The Constitution of India

Hi guys. I am finally back, after a long break. Not that I was free all this while; even I work once in a while. :). Kind of a successful last week for me. Now my friends are giving a detailed report of things in their daily life, like a blog, filled with humor, and even when they hesitate to give that credit to me and my initial step, I am here to accept all that. A baby step turns into a giant leap of confidence. :) But still a few are there, for whom work is more important, and no time for friends. Gotta get them out of their usual skins too. (Miss X, don’t sulk, I am referring to you only).

Ok seeing the heading; now don’t confuse yourself that I am going to give some description about the Constitution of India. Something else is destined to be there below. When I was in school, I used to think that Constitution consists of the daily pledge which we read out in school assembly. “I am an Indian. India is my country. All Indian are my brothers and (their) sisters…………” That keyword ‘their’ was added later, when our brains opened and thought that its very illogical and our marriage will be at stake, and no one will be there to call us as papa or whatsoever later. We are so adjusting in nature. We adjusted the pledge, and daily continued with that, with that keyword in lowered voice, to avoid being caught.

Further down the line, understood that this Constitution is something else, and something much bigger. As I have no short memory loss aka Aamir khan of Ghajini fame, things which I remember most and clearly now are from my college life. It’s time to take you people in little flashback mode. Final semester of our engineering, one side there was little pain that after few months, we all will be separated and will choose different ways; other side we were happy that we are going to finish this cruel and gruesome period of four years. I am not discouraging the aspiring engineers, but I do want to enlighten them that completing four years of engineering, is no child’s play. It’s tougher than climbing Mount Everest, and here also you slip off so many times, like that in prior case. But somehow we had reached the final ascent, and we had less number of subjects in the final semester, mostly the projects and there was a gem in the crown, The Indian Constitution, as one of the subject. :)

Few initial days, this hour was a boon to us in disguise, as there were no assigned lecturer for this and we used to have complete free time. One month, out of four assigned months, went off like this. Then came the day, and it brought new light, new person, and new Constitution of India. No, he never changed the constitution, but he did change the energy levels of each and every individual in our class. First time when he stepped into our class, he was in a white shirt, black trousers, shirt not tucked in, wearing a slipper, looking like a typical mallu, and had a register in hand. We all guessed that he is some newly appointed office boy (man) and he has come to tell about list of people having dues. This due declaration was almost a daily affair now, as we were going to leave this greedy college very soon. But our guess was short-lived as he told that he is the new constitution teacher. Believe me guys, you all would had read lots of mails where they mock the mallu pronunciations. I am not telling that all do same, but this human piece would have inspired that someone to write that mail for sure. No zhatting (chatting) in my class was his first statement. Then he took attendance. Next 5-10 minutes were like some comedy show. The way he was taking our names, we were like rolling on the floor. He was watching it all with no reaction but. To add up to his own introduction, he was a HOD for some department in the newly opened MBA section.

Then came our introduction time. He asked all of us, to tell our names and something about us. We engineers are the biggest copy cats on earth. The format of introduction presented by the first person was happily copied by rest all, and we continued the process. There were few roars of laugh, as the baton kept on passing and reached me also. I told about myself, and also that I am from Bihar. He gave a nice laugh and added that Lalu’s place. I never took it as offence, but thought of making it fun topic. I didn’t tell anything that time. The day went off, and yes, I didn’t have to wait for long. Within a week, somehow again Bihar got a mention, and again that grin on his face and mention of Lalu. I just stood up and told that it was not at all fair. He just can’t make fun of my birthplace like that. He will have to tender an apology in front of us, before continuing the class. There are many good things to mention about that place, than showing this attitude. As planned almost the entire class supported me. And his face was worth seeing. So sad of him. He was seeming to be famine-stricken, and as if not able to breathe and all. He didn’t tell anything, and went off from the class. Next day he came, and before we could demand anything, he himself told sorry, and took an oath that he will not mention any state, cast, creed, religion, race or anything else’s name in his further classes, and will avoid controversy. And from that day, he started keeping good eye on me. His only problem was, I was the only person who used to answer his questions in class, so he was somehow not able to scold me, even when he tried his best.

