Room 38, part two. Karthik G. The great. The gallant. 98.3G. The gentle giant. Guardian of the virgins. The etymology of his nickname - G - is in a microcosm the story of his reputation. Anyone looking at it from the outside would see a stylish acronym of his initial. It wasn't that. There is a line “I was staring straight, into the shining sun,” by Floyd. A portmanteau of that gleaming quality of GK's head and dripping honey evolved into his nickname. But it's only natural for anyone who first hears of him to form such glorious fantasies about his persona. If my introduction to him had been along the lines of the masses who worship him, I would have mostly been overawed. But it was not.
The first time I met G was when I shifted to the common room of Agate hostel. I had no clue who he was, despite his background. That very day, the warden had spent the evening repeating his speech about hostel decorum in all the floors. But the two of us ended up in VK's room well past the curfew time (the rule lasted three days), playing loud music and someone told on us. During this interval, I had gotten sleepy. So I had gone back to my room and was about to drift off when GK woke me up saying the warden was calling us. I don’t remember what the warden said or what my excuses were. Most of it was reflex, while my mind was holding a debate with itself about how bad the ventilation in our room was. The warden got tired of our passive responses in the end and went his way, and now I woke up properly. As this was a quite an exciting occurrence, it had to be discussed and so the two of us went to VK’s immediately. He seemed to know GK very well and he started telling me about how the two of them got caught entering the hostel after curfew the first day.
Thus, it was as partners in crime that I came to know more about him. After that, we got bolder and started to frequent the Agate terrace, especially since it was out of bounds. And there, it was GK who was the main storyteller and I got to know more about him. Several night shows later, we were very good friends. At this point, I began to wonder whether anyone could be this awesome. I was cynical by nature and GK did not fit that mould. Thankfully, I was eventually vindicated. And since I have trashed the rest of my friends so far, I will play up this angle with GK as well.
It began with him wanting to 'slide' from Metallurgy to a different department. Over the course of the first semester, he had expressed his desire towards various departments, and his efforts led us to believe that he wanted to slide up all the way to ECE. In the end, the sliding concept was abolished, most probably due to this guy's incessant inquiries. Then, he started disappearing. He would be in the room playing cards with us one minute and wandering near the trees in the darkness with his phone for company the next. There were rumours, but very little concrete evidence to go by (at least until our first semester holidays).
By second year, we were roommates. At this point, we got to know the greatest problem in GK's life. Any normal person is always part of a certain peer group, two at most, and goes to the events of this group. GK, being the male equivalent of a 'Miss Congeniality' (just the very social part), was a member of every group, attended every event and reached all of them by the time they were winding down. We originally used to think that he reserved this honour just for his roommates, but we found out that we were not exclusive.
Then came the activities. GK wanted to do everything, and most of them would end in very comical situations. It started with one night of playing Mafia (a party game), when he really shouldn't have. Then, it was him playing DotA (a computer game). He was atrociously bad, and his team lost to a junior clan. The last was the clincher - poker. Effectively, it was a loss for the rest of the poker community when he played, with his infinite buy-ins. This guy just would not count his chips. You could even throw in his first day of football, when he got hit in the crotch and came limping back to the hostel room. Even quite recently, when he arranged a bus for people to return to Bangalore from the convocation. Town buses from Trichy to Thuvakudi at least have headrests. This one didn't. There were so many such incidents.
To sum up the narrative, my first impression of GK was as the cool trouble-maker, which burgeoned to a form of mild respect then promptly faded with familiarity. But imperfections aside, there is enough and more for any mortal to look up to him in awe (as many people probably do. We've received reports about how he is considered to be the 'cool senior' budding minds aspire to become). In conclusion, all kidding aside, G is great.
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