Friday, December 7, 2012

Balaji Flats

              "Hey Mukhil, where the hell are you man ?!!! Wini picked a fight with the house owner regarding the maintenance charges and that bickering ended up in a huge brawl. The house owner is now rushing to the hospital with a head that needs at least 10 stitches and the Police are searching for the guy who signed the lease document, I mean you." shouted Praveen on the phone in a panic stricken voice, actually Mukhil was busy attending "BELL the CAT" program conducted by Biju at CEG campus. "What the hell ??!! What's the problem with you guys ?? ", Mukhil was totally shaken by that message and JP added, " You better come soon, or else we can't imagine you ending up behind the bars !! ".. And he hanged up the call immediately after saying that, he then turned towards me who was sitting on Mukhil's bicycle parked outside the house. I guess Mukhil last used that bicycle on that day they shifted to that house, ever since then it was just like that bore water tap that remained useless in that flat. I was busily munching a chocolate or you can say cleaning that chocolate wrapper, after a sumptuous lunch. "Do you think that Mukhil would buy this shit ?", I asked him as I raised my hands up just like a Python wriggling after swallowing a sheep. JP was too good in goofing things up and I knew that right from my schooling.. JP answered in his casual tone, "Based on the hype and the effect given, I have a strong gut feeling that Mukhil would 'bring the house key within an hour'.. And so that we don't miss our afternoon nap !" Simple, but they were very effective. As expected, Mukhil brought that last key from Guindy to Chromepet within an hour only to realize that we made this up for our afternoon nap :D This post is all about those crazy moments at our Balaji flats where we spent the last days at MIT.. :)

               It's not a big deal if we forget to ‘look’ at a 16 mark (leaked) question or sometimes ignoring that one whole unit from which a compulsory question comes, but its totally impossible to miss our "masala milk" at JiJo tea shop at 1 am. What we do till 1 am is still a big mystery, but after drinking that milk or tea, we walk back home like somnambulists. Till then we would have been so fresh and energetic but after consuming it, it would be like one of our ethics professor's class, where we'd feel like he coming to individual desks and slapping / kicking/ punching each one of us, saying "sleep now, sleep now or I'll kill you !!" Semester exam preparations are always associated with a "pocket tanks" tournament. I think I scored a C in networking, but I swear on my friends' EX that a life without a LAN connection at engineering hostels is just like Tamil Nadu without electricity (now will I get arrested for this ?) But coming to the point, Pocket Tanks is such a simple game, but when played at 2 am using the multiplayer option just before the day of the Semester gives you a kind of thrill and pleasure that even a terrible roller coaster ride fails to give. Well it wasn't always Pocket Tanks, if the exam involves a subject like Artificial Intelligence / Digital Signal Processing the game changes to "Counter Strike". No no.. It does not imply that we are Dr.Vasikaran from Carniegie, it's just that how ever you study that, it simply doesn’t get in and so we vent out using CS (Multiplayer with Mukhil being the terrorist all the time). It's not just the games, but petty jokes (totally mokka) during that part of the time makes us laugh as if we are watching a Russell peter's stand up comedy.

              Even for our Semester exams we do not stay awake past 3am, but the water problem during that time was so pathetic that we had to fight with the vendors at around 3am for just 1 or 2 buckets of water ! I do remember standing in the queue at around 8 am on a project review day begging a guy standing in the front of the queue with 20 odd vessels, I called him "Anna, my room mate went inside the bathroom 1 hour back and the motor has failed us, please help him get a life by lending just one bucket.." ;) That generous soul did give and yea the project review was postponed to next week. Pinna, if I struggled so much to get to that review how will it happen :( ?! When I came into this house during my final year, JP said that there was no such water problem as they had a bore which was 90 feet deep, but I realized how deep the issue was when my house owner said "Thambi konja thallu pa" (Son, move aside) from behind in that same water queue during those peak hours ;).

             When talking about my house owner I get reminded of those martyrs and war memorials only. I'll give a short description of how well we maintained that house and you will surely order a bouquet for him. We had a main hall where Praveen had his PC along with all that newspaper stuff, rough papers, project works, shoes, neighbour's socks, Adhitya's (ex roomie) trousers , assignment papers and even our lease documents. And then we had two bedrooms, a bathroom and then a zoo. That was not a typo, it was our store room, sometimes a kitchen and also the place where you can find new / rare insect specifies that even Amazon forests do not have :P. One evening we opened Mukhil's bedroom to call him for dinner, but we found him sitting down on the floor (Aalavanthaan style) with his whole body covered with some kinda pink ointment even worse than Jagan Mohini. Based on the investigation, we deduced that a deadly insect from the zoo had bitten him. Myself and Mukhil did even spot a snake like creature creeping in that room, and right from that day we made Praveen to sleep in that hall. Mukhil's room was the best when compared to the hall and the other bed room, I'm saying this because only in his room you can land your feet on the floor. Even after looking at our zoo, our house owner pretended as if we were maintaining it just like a palace.

           The word 'Palace' also reminds me of our Karthiga mess, which was run by a peevish old man and his wife. The beauty of that pair is, whenever the number of people to attend increases, it directly affects the orders placed. For example, if you order for "1 dosa, 1 omlet and 2 chappathis" you would definitely get "2 dosas, 4 idlis and a half boil".. Yea, he was cool that way and he often comes back at us angrily "Why cant you guys order everything at the beginning itself ?!" (naanga enna vachikita vanchana panrom) .. :D But that was the only mess in that area which was close to our home food and so we had to bear all that. We three consensually agreed to treat one another if we get placed in those one of those companies. Mukhil got placed in CTS and the very next week, Praveen got an offer from TCS and I got one from Accenture. So as per the word we gave three back to back treats at Anjappar and each time the bill amount increased exponentially.

           Mukhil was our accounts in charge, he was the responsible guy among the three, our medical advisor and most often our sponsor, his CAT expedition always reminds me of those who go from one temple to the other for completing this remedy stuff. Whatever type of mobile models that you get him, I swear he can break it within a week if not within a month. Jai Praveen on the other hand was a don’t care master, totally fun loving and has a deceiving look of a very calm person. Whatever electronic equipment he has belongs to one of his foreign uncles / aunts. I still wonder why he doesn't add 'Prank call making' to his resume yet. These guys just didn't share my DNA, other than that they were a part of me.

9 comments:

  1. this post is incomplete without amethyst.. :)

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    1. Not only with amethyst. But also u ppl..

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    2. True !! we should have added their visits too :)

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  2. Wini.. Lovely one.. Remember everything except the first anectode.. I'll look out for some pics. Add them of possible..

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  3. In CS JP ll just sit simply in some hideout with a sniper and torture us!!

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    1. I miss CS nowadays :-( Probaly we shud do a game over the internet on a weekend..what say?

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  4. lovely write up :) I remember coming to your place and was appalled seeing the junk pile around!! from them, i ve never ever entered a house where bachelors stay :P

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  5. I want to tell you guys that the zoo was where aadi and mukhil keep their clothes and Origin of Species was happening inside side by side :D

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