ALAPPUZHA_SEP 09

we had this wonderful get together in a house boat at alappuzha after attending Augustine's father's funeral. The most interesting thing i saw was that my friends have not changed a bit inspite of the passing years. They continued to perform their roles they did in our college. Murali as usual was the joker in the pack with stiff competition from ajmal. See i am not degrading them by calling them jokers, what i wanted to convey is the positive effect they had on our party being the butt of most of the jokes. We can only make fun of a person who is humble enough not to be hurt by the joke. Murali especially doesn't have a cell of arrogance in his very old body. Coming back to the roles, shine as usual was the errand boy, Nizar the organiser, Anu the rolls royce with unni as the driver. Only Ninan over did his role, how he did it, i wont say. Peppy some how under performed being too dazed to crack his wits. I as usual was mostly the silent spectator afraid of the sharp retorts from others.
Anyway it was great great great fun. we should increase the frequency of this get togethers.

We, from Tvpm, strated off from here by noon in Anu's (Bobby, appostrophe is there) car and reached there just before the cremation. Finished one bottle in the car itself, Unni the driver was spared. After that there was a mixup in fixing the venue and we lost some precious moments, may be one hour or so. At last all settled on a house boat arranged by Anu ( Anu also was very happy on his suggestion being accepted for the first time). Finished three bottles in the night itself. In between Bobby advised Ninan to slow down on watching his drinking spree. But Ninan said 12 pegs is his limit. Fortunate that he went off before the start. Bobby, seems that by that time he had consumed atleast 6 pegs. He had compensated the absence of peg counters like Vetti, Nishanth etc. Next day by 6 o clock itself Bobby relieved to attend some family function. others finished the Scotch sponsored by Ajmal and by 9 o clock Ajmal and Ninan went back. We along with Nizar went to Kottayam Guset House to have another round.

POPULAR GUY

i have a question to ask. who was the most popular guy in our class. My vote will go to shine. I don't think there is much competition for that spot. nishanth might come a distant second. but shine should win hands down. If any one you have any objection you could use this space to prove your point.
So the next question is what are those attributes which make a person popular among his peers.
We will take shine as a specimen for our research. In our class he was accepted by valippers, tholippers and kallipers. what was the reason for that acceptability. Every one has their own egos and to be accepted by them, you will have to satisfy their ego. Is it an easy thing............no, i would say. For you to satisfy other person's ego, it is necessary that you should not have any ego. To not have an ego is some thing which is not human, i will rather call it super human. So, was shine a superhuman. No i wont say that. I will rather call him a socialist. A socialist has got many wave lengths. He can relate to other people who have got different wave lengths. That is what separates him from people having single wave length.
Was shine a person having a spectrum of wave lengths. I think so. You might differ. If so please elaborate.
And shine please don't think that you are the ultimate human being. You have your own failings. About that i will elaborate later.

WHO'S MAD

Since it is hari’s day out, I will also join the party. Actually hari is not the main character in this story. It is Latheesh and Augustine. Most of you know the story, but I will reproduce it here, because thinking about it always produces a chuckle in me. Like all of us during our college days hari also had his own share of girl wooing episodes. But the problem with him was that he always approached it with a cave man mentality. And invariably girls fled from his presence. This particular episode happened towards the end of our college days. There was this girl in the 3 year course, don’t know her name, who hari was after. As usual this girl used to flee from the scene whenever hari was around. One day little inebriated, hari cornered her, and was serenading in his not so subtle ways, the girl got real angry and shouted at Hari “are you mad” and walked away. Hari crestfallen, on his way back met latheesh and recounted the incident to him. Augustine was sitting nearby and Latheesh called Augustine and said to him “some girl has insulted our dear hari by calling him a madman and we will have to give back to her for him”. Augustine got all worked up and both went in search of the girl. They met her near the library and latheesh pulling Augustine along went straight to her. Then latheesh asked the girl in all fury “ why you called hari a madman. It is not he who is mad”. The girl was standing with here eyes wide open fearing what is coming out next. Augustine was also standing next to latheesh hoping that latheesh is going to abuse her. Latheesh then slowly pointed his finger towards Augustine and calmly said “ It is not hari who is mad, it is this fellow who is mad”. The blood totally drained out of Augustine’s face and it was a scene everybody who witnessed it could not forget in their lifetime.

