The Mysterious Night

Sinhgad Boys Hostel, Room no. B320 was witnessing this scene for the first time. Next day afternoon Theory Of Machine's assignments were to be submitted. Shardul, a localite from pune was in hostel to complete his assignments. Rock Songs were played in full volume and everyone including Anna, Vinayak, Lokesh and Shardul were busy in drawing sheets.

Niraj: Hey lokesh, can i have your bike for next 2-3 hours. I have some work to do in the city.

Lokesh: Yeah sure. I wont be going anywhere. The keys are kept in the ventilator and bike is in the rear parking lot. 4802

Niraj: Thanks dude.

Niraj took Lokesh's bike and the scene resumed its earlier state. After about half an hour Lokesh got a call and he went out of the room to recieve the call. Nobody knew who he was talking to. Generally lokesh is not disturbed with loud music but still he went out of the room to recieve the call. He returned after sometime with a Bike's key in his hand.

Lokesh: hey guys, I'm going to one my friend's place for completing the sheets. See you in the morning tomorrow.

Anna: you dont have your bike, how will you go?

Lokesh: I borrowed it from Ranjo. Look, he has a petrol lock too. I think even i should fit one. (he was definitely trying to change the topic.)

Saying that lokesh left with his sheets in a sheet container and other required stationary in a bag. Vinayak, Anna and Shardul started commenting on the phone call and continued with their work. Soon after that Charan came,

Charan: Vinayak, I need your bike. Lokesh's bike has run out of fuel and he is just 500m from our college.

Vinayak: Well, i'm not sure about the fuel level in my bike. These are the keys but keep it as the last option. Search for some other bike and if you dont get any then go for this. Hey Shardul, can you give your bike for sometime?

Shardul: Sorry guys, but I'll be leaving very soon.

Charan: No Problem. I'll search for some bike and use this as a last option.

Fuel pump was about 7 km away from their college. So it was not possible to reach there on Vinayak's bike and he knew it very well. He was just waiting for a call from Charan or Lokesh and Srinivas' phone rang. Lokesh was on call and he asked Anna to hand over the phone to Vinayak.

Vinayak: Hello.

Lokesh: Shall we go to Durga? Aaneke baad assignments complete karenge.

Vinayak: Sure, I'm Game.

Lokesh: Bhos**** teri bike ka fuel khatam ho gaya. wo bhi yaha pohochne se pehle. Ab koi bike lekar aa aur hum dono ki bikes mein petrol daal.

Vinayak(Laughing out loudly): Oh Really!!!! thats funny. Ok wait, Shardul is here we can come for your rescue.

Vinayak convinced shardul and they both went to help Charan and Lokesh. They took a bottle for petrol picked up Lokesh in halfway and went to the fuel pump. While at the pump, Shardul's dad called,

Shardul: hello Baba, I'm at petrol pump. I'll be reaching home soon.

His Dad on Phone: What are you doing at petrol pump? you went to hostel for completing assignment, right? Why are wasting your time when the exams are so close. Come home immediately.

Shardul: Ok baba, I'm coming.

Vinayak and Lokesh knew that something has gone wrong, but they liked making fun of such things.

Lokesh: kya bol raha tha tera bapu?

Shardul: Lag gayi yaar. I need to rush.

They went back to the dry tank bikes with a bottle containing 1 litre petrol. Shardul went to the hostel picked up his stuff and returned home.

Lokesh: Yaar ab to petrol hai. Lets go to durga have coffee and come back. (Durga is famous for cold coffee)

Charan: Okay we can do that.

Vinayak: Its 11:30 already, it closes at 12. Hurry!!!

With so low fuel in their bikes they went to Durga which was again around 8-10km from the college. They reached Durga and Vinayak went to take the order but realised that he has forgotten to take his wallet. He took 20 buck from charan. took 3 cups coffee and kept 2 rupees with him.

Vinayak: I'm still confused with the road. I dont come here very often so its difficult to remember the exact route.

Lokesh: I come here almost everyday. Know what, if you go straight down this road, you will reach Bombay- Banglore highway and we can directly go to our college. But it is a longer route.

