Episode II

Healthy interaction - Doot is on the menu!

September, 2007

Fresher year. Engineering college. A night before the test. All you engineers out there can imagine the scenario very easily. All the wingies (wingmates some of you might say) gathered in one room, trying to find out what the syllabus is, what has to be studied, what can be left for option, if anyone has ever attended a lecture, if someone has then did he care to take notes in the lecture, what not. The scene is amazing I tell you, and you have to experience these moments to cherish them throughout your life.

It was 12.30 already. And every piece finally started to fall in right place as all this was kind of a practice now. All of us did the same drill during first test series and test 2 was no surprise to that tradition. But speak of surprises and here it comes. A third year senior stormed into my room & said, “Mihir, someone is here and wants to meet you.”

Obviously I was shocked as I knew what this statement means in the campus lingo. It only means, seniors are getting bored and you are on the menu tonight. I was sure then, that my test tomorrow is screwed now. So, I started revising the intro format in my mind. I entered the room of darkness, den of the devils, place of no solace and what not. An 11’ X 7’ room filled with 3 third yearites, a senior who passed out from the campus two years ago and me of course. Certainly a danger situation.

“Hey Mihir, wanted to meet you bro. I’m Anish”, he said. Whoever you are, why the hell do you want to meet me out of 800 of my batchmates? Prob-stat sucks I said in my mind. Like if he could read minds, he answered my question with another question, “You’re Priya’s cousin right?”

See. When you go some thousands of kilometers away from your home, you are comforted to know that someone who loves you is there with you, to take care of you. But on a college campus, it has its pros and cons.

“So, what are you waiting for? Koi teri aarti nahi utarne wala yaha. Start with your intro”, he said and I started talking like a robotic parrot,

“Good evening sirs. My name is Mihir Doot, sirs. My identification number is 2007XXPracticeSchoolXXX, sirs. My city seniors are ……… ”, I went on and on.

Every time I had made a mistake, I had to restart. After fifteen long minutes I completed my first task. It seemed like these guys were enjoying themselves a lot. They used each and every weapon available for a healthy interaction. That’s a sweet alternative word for ragging. I looked into my fastrack, it was 2.30 already. To practice for tomorrow’s Maths paper, I tried calculating how much time I will be able to sleep. In no case the number was crossing 2 hours, that too with an optimistic approximation.

I was burning from inside. I wanted to cry and at the same time I wanted to kick those senior asses. After an hour or two, when they saw that I was about to break and my actions were becoming quite unpredictable, they turned towards a soft corner.

That Anish guy said, in the style of an inspector or DCP, “Tell me, chicks on the campus that are in your crush list and arrange them according to the preference. Chal, quickly, quickly. We don’t have time for your stupid excuses. We don’t ……… ”, I stopped him.

“Sir, I’ll never answer such a stupid question”, I answered those bandits in a revolutionary manner and gave Anish an angry young man look.

I don’t know why, but he instantly said, “Good, good. So, you have a girlfriend, back home, don’t you?”

With a pause I answered, “No”

“Ohh… One way traffic it seems”, he said.

Again I gave him the same look keeping silence.

“Hmmm. Back home?”

I nodded.

“Does she know how you feel about her?”

“I haven’t told her yet and I’m not sure whether I’m going to tell her or not.”

“Hmmm. Interesting. Now remember, every time you think that you have made a mistake you’ve to slap yourself. And if you don’t then I will. Do you understand?”

Again I nodded silently.

“So, you don’t really love her, it’s just a crush, isn’t it?”

Again the same look and this time the anger was flooding through that.

“Answer you fool”, he said showing his seniorgiri.

“How many of you have had just one ‘crush’ for a couple of years?”, I asked all of them stressing at the word crush.

“Hahahaha. That’s a tough one to answer.”, He said laughing and added, “So, you love her. Then is she not pretty?”

How the hell did he dare to ask. I felt like taking his keyboard, that he was using like a piano, and smashing it on his dumb head.

“Most prettiest girl in this world she is. Don’t you dare to talk about her like that again……. SIR”, I was really angry now.

Looking at me, he just smiled.

“Hmmm. So she is pretty and you love her, that’s for sure. Then do you think that Pune has got no handsome guys who’ll never ask a pretty girl on a date? Are you living in 1947?”

I had no answer for that. I just slapped myself.

“Good. Now, why haven’t you told her then?”

“I’m not sure what she feels and I don’t want her to stop being my friend.”

“Do you think you’ll ever know what she feels without asking her? What did you get to know about what’s in her heart so far?”

Silence for a few moments. Again a slap. He was undoubtedly right about this one. She was really a mystery, I always felt that way. That Harry Potter fan did knew how to charm people, how to stupefy me and keep a mysterious cloak around her. I never understood what’s going through her mind. Sometimes she’ll talk very freely and next day she talks in yes and nos. Sometimes she keeps on talking and sometimes she

won’t talk to me for days. How the hell was I supposed to know what’s in that lovely heart?

So, he continued talking to me and after lots and lots and let me tell you, lots of slaps I realized that waiting is certainly no good option. After listening to all my story he said, “Dude, I’m warning you. You are running out of time. Even if she is not committed now, why the hell do you expect her to wait for you? When she has no idea what you feel for her.”

And that was the shocker. I knew all of this, but listening to this from someone else was worse than getting bathed by melted metal. I knew I’ll have to do something, because I was certainly not ready to be just a friend of her. We knew each other for nearly two years now and yet I knew not a thing hiding in her heart.

Well, the healthy interaction did continue till 4 in the morning. But, believe me, I forgive all of them for all those intros, vulgar questions, activities that I cannot mention here and obviously the slaps, because if it did not happen, probably my courage would have kept failing me at the most important thing in my life.

So, if you are expecting to find out the details of the healthy interaction session to welcome your juniors, sorry to disappoint you, but we’re moving forward now. But this was the incident when I got to know that I have to act, and act quickly.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .