My college life is about to come to an end. My roommates and I were quite sure that of all the people we were the ones who are going to miss college life the most. Mainly because of the depth in our relationships which was a result of close proximity to each other 24 hours a day. All that is left to us in our college: A Week. It was almost 830 in the night when one of us came up with the idea of celebrating the demo day on the very next day. Without further ado, we began our work. The first step was to message everyone in the class and let them know of our plan. The message read:
“Demo week starts…
Tomorrow is ‘pandi’ day. Please wear contrasting colored dress (Ladies: Differently colored top, bottom and shawl. Pick some flowers or ribbon also. Gents: Pandi color shirt and informal pants or ‘mundu’). Please forward to all. “
22nd March 2010, Monday
The final week of our college life began. I woke up precisely at 7.27 am. I was shocked. The mess bell rings at 7.30 am and I haven’t even brushed. To my utter dismay (and relief), I saw the beds next to me were also occupied (Rasmi and Lakshmi were in a sound sleep). I shook both of them and mumbled “7.30!” By 8.15 am, all six of us in our room filled back into our after the hefty breakfast and frantically started our work.
The work consisted mainly of selecting ultra-kuthara combination of churidar pieces. All of us opened our bags and began pulling out contrasting colored pieces of dress materials. The favorite pick of the day was a combination of bright yellow and red. Everyone was holding onto a number of materials and no one had any idea what exactly to do. The first successful pair of the day came from Deepa. She chose a yellow top, blue bottom and red shawl. In all the hustle and bustle, we didn’t know the clock running fast towards the deadline of 9.00am (The time our class begins!).
Still a large number among us were unsure of what to wear. After trying out a number of tops, I decided on a maroon top of mine in the end with a ‘matching’ blue bottom (which came from Rasmi) and a fluorescent green shawl (Preetha’s). All of us were attired and then it was the time for makeup. I produced a large box of bangles from my cupboard (which was deeply buried among a pile of debris!). Nonetheless, everyone had a field day choosing the right combinations of bangles to go with our dress. We tied our hair on both sides of our head to add to the comic effect. It was then Ranju came up with the nose ring. Surprisingly, it added effect to her pandi looks and she almost resembled one.
By 9.30 am, we reached college (Luckily enough the college is just a short walk from our hostel). Most of us were embarrassed by the time we reached the gates of the college. As we entered the class room we could feel almost everyone’s eyes on us. We were quite a sight, to be frank! We were very confident by the time we took our seats that we resembled street singers. But I was level headed enough to notice that we were the only ones in the whole class (the WHOLE fucking class!) in the Demo wear. The only exception was Darsu who imitated our doings almost 90 percent of the time. Thanks to her. We had at least one day scholar to hide our disappointment.
Shortly after we were joined by six more of the girls and we decided to give it a shot in the lunch break hour. Many of the guys came to hold ‘talks’ with us with an excuse of ‘no suitable dress’ and tried to discourage us from the sacred act of celebrating the demo. None of us wavered from our decision. It was almost close to 1.00 pm when we started our ‘show’. We visited three junior classes and shouted at the top of our voice “S8 IT Ki... Jay!” We were on our way to our fourth class when I was summoned by a junior of mine. I thought, WTF! He started his boasting manner of speech (which lacked any manner, of course!) by saying we were doing a great sin of destroying the unity of our class by celebrating demo all by ourselves.
Well, for a moment I thought, Is this idiot my junior or am I HIS junior? He blabbered about all incoherent things for misleading us from our track. I was angry enough to snap his neck. If none of the other guys in the class could support us, why the fuck should we wait for them? To the hell with all the unity! It was then another girl among us intervened and solved the dispute by compromising the situation. We put a stop to getting into the classes and satisfied ourselves by posing for photos all around the college.
But to the six of us (my roommates and me), it was one hell of a day, with the right combination of fun and thrills. No one would ever taste the sweetness of the joy we shared in our dormitory. It will never ever fade from our minds. The others may or may not celebrate the Demo tomorrow or yet another day. But I am quite sure they would not even enjoy the “De” of the “Demo”!