They finished their drinks. Started the bikes. Lokesh was riding one bike with charan on the back seat. Charan was holding the bag and sheet container. Vinayak was on the other bike, alone.

As they moved a little further they saw few traffic police ahead. Vinayak didnt had a driving license, so he took a U-turn on one way, went in the opposite direction and took the other route. Lokesh and charan continued on the same route. Vinayak was not familiar with the place, but he knew one thing. If he go straight he can join Bombay-Banglore Highway so he started going in the same direction in search of highway.

Soon after crossing the police cars, Lokesh's bike stopped. It ran out of fuel. Lokesh tried to turn it on but with no results. Vinayak was looking for the highway and got lost. Everything, every building around him seemed to be the same as what he has just passed by. For a moment he thought he is going in circles, but the road was straight. It was midnight. Nobody on the roads. No street lights. He was scared but was hoping to find the highway. After some time he thought he should call up Lokesh or Charan but he didnt had a cell phone. So he started looking for a public phone . After going some more distance he found one phone. It was a real scary scene. Total darkness and nobody around. Vinayak dared to stop the bike. he picked up the phone inserted coin and dialed Lokesh's number.

Vinayak: Pick up the phone... Pick up the phone you idiot...Hey Lokesh, Vinayak here.

And somebody started laughing loudly. Vinayak was already scared and this laughter took away his last hope of survival. Then Lokesh spoke,

Lokesh: Kaun Vinayak? arre yaar hamare bike ka fuel khatam ho gaya... Tera bhi same haal hai kya?

Vinayak: Bastard, you scared the shit out of me. I dont know where I am. I was searching the highway but I could not find it. And now I am lost. I dont know the way. I dont have a cell phone, no money in my pocket, I dont know how long will this bike go. Last rupee coin remaining. what should i do?

Lokesh: Ok you come back to durga will see you there.

Vinayak: Ok, thats fine.

When Vinayak was searching for highway, Lokesh and Charan walked all the way to a 24-hour petrol pump at nal stop which is about 3-4 km from durga. They brought fuel in the bottle and were filling it when vinayak called. On listening to Vinayak's state Lokesh thought of pouring in only half the bottle in his bike and save the remaining half for Vinayak's bike. After pouring the petrol, Lokesh realised that the problem wasnt with the fuel. Something else was wrong with the bike and it was still not starting.

Lokesh and charan started walking back to Durga. Vinayak reached durga with in next 5-10 minutes. He was so scared that he didnt wanted to look around. He just closed his eyes and put his head down on the petrol tank. Somebody kept his hand on Vinayak's Shoulder and asked,

Stranger: Do you have a lighter?

Vinayak didnt even dare to look up. he just said No... no...

That guy went away. After about 5 minutes Lokesh and Charan came there, walking all the way and pushing the bike along. Vinayak felt better when he saw them. They shared their stories and thought they would park the bike at Suraj's house and go back to hostel. They started pushing the bike turn by turn. They had another couple of miles to reach his house. After about half a kilometer, Vinayak said,

Vinayak: I have a strong intuition. Try to cranck the bike. It should start. I think the bad time has passed away, nothing will go wrong now.

Lokesh: Yeah, lets try.

He tried and the bike started. They were happy to see that and took a U-turn to go back to hostel. They reached Durga and the bike stopped again!!! Lokesh started laughing loudly. Vinayak was scared but atleast he had some company this time. Charan was wondering what is he doing there? He was forced to come there and exams were very close.

Vinayak: I have a friend in MIT hostel we can keep this bike there. We will take it in the morning tomorrow. moreover the hostel is just 500m from this place.

Everyone agreed and went to MIT hostel to keep the bike. Everything went smoothly and they parked the bike in hostel parking.

Now every possible problem was almost done. Lokesh took the rider's seat, Vinayak and charan were sitting behind him. Charn had a sheet container on his back, Vinayak had an empty bottle. Lokesh was riding and he had a bandage on his hand due to some injury he had earlier. They headed towards the hostel and upto everyones surprise the problems were not yet over.

Few traffic police stopped them in midway.

Police: He kay, konala marayla challe aahat? ekchya hatala dressing, eka kade batli and teesrya kade stick? Triple seat ka jaat ahat tumhi?

