Honeymooners!

Era: June 1996 - Dec 1996

For all the slogging that we did during our II PU days, GOD took pity on we kids, and gave us a generous break from the monotony, called studies. Because of some issues with the CET cell with regard to allotment of seats or for whatever reason, our supposed counseling  for the seat selection for the professional courses in engineering and medicine that was supposed to be completed by end of July stretched itself to first week of November. By the time our classes for the 1st semester started which was during mid-December, I had almost forgotten that I was a science literate!! All the guys in that group, I am sure, at that time, would never forget those 6 months, and hence, myself included, will call them Honeymooners simply because of the kind of lifestyle that we led. 

Here they are: Dulla, Bhu, Shashi, JP, LP, SP, Guru, Ravi, CC and I.

6 months of care free life, almost bordering on being worthless, loafing around like an aimless donkey, generally looking for opportunities for killing time. It was during this time, there was an idea that was floating around that we could work part time and earn some money. Suddenly, at least of some my batch mates started thinking about making a fortune out of working part time; at least earn enough money to pay the fees of the professional courses. With respect to matters of the world, generally the age from 16 to 19, is perceived to be as the one where you have a blank between your ears. The evidence coming from the fact that, for some of them, this idea snowballed itself into being a very practical and attractive way to kill time and earn money in the process. Hence few of them took the matter to their respective head of the houses, who I guess, either due to realization of the pit fall in the whole idea, or were hurt in their ego, quickly dowsed the fire. In my case, it never reached my father, because this idea just floated around my ears and never entered my head through it :). My justification; we had a whole life to slog and work and we would never get any chance of a 6 month break during the professional life, unless of course we remained jobless for a certain length of time. However, that kind of break while working would never be enjoyable, as there would be certain amount of uncertainty, anxiety about the future, during the break.

What was certain about this break, in that case for me? Almost all the honeymooners mostly from MES College and KLE College were absolutely certain about the course that they would take in engineering. It would be Computer Science and nothing less would do. Only two of us dint like engineering. One was an white apron aspirant(Bhu, now Dr. Bhu), and he was absolutely certain that he would want to become a doctor, and hence it was only fair that he dint take a liking for engineering. The second one was.. of course, ME. For me, only one thing was certain; I did not want to become a doctor :). I had always thought I could work my way out of any situation, logically. Hence, I believed that by being certain about all the things that I did not want to do, I would eventually end up scoring out all the unwanted option, and the only option that would be left, would act as the option that would be most certain option that I would take up. I dint have any particular interest in any stream of engineering, and this distaste helped me to be a lot less anxious about what I would do in my professional life. I dint have an aim in the first place, something which was fueled by my inner voice, which constantly said, there was nothing wrong in being aimless in life. Hence, any engineering course in Bangalore would be okay for me. I was absolutely sure that, all my well-wishers, would coax/threaten/push me into taking something which would help earn a decent living.

Right from the day after we completed the CET, we had a set schedule for killing time. No wonder, the day used to start and end with cricket!! So, since it was still summer, our day used to start as early as 6:30 in the morning. After a tiring session of 3 hours of playing cricket, we used to head back home at around 9:30, gulp in whatever was available, get freshened up and then head to our temporary abode, the sanctum sanctorum of our time pass during those days; Madhu’s House(who is dearly called Dulla, even to this date). His room was located outside the main building and since the access to his room was no way inconvenient to other parts of his house, the place was always bustling with activity (read constant banter, and sound of the striker hitting the corners of the carrom board). This carrom board was always the center of attraction, and constantly had 4 people prying for place to get access to play the next round. The place had become reminiscent of our lifestyle; so much so that the first place that would come to mind when we wanted to meet or go out together, was Madhus house. Playing carrom was continued way into the afternoon, when at around 2 or 230 pm we used to disperse for lunch. Watching the highlights of any cricket match, which was telecast on Star TV was my sole companion while having lunch at home; the reason, my mother was fed up of my brash food habits and hence had stopped waiting for me for lunch. Time for a quick nap, deservingly so...for all the hard work that I had done during the day!! Wake up time was never fixed, but definitely used to be before dad came back from office, which would be around 6. One more visit to the sanctum santorum, a general banter about how our life was getting screwed because of CET issue as our results were getting delayed, quickly the topic used to change to more comforting ones like.. (what the heck would boys aged around 17 discuss about? I don’t even care to answer this.. everyone knows!!, because everyone who would be reading this post, would have passed that phase of life…and I am very sure there would be no readers under the age of 17 for my blog :)). During this banter we would have snacked at the local chat center, had a cup of juice and would be seated on the stone bench in a nearby ground. Time had lost its value, and when the guys in the uniform during their patrol in the neighborhood, started to pause looking at our group in the ground, it was time to head back home. 

