Next, we move on to Room 39. This room belonged to SK Vijay Aditya and R Ravi Srinivas. It was also locked most of the time, as the inmates were often busy with other, presumably more important things to do (read, girlfriends). Or maybe they just liked roaming around by themselves. I am going to talk now about R Ravi Srinivas. I would like to state that I have decided not to be serious when writing such posts, and if you find any of the below comments offensive, please just take them as a joke.
Born ages after his two siblings, I can only imagine the amount of parental guidance and protection showered upon him. I am not a big fan of such mushiness. I believe that beyond a point, dependence leaves you mentally scarred, like some sort of man-child. But Ravi was all grown up. He came in with a plan, got his marks and admits, and got out of college ASAP. If there was an award for a guy in our wing who was the biggest achiever during those four years, Ravi would probably win it. Of course, if you win a rat race you are still a rat. (Some of us even used to call him that, although for different reasons).
I met Ravi in the first year of college. It was in the first floor staircase landing of Agate Hostel. As I was climbing up the stairs, I met Kartick V (referred to as VK), whom I knew from IIT Tuition classes, followed by this guy, coming down. So VK greeted me and introduced us. Like any normally awkward first meeting, where no one knows what to say after the initial proceedings, there was that bit of solemn silence, where people appraise each other.
Ravi broke the sanctity of the moment, saying, "Ramaseshan? Right?" with the kind of tone a church minister would use to denounce premarital relations, as if I had gotten my own name wrong. I turned to VK and gave him the look, you know, the one which says, "Really? That kind of guy? Someone more at home at an Englishman old farts pipe-smoking, newspaper-reading club?" VK's reply was almost apologetic, "Vidu vidu. Ivan eppovum ipdi romba pesuvan." (Translated, "Yeah". This is the point of mother tongues. You can say stuff in such a roundabout way, and make people understand exactly what you mean using nuances).
Of course, our first meeting didn't really last long enough to give me an impression of any sorts. So later, our first rooms being quite close, we began to mingle. Now, there are people who stride tall through the pages of history. People, who having lived and died, now live again and forever through their undying thoughts and deeds. And then they have hangers-on. That was the initial view of VK and Ravi that I had, respectively. A symbiotic life form. Like Batman and Robin, except that these two were not gay.
Sometime later, after frantic debates and tactful negotiations, we shifted to Agate 22. For the rest of the first year, Ravi was the butt of most pranks, and not just the ones by his roommates. We hid his stuff, switched his contacts to get confessions (About girls what else? We were teenagers), gave him bums for fun and teased him mercilessly as a rule (Me not so much though. I am not trying to portray myself as a saint or anything). He even got chased around the hostel with people wanting to give him bums. It was not his fault really, it just became a fad. Although I must say, I really admire his character for getting through that witch-hunt, which would have probably sent someone running home, crying for their parents. Not only did he get through it, he even continued to hang out with us, despite having to work his way back from being a social pariah. No "momma's boy" would have done that.
Those initial events made me believe that all this persecution was because Ravi was far too serious for those around him, and it turned out to be true to an extent in the end. Ravi did all the things a person his age is ideally expected to do when joining a prestigious engineering college. He didn't get into any antics, was in clubs, loved his studies and pathetic excuse for a department, and bagged a great admit and left for the US. So it all ended well I guess. But an ideal life is just so boring, at least for me.
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