There are many fond memories of REC that comes to mind. But probably not too many that can be associated with the first few months in 'A' hostel - thanks to the near-prison-like enviroment that was in the offing. There was only a single window to the outside world (barring the one facing 'B' hostel which some of the seniors used to subject us to ragging assignments) which was guarded by the "mashe"s as if their life depended on it. Any amount of cajoling would not make them budge and allow so much leeway as to even let us sit on the benches right outside the gate. So, most of our adventures were confined to the indoors.
This remained the norm till we discovered the third "window of oportunity" in the form of a ventilator in a certain room number 109, ground floor. Free spirits can be kept bounded only for so long. Subhash Chandra Bose's name comes to mind and the way he had fooled the British who kept him under house arrest to make good his escape. A certain gang of notorious NEXI youths thought in similar lines and creativity soon led their attention to the ventilator that had mere glass panes loosely fitted obliquely to let air pass in. What the designers of the premises must have carelessly omitted was the possibility of carefully removing those glass panes and providing with a sleek exit point for under-fed first year inmates.
This is what precisely happened at around 2 in the night of Saraswati pooja early in the year 1996. I shall refrain from disclosing the names of the participants of the heist for fear of late rebuke, but make a special note of the feeling of accomplishment they must have had when they made their re-entry after an ecstatic stroll in the Chattamangalam wilderness unrecognized by guards and seniors alike.
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Great go Bhuyan. Me too have a great lot of memories on the night escapes known as Hostel "chaatam" among Maloos. I was among the guys who got ragged very little. One of those ragging happened during these "chataam" at our very famous Kataangal juice shop. The one being Deepak Sreeraj akka Kodham who became one of my favorite senior as well as a good friend.
ReplyDeleteWell well what do i contribute about the great escape.We started going out a month after joining in.Used to go out in style with all our batchmates with only a small diff.The others used to travel 500m or so to the mb whereas we would travel a wee bit more 24kms to the city.I remember it was like our second home(naa re dont get the wrong idea not rec i was talking bout the theatres in calicut).Used to come back by the last bus,if i remember right it was at 9:20.We used to come back and get into the hostel through the window of hope.
ReplyDeleteIt was the room facing the hostel office that we used mainly.But i must confess that because of this i did miss a lot of things happenin in the A-hostel.