Our life had hit that routine until the CET results were out, and my MEDICAL stream ranking, endorsed my certainty about not being a doctor :). However, the rank for the ENGINEERING stream was a bit dodgy. Anxious moments for the parents who had dreamt of their son, hanging the nayi patti (the ID tag worn by the software engineers) around his neck, speaking the lingo they have never heard of, wishing them good bye every time he travels to Uncle SAMs country for an onsite assignment etc etc. In such situations of life changing capabilities, I always took and even to date take the philosophical stand. No amount of worry would change my rank, and it was something of the past. I thought, I will cross the bridge when I come to it. To give the impression to the family, that we were a concerned lot and serious about our future, we had decided to take a break from this routine on the weekends , just to catch up with the family. Not that the family was craving for our attention, but to give an impression to the head of the house that we had not become a vagabond who had joined bad company, and also give them a sense of assurance that their son had not gone out of control (to put it in local lingo, “huduga kai bitt hogbittidane anno feeling barbaardhu antha”).

Almost all the honeymooners were more than capable of playing cricket, and somewhere during the month of September, one of the honeymooner (Shashi kiran) introduced us to his friends Sucheth and Rajiv who also shared the same interest as us!! What more, a lip-smacking prospect of playing cricket match daily, with another group was on offer. The venue, Milk Colony Grounds, had a center pitch that would be almost free daily at around 3 pm. The intensity of the cricket played would put even the Ind-Pak matches to shame. Our life had got a purpose :), at least for those few months. We practiced intensely before the games, and there was a neutral umpire as well to make sure the game was played fair. Score books were maintained religiously and for this never ending cricket series, we always had the urge to go 1 up. Since, both the teams were equally competent, it was always a cat and mouse game. Foreign recruits (read acquaintances who were very proven performers in terms of blasting sixes, not part of both the groups) also featured regularly in both the teams. I can remember a few; Ananth RB, Kiran U, Makrand, Ranjan. Barring Ananth, all the others were playing for our opponent’s team. 15 over matches were the norm, and it was until late evening that we used to play. Triumphs were celebrated either at Ganesh fruit juice center or Sagar Fast food or sometimes at both the places if the victory was a hard earned one. Discussions were made about what went wrong, and improvement areas, so much for the professionalism. Of course 5 to 10 mins discussions about how CET had continued to screw our lives, also featured, almost only as a ritual, than something which needed some serious thinking and also by that time almost all of them had this feeling “I will cross the bridge when I come to it.”

6 months passed like a dream and I am very happy and thankful to god for giving me such a wonderful opportunity, which I am sure not many guys would get during their lifetime as students. Whenever I think of a break, this 6 month period was a blessing that all the students of that batch received. I am sure, all of them would have something similar to share, and smile about it and with a sigh say…“Jaane kahan gaye woh din…”. Probably a melancholy tune this time!!

A[V]I

Note : Almost all the honeymooners are now successful doctors, entrepreneurs, software architects, design engineers spread far and wide across the globe, and I am putting their names in full, with the hope that anyone who searches their names in Google, would end up reading this blog as well ;)

CAST

Dulla – Madhu Bolisetty

Bhu – Dr. Prabhu Nesargikar

Shashi – Shashi Kiran N

JP – Pramod Jayaram

LP – Prashanth Lakshmikanth

SP – Santosh Prakash

Guru – Guruprasad T.G

Ravi – Ravishankar N

CC – Chetan P Srivatsa