemed to rotate faster and I was officially a Padayappa. With a smile I managed to reach the bathroom to wash and leave for hostel and when I tried to wash my hands I was in for a shock coz Unni Padayappa was wriggling his way out of the wash after filling both basins with his ‘VAAL’. Now let me elaborate on this, unni is famous for his short vaals like the time when we were on tour he used to run to the nearest bar have a couple of beers and then used to wander for sometime and then suddenly one spurt of the signature unni vaal then he used to say “ellam shaari aaaye vaa poovam “. Now back to Govardhana well after Vivek had paid the amount we were on our way back and I was dancing all the while on their shoulders and it was dark; I accidentally (Till this day I will argue that it was an accident and not coz of honeybee which unni tends to differ) fell on a car parked nearby which happened to be a young family enjoying the sunset near the dam. Unni apologized to them to which he got the reply ‘Iduthu kondu poodo’. That was the beginning of my padayappa career.

Speaking of Govardhana during the first year it was a hub for NSSians to linger there. During one of the other booze party which involved a lot of us, eajas proved that he could vomit like a fountain and that even if one of the fountain particles landed on a lit cigarette it could be just wiped off and smoked again which unni proved. Also it has been said that a person treated another one (names withheld) at this same bar on the pretext that he will never forget this treat in his entire life. So the other person enjoyed his food and liquor to his content as it was a treat and finally when the bill arrived all he heard was ‘eda njan paranjille ee treat nee orikilum marakilya ennu, oooodikoooo paisa illya’ and with this the person who was supposed to treat the other bolted away in a jiffy with the other close behind him. So Govardhana and NSS have a history in common to share.

Well we the padayappas have created wings for themselves in hostel namely Bar wing, Underworld etc where we used to have parties frequently. So if anyone visited room number 46 what he would find was two cots with two buckets at each end. This was for ease for Mocha and Unda who prefer to use them in case of ‘Vaal’ rather than use the toilets.
Mocha again is a different breed of padayappa altogether he becomes extremely aggressive and some of his hobbies include smoking in the college portico and when asked to stop doing so by HOD he refutes their request by claiming that his smoke is going to the atmosphere and not inside the college campus. Also his hobby included searching for Susie along with Biju bhai another dangerous padayappa. During this search mocha coined one of the arguably all time favorite phrase Susie engil Susie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we have bragging Padayappas who claim to have eight or ten pegs when in actual they had just 3 to 4 and the rest was soda or water which was given to them and to name some we have an excellent candidate ‘Pashoooo’ who eventually had reached that target.

Not to forget the sentimental Padayappas who actually cries to auto drivers (who do the duty of dropping padayappas back at hostel) saying ‘chetta pathu paisa ilyya cheta entha cheeya’ well believe me that’s what chimproo padayaapa did when he was short of cash which the auto driver had asked, and the auto fellow being a good Samaritan pardoned him and went off.

Then comes the budding padayappa which undoubtedly was shabbu who claimed to be steady after having a beer, but in actual was jumping footpaths and scaring people of Trivandrum while trying to get back to the lodge where we were staying and upon reaching the lodge fall like a rock on the bed and doze for two days.

As for a confused padayappa it was definitely Vava who always had a beer when all will have hot and would have hot drinks when all will have beer. But he was definitely a good obedient Padayappa, and if it were not for him then probably I and unda would have been rolling in the tracks of the Trivandrum central railway station.

As for steady padayappas it will definitely go to madan. It was reported that after having 20 rounds in a single day on the beaches of Goa madan was relaxing on the sands and our vava and pileee took him by their arms back to room with great effort, and finally when they reached room madan shook them off and took a bath and again went for his next round leaving behind two dazzled people.

Well we have Romantic padayappas and most the above mentioned come under this section but none like our pilee moon who after having a beer claimed to have burned his heart in the bonfire that was burning in the hostel grounds. He was jumping and running all over claiming to have burnt his heart in the bon fire………well wonder if he still has that part left.

Crying padayappa will definitely go to Aju who cried like a two year old after the aggressive mocha slapped him for some miniscule reason.

Threatening Padayappa will definitely be Kunju who claimed one day that ‘athikam kallichal muuteyil ezhayum palakkadile gundagal ente ammavante aaanu’.

