The Invictus

Ok, that headline has got almost nothing to do with this post...Its just that I like it, and i get to post what I like, isnt it?:-)

Was reading thru' one of my "many-conveniently-forgotten-promises", and decided i'll turn around (figure of speech), and come good on atleast one of them...the one where I said I'll write about some of my pranks in college...here it goes...

This one is from my engineering days....

A bunch of us had just discovered the joys of basketball, smoking, and wasting away hours in the canteen (not necessarily in that order)...And our sincere commitment towards these pursuits left us with no time to attend to that small matter: classes and education. And so days went by, till one day we realised that we were heading towards serious attendance problems...But then, when has a trivial matter like attendance ever hindered sincere people like us? We decided on a new modus operandi. We would indulge in all of the above, and when its 15minutes left to go for the class to end (classes were of 1 hour duration), we would somehow sneak into the classroom. Just in time for the attendance. Just like that.

We used to have this PYT as our lecturer of Basic Electronics (FY BE)...Dont recall her name, tho' I remember we used to call her "Sharon, the Stone" for some reason. Once, as usual, a group of about 10 guys, that included your truly, sneaked into the class when there was all of 15 minutes more to go. And it didnt stop there..A classmate (N) and I decided we had a future in Aeronautics, and started firing away these match-stick missiles (Agni??)..These "missiles" would fire away (literally and metaphorically)...
To our luck, one such missile decided to make a landing on Sharon's dupatta, which promptly got burnt...the poor PY thing got the shock of her life, and became hysterical...At this stage, the rest of the late-comers made a vanishing act from the class...Sharon started to walk out of the class, duly promising that she would discontinue the course, and complain to the prinicipal etc etc...
That was a scary proposition to yours truly, since, for all the interesting things that I did, there was also that one useless thing called "Distinction" that I would somehow manage, and was needed (family commitments, also a license to indulge in the interesting exploits), and cancelling the course would have hurt the purpose!

That then started the phase-2 of our drama: N & I went to Sharon, made a sorry face and.......hell, we didnt apologise...we told her how because of a few "thugs" who are not interested in studies, "sincere and honest students like us (N & I, of course) would suffer"...So please to be forgiving...and more sob sob sob...After some more sobs, we managed to convince Sharon that "for the sake of sincere students" like us, she had to continue with the course..of course, without penalising anyone....

Now, after that, whether we got "honored" (by the "thugs") or kicked by the silent spectators is a different story...and, i assure you, not half as interesting...