Apart from being the fastest SMS typing machine, Kicha was the dream boy for almost any lass out there. He had what people call lady luck. He had it so much that, even if he threw a dart blindfold, it hit bull’s eye without fail. He had a stellar GPA to his credit, thanks to the way he wrote exams. He wrote as big as tabloid headlines, and he wrote pages and pages of that gibberish(he claimed so), and eventually ended up with a decent score by any standards. If he entered a class late, the prof was in a good mood. If he didn’t complete his assignment, the prof would have forgotten it eons ago.

I advocated a theory wherein, I did whatever he did, like entering the class late along with him etc, so that I got away with all that along with him. But we both got grounded for that(the reason being, my misfortune being bigger in magnitude than his luck :p).

This time, even he was not having a hint of hope. We thought “all good things must come to an end”, and here it was now, all the bona fide and unchallenged criminals of ECE III yr were sitting and bidding adieu to our good old days(sans Motu, who was still avidly eating).

“my guess, this time Adi takes an ad hoc print out of the question papers. So if we can manage to sneak in at that moment, or if you can get even with Adi. We’ll do it for sure.” cried Kaushik.

“Plain vanilla simple. Get even with Adi.” Motu mimicked K6. “Are you nuts? I’d rather fail.”(read die). I also wanted to be a part of the conversation.

“don’t you remember the enquiry last time?”

Nobody paid any attention. People wanted ideas. The tobacco republic(as we called ourselves with some airs) wanted “no frills” attached ideas. not analysis.

Rahul thought he had come up with a solution.“first things first. Whats the syllabus?”. We all looked at each others faces. Some guy even turned the pages of his note book.(I didn’t have any!). K6 was probing his pockets, probably for the previous exam’s chit I guess.

“anyway whats your point?” Kicha yelled out.

“my point is, we’ll really study this time….honestly”. Rahul couldn’t help a slight smile on his face.

There was stony silence as soon as he said that. Motu even stopped eating, and looked at him, with a murderous expression.

“come on guys. Im not being defensive. But once in a while its ok. You people come over to the hostel and well pull out a wonderful group study. huh? what say?”

We churned out such a hilarious laughter, that the whole skt reverberated with our sound(Motu was responsible for 96% of it.)

“well well, group study…he he heh..” K6 giggled, as he stubbed out the cigarette. “ok guys, no more studies, lets chill out with some movies and all, its still a long way to go, we’ll chalk out a strategy and…”. The talk drifted off to hang outs, girls and pornography.

It was human tendency to postpone indecisive situations sine die. Most of them would rather die than think. That was so true amongst us. We opted not to think about the inevitable. We all split up after hours of tete-a-tete, unfinished cups of tea and coffee and mountains of cigarette stubs. Me and Rahul walked towards hostel with fear in our heads and hope in our hearts. I was surmising what would they be serving in the mess tonight for dinner, while Rahul hit upon something interesting.

“Badri, these people are sure getting the papers this time.”

“what??”

“because the got it the last time, and the time before that, and…”

“wow, are you trying to prove this fact by mathematical induction?”

“no, but Adi has been muddling with their business for 2 monthlies now. And they have been smoothing off pretty well, without studying a word.”

He said “their business”, because it was obviously theirs. To be very honest, we hadn’t got the question papers ever in our college lives, in spite of so much fervor. Now I may sound like I am the hero of the story or something, but that was really true. My principle, or our principle as I call it, was radically different. We thought till that day, that it would be better to get a big zero and get kicked out, that get kicked out for copying. In simple terms, we were afraid of copying(here copying is the broader term that is the sum total inclusive of all malpractices followed by a chap to increase his mark significantly). Yes, two members of the fearless dauntless tobacco republic had a secret, unshared apprehension. And that was the last day we stuck to our principle.

“ok, so what are you trying to put across?” I asked pre meditatively, even though I wasn’t paying any attention to his words. I wanted an idea which worked, and I didn’t give a damn to how it worked and all.