(Are you going to beat somebody?, one guy is having bandage on his hand, another guy carrying a bottle and third person carrying a stick? Why are you going triple seat anyways?)

Lokesh could not control his laughter so he turned around and started laughing.

Vinayak: Sir we are students. We went to our friends place for studying and our bike ran out of fuel. We parked the bike in MIT hostel and now we are going back to Sinhgad hostel. This is the bottle we used for refueling petrol.

Charan: yes sir, and see this is our bag, the sheet container and stuff.

Police: Triple seat jaa rahe the tum log. Fine to lagega.

Vinayak: Sir we dont have money. we had just 10 rupees and we filled in petrol with that. We need to go to Sinhgad with this much of fuel and we are not sure if we can even reach till there.

On listening to this the cops started alking amoung themselves.

Police: daha rupay cha petrol takun Sinhgad la challe ahe he.. Ok guys, you can go.

And this was the last hurdle. It was 4 am. They reached hostel, forgot about their assignments and slept. Next day they came to know that the other bike was just fine. Its ON and RESERVE were reversed. They had kept the knob in Reserve and so it didnt start.

Movie Tickets for Free

During college days these guys always preferred to have something for free. Not because they fell short of money but for fun. For the first semester following scene of "who gets the first chocobar?" was quite popular. Prathik, Vinayak, Pravin and Charan were the participants. They used to stand near departmental store and ask their friends or sometimes even strangers for 1 rupee coins to make phone calls. One who collects 5 coins first and buys a chocobar with that was the winner. It went well for about a week or two and then they stopped doing that to keep up their image.

One day after college hours when these guys were relaxing at the coffee corner Prathik and Vinayak decided to go for a movie without paying a single rupee from their pocket. They had the problem statement, now they were looking for some possible solution. At 8 pm they went for dinner and the need for ideas was still haunting them. While going in the mess somebody was discussing the discontinuation of mess with gujju anna. Yeah all messwalas are called Anna in Sinhgad campus. Doesnt matter if they are Gujju or kannad. On listening to the conversation Vinayak jumped with joy and said.

Vinayak: Hey, I think we can do it. Let's go to the mess. Come 'on Faster.

At the front desk of mess while signing, Vinayak searched for a name, his registered number and the amount he deposited. They proceeded for dinner and Vinayak explained the complete plan to Prathik.

Prathik: Yaar it seems to be risky. We will be in a big problem if we get caught. But who cares? Let's Do It!!!

They had their lunch went out of the mess and came back to mess after half an hour.

Vinayak: Anna, I am Abhijit Patil. My number is 162 and I paid you 250 rupees in advance. All my friends has joined the Maharashtrian Mess and so I need to cancel my membership

On hearing this Anna tried to decline his cancellation.

Prathik: Anna, we always come to your mess. It is just a matter of one month and the whole group will join your mess that's a promise.

Convincing any person wasn't that difficult for Prathik. Looking at his innocent face, anna replied

Anna: This is the first and last time I'm ever returning advance amount. You had your food for 2 days so I'll deduce 100 bucks. This is remaining 150/-

Vinayak: Thank You, Anna. See you in the next month.

Both of them came out of the mess and did not dare to go back for next 3-4 months.

And finally watched a movie for free J

What these people can do to skip Assignments

Lokesh and Vinayak were discussing about studies this time. PLs were about to start in 1 week.

If you are thinking that they were planning to study, let me clear, These guys were discussing about the possible ways of skipping extra assignments. These assignments were given to compensate their extremely poor attendance for that sem, somewhere between 10-20% (exaggerated).
But as usual they were unable to come to any conclusion. They had used their Aces long back. This was the final year.

Next Day:

Lokesh came home and started abusing someone very badly.

Vinayak (enquired from 1st floor): Kya hua? kyoun chilla raha hai?

Lokesh: Wo *#$&er truckwala saala. Signal pe achanak break daba diya. I had no time to turn. I tried my best but hit the vehicle on rear side.

Vinayak rushed down stairs and saw Lokesh was bleeding. He had an injury on his cheek and he was less bothered about it. Instead he was looking at the broken headlight of his GirlFirend. I mean his bike.

