A Strike that never was!

It was the 21st of December. Just another day in the book of Life, except that it was my Dad's birthday. But with Dad in Bangalore, even that option went to the bottom of the list of things to cheer me up. Madras had transformed itself into a cousin of Cherrapunji for the past 3 days. The city was just recovering from the gloom left by the gash of rains, mentally. But by appearance, it looked all that Madras has ever looked like - "hot!hot!hot!'n' beautiful!" . So forgoing the need to carry an umbrella on my already ready-to-burst backpack, I left it lying on the table (A sheepish act to make Mom think that I really forgot in the last minute ;-) ) . I thought there was nothing to stop me from being "dry and clean", now that it had stopped raining. I left for college happily, listening to songs using the left ear, my right ear(phone) shared by an accomplice "Domi". We reached college just in time to discover the unthinkable. The place was flooded! Backwaters of Kerala, Venice and everything else came into my head along with the adjectives "Blech!yuck!gwarp! " Lifting my pajama bottom to a "permissible" level, lending a hand(this time) to Domi, I waddled through till the block where they served the (add all the above three adjectives) breakfast! That's when the transformation of a couple of College girls of some X dept into the flattering eye lashed heroines of the "black and white" age, with hands uptured, covering the shriek let out from the uncovered regions of the mouth, the eyes going up, literally falling out of the sockets ,with a cry in between which sounded like "Snake! eeeeeee!Snake!!" to us,took place. We immediately looked at the water, grinning from ear to ear, atlast the rumours had come true! There it was, a black serpent which had been dwarfed or maybe it was a pathetically small snake, with an inborn growth deficiency syndrome. Whatever it was, it was enough to make our day, to give us what we needed to retort - GUTS! The entire dept(excluding guys and 5 girls) stayed back in the block, protesting against the management, the administration, the Director, the year incharges, the block in charges, the HOD's,the cleaners, the workmen, the mess hall workers and everyone excluding us, in and around campus. It all lasted for about 30 minutes on the whole. The point was to protest against the unsanitary conditions prevailing on campus. Rain water is supposed to be "the purest" form of water-true, but not after it reaches the grounds! Rain water, mixed with the septic tank water, and everything stagnant on the same levels is a grotesque picture by itself. And having to literally waddle through it, at least thrice a day , legs being the only mode of transport possible, made the already grotesque picture look even more ugly! We complained, asked for a bus to take us to our own classroom block. Not that we were scared of the serpent in the depths of the stale water. It was more an excuse to find reason to make them repent.We acted like hurt lovers, trying to make the X feel guilty despite nil charges. HOD set out to call the Director. Ours is a college that follows the hierarchy to point perfection. Director->Director->Director->Block Incharges->Year Incharges->HOD's. And it ends there. HOD's given the last position as an act of sympathy. The teachers and "WE" , the students had no say!! The HOD came out and told us that the Director was happily out-of-station! He asked us to go to class, with a warning that we might lose the attendance. The entire point of coming to college despite a lot of things that drive you crazy at times, is the A word mentioned above. So attendance was what made us catch the bus on time, withstand the razor sharp "mokkais" from the lecturers too many, who were as irritated to come to college as us, and made it a point that their sacrifice doesnt go a waste.They take classes from 8 in the morning till 3.15, making us wonder if they have ever been so devoted in the past, during normal working days. Why is there always a clash between the moods and mindset when it comes to a Teacher-Student atmosphere. When we want to listen, they want us to sleep and vice versa (sleep going out of control at times, prolonging to 2 to 3 periods at a stretch)! Back to what the HOD said "Go to class and give attendance" ! Losing the only strong support we had (as per the hierarchy- the least important support), we set off to class. It was the same struggled wobbling against the dirty drains, the holding of hands, and to my surpise, not even an entire hour had passed, meaning, it wasn't even close to "bunking!" . We still had some 15 minutes left for the first hour to get over and for the fire alarm, accompanied by an incomprehensible verse in tanglish(tamil followed by english) reminding us that it was Christmas season after all ! We tried to prolong the walk as much as possible, bringing the 15 minutes to 10 minutes. Still, we were'nt spared by the snickering looks from the guys in class, swoooshing because our excuse for being late was "snakes!" . But it was all fun, in the end. The very fact that, we had the guts to go against the system (though we din't get to Beat the system) was enough for us. College wasn't heaven - well known. Director isn't God - Understood. It was a Bajaj Avenger Dtsi feeling .... "We forgave them all.We felt like God , indeed!!! " .



solid prooof::::: http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp-fDaS1u3I ENJOY!