Sri and i ......the donkey comes last!!!

11^th Sept 2001 was actually the first day of our first year engineering at Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University, at a god forsaken place called Lonere and Sri made sure I had umpteen memories of all the bad days I had at this place. I do have an unambiguous memory as to when I met this guy and I simply can’t forget the days we spent together after that. Hindsight is a great thing, and since I have got all of it piled up in my personal diaries, I do have a vivid memory and a good judgmental tool at my disposal. The diaries speaks volumes about my daily torment – courtesy my friend Jordy.
That’s just one of the many name that Sri had acquired but this one surely did stick for all the 4 years. The name was apt as Sri was 6.7 feet tall and his wrist as thick as Sijo Paul’s neck. Jordy had more of everything – more muscles, more hair, more adrenaline and more sweat glands. He had this typical gigantic features and personal traits to match his big image. As is – The Big Mouth. He did justified this image of his during our second Engineering Drawing session, when he walked across the drawing hall to ask Sharmin if she could help him draw the perfect ellipse since she had lots of them. This was just one of his, self-proclaimed, “Great humor”.

Once while I was cursing myself for having washed my testis with Dettol, he walked into my room and with a very straight face said – “Kuli, ab pachtake kya fayada jab gaand main ghus gayi ret”. He actually thought it was a hilarious quote and went to almost every room to abreast other’s of his creativity. I don’t know if people took notice of his tepid talent but they surely did take notice of my stilted walk. Next day I was greeted in class with a loud laughter and the notice board of Department of Electronics had a notice that read.

New Box Office Arrival

K3G

Nope it’s not “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham”

But

“Kuli Ke Kale Gotey”

(Watch at your own risk)

Many of you now might have actually got their attention digressed from the fact that Sri made a fool of me in front of the entire university, and you’d be thinking - why on this earth would a man in all his wise senses be tempted to burn this testis with Dettol. My only answer to this is – Once in BATU, you lose all your senses. Not that Sri was a sane fellow before coming here but this place added to his wackiness. He became some kind of a gossip item and everybody loved to hate him. They said he was manner-less, stupid and brash, but if you ask me – he was simply a child who refused to grow up. He had a weird sense of humor but that was never intended to hurt anyone (though it did just the same …always).

To me he was a giant with a plausible child’s heart. Lemme take you back to a day to justify why I feel so.

Date: 25^th Nov 2001 Time – 8:30 pm

Venue – Engineering Drawing Hall.

Event – Digital Electronics unit test paper.

Question 11- Which of these sets of logic gates are designated as universal gates? 
a) NOR, NAND b) XOR, NOR, NAND c) OR, NOT, AND d) OR, NAND, XNOR

Sri had already responded to the first 10 questions with his gut feeling and the overuse had already got his guts paining.

Sri however had no other option. Last night’s discourse on “Life and the Hollow” by Shri. Ramchandra Shankarji, of The Way of Life Foundation, was too tempting for him to miss. He thus traded his test preparation time with what he thought was a profound and far superior knowledge than Digital Electronics.

The Discourse – “Life and its perception is all a myth, because it’s not the truth as you feel it. The truth that is out there is beyond the comprehension of your normal senses. Your senses tell you that the earth is flat, that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The truth however is - The earth is round and is moving with respect to the sun but we still have this illusion of flat and stationary earth having directions. It’s all because your senses tell you a different story. Your eyes see nothing in an empty room while it is actually filled with lots and lots of micro organisms, various molecules and different energies. Just when you are having a walk with your dog, it smells altogether a different world - The one beyond the reach of your senses but which is very much a part of the reality. Your ignorance simply can’t change the truth of this world. Hence don’t limit yourself to this Newtonian world view; because it’s not what you perceive that is out there but what is in here that is beyond the normal you and it’s the real truth. Don’t limit your potentials because of this perception of the world that you have every day. Get up and wake up to the reality of limitless potential and begin to create the world of boundless prosperity”  

It was then that I decided to get up and started walking towards the auditorium exit. I was already feeling exhausted by the efforts of comprehending the Scientific Spiritual talk that this Mr. Shankarji was happily giving without caring if anybody’s auditory senses were receptive to the gyan. All I wanted now was to take a drag and sleep so I walked back to the room. When I went back to the room Paul was studying for tomorrow’s test so even I started studying.

 

At the Auditorium after almost 2 hours –

“So open yourself to the possibilities because the world is not made up of matter as you see it. It’s actually made up of energies. Energies that are of different strength and hence they give us a perception of different matters. The molecules are energies and are separated by energies. Hence the entire world is actually a Big Hollow………...”

When Sri finally came back to the hostel wearing a e = mc² T-shirt sponsored by Way To Live foundation, it was half past mid night and room no. 103 still had the lights on.

Sri felt sorry for us. He thought of all the knowledge that his ignorant buddies had denied themselves. So he walked in and said “Saalo kitna padhoge. Aur kya achieve karoge itna padhakar.”

Sijo looked at him and was back with his books as if Sri wasn’t there.

Sri in a milder tone said “Sijo you don’t even know what Life is. It is a BIG Hollow”.

Now in the middle of the test all that was coming true. Sri’s head was hollow and the result won’t be different either.

He re-read the question for the 7^th time and was not at all convinced with the options. Hence he made a 5^th option and marked it right. The paper now read 

Question 11- Which of these sets of logic gates are designated as universal gates?
a) NOR, NAND b) XOR, NOR, NAND c) OR, NOT, AND d) OR, NAND, XNOR e) I don’t know.
For the next few questions he went ahead with this answer and finally decided to become more truthful.

Thus question no 16 read.

Question 16- A 4-bit synchronous counter uses flip-flops with propagation delay times of 15 ns each. The maximum possible time required for change of state will be
     
a) 15 ns. b) 30 ns. c) 45 ns. d) 60 ns. e) I don’t know.  f) I don’t care.

Sri promptly marked f) for the rest questions.

The giant came out all beaming from the examination hall and told me “I’ve done today what my mom always expected of me – to be truthful”.

That’s how Sri was. Crazy but true he was…..a friend and liar he was. Yeah a damn liar and that’s why he lied and died. He spoke too much but never of his pain. He died a painful death and left a void unfilled. But that is for some other day and some other time.

I want you to remember as we all still remember – Sala Kamina!!