College Diaries #2

DISCLAIMER :This blog is based loosely on my Engineering college days of University College of Engineering, Trivandrum,Kerala during the period 2003-2007 . This has to be viewed as a piece of art rather than a commentary of my college life . At times I have taken the writer's liberty at the sametime I have tried my level best to stay as impersonal as possible .

One warm afternoon as a boring lecture was in progress I and my friend were discussing about the upcoming excursion when we were pulled up by the professor and promptly thrown out of the class. I had been a studious kid all through my school days that I was never even reprimanded forget being sent out of class and this was a new experience. Well for everything there is always a first time.  Rather that showing any remorse I walked out of the class nonchalantly which was quite surprising considering the background from which I came from. Since it was really hot outdoors we continued our discussion just outside the class room the Professor wasn’t amused by this.  He called us back and made us stand on either corner of the room, boy! That was embarrassing and the worst part of the whole thing was that the guy who actually started this conversation was sitting in our bench and attending lecture as if nothing had happened. This was during the first year of college and I don’t know if my classmates do remember but I will never forget this.

Moving on this was the first excursion that we as a class were undertaking to a well known amusement park in Kerala. As most of us were day scholars hardly anyone knew each other very well and everyone was keenly looking forward to it . I being one of the tour co-ordinators did not want to leave any stone unturned and went the entire distance to ensure that everything went smoothly. Finally the day dawned and we embarked upon the journey with high spirits.  It was a great journey and everyone had really started to get into the mood of the tour. We reached the amusement park and had a whale of a time over there.  As the day progressed a rumour was doing the rounds that some guys from another college or so had allegedly passed some inappropriate comments on the girl students of our class. This pumped up the guys and everyone was really angry. Towards the end of the day as most of us were savouring a treat by the teachers who accompanied us on the tour a group of our guys went up and thrashed the culprits black and blue ,who at that time were clearly outnumbered and were sitting ducks. Only very few people among us knew about this episode.

As we were moving onto the bus all hell broke loose as the guys had regrouped and started attacking the guys from our tour party. All along I was kept in the dark and I had absolutely no clue as to what was going on. My initial reaction was to retaliate but luckily good sense prevailed and I had the presence of mind to safely get the rest of the group into the bus. I had a torrid time doing this because the majority of our group were girls who were shell shocked to even move. Somehow we managed to get everyone on board and beat a hasty retreat from the amusement park.

Only sometime into the journey did everyone gather their wits and slowly the dust started to settle down. Fortunately there were no broken bones or fallen teeth there were bruises a black eye and minor injuries here and there which were not so serious. Hence we didn’t have to make a pit stop at a hospital on our way back.  If my memory serves me right there was someone who lost his spectacles in the ensuing melee (he later came to me saying that he needed reimbursement for this from the tour fund) .When the whole story was uncovered the girls were pretty pissed off with the guys for their knee jerk reaction. Their view was that the situation could have been handled differently. I vividly remember one of my fiery female classmates asking us if we would react like this every single time someone passed comments on them. As always I had to play the mediator and had a hard time to calm down the flayed tempers.

  

 I guess this incident made our class closer as a group and impressed upon all of us the fact that we really did care for each other. I understood that when something of this sort happens it creases the comfort level of a group of individuals by leaps and bounds .During the course of our college I have countless number of times reiterated to my female classmates that they are lucky to have guys like us as their peers. 

The other day when I happened to see a commercial on TV for Gillete which had a tagline ‘Soldier for Women’ it sparked old memories in me. At a time when the entire country is engaged in a debate on women’s safety I wanted to share this particular incident in college. I dedicate this to all the women who I have come across in my life, Jai Ho.

Check out a similar posts of mine College Diaries #1, College Diaries #3, College Diaries #4, Life has come a full circle