Thursday, March 30, 2006

Mastermind

It’s the spring of 1998 and second semester as Ramrao Adik Institue of Technology (RAIT). The male variety of the seniors has found an unsullied canvas amongst the bunch of unsuspecting little FE girls. Each senior has his own plan of attack; the wheels of which have been in motion since the beginning of the first semester.

The first meeting between the senior and the girl went off smoothly. It was just by chance that they met. The girl was being ragged (inappropriately, I must add) and it was the senior who was her knight in shining armor, who got her out of the canteen and dropped her into the (then) welcoming and safe arms of lecture room. Or maybe the girl was traveling back in second class and the senior was in the same train because he had not got his first class pass yet and wanted to avoid the rush hour. He was sympathetic to the problems she was facing in this new world of engineering and was well equipped with funny anecdotes to make her forget her problems, even though it is just for that one ride. Or maybe the girl wanted to buy some second hand engineering books for cheap (considering that she could not get 299 PCM and now her “baapu” had to pay 32k year for a “paid” seat), and our bookworm had just the right book for her, and the cost was in single digits.

So what if the guy had to take “panga” with the wrong kind of guys when he rescued the grateful girl. Sold an expensive book for pennies? Never mind a few days of “tangi” now, the end-of-semester crash course embezzlement always returned good yields. But hunting season came just once a year and nothing was left to chance. Each meeting had been well though out. Unknown to the gullible girls, they are the protagonists in a plot so complex; it would put Ludlum to shame.

(To be continued..)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

hmmm engineering and ragging .. those were the days..:)

Arjun J said...

Demi: Welcome to my blog! Oh the joys of being a FE :)

Anonymous said...

takes me back to FE , nostalgic is the word

Arjun J said...

Venkat:
I am sure that a lot of the senior girls hit on you when you were a FE!

Anonymous said...

So is that how you pataaved Sonal....in your "Hunting" season??

To add to that let me tell you I was never ragged and definately never sold a book at a cheaper price....:(:(

Anonymous said...

I should also add....well written Arjun!!

Anonymous said...

Arjun..complete the story..it kind of left us hanging..Chirag

Arjun J said...

Adita: Unfortuntately you were out if everyone's league. That's why you did not get the cheap books.

Chirag: I will definitely try to complete it asap, as soon as I can fix these damn bugs!