Nostalgia: P.C.Thomas....

(the following events happened during the summer breaks in 1999 and 2000. a group of us from ISM at P.C.Thomas' entrance coaching classes..)

Bhujack is born!
5 of us...from ISM..stuck at P.C's...only way of keeping in touch with our folks back home..create our respective email ids...after a 5 min brainstorming session..unanimously select "bhujack" as the common postfix...reason:cant disclose!

The night of the dead.
abt 4-5 of us.. sleeping in a huge hall...raining cats n dogs outside...windows swaying in the wind.. lightening flashing like the paparrazi at OSO's premiere.. perfect scenario for us to get together n talk abt everything bizzare and dead...was fun freakin every1 out with cooked up stories!! i rem binin's stroy abt an aunt who saw a ghost n lost her bearings ever since..

The Filmy connection.
a bakery situated a few mins from P.C's...the cashier bore a striking resemblance to the beautiful malayalam actress Samyukta Verma. I had another of my adolescent crushes...many were the evenings+mornings+afternoons spent... going there to eat something..anything.. just for tat 1 glimpse..jobi..not to be outdone...tore off a poster of Jyotika's latest release..brought it home...and slept every nite holding it next to him.. even forced the rest of us to go watch that movie.. during which he threatned to remove his shirt during the movie..( im not sure.. but i think he DID remove his shirt!!)both summers were spent with each teasin the other abt this and other stupid crushes..

Thrissur Express:
the 1st time we were there..i think we saw abt 11 movies in 30 days...the next time we were there.. we saw 15 movies in 20 days... yes..we were sent there to study. but are we to blame if there are more than 6 theatres around the temple circle.. and a few more within 5-10 kms of the temple circle???the memorable ones: "life is beautiful", "John Carpenter's Vampires", "priyam"AND how can i forget.."SWEDISH GIRLS".. my first "matinee" experience...i think the theatre's name was ganga...we guys landed up all excited and wary abt the seats we were allotted.(any wet/slimy/dirty spots were treated with max suspicion!!!)

My uncle's treasure!
some statements made by george:
" my folks own the biggest milk dairy in kerala. in fact we supply milk to the govt dairy scheme"
"my granpa is so rich, hes got acres n acres of land...multiple tennis courts.. lifesize chess board with pieces made of ivory/sandalwood " (im not sure which!!)
n last but not the least...
"there's this series of tile that was made by a very famous artist long ago.. tday only THREE samples exist.. one in a british museum.. one in the queen's royal palace.. and the third.. in my uncle's toilet".

The clairvoyant.
Sinjo, our resident clairvoyant. Any question regarding anything, pose it to him and leave him alone in a room.. he does his meditation thingie.. and gives us his answer...unfortunately, his track record was 50% right, at best, but still...the optimists tat we were.. he was treated like god..:))

Cricket as it was meant to be!
imagine rains.. fields drowned in muddy water.. peaceful bovines..grazing around you and doing their bit towards fertilizing the ground...and a bat, a ball and a rag-tag team of cricket enthusiasts!the best cricket ive ever played in my life...also the day when dilip proved he is dumb beyond belief! a small but deep canal ran behind the field. as expected, the ball fell in.. only binin knew how to swim well.. he jumped in.. got the ball.. but current was too strong for him.. started drowning.. jobi who knew a bit.. jumped in to save him..but wasnt able to get him to the bank.. n the next thing we see is a heroic but DAFT dilip jumping in to save them both.. needless to say.. our horror turned in hours of laughter after all 3 were rescued...PS- in case the folks whose windows we broke a couple of times during our games, are readin this.. pls do get in touch with me.. will make ammends.

The last meal.
our last few days in thrissur, and we were fed up of the insipid food we were given in our hostel. we decided to ask the neighbours who did outdoor catering to cook a chicken curry for us.(offcourse we paid them for it)..at dinner time, we were all verrrry hungry.. and the saliva was flowing like a river swollen after fresh rains...the curry came in.. n i think it was dileep who took a huge dollop of the curry and stuffed it in his mouth..the next moment he spat it out n was screamin like some1 had cut his tongue off...turns out, the lady while cooking had added mirchi once.. and while she wasnt looking.. her daughter who, thinkin her mom had not yet added mirchi, put in more.end result: a fiery hot chicken curry that wud have burned the skin off the mouth of even the most hardened spice eater!

C grade comfort.
power cuts during the hot sultry summers were frequent.. one night.. after a particularly hot dinner.. our level of discomfort was worsened by a power cut at 9:30pm...some1 suggested going n watchin a movie.. n relaxing in the comfort of an airconditioned theatre. every1, including our warden agreed. all the boys from the hostel immediately set off, and to our dismay found every theatre to be houseful. Only 1 seedy little place was available, with a c grade movie to show.. left with no option.. we bought tiks.. and walked in.. all that running around had left most of us tired and within minutes i found myself sleeping..dont know when, but after a while something disturbed me.. and i woke up to find all of us sleeping peacefully.. with only our warden keenly following the sexcapades of the lead pair onscreen..wat was happenin on screen really wasnt tat interesting!! proof: i went back to sleep..

Parting gift.
The day before we were all to leave the hostel, we found that they were going to tear down the old dilapidated building. with nothing to loose, we decided to exercise our creativity...i drew my preferred sign..."the finger" all over the hostel.. on almost every wall...with anything i could get my hands on..ashish/sinjo/dilip n others wrote all kinds of nonsense...and jobi..(this is priceless!!).. writes the lyrics of 'desert rose" on his bedroom wall with toothpaste!!!

PS- this is just a few of the unforgettable stuff we did...i expect more contributions from the others who were present then...