Lokesh: The console is broken into pieces. Even the fork needs to be checked.

Vinayak: Idiot let us rush to some clinic first. We can fix up your bike later.

Saying that Vinayak took lokesh to a nearby hopital. Two nurses started cleaning the injury. Vinayak was watching this from a distance and suddenly, he fainted. After a couple of minutes Lokesh opened his eyes to see Vinayak lying on another bed and the nurses busy in checking his BP. Nobody was there to look after Lokesh. For a moment he thought it was Vinayak who met an accident and not him.

Lokesh was very concerned about the stitch marks that could lower down his face value :) Whole day went into finding the proper hospital, proper thread for stiches and proper doctor to do that.

Vinayak: Another day is gone. We are still at the same point with a difference that we have one day less.

Lokesh: We need to do something. I dont know what, but something that could save us from those assignments.

Vinayak: Jisne bhook di hai, wo khana bhi dega.
Jisne Daaro di hai, wo chakna bhi dega.
Aur jisne assignments di hai, wo bahana bhi dega.
So lets not worry about it anymore. Its too late, lets start NFS.

They played NFS till early morning and slept. After 3-4 days at about 10 AM Vinayak's phone rang. prof. Kapatkar had called up to enquire why are they not attending college.

Prof Kapatkar: Hello, hello, hello!!!

Vinayak(still in sleep): Hello

Prof Kapatkar: Mi Kapatkar, Kapatkar boltoy. Mi Kapatkar Boltoy.

Vinayak stood up when he realised it was prof Kapatkar.

Vinayak: Yes Sir.

Prof Kapatkar: Why are you not coming to college? Where are Lokesh and bhooshan?

Vinayak: Sir, sir actually.... Lokesh, met with an accident. He is very badly injured. He has stitches on his face and injuries on his legs and hand.

Prof Kapatkar: And why are you not coming then?

Vinayak: Sir, I was sitting on the pillion seat when he met with an accident. my right hand is factured. (he said it spontaneously and realised that he has a strong reason now)

Prof Kapatkar: You come and meet me today.

Vinayak: Sir, we cant come today. we need to go to hospital now. we will come in the afternoon tomorrow.

Prof Kapatkar: Ok, bye.

Vinayak: bye sir.

Vinayak kept the phone aside and kicked Lokesh very hard who was still sleeping.

Vinayak: Lokesh uth saale. Kapatkar ne call kiya tha. He was asking about both of us.

Lokesh: hmmm... kya bol raha tha.

Vinayak: Kya bolega? He has invited us to college.

Lokesh: Tu jaake aa. I'm busy.

After 2 hours Lokesh woke up. Vinayak was ready by the time. He told Lokesh about the call. What else could Lokesh do, he started laughing.

Lokesh: Tune bola ki tera haath fracture hai aur usne maan liya???

And both of them bursted into laughter. They went to a medicine shop to get the Plaster Of Paris strips to make the scenario more realistic. Vinayak was hesitant to ask about it so Lokesh went forward.

Lokesh: hey boss, do you have P-O-P strips. we wanna show our professor that his hand is fractured.

Shopkeeper: hahaha... Are you from Bharati Vidyapeeth?

Lokesh: No we are from Sinhgad College.

Shopkeeper: Ok. I can help you out. These are the strips. just soak it in water and apply on your hand. But you need to let it dry for atleast 6-7 hours. You should also take this sleeve, so that you dont cut your hand while removing it.

Lokesh: Ok and I need some bandage and medicine that will give it reddish colour.

They purchased the Dressing strips, P-O-P strips and went back home. The room got a look of "Hariprasad Sharma Charitable Hospital" (Munna Bhai MBBS). occupants were busy in making the plaster look as original as possible. The Dressing which Lokesh had on his hand was perfect. But he was not satisfied with the colour of medicine.

Lokesh: A Bhooshnya, thodasa rum la re. I want this patch to look red.

Thanks to Shardul and Bhooshan the makeup completed quickly.

Vinayak: Wow!!! we will go and meet kapatkar tomorrow and all our assignments will be cancelled. I'm so excited.

Lokesh: Dont move your hand, the plaster is still wet.

