RAJA - The Great
When I was a kid my mom used to
tell me a story wherein all the mice decided to bell the mighty
cat. Everything was finalized and then came the most important
question - who the hell is gonna do it?
And as it happened, nobody had the slightest of guts to do it.
Well, myths don't make facts. But facts can always be moulded and
cast into series of incredible myths, scores of which we leave
for our successors and juniors. It so happened that I along with
29 other hapless wing mates shared a fact which was destined to
have a subverting influence on our lives and which by virtue of
its ferocity had a defining role in the way our thoughts were
veered towards the outside society - the fact that all 30 of us
had to coexist with a certain localite fourth year Tam guy who
happened to speak decent Hindi (at least his swearing was
flawless) and who went by the name RajaGopalan (aka Raja).
All ye people who never faced the wrath of Raja and who never
know the significance of being seriously mentally disillusioned
after being pushed to the limit, here's my retrospect of the
person who could instill pure unadulterated fear into already
dilapidated souls. Well if I say this is a tribute to a nicotine
consuming, red eyed ,robust guy, then I'll be making a historical
mistake. Rather it is an appraisal of the resilience that saw us
guys through a black hole called Raja.
So then where do I begin? Well, it all can be started with the
very first day of my IITian life when Raja walked up to me,
cigarette in one hand and asked money for fag. Never mind the
flurry of sweet abuses, I was virtually thrown of my feet from
his sincerity of purpose. And since then started my rendezvous
with this great character. Since he was in 364, his prime targets
were the people in 365 and 366. So all the guys Khunger, Chandru,
Sudhanshu, Barry, Raghu and myself were always cribbing our gods
for placing us near such a sacred saint. The evenings in the wing
were fragnated with the aroma of nicotine filled smoke, filling
our lungs with deep respect for the ultimate truth. The customary
showers and shits in the mornings were interrupted by serene
discourses on the ills of bathing early and it would be
complemented with eloquent words, which sounded like magic to the
ears. Khunger had the most interesting status quo. One of his
many errands for the day would be to place fags on Raja's lip in
the morning and light it. In fact so fond was Raja of our guy
that he became a permanent member of B3 faggers association.
Well, poor souls like yours truly were never so fortunate. Once,
I was even caught reading Pondy (By Raja of course) and I was
bumped by all the wing mates under the stern instructions of
Raja. [Aah…. That still hurts]. Anyway, some people were
even more unfortunate. He once caught two poor chaps on the wing
cot and asked one to make the other cry. If he failed to do so
then he would be made to fag and on the other hand if the other
guy cries, then stricter consequences awaited him. It was a sight
worth watching because both the fellows were on the verge of
breaking down.
.
If you think by now that Raja was a rough looking six feet two
rowdy, then halt. For, in addition to all the verbal assault
techniques, he also had a penchant for listening to music. So
much so, that he locked Raga in his room for 3 hours of nonstop
musical extravaganza. In fact poor Subbu (now in Jam) was made to
scream Aaaaaa… for one hour nonstop because Raja decided he
was not singing at proper frequency. The one famous incident that
strikes me was during power cut before endsems. What Raja does is
takes out all the guys from our wing and the bottom wing guys are
called up and all of us are engaged in a verbal battle. Can't
remember any other guy who would have guts to force 60 people to
fight among each other. But then that's how it was. We were the
proverbial mice always in awe of the mighty cat. And in our case,
belling the cat was out of question. Anyway, if I keep on writing
about Raja then this issue will not suffice, so rest of it some
other time.
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Manas
#217