Of Amateur Washermen and their zeal for work......

There's a Kannada saying which I would have to reproduce in its original form

" Hosadralli Agasa GoNi Eththi Eththi Ogedananthe"

Anyway, for those of you who didnt get it due to language barrier or due to my sheer inability to effectively convey kannada phonetics through the Queen's language, here's what it means - An amatuer dhobi washes gunny bags with the same ardour as he would wash some other expensive piece of clothing[implied].

Okay, enough of this literary tomfoolery. Let me get straight to the point. I had recently been to a 'function' [also. gathering def. a gathering of sufficiently large numbers of the male and female species of Homo sapiens with no fixed agenda except to gather as much information as possible about the rest of the species]. It too like any other of its kind contained the usual Q & A session - Well the last part is what interested me the most!

Hello, how are you?
Fine!

What are you doing now?
Me in final year BE, Ramaiah

Oh cool! finished with your placements??
Oh yes! Placed in LnT blah blah blah!

Good! What do they do?
They do this this and this and more of this at their this plant and less of this at their this unit.

Very good, very good. My friend's cousins nephew got into Microsoft. You dont want Microsoft??
Heck who doesnt want MS?? I am into talks with Mr.Gates. you'll read about my takeover shortly in the papers.

You are such an 'Adhikaprasangi'. Anyway my daughter too studies in Ramaiah. She is in Mechanical 1st sem.
Ah! good, whats her name?? [I'll ask her out for coffee sometime] Why isnt she around today?

Oh! poor girl. what can I say, she's busy with some assignments. She doent even have time to travel home-you see 20kms is a long distance. She stays in hostel. She stays in the 'DEPARTMENTAL LIBRARY' till 6 or 7.
Whaaaa!??? Departmental Library??? Never mind if there's cigarettes in the air [literally] from Gold Flakes to Wills [ pardon me if those are outdated brands, those are from the days when cig adverts were legal]. Anyway the numerous hangouts around the college are equally good.

After all this, I quitely slip away from the group to try my luck at the adjacent group and here again I am greeted by this "oh! 7th sem??? Finished with your placements??" for the 3223rd time this year. Tougher times ahead.


Then there is another breed of first years. The confident young lad with a Tee neatly tucked inside the jeans and a small folder with everything from LKG Marks Card to the CET admission order under his arms with his daddy dearest following him. One cannot miss the enthu in his eyes nor the inspection in his Dad's eyes. Enters the front foyer, looks around and Hey! theres a poster put up by SUN here, this college rocks! Never mind if the poster screams out.......Last Date for Submission 25th August 2004 or asking all NCC Cadets to assemble at some ungodly hour some 8 years back. The student and his dad will definitely read every detail that can be read through the dust covered glass pane and move on in search of other such boards.


The third variety, the poor student is filling up forms for the college- I will not indulge in ragging [As if ragging was the regular sport of first years], will follow all rules laid down by the management and more such crap- while the mother's hawkish eyes are peeping into other students forms. If any familiarity breeds within that short span,

How much did you get in PU??
I put up some 94% in PU.

Oh is it?? My son got 98%, what is your rank??
I got this stupid rank

My son, poor fellow, studied hard, but didnt do well in CET.
BahaLa Santosha, Should I distribute sweets for that???

And then the parent moves back to her son and tells everything about the conversation trying to infuse some seriousness into her son and life continues........

The poor guy or gal gets into Ramaiah [College], endures the hardships of engineering, matures enough to know all these things are not worth bothering about, laughs at evrything around mostly with a bit of mental insanity, writes blogs like this ridiculing others and yet life continues.......