Next day Lokesh got scared when he saw the stitches in mirror.

Lokesh: Hey Vinayak, we should go and meet Kapatkar very soon. See this. The wound is almost healed. I dont want to take any risk.

Vinayak: oh yeah. we need to do something for that.

Bhooshan: Ye le. Thoda aur Rum lagale uspe red rahega to pata nahi chalega.

Lokesh: Yeda ho gaya hai kya. If I apply this on my face I'll be smelling rum. Give me the medicine.

They got ready and went to the college after so many days.

Lokesh: arre sun, we will act as if we actually have the injuries. Let us see what would be the reaction of our classmates.

Vinayak: Yeah thats good. We will have some trial before facing the actual monster.

Lokesh and Vinayak proceeded towards the department. They saw Rahul Patel coming out of the department.

Rahul: Arre kya hua? Hey ye plaster abhi abhi kiya hai kya? It looks so new.

Vinayak: kya baat kar raha hai. Aisa kuch nahi hai . We met with an accident and my hand got fractured. Look at him, he has stitches on his face too.

Rahul: Well done guys, I know you very well. See you later, bbye.

Saying that Rahul went away. But his words scared them. Both Vinayak and Lokesh returned to their room without even entering the department. Everybody stamped their shoes on the plaster. Shardul cleaned the floor and then rubbed that broom all over the plaster. Several people autographed on it and finally it was ready to be presented :)

Everything went well. Prof Kapatkar apologised for asking them to come to college when it was so difficult for Lokesh to walk. Last semester, Last trick and Last assignment was finally skipped.

A day like every other day in those years

8:00 am. Alarm is ringing as usual.

Shyam : Vinayak are you willing to come to college today??

Vinayak: You move ahead, I'll come with Anna.

9:30am. Alarm rings again. and this time vinayak succeeds in his attempt of stepping down the bed. Looks around. Anna and Lokesh are still sleeping. Realizes something and shouts.

Vinayak: Abe utho!!! we need atleast 60% attendance to skip those prelims and assignments...

Anna: Anyways first lecture has already started, so sleep for some more time we will attend the next one.

Lokesh is not even in senses to reply something. Vinayak try to think and sleeps again. Finally everyone gets ready for 11:30 lecture (Obviously without bathing). Prathik and Chaitanya are also late today (like everyday).

Anna : hey prathik, did you bath today?

Prathik : Anna, mein Sunday-ke-Sunday nahata hoo. haa pichle do sundays miss ho gaye hai.

Everyone starts laughing and moves ahead. Lokesh calls Bhooshan before leaving the hostel.

Lokesh : arre bhushnya i want to meet that Mr. Patil in Hostel admin department. he knows you very well.

Bhooshan : Ok. ek kaam karte hai. Pehle mandar jaake chai peete hai phir jaate hai uske paas.

Lokesh: I am telling you this from last 2 months.

Bhooshan: Karte naa apne.

The whole group moves from hostel to Mandar garden for breakfast. the hot discussion going around is what reason should we tell to prof, for not attending today's lectures.

Anna: Leave it guys we don't need term-work marks. We will score in the theory papers.

Lokesh: Yeah surely but only if they allow us to sit for the exams. My attendance is something around 28%. If I attend every lecture till the last day, my attendance might reach 50%.

Vinayak: I am not going to miss any lecture from today.

Lokesh: ha.... Karte naa apne...

Prathik: Hey guys, Rishi ka aaj ka kissa. Try to give most weird answer. how will you save a winamp play list??
Chaitanya: Rishi ne kya kiya ye bata.
Prathik: He took a snapshot of playlist- saved it as .jpg from Paint aur uske baad bolta hai, yaar mein kabse ye playlist khol raha hoo lekin kuch problem hai.

Everyone started laughing and moved on to college. The day ends here. But the evenings and nights is the time when these guys spent most memorable time of their life. So keep waiting for the next post :).

World's most Strange Fine!!!

It was our Machine Design -3 paper. As usual Anna taught us few chapters which were enough to get through. In all there are 6 compulsory questions in university exams. We did thorough analysis of previous papers and came to a conclusion that only 5 chapters out of 10 are enough to pass.