PEPPY

I am remembering one more episode of our beloved peppy..peepy who was a late comer to our team was eager to have a love life from the very beginning and he on the first day of one our female friends who was the last to join our class in first five, I am not ready to mention her name here...
( she met with an accident near clock tower Kollam and you may be remembering how she was traped under a tanker...how we morn her pathetic sitaution in a meeting in our hostel...and at last some how one of us telephoned to visitation and found that the person in news was not our friend..and later on how it became a roaring wit which we enjoyed..inspite of the poor fate of that orginal girl..!!) Now most of u have got the name of the famale friend...Peppy who was watching the new comer beside me through the four windows of the class room suddenly roared...."Look she is in love with me...!" I wondered Hw? Peppy understood from my expression that I am very slow in following him...then he explained..." I looked through this window and she saw me...I then looked through the other side window then also she saw me...Immediately I went the other side and looked through the the next two windows..then also she saw me...friend she fell in love with me..." saying this he was really enjoying his own findings...and I was in dilemma....here a suffix...Mr Premachandran...now minister ...then he was an M.P. delivered a memorable speech in Indian parliament about the debut of that girl who succumbed to death in lack of a recovery van and immediately got realeased Rs. 1 crore for purchasing a recovery van to Kollam District...Please..condone the poor language..

NATTU

As you said shammi, nattu was the fountain of so many funny stories during our class days. I cant remember most of them, any body who remember them should please contribute. There were no shortage of his klepto stories then. If you can remember, Please, please contribute.
Four or five incidents I can remember are the ones which I witnessed. I will narrate one here, it is not a klepto one, but still interesting.
I think it was during our 4th year I, thriprayar vinodan and nattu went to that theatre near ayurveda college to see a film. Cant remember which one. Before seeing the film we had couple of beer and we had to rush to the theatre to be in time. Just before we entered the theatre, nattu stopped and bought two plastic carry bags from a wayside shop near its gate. I asked him why, he just shrugged and smiled his naughty smile. We entered and 20-25 minutes into the film I just couldn’t sit. The two beers had filled my bladder within no time and it was close to bursting. The theatre was choke a block with typical tvm crowd and I know any attempt to go to the loo in the middle of the film trodding on their legs would be real danger to me. Nattu was sitting to my left and inspite of my discomfort I started hearing a peculiar sound coming from there. It sounded like this—rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrprrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….. . I looked at nattu and he was watching the screen, but the same naughty smile was still twinkling on his face. The sound stopped when I looked, but suddenly reappeared. I looked closely and I saw in the semi darkness nattu pissing into a plastic carrybag sitting there. Then I knew nattu was not only a klepto but also a great visionary. Nattu offered me the spare plastic bag but I hadn’t had the guts and very shortly had to make a run for the bathrooms receiving a shower of ‘t’ and ‘p’ words from the not so enthusiastic crowd.

ARUN

I haven’t heard from arun for quite a long time. Not that it is a surprise. We were never very close during our college days. He was really the “blind man” not only for his thick lenses or the darkness that surrounded him but also when you think about his political life and love life in college.
For majority of our college years arun was not seen around our classes. This was because he was making himself available to the available politburo which hung around the canteen. And this politburo was always seen in deep discussion, murmuring in to each others ears, sitting in a close circle, sipping tea and smoking beedies. They rarely raised their gaze to look at the worthless creatures like us moving around them. They behaved as if this poor earth will be thrown of its orbit, even if they shifted their position a bit.
But our poor arun, one day he was thrown out of the orbit of the politburo. what caused that cosmic wonder, I don’t know, not that I want to know. Next day itself arun landed with a thud among us and was into our ways very soon. Then came his journey into his love orbit. He was mercilessly thrown out of that orbit also is another story.

