C U 2MROW @ 9 (August 4, 2016)

The lectures had begun after a formal introduction. The class had a strength of 60 with seven  girls only. Tea had replaced the morning cup of milk. Hurriedly every guy from the hostel ran towards the classes to seat himself next to the future female engineers. On the first day itself boys had come out with a special theory on communication. They believed that how could they study topics on communication if they had no one to speak, no one to communicate? The main focus was on the practical application of theory. Every young impatient heart had only one thought in his head and on his lips.

“Bhai!!!ye wali mast hai!!!, Brother, this girl is awesome!!!”

The very next moment, thoughts changed.

“Bha!!!.ye wali bhi mast hai!!!, Brother, this girl is also awesome!!!” 

This continued the whole day long. It was the third day and long term relations were set for half of the class.  Anticipation of love had made the boys punctual and smartly dressed. Mannu dreamed of Pia in every girl that he looked and sometimes in every girl he gazed. On the academic front terminologies had evolved. Periods were now lectures. Mathematics was now engineering mathematics. The grading system was such that no one failed. Strange, isn’t it? They just secured ‘backs’. Maybe, ‘backs’ didn’t hurt the conscience of the students. Vipul, Shubh and several other boys had started casual interaction with the girls during lecture breaks. A few from the rural background were busy among themselves. Being non proficient in English, they preferred to have a whole boys group. Mannu’s interaction with the girls was also limited as he used the breaks to reply to the long messages to Pia, who had brought a new number for herself. She had risked her mother’s passport to get a new sim card. As and when her mother was out she replaced the sim card, called or messaged Mannu and again put things back to safety. A confirmation call from the operator had been missed and it had created some confusion in her house. Pia’s mother picked up the call and refused to confirm the details. But luckily the sim card was made operational. The long day ended with introductory lectures. The evening was again set for the circus. It had to continue for a month as told by Vipul who had some senior’s as school mates. As a consequence he was now being saved of mockery. Instead he sat among the seniors and watched his colleagues perform the absurd show. This created some ill feelings among most of the boys. Vipul was seen as an outsider. He seemed to be one among the bosses. Also, he only came to sleep at the room and rest of the time he was busy outside the hostel either at the canteen, where the fresher’s were not allowed to enter yet or in the gym where again the entry for fresher’s was barred.