We entered the exam hall. Everyone in the class was equally worried about the paper. Luckily the supervisor was lenient and moreover the paper was easy. we completed our paper well before time. One thing that was common between myself, Lokesh and Anna was that we wrote the numerical's answers on the question paper. It was just for verification after exams. One hour was still remaining and as we had nothing to do we got restless. An external examiner entered the class to confirm that nobodys is cheating. He found out that lokesh has written something on his question paper and asked him to leave the classroom immediately. He went out and started packing his bag when he saw me coming out for the same reason. He started laughing and said, "Tu bhi??" and it made me laugh too. We were about to leave the corridors and we saw Anna coming out. We could not control our laughter and bursted out. Anna started laughing too.

Little did we knew the consequences of it. The external examiner was wathcing us laugh. He thought we are making fun of him and immediately escalated the matter and asked the principal (Paddy) to disallow us from appearing any further papers. Paddy said, "I'll make sure that they wont complete their course this year". Before saying this statement he didnt know that the guys were we. Paddy summoned us to his office. We, still trying to control the laughter reached his cabin. When Paddy saw Anna he knew he can't do anything. How can a principal debar a university ranker?

He started thinking about what should be done. And to buy some time, he asked us

"Do you have any reason for this?"

It was quite clear for us because we were not making fun of the examiner. It was a situational comedy. We started explaining,

Lokesh: "Sir, we live for the moment and we don't like crying for the past bad things that happened. Whenever there is some tough paper or any other situation wherein people decide to give up, we LAUGH. We were just trying not to be emotional."

Anna: "Yes Sir. Previous paper of SOM was the toughest paper we ever faced in our engineering. But after reaching hostel we laughed out loud and that made us ready to face next paper with even more confidence".

Can you even imagine someone's saying this to the Principal of engineering college? We DID!!!

Me:"Sir we accept the place was wrong but our intentions were not what you are thinking. From next time onwards we will make sure that we don't create such nuisance." (This was my favorite line. One of our Teachers taught me this)

Paddy: "Such things cannot be tolerated in Campus. You can go back to hostel and laugh as much as you want but not in the campus. You should pay a fine of Rs 100/- each before appearing for next paper. You may go now"

Anna, Lokesh & Me in Unison: "Thank You Sir"

We should have said Sorry instead ;)

After coming out of the office, it was even harder to control our laughter. Somehow we went to the billing counter and told the lady that we are asked to pay fine and here is the money.

She asked: "Fine for what?"

Lokesh: "For laughing in the campus" and started laughing again.

Confused with the scenario, she took the fine and gave us reciepts. We cam out of the office and started laughing again.... this time for paying fine for such a wierd reason.

Introduction

Completing Engineering from Pune University in 4 years is a tough task. But not for the guys mentioned below. Considering one months preparatory leave, they used to study for 10 days(exaggerated) and could manage to get through the exams with OK marks. One thing worth mentionable Srinivas a.k.a. Anna (The brainy chap who scored 100% in 12th PCM) was the one who could manage to top in the class inspite of studying for the same time. Lokesh (who possessed a public transport vehicle "Pulsar") was always confident about his papers, "Agar mere DAD bhi paper check karte hai to bhi mujhe pass nahi karenge", was his favourite dialogue. Krunal a.k.a Chotu (one who could make the electrons flow as per his wish) was a generic engineer, give him a problem on anything about Electronics/ Computers/ Mechanical he can solve the problem but dont ask him to EXPLAIN the concepts. B.Prathik (No body knew how he managed to make his codes working), another brainy creature who was too lazy to use his brains unless forced to do so, He was also a member of the onRound group(will discuss it later).Chaitanya (Everycode does something correct, I don't care if we don't expect the given ouput!!!) another member of onRound group. Bhooshan (The don of Criticals, who has an experience of clearing backlogs at critical stage), you need something reach out to bhooshan and he would say "Karte na apne!!!", the founder member of Sahara parivar. Anirudh a.k.a. Ganja (Eat alot, Study hard and work on robotic competitions) was one man army for the robotic competitions which he participated.

P.S. The Stories mentioned here are based on true incidents.