Back Home (LII)

Reviewed by Padu.

The aircraft touched down the Chennai runway. Blood warmed up at the feeling of getting back home. With too many ‘What to dos?’ in my mind, I walked out after checking out my baggage.

Losing faith on my eyes, I rubbed them twice, but the image was still there. Shantanu was there waving at me. He carried my bag, and with a cheerful smile, “How was the flight?”

Before I could ask him anything with his usual swift paced walk he was already near the car. We got in the back seat.

“Whose car is this?”

“My friend’s, this is Manoj 3rd year Mech”, pointing to the guy at the wheel.

A feeling of fear crawled in with the pleasantness of his receiving me at the airport. ‘So, I have become one of the hot personalities in election for people to send a car for me’.

Then popped up the big question, “Hey, how did you know that I am..”

“Manikandan told me”, he called the name. Though many did, I rarely called our team leader by name.

“Ok how do you know him?”

“Come on, there is too much for me to tell you. Have you started speaking with our juniors?”

“Hello I have just now landed in Chennai”

”You call yourself a computer science student! I asked you to mail them, didn’t I?”

“Oh Ya, I did, the responses are not so good”

“They won’t be. Never mind. Once you speak to them, everything will be fine.”

He added, “See there are some factors that you have to consider before you start speaking to someone. You must have made an analysis on who the listener is, and who you are to the listener”

“Ok, so how do I categorize them?”

“In our context little categorization is needed. You are a nerdy senior ,and for at least half the nerdy juniors, your words are like instructions to an 8085”

“What?”

“ha to a geek I just used some geeky terms. I meant that they won’t be bugging you with questions, they will just obey”

“But what do I tell them. Vote for Shantanu”

“Goof it’s not Shantanu. I am not contesting for the president. By the way never ask for votes in the first place”

“Then?”

“Tell them what we are, and what they are”

“What are we, and what are they”, I asked like a KG kid questioning her father.

“Hmm.. well. You say that they are corrupted. They are bad guys and..”

“And we are good guys”

“Certainly. Use Kiran as bait. Tell everyone about how bad he is, especially girls. We have covered most of the boys. In fact you may never have to speak to guys, but the ladies hostel is entirely yours to handle”

“What the hell? There are only 4 more days for the election, and you are entrusting such a big thing on me”

“Chill it. I just exaggerated. There are already key people like Anu. They have covered girls well. All you have to do is give the final booster shot, and pull in the dilemma ones towards us”, ‘key people’, ‘Anu’ Whoaaa!!!

He continued, “and Anu, man she is.. I bet if someone could win by sympathy wave she would be the best amongst them”

“What are you saying?”

“She has literally cried in more than three meetings.”

“You are sick. How could you be so heartless?”

“Hey, hey, hold it. I understand how bad the pain is. That’s why I gave her the frontier in this battle. I didn’t ask her to do anything like that. It was she who chose to do all that. She finds bliss in every vote that we pull away from them”

“Things are really getting dirty.”

“Play dirty, while you play with dirty people.”

“Oh what did they do?”

He showed me a band aid on Manoj’s head. “Look”

“I am going to speak to the VC right away. I am going to stop it all at once”

“Hello, cool it. These things are common, and they are going to pay for the same.”

“You are going to beat them back”

“Certainly”

“Oh my God. When? Whom?”

“Everyone of those deranged dogs.”

I whispered, “So what about the ninja attach on Kiran?” He just smiled.

We reached college. It was 6.00PM. I settled down in my room. Juniors swarmed around me.

“How was the company?”, “Will you get placed in the company?”, “What exactly is an internship?” dozens of such questions were fired on me from all sides.

All I said was, “We are before something very important. Our future is at stake. I will tell you in detail about the intern after the elections”

“What’s so important about elections?”

“How irresponsible! All of us will be affected by the results of the election. The reputation of the college will suffer if the power falls into the hands of sick people.”

“So whom do you support? Ruling or the opposition?”

“Hey, akka is Shantanu anna’s friend. So she will be supporting the opposition”

Though I got stunned for a second I collected myself, “I support the good people”

“Good people”

“Yes”

“Who are the good people?”

“Last year those bastards spoiled our college’s image. They are the embodiment of venality, corruption and all sorts of power abuse.”

“Oh we never knew all this”

“Yes you don’t. You were in your first years. Make a good decision, and make it now. We are responsible for saving our interests.”

“So you say we have to vote for the opposition”

“Certainly yes. Last year they did everything within themselves. They never gave a chance for us, for fear of we finding out the truths about them”

“So this year we will be doing all college events”

“Of course we will be”

“So sure ka, we will vote for the good people”

I just smiled. After everyone left Anu, “Man you rock. You are the ideal pair for Shantanu”. I wondered, whether he gave any thought at all about this.