Then we have the brave padayappa SK who one day wanted to kick one senior and was reported to say ‘maareda kunju njan avane parannu chaavtiteda’.

Fearsome padayappa will definitely go to PCP whom all feared as PCP was famous for banging people on their chest, so all would stay clear of him.

Finally we have another band of padayappas which cannot be classified as they are truly mature and don’t come in any of the above mentioned category well to name some we have our Jim aana.

The list goes on and on and there seems no end to it .We padayappas have roamed the terrain of NSS for four years and all the while enjoyed each and every moment. Till the next blog its cheers to all padayappas out there.

Condonation

2008-03-27T13:13:00.000+05:30

“Ente Moone Politicsil Bhayangaraamayiite involved aaano teacher atho avan adi pidi gusthi aaano?” These were the words that my parents asked my group tutor and I was sitting blushing next to them head bowed down and fully ashamed of what I had done. The teacher retorted back “ennikyum atha manasilavathe Raghu ithilum onnum illya ennitum avan attendance shortage aanu, Entha ivan cheyuune?”
What was I doing or rather what were we doing???????? Condonation!!!! That’s what we all earned, opps sorry I usually refer to us all as we and who are the ‘we’? Let’s be clear on this “we”, the “we” here refers to a group of individuals who despite of their diverse backgrounds came together under a single blanket of friendship and stayed put through the many thick and thin of college life. If I start to name them then it would be a big bore as you would be spending half your time going through the list. So instead of that what I will do is just introduce each character as the NSS kathakal unfolds in each of my posts.
So why this Condonation just when we started our course? Lack of insight, irresponsible, idiots well whatever we just didn’t care and we were so hell bent on enjoying that we lost track of the reality that we would have to confront pretty soon!
So leaving the reality behind lets come back to those days where we were in a different world altogether. After the initial first year where we discovered news ways of enjoying and finally ended up in a big mess, I still remember the day when our first year results were out, a very few (well if my memory is correct 17 from electrical and almost the same numbers in others disciplines) had managed to pass in all their subject and the others among us were quite content with their supplies and were comparing on who had more supplies, chanted “ hum honge kaamiyaab , hum hoonge kaaamiyaab ek din” all along the main entrance. Hmmmm a false sense of elevation. The story was no different the other semesters also. So while we were battling this situation we also managed to get into many notorious incidents (which again I will make a different post) which eventually led to a point where in all our tutors lost their patience and this compounded with the condonation that we all had the tutors took the decision onto their hands and decided to call-in our parents.
So the D-day arrived where the college had witnessed the largest gathering of Parents from a single batch and boy it was a sight. A big line of cars parked in an around the main college gate. It is obvious that most of them were from Royal Mechs department then electrical the rest trailed behind these two departments. My parents had also come.
During the meeting our tutor’s blabbered a lot of not so good stuff about us all to our parents. Some of the incidents during this rendezvous which might seem funny are worth mentioning; again the credibility of these incidents can be verified at any point of time and don’t think that I made up these.
Jim our dear ‘ana’ the elephant was seen trotting behind his mother like a tamed elephant (that’s a very different Jim, coz he at 5’10 and weighing almost a quintal was a very fearsome character; p.s.: to those who don’t know him he is quite a fearsome person but in actual he’s just ana ) but right now he was waltzing behind his mother like a two year old who was being led to school for the first time. After all the melodious tunes that our tutor had sung into his mothers ears he was getting more tamed by the minute, finally when aunty was going back home walking along the second floor corridor with our ana behind her, she politely asked “ moone ithu etramathe nelyaaa” .
To which Jim said “ithu second floor aanu mummy, entha mummy choodiche”, and she snapped back “alla moone ividinnu chaadiyal chaavooo”. Well any one can guess the amount of despair that both were in.
Gireesh was seen entering smiling along with his father and was seen leaving smiling and well his smiling attitude had one funny twist. We all know that mocha’s father is a very straight forward person the only mistake from his part was his son, (da mocha no hard feelings) and it is no surprise that he was visibly upset with his son having a condonation along with back papers.

