Jab We NIFTed

“Chalo be, aaj kahi baahar chalte hai!” ecstatic Chandy said.

“Where will you go, yaar? Let’s sit in our rooms, watch some movie and sleep peacefully.” I said.

Chandy: “You will always talk of rotting here. Today is, 31st December, the last day of the year if you forgot, goddamit!! Learn to enjoy your life, for god's sake. And dare not speak of sleeping before at least 5 tonight.”

Torpi, the silent observer till now, spoke up: “He has got a point there, Major boy! It's been a long time we have been out of these walls of IIT.”

Chandy (still infuriated): “Abbey Torpi, you only tell some place, we two will go. Leave this room-sick, comp-sick...”

I had enough of it by this time: “OK! OK!, I will come.”

Well, this is the disadvantage with having these two as friends; they form a group so instantaneously, as if two separated drops of mercury are reuniting. And me? I am left as a drop of oil in water. Anyways, so there are we three, me i.e. Major, Chandy and Torpi, a group of friends studying in IIT Madras. By the way, many of you must be knowing that we have a tradition of keeping nick names,or shall I say "names" in our insti. The others, I should tell that we have a tradition of keeping nick names. Ahh, I can be stupid sometimes. Now coming back to the conversation:

Torpi: “What about beach, guys? Let's see how do the last waves of 2007 look like splashing on the shore? Cool breeze will make it even more scenic.”

Chandy: “No, No, No! Not a beach. What's there in a beach, yaar? We have been to the beach several times, anyways.”

Me: “What about Ascendas? We will have some good food. Bid mess food a goodbye for this year?”

Chandy: “Sure, that’s nice, only if you are putting us a treat. Guess what? (With a sheepish smile) I don't even have a Rs. 5 coin in my pocket.”

(Chandy has his own ways of extracting treat out of someone. Last time he almost convinced another guy to put a treat for a result he got in 10th class!)

Me: “Pack then. I can hardly afford our bill with current balance.”

Chandy: “Saale Baniye! I knew it! Think of treat and this guy wants to fly off to some other planet.”

Me: “As if you give a treat every weekend!”

Chandy: “Why? Forgot the coffee you drank yesterday at Gurunath? I payed for it.”

Torpi: “Ohh you fighting cats! Will you please SHUT UP and let me think? ”

Silence prevailed. Torpi always wears the thinking cap in such matters. We are abiding to follow his decision, whether wrong, or totally wrong.

Torpi (speaking with conviction): “NIFT!”

Chandy (adjusting his spects): “NIFT? What NIFT?”

Torpi: “National Institute of Fashion Technology.”

Chandy: “FASHION? NATIONAL? Wow! You understand that dumb boy, eh? (Winking at me) My eyes are sore of “crow-watching” in here.”

Me (ignoring him): “Where is it?”

Torpi: “Just a few steps from Ascendas. Should be no more than 25 minutes walk from here”

Me: “Let’s go then!”

I don't know about the other two, but I myself have hardly been once or twice to even pseudo “pseud-puttable” distance near the Girls hostel in our campus. I guess, neither had they, because of the zeal and vigor with which they were, I would say, sprinting. High time, I feel, for the Govt. of India to consider about the reservation of the fairer sex in IIT's, I bet there won’t be much protest or may be none at all. Anyways, politics apart, we were at our destination in merely 15 minutes!

Chandy: “Are you sure this is the one?”

Torpi: “What you can't read the board even with four eyes? It says “National Institute of Fash..”. ”

Chandy: “Yeah! Yeah! Doesn’t look like one, though. ”

I agreed. No security. No proper lights, except the one that was sort of blinking desperately trying to seek our attention. We entered the premises. We were strolling, looking for signs of human form, if any.

Chandy: “Why do they have to keep another gate inside the premises, huh?” (Lazily kicking a large gate with crackling sound)

Torpi: “Noooooo. That’s the... ”

(But words were as if muffled or rather choked in his throat. NOW you know Chandy can be sometimes too excited to read a board saying
"Girls hostel. Outsiders trespassing without permission shall be dealt with severe punishment.")

Chandy and I stood with our jaws dropped as if we were posing for a horror movie. A girl combing her hair looked at us, and made us feel we were aliens from Mars. Before we could come to our senses, which were lost partially because of the board and rest from the beauty, she ran inside the hostel, calling for the warden. Chandy still stood there, stoned.

Torpi: “Run you jackasses, are you waiting for some royal welcome?”

We ran as if we would surpass the limit "c" that night. But the shock left us with infinite "m" tied to our legs.

Lady Warden: “poru, eppo pogathaa! mun perum engeva !" (Wait, don't run! come here, you three!)

We stopped as three obedient dogs. She came near us, with her large frame and horrifying demeanor. We were breathless, speechless, bloodless, and now we would soon be lifeless.

Lady Warden: “Security! Security! I told them not to leave the security desk!”

Torpi (he somehow blurted): “See ma'am we came searching for our friend Ravi. We didn't read that board about the girls... ”

Warden: “Shut up! I know you people. You drink and come to the girls hostel on night of 31st dec. How dare you? Let me call the police and then you will understand."

Me: “Nothing like that ma'am. We are students of IITM, Siddharth, Harshit and Shravan. We came here to see a friend of ours. I believe we came to the wrong address. ” (Yeah, I know I sound pathetic, but I was indeed pathetic that time.)

Warden: “IITaaaa? (“IIT” word used unintentionally by me, acted as a softener for her tone, I guess) Why did you run then? ”

Torpi (encouraged by this and trying to highlight the nerd T-Shirt of "Electrical Engineering Department, IITM" by pretending to swat an insect) - “…that ma'am, we were unable to think at that time, and after seeing that board we were really scared.”

Warden: “I see. You can leave now. By the way, what address did you tell of your friend Ravi? ”

Chandy (at last he spoke): “We will meet him tomorrow ma'am. It’s late anyways. Happy New Year. ” (Was it Chandy speaking of being late at 9 pm?)

Warden: “Ohh. Wish you the same.”

“Abbey, kidhar se aa rahe ho be?” Ravi asked, as we met in front of Ascendas while running.

Torpi (with glitter in his eyes): “NIFT. You also go da. "Nice" place."

We managed a smile as we saw Ravi going towards NIFT.

PS: And it's true.