POLITICS

boby

politicians were the real superstars of our college. To say it more correctly anybody who wanted to be a star entered into active politics. i was somebody who never had any active political inclinations till i joined law college. and the law college turned out to be a whirlwind of political activities. The sfi bieng the most happening party in our law college, it was quite natural that most of my classmates floated in to that outfit. More than any political inclinations it was the comfort zone that sfi created prompted many to gravitate to that party. and ksu was a party which stayed behind in the shawdows and peered around with anxiety. i was never comfortable with any established setup and an incident i saw in my fist few days changed my polictical life in the college. One morning there was a student walking around the college shouting slogans and all others were going on with their business as if nothing had happened. First i thought 'poor guy ,a screw is loose in his head', but when i enquired some body said that vjd has called for a statewide strike and what i am seeing is the procession taken out by the law college unit of the vjd to enforce the strike. That second i knew that this is the man and this is the party for me. Sorry it was not any ideals which prompted my decision, but it was the admiration for the sheer guts of veppa sanal who could pull off such a stunt. So i joined and as the saying goes, rest is history.

Shammi

Shine dear friend forgive me...but i can't resists from deposing this truth...u all amy be remembering the final years election...choken Vs Mamu...on the day of election ...early morning Mamu came to me and he begged to give him my vote but with a kona smile I rejected his plea and make it defenite that I will vote to Shine only because he is one of my best friends...Even now I remember the sad face of my innocent friend mamu...as said, I exercised my franchise to great Chokan and anxiously waited for the result...tension rose to the heights when results one by one released and at last a flash news spread that choken is in tie with mamu....and the next step is a toss...my heart stopped for a moment...I called the entire gods ...because...in any chance Choku lost the toss then it will be my last day in the campus..since mamu will defenitely clear me out from there..such a harrassment was give by me in the mornirng...any way toss was in favour of Choks...and he became the Chairperson....but to be fair I may say he may the last person to be selected as a Chairperson because he was an utter flop..and I even now regret with the wrong decision I took on that bad mornirng..But to my heart...even now Chokan is a friend in all sense who stand by the side of my thought and he will be....( Here one more thing to be remembered is my unfaithfulness towards that Valluvanadan friend ( Mamu ) who tried his maximum to make me the winner in my election with Hari on the fourth year..and how my friend Shine faught hard to defeat me in my debut) u see hw ungreatful man is...

Shine

Shammi, I took politics in its right sense during those days. To an extent I still do that. i never mixed POlitics with my personal relations. Thats healthy. When I contested I never asked for votes among my classmates. And ofcourse I felt when Nishanth told me that he wont vote for me and REynil, after election, disclosed that his franchise also was against me. Infact if Ajmal was not my rival i would not have even contested.
And u rightly said it; I know that i was a flop as a chairman and even as a leader of SFI. But u believe me; I never intended or tried for this. There were a lot of undercurrents which i realise now. During the final days I was fed up with everything. But all r memorable moments now.
Bobby, Still waiting, fingers crossed, for remaining part of ur story

APARTHIED

when i think of our college days, usually i miss out on those guys, the same guys you also miss out, i mean the fringe guys in our class. Sorry it is not out of any disrespect i call them the fringe guys, but they were not actually in the mainstream, not in the college life back then nor in our thoughts now. For eg how many of you can actually remember say ashraf or fakrudheen sabu. They were also there in our class. what we used to call them.......ah yes the valippers. Most of us not only thrusted the sharp knife of humiliation deep into their guts, but also never let go an oppurtunity to squeeze the knife. See i am not saying that we were inhuman or something like that. it was quite natural for us then and still will be if we get another chance. There is a racist in every one of us, only the circumstances determine whether we are the perpetrator or the victim. Some body might say they found their mainstream in the fringes, but sorry friends it is not like that. Once upon a time i also lived in the fringes and it is not a happy life out there. So coming from personal experience my observations should carry some credibility.
please, i am not saying the most of us are racists or that aparthied was practiced in our class.
My god, when i started i thought i will say some thing light, but it came out all wrong.
what the hell, let it remain there. BOBBY

Ranjith

There was apartheid in our class, I should say. I had seen it, experienced it and it was really cruel. Many of our classmates faded away from the mainstream only because they hadn’t have the capacity to withstand the humiliating attack from the so called elite class. Take the case of me... Though I was not branded fully as a member of the fringe group our class lords never rated me fit for their group. I was more like what INL is for LDF...I know I was not a kind of person to be included in the elite group. What I am trying to say is that the prominent group in our class never did anything to bring the under rated segment to the mainstream which I think was their obligation.