Few days went off, and he was not able to retaliate, then he found one way out. I hadn’t bought the constitution book. He made a new rule, that everyone in the class should have their own book, and then only he will give attendance to them, otherwise not. No sharing of books will be allowed. Each and everyone should have their own copy. I understood that this was for me. First day, simply I avoided the class, as I didn’t have the book. Meanwhile I spoke to Electronics people (they had same subject a year back), asking for any spare book. By the end of the day I was able to arrange Xerox copy of the book. Next day, when he saw me in the class, he remembered of his defined rule, and as he can’t apply the same only on me, he started checking everyone’s books. Finally when he reached me, and asked, I showed him the Xerox copy, he wasn’t happy. He told, I had told about the book, and not Xerox copy. Even I was firm, that if you want, u can compare the book and Xerox copy, the contents will be same word by word, and even the punctuation marks. ;-) (It was the Xerox of same book). Then he had another issue. He told that Xerox copy was bearing some other name, and this was not my book. I took the pen, cut the existing name, and put my name there, and asked if he had any other problem. He found himself at the receiving end. He turned back and went, and new assignment for us, the preamble of constitution should be on finger-tips of everyone by tomorrow.

Next day, we all were ready, few who had guts had by-hearted it, and few intelligent people like us had either written on desk, or had done new innovations to tackle. He came and started asking each and everyone and even a word’s mistake was enough for him to catch. Like school kids we were not allowed to sit. Even my innovation didn’t pay off, and even I was standing at the end. I could see the satisfaction on his face. Another thing happened that day. One girl, Miss Nuts started drinking water from her bottle while she was standing. She got scolding’s nicely from him, and he asked her not to exhibit “Aaya culture” (nurse-like behavior) again in the class. We never got a justification why he termed this like that, but we surely had a great laugh for next few days.

Then came the D-Day. We had our annual fest. I and few of my classmates were in the co-coordinator’s list, and we were enjoying our time nicely. We used to come to college and never attend classes. We had got special permission for that. Once when we were done with our fest, we came back and showed him the letter and asked him to give attendance to all of us. He didn’t agree. He told he will not do that. He was like we never did anything and just to avoid classes, we are using this. He gave example of his MBA guys, that they never bunked classes, and still attended the fest. Miss Don, was first to retaliate, telling that MBA people never arranged for anything. They just came to eat on that day and watch the events and go, for that skipping lecture was never required. Everyone else was silent and then I came up for her support. I told, anyways, doing MBA from this college, means they were fit for nothing. Even when we are doing engineering from here, we can tell that we are fitter and useful from them, and we do constructive work, so participated in that. He was like, I never asked you to speak anything. I told this is how we engineers are, we always support our friends and colleagues, not like MBA people. This was enough to hurt is ego. He told that no one had spoken to him like that before. Thanks to Munnabhai I told - “Life me bahut kuch pehli baar hota hai re.” I had spoken very softly, but still everyone heard, and a big laugh across the class. He couldn’t understand but. That was the last time he spoke to me, till next internals. After the results came, I was again the topper in his subject, so he opened his mouth and we were friendly again till end.

After this day, he was very careful while speaking and even after doing lot of research; we were not able to take out something to fight. Like this more than a month went, and then came the plot for my last incident. I don’t remember exactly what had happened, but he was upset with our attitude, maybe we didn’t do our assignment or something. He gave one biblical dialogue – “If you throw pearls to the swine, it’s of no use.” Hurray, we got an opportunity. Me myself, Yeda Anna and Fearless, we three went to our HOD and complained that he is calling us swine, and requested him not to reveal our names, or else it can affect us. We asked him to confirm the same from anyone from our class, as well as from him also. Then we 3 went to his chamber to check our internal marks, and then only he got a call from our HOD, and got nicely scolding’s not to use such language. He was so dejected and after he kept phone, he told us that someone has gone and complained against him. We were laughing so much inside, and we consoled him, and promised him that we will find that person. We came out and laughed so much. That was the end of the story, as our exams came and all was over. We all may forget the entire Constitution, but we will neither forget him, nor the few words of the Preamble of the constitution. ;-)