PADAYAPPA

“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.