SPARROW

I thought i will take on tarzan first. But the problem is that once the sparrow comes anywhere near the scene everyone else retreat into darkness. who is this sparrow, you know the sparrow. She was delicate, cute and lithe - the same characterstics of a sparrow. only thing was that she was not very chirpy. She was not the most beautiful creature on this earth, only because her beauty was heavenly. there was no better synonym for the word grace than her. Some mightl say that she was haughty, she carried an attitude, she was inaccessible but who cares. i will say that they all were wearing yellow tinted glasses. But they can argue that it is my vision which is clouded. Might be true, then also who cares. But the twist in the tale is that the sparrow was totally unaware that her greatest fan(that's me) even existed. I stand here with my head bowed to recieve the pity from all of you.

Bobby Gr8 Kurien

Me, coming from a protected enviornment in a remote village where every body knew everybody was not quite prepared for the virtual reality called law college. By "virtual reality'' i mean every thing was really happening, but i couldnt understand or believe most of them. See i am not trying to portray our college as some thing out of the world, but only trying to convey the initial sense of bewildrement in some one like me. I just couldnt identify with most of my class mates who carried an attitude and spoke a language quite foreign to me. Most of them were tough talking, physicaly intimidating and agressive beings, who could destroy a fellow bieng with in minutes with such sharp sarcasam and taunts. And the introvert in me always wanted to flee from their presence. As a result what happened was that most of the days in the morning i will get out of the lodge with the intention of coming to the college but will end up in on of the cinema theatres that dotted the city. There were days when i saw 3 films in a single day.
But after initial 1 1/2 years everything changed. Many factors contributed to this, but two of them really helped. One was my entry into the hostel and the other was my friendship with the creatures(sorry i shouldnt call them creatures, they were such a help). And the law college suddenly looked like a dream come true.

Nish

NISHANTH, THE CLEAN GUY - A POEM
He could be a model in a detergent ad,
i mean in"Before Washing" shot.
His nails could kill a huge elephant,
it contained such poisonous dirt.
His _______ looked always starched,
only because it was never washed.
His room resembled an Aegean stable,
even the hercules could not clean it.
He was one of the kanchan duo
and his company was one eyed popoye
His eyes always had a glazed look
unless he was sleeping in drunken stupor.
He was the last word on film field,
his dream was to be our next spielberg.
He was also the ultimate friend,
some one to lean on in difficult times.
I considered him to be my best friend,
i doubt whether he thinks the same.
Man 'o' man how he has changed,
he has become a total family man.
He is now the ultimate clean guy,
i mean that in every sense.
But i like the old nishanth'
about this his wife may take offence.