So we all kept a good distance from his father fearing the worst, but our ever smiling Gireesh decided that nothing was wrong in meeting his friend’s father despite warnings from mocha himself. So when Gireesh met mochas father he smiled and introduced himself as “Hello Uncle Njan Gireesh shajeaninte classmate aanu”, he was smiling his best. To this Uncle replied “Gireeshine supply undo” the same smiling Gireesh relied back with all his enthusiasm “undu Uncle first year naal aaanum” without even losing that smile on his face. Now to this his father replied “hmmm thanikyo okke engane chirrkyan thonnunu ithreyam supply vechu”. Like a flash that smile vanished and Gireesh wondered whether he would be able to smile again ever (well actually he smiles more now, he is here in Bangalore working as a project engineer in
Wipro, also that smile broadens at the sight of all gals).

The guys in mech had a very tough time as their parents really bore the brunt coz we all did things that was against the very fundamentals. As a result of this meeting our dear Achu moon (Vava, ashok, Mandan call him whatever you like) had to discontinue his semester and join in a semester that he had already taken. After this all thought that we would change and become subdued well they were wrong this did not clip our wings, till the final year we were pretty much the same enjoying each and every moment in that college “aaaaaaaaa mala mootile college”, believe me even though most of us had to face a bit of difficulties coz we did things that we were not supposed to do while studying in a professional college we managed to come out of our hardships and all of us are doing good and well settled.
Now in order for our fourth sem results to be published it was necessary that all the condonation dues had been paid and send to the university. I had paid the amount due and given the challan to mocha who said “onnum paedikenda ellam njan eetu” and that idiot lost my challan and also forgot to inform me (there was a lot of challan it was a bulk application from all of us) as we had all gone home for study holiday. When I came back and found that my dues were still pending I was visibly upset since I was the only person remaining to send that form. I didn’t know what to do as the results would not be released from the university, so I came back to my room to see my dear friend Madhu lying in his bed and smoking as usual. I told him of my situation and he started to scold me saying “ninakku oru ullupum illya alle rascal, chommadhalabodham venam, enne kaandu paddikyo njam ellam aayichu athu koondu njan ippol safe annu”. I felt dejected, even Madhu had done his part that is “eee kothara adakkam condonation dues proper aayi cheythallo eeshwara”. So I dragged myself to college office to sort this out with help from administration. When I asked the concerned person he told me to fill in forms pay special fees and get a form signed from the principal and with all this I had to go to university and do the rest there. While I was filling in the form carefully (this form must be filled without any mistakes and there must be no scratches in short it should be error free) the person from office asked me “thannikyo ithu ara aanu ennu arriyamo” and he showed me a form. Upon seeing that my eyes lit up like a 1000 W bulb, he then said “ thanteyum eee alludeyam form maathrame eee coolegil niinu poovan ullu, igane aaano oru form fill cheyyya, ithil fuul vettum kutthum aaanu, oru informationum illya, thaanikyo aaariyoo eee MADHU .T.C ara ennu.”

The next day me and Madhu got up early in the morning and took a bus from olavakkode to university to clear our condonation dues. I was all smiling and Madhu was sleeping next to me with a small frown on his face. We were off too get our fourth semester results with high expectations.

A tryst with Destiny with Unni

2008-03-26T14:02:00.000+05:30

Something’s in life are worth sharing and if that happens to bring a smile on your face then its worth telling a million times so that others too can cherish it.

“Eda eee Shornur Station undalloo oru triangle poleya..... “Well these words create those eight muscles on my cheek to work and brighten my face with a smile that brings back those wonderful days back at NSS College wherein we had a wonderful time which will always linger in and around me for an eternity.

These words were uttered by the infamous Rakesh Unnikrishnan a.k.a our Unnikuttan. This incident which occurred way back during our fourth semester term is worth mentioning. To cut short a long story I will start form the originator of this incident who happens to be Mr.Suhas my friend from pre-degree who was studying at Kuttipuram MES which is almost 100 KM away from our college. Suhas had come over to palakkad to purchase a second hand bike for him. It was said that the quality of second hand bikes from Palakkad is excellent (which was proved wrong in due course). So we both went ahead and scouted the entire area near the Priyadarshini theatre and also some other areas and finally zeroed in on a Suzuki Shaolin a 5 speed silver coloured bike.
He doled out nearly 12K for that piece of junk and finally bought it. He also asked for my opinion and I also supported him which I consider one of the biggest blunders among the many that I had done during those days. Now starts the interesting part, since the prospectus of having a shining new bike (only the body was shining the machine was infact a devious piece of junk that ought to have been scrapped) was very inviting I requested him to lend me the bike for a week so that I could zip in and out of college with that junk and la voila!! He agreed to it, now I was very ecstatic and gladly took the junk and rode of in style to college to show off on this contraption. All was well for two days. I was very happy as this thing went fast and also made a lot of noise in campus which made heads turn, now one fine day it started showing symptoms such as the gear wont fall into place, the engine would stall, etc etc. after consulting with the mechanic he showed me the dismantled engine, and my gosh it was a real sight, the piston was full of scratches as if it were tampered with and the gear teeth’s were either missing or broken also some of the screws were missing and the list went on and on. He said an overhauling procedure would make it recover from the present condition and that would cost at least 5K.

Those words felt like thunder bolts from clear sky, it was like “veeliyil kadukunnu paambine kazhuthil itta poole oru feeling”. I was wondering how I will return the junk to suhas without repairing and from where I will manage so much money I was in a dilemma. During those days to smoke a filter itself was sometimes an ordeal as we had to go from room to room in hostel “thendi thendi nadanaaal 3 rs oppichu paathu peeru koodi randu filter share cheeyum” and the expert at this was Vivek

The very sight of him would make all hide coz he was an expert in picha thendal…. Well I cant resist a smile when I visualize those days when he would roam around, his head would first pop into a room and then a smile then, “dai oru 50 paise undo please” well that was what would happen in each room and finally we all wuld run to Manjula to have that filter……. Hmmmm cool.
Now coming back to our story as mentioned I had to get rid of this junk also I wanted it to be in a better condition when I returned it, so I told the mechanic “onnu ooopichu vechal maathi athikam nanakenda” and he did exactly that for almost 2K. I had to utilize my mess bill for this. Never did I have an inkling of an idea that this was again going to create a big gaping hole in my pocket. This money was supposed to pay of my debts at Canteen, Xanadu, Milli, Canal Kaada….. Hmm paatu undayirunnu ivide okke. How I managed to repay this is another story which will come later.
Again nammude kaatheyilekku thirichu vaaram, I called up Suhas and told him I am coming to his college to return his bike also I told him about the condition of his bike, as I expected he took it lightly, the usual Suhas.
It was in April 2002 I presume on a fine sunny day I prepared myself to go to kuttipuram on that junk, now when I ponder over it there is no doubt in my mind that it was actually a big risk riding on that machine for 100 KM. The next obvious question was who will be my pillion rider and where will I get money to reach there. The money part was solved quickly I went to meet Litty at Ladies hostel and borrowed 500 rs from her (which I still owe). Now the other issue was of my pillion rider, hmm no one was ready to come with me coz of the condition of the bike and also bcoz of the reason that classes were going on. I went to Xanadu in the morning to stock myself with cigarettes for my trip I decided that “ottekyu anegilum njam poovum”. When I reached there I saw Unnikuttan smoking his filter and doings his usual pushing’s. Well he was just out of bed and in shorts (I think he had not even brushed!!!!). I requested him to accompany me to kuttipuram, “da nammuke poovam kuttipuram vaare, oru beer vaangi tharam pinne MES cherrakukale kanam” that’s all I said! Till today I argue with myself what made him come beer or MES cherrakukal, well maybe friendship. So now all was settled we filled up our tanks and set out to our destinations. “ponna vazhi ellam unnikuutante pushings kaathakalum okke kettu njanum avan adichu minnichu vittu.”

Occasionally we came across potholes on our route and since we were going at almost 70 to 80 km/hr and the brakes were practically non existent we would ride through these pot holes. I would here a cry from behind ayyooooo kuzhi kuzhi , that was unni flying up and then landing back and yelling at me consistently. Finally we reached Kuttipuram and as promised we met Suhas, then followed him in his turf and I and Unni were quite happy to see all the colours of his college. We then went back to his bungalow which was nestled next to the picturesque Bharathapuzha. We had a couple of beers which was very soothing and we ended up a bit tipsy. Finally we said bye to Suhas and asked him the way back to palakad. He said that bus was available in plenty. At that point Unni spoke and said that train is more economical” eda nammuku kala vandi keram” since he was more experienced in train travel I kept quite. He then took over and asked Suhas to drop us at Kuttipuram station which he did.

We were at the station and unni got into action, he disappeared somewhere and came back smiling “ ellam solve aaayi , eee unni vicharichal ellam vallare puutu poole nadakum, nammal ippol oru trainil kaayiri shornuril arangum pinne avidduunu 9.40 innu oru last train undu palakkadilekke athu aaanu jammu tawi express aa train oru 10.30 aavumbelekkum palakkad ethum. Avidunnu pinne oru beerum, thattu dosayum and finally auto and back to college.” I was very impressed with his idea and since it was a ticket less travel we would save a lot of money.

Then as discussed the train arrived at kuttipuram we boarded the general compartment and we said bye to Suhas and started our journey back to Palakkad via shornur. Whilst traveling sitting on the footboard we were zipping past some very impressive landscape with big trees and rivers and also some big bridges parallel to our track. Unni always has many stories under his belt about every thing and I was immersed in his talks. Time flew by and we reached shornur by 9 P.M.

Shornur being a Major junction has many platforms and I was skeptical as to which platform was the correct one to board our train. Here again Unni impressed me with his gyan of the Indian railways. He told the direction of travel of our train and also the bogie which we have to board etc. I was happy that he was there! We killed time till 9.40. Finally the train arrived on time without much hindrance we boarded the general compartment and once again we sat on the footboard. Since it was almost 10 pm and we had a gulped a couple of beers the effect was evident and Unni said he wanted to drowse off and asked me to wake him when the train reached ottapalam. I agreed and he slept on my shoulders. Now starts the interesting part while the train was rolling off I was perplexed to see the same scenery that we had seen while coming from kuttipuram, I got perturbed and woke unni up and told him “ da nammal kuttipurathinu vaarumbol kanda athe kazhichakal njan ippol kaanunu athe paalam, athe paadam nammude train reverse poovanooo!!!! To this he retorted back “ hmmmm mara manda ninakku enthu aaariyam shornur stationine kurichu , EEE SHORNUR STATION ORU TRIANGLE POLLE AANU, TRAININTE ENGINE IVIDUNNU AANU MAATUNATHU ATHU KONDU TRAIN KURACHU REVERSE POOYITTA ANNU ENGINE MAATI PINNE MUNBAKAM POOVA…..appol ellam manasilaayallo inji oru wills kathikyo tension aaayi!!!!” With this we happily smoked our cigarette and we both slept. After a couple of minutes I suddenly woke up to find the train slowing down and approaching a station. In the dim light of the summer night I saw something that made me laugh violently and wake up Unni, he asked groggily “entha da ottapalam ethiyo”. I started laughing hysterically and said that “ illyada kuttiparum ethi”. He got up and angrily and cursed me “entha m***e orrakathinu villichu vadi aakelle maaru njan nokkete”. He poked his head out and was faced with the stark reality that we had reached back to the point where we had started almost four hours ago!!!!!!!!!

I was rolling with uncontrollable laughter and he was cursing all the people and abusing me with all the words in Malayalam and after that in English and sometimes now I wonder that he might have used Arabic also……Suddenly one grand old man from the train said “Makkele irrangiko ithu mangalapuram poona traina”. That was the last straw I broke into tears due to uncontrollable laugh and also on seeing his face all the while the expression that he had used to describe shornur station still echoing in my mind.

Finally when all the confusion died out we both saw face to face and smiled and thought that someone had made us teach a lesson that from now on not to travel without tickets. That was the first and the last time I ever traveled without ticket.
We called up Suhas from a booth ( no movile with us those days only a few elite had them) and asked him to pick us from the station. Now for the final twist of that day, when we requested Suhas to pick us he got irritated and told that don’t make an April fool of him as it was April 1st and he hung up. That was the last straw we called him up again and asked him to come; this time luckily he came and took us back to his bungalow where we spent the night.

Finally the next morning we started off from kuttipuram in a bus to palakkad and reached by 11 am. The moment we reached college Unni ran off to class and stared to push these stories to girls with his usual aristocratic style of him on the desk and the gals surrounding him on all sides…… “Njan avanodu appale paranjatha eee Shornur enna station…….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.