What You Make it

The college elections in Kerala are a huge eventas they are heavily politicised. It gave a good indication of which party would formthe next Government. It was well known that political parties sponsor thecampaign expenses of the students' wing of their respective parties. Posters are putup all over the town, especially at the places which students frequent. There aregroups moving around in jeeps with loudspeakers blaring out announcements allaround the campuses. There are fliers, and election speeches. There is intensecompetition and the air is electric. There were also instances where candidates werestabbed and killed because of inter group rivalry. It was a messy business.St. Agnes wanted to steer clear of all this, and so the elections in our collegewere completely devoid of politics. It was a bit like school election, but on a muchbigger scale. There were eight major official positions the most important being theposts of Chairperson, Arts Club Secretary and General Secretary. A notice was putup announcing the election dates and inviting nominations for the posts. Anybodycould nominate a student for any position. The nomination forms had to be filledup in triplicate and submitted. It had to be endorsed by two other people.Suvi shot into the college canteen like a rocket from her hostel and said "Didyou all see the notice?""Yeah," said Janie. "We saw it yesterday.""And..?" prompted Suvi"And what?" I asked."Guess," she said, her eyes gleaming. Her excitement was infectious. She lookedcharged."Are you contesting? Wow! That's great!" I exclaimed."No you, idiot, you are."I was stunned. Then I recovered.

"What? What nonsense! How can I contest?" A second later I asked curiously,"What post?"" We have already filled up the forms and given your name for Arts ClubSecretary," she danced."What an idiot you are. Didn't you think of checking with me first? And whoendorsed my nomination?" I spluttered, a little indignant, a lot flattered and alsoslightly reluctant all at the same time."Smitha and Hannah," she said. They were her room mates in the hostel."Don't worry," Suvi assured me. "We will do all the campaigning for you. It willbe fun.""Yeah, right. It is fun for you. It is me who has to stand in front of all thosepeople and beg for votes. I can't do it.""Weren't you the head girl in school? ""So? That was different. They chose me. I did not have to beg for votes.""So—we choose you" said Suvi. "Vote for…." She shouted.And to my surprise Janie and Charu shouted "Ankita" and they caught my handand raised it, just like a referee of a boxing match raising the hand of a winner.Everyone in the canteen turned to look and they continued their chants. "Ankitafor Arts Secy. Vote for Ankita," they continued screaming and my classmates whowere in the canteen joined in.When my initial embarrassment was gone, it was replaced by a sense ofcompetitive spirit. My whole class got involved. Suvi appointed herself my chiefcampaign coordinator and managed to collect funds. I was surprised to see peopleactually contributing so much money. The whole hostel was behind me too. Theyhad to be, with Suvi around! Suvi was such a whirlwind. She motivated everybody.They made posters. They made fliers and I led them like a true Indian politician.We went all around the campus. Suvi managed to hire a huge drum and betweenSmitha, Hannah and herself, they managed to carry it around and make a big noise.Sandhya got a bugle too and she led the 'band'. I must admit she knew how to playit well and everybody came out to the see the unique musical entourage, cheeringwildly, holding placards and posters urging all to vote for their candidate—'Ankitafor Arts Secy'. Initially I felt a bit silly doing it, but when I saw the frenzy that othercandidates were whipping up I did not feel out of place anymore.My opponent was a first year pre-degree student, the equivalent of a student ofClass eleven. We were now in our second year of Bachelor's degree and our campaign style, content and the support we gathered was so much better andmore sophisticated than what they managed.We took our breaks in the canteen, between campaign runs and speeches. Wealso discussed our next move, what the strong areas were, where I needed to focusand where we needed to campaign more strongly, which pockets were ours andwhich were not."Who will you vote for, for the Chairperson's post?" asked Charu."Undoubtedly, Sanjana Menon." I said.Sanjana was two years our senior and in the first year of post graduation. To meshe was the epitome of a 'perfect woman'. She looked gorgeous with perfectlychiselled aquiline features, light eyes that sparkled, a clear complexion, a fashionablehaircut and a wonderful diction to match. She was tall, wore trendy clothes, spokewell and oozed confidence. She had even modelled for a few print advertisementsand was the cover girl in a regional magazine.All four of us ended up voting for Sanjana as chairperson.When the results were announced, they carried me around the campus, shouting,screaming and cheering. I had won by a huge margin. Sanjana had won too andPriya was the new general secretary.I just couldn't wait to tell Vaibhav.The Investiture ceremony of the new office bearers was a grand event attendedby almost all the students and faculty. The chief guest was a popular regional filmactor. There were reporters from the media and flash bulbs went pop every fewseconds. A good looking movie star surrounded by eight young ladies dressed up insaris was evidently a great photo opportunity.It was the first time in my life that I was facing a crowd of at least 3000 people.Standing on the stage there, addressing them, with the spotlight on me, it all feltvery surreal. I was a little nervous and my palms were slightly cold but I managed todeliver my short, rehearsed speech without any glitches.After the event, the eight new office bearers went out for an official dinner,along with the Principal of St. Agnes, Sister Evangeline. It was a tradition that hadbeen followed for many years. She lost no time in telling us about ourresponsibilities, our official duties and how we should set an example by ourbehaviour. She told us about the previous office bearers and what a wonderful jobthey had done, confident we would do the same. Our first task was already thrustupon us—The Management School of Cochin University had their annual cultural

festival 'Symphony' coming up and our college had been invited to participate. St.Agnes had been the overall champions last year and Sr. Evangeline stressed theimportance of kicking off the year with a good start.She need not have. We were all as eager as race horses before the start of a race.We ourselves wanted to prove our worth. We were raring to go.There were at least 15 events ranging from fun events like face painting, adworld, dumb charades to serious ones like western dance, short story writing,painting and elocution. The college buses would take us to the venue which was agood 45 kilometres away and would return in the evening."No dirty dancing girls and no short skirts either. We don't want to tempt thebooyzzzz," called out Sanjana, stressing on 'tempt' and stretching 'boys', mimickingSister Bertha (who headed the literature department and was involved in all thestudent activities) as three of us—Sanjana, Priya and I— watched the team forwestern dance practising ."You mean like this?" asked Juana, as she unbuttoned her shirt, thrust out herbreasts that