Visitation Jungle

VISITATION JUNGLE

Once upon a time there was a village called Govt Law College Tvm wherein lived a mighty and powerful group (atleast that is what they considered themselves to be)of domesticated animals called royal 5. Bordering this village was an enchanted and forbidden forest called the visitation. Some wild creatures who lived in that jungle came into contact with those village animals. The village animals who were thirsty for any contact with the creatures were totally floored by them in a very short time. The creatures were of varied hue and features which added to thier charm. The imposing tusker was called shee-a (SHEEBA), the cunning fox sa-itha (SAJITHA), the graceful cheetah b-ni (BINI), the brainless rabbit car-el (CARMEL) and the silent gazelle v-ni (VANI). First the creatures feasted on the mighty and powerful of the village animals and they got bored very soon. Looking for variety they turned their blood thirsty eyes on the inferior group which included a tadpole and a mosquito. (tadpole some how wriggled out of their jaws but the mosquito was hooked for life). Although the village animals knew that they were being preyed upon and exploited by the wild creatures, they just couldn't get out of the enchanting web spun by the creatures. It was because there was another village animal who was hooked to the creatures and it was none other than Mr.Mouse, the don, the protector, the sarpanch of the whole village. He was called M-rali (MURALI) and he was feared by all village animals because of his fearsome whiskers (if you still haven't got him here is the clue - he is the slender version of Paravoor Bharathan and he is not bald).
The creatures continued unabated their ruthless reign under the patronage of the don. They sucked the life blood out of many of the hapless village animals and left their poor souls wandering in the wilderness. Many of them became regular visitors of the village taverns and spent their days in drunken haze. Few of the animals remained sane and they called a meeting to save the village. In the meeting they devised a plan and the plan revolved around the don. They knew that without the don the creatures were not as dangerous. Among the creatures the don was partial to the fox and the cheetah, but he always proclaimed it was brotherly love and the creatures, cunning as always trumpeted the same. The plan of the village committee was to put it in the mind of the don that it was much more than brotherly love and that cheetah was enamored by the don. The plan worked out and the don started spending sleepless nights. His fearsome whiskers started going longer and longer. In the end he couldn’t stand it any longer and he declared his eternal love to the cheetah. The creatures panicked and declared that he is their lovely brother. Now it was the turn of the don to visit the tavern. Anyhow it ended the reign of the creatures and the village was saved.
Within a short time a big storm came and the creatures and the village animals were scattered apart.
Last i heard, all creatures were domesticated and are quite docile now. The end

Shammy

SHAMMY VIJAYAN

Shammi, he is a biological mystery in many ways. he is one animal who proved that Darwin’s theory of evolution is totally wrong. According to Darwin evolution is a slow process which takes centuries to show some discernible change. But our Shammi, he metamorphosed into a totally different being within a period of 5 years. Do anybody of you remember the original Shammi. That scrawny looking guy who marched around with blazing eyes spitting fire. Those slightly soiled dhothi, oversized kurta and that cloth bag hanging on him as if from a coat hanger. At first i thought he was a naxalite since i had not met anybody belonging to that species before. And what a change within a short time. He in equally horrible looking modern attire became the library man, not the reading one but the hanging around one with bismi evoking memories of laurel and hardy in you with poor niza fazil in tow. And when rumours started floating around that he is having a "line” with -------, i laughed it off finding it totally impossible. But our shorty like his more famous predecessor proved that nothing is impossible.

He was a man of two halves, the cheguevera first half and the sharuk khan 2nd half. In the end he got his kajol (remembering ------- it is literarily true).He was omnipresence in the hostel, always with a knowing smile, looking down on us little kids from his all knowing heights. Do you know he always slept with the light switched on, we can only sympathize with bismi now.

Do anybody know his true age, because back then he looked anywhere between 40 and 75.

Shammi, he had a beautiful voice, which gave us such wonderful moments. he had the humility to exercise his god given vocal cords, whenever we the lesser mortals demanded.

Therefore my friends let us raise a toast, for the health of our ageless
nightangale.

..................................the end......................................

i am sure shammi will not like this, but let us hope for the best.

From the master of words...Boby

AJMAL KAHN @ MAMMU

Do anybody of you remember our dear ajmal. the childish grin showing the buck teeth and the pink gums. the slightly chink features and that eagle laugh. those shuffling walks across our hostel corridor carrying a red bucket on his way to the hell holes called the bathrooms.

How can you forget the mamu's chayakkada from which emanated non stop old hindi music scores. remember his out of the world ideas and his poor jokes. his inimitable dance steps(repeated stomping of his right foot on the ground, whatever the tune was) his hilarious attempt to court the junior girls, his malappuram slang, his kodungaloor songs. But i also remember a golden heart, his straight from the heart dialogues, his courage to hang on to his ksu moorings inspite of the pressure and taunts from his sfi friends. I also remember how i cried(really, i cried) when he lost to our undeserving moderator. when i think of him, i remember a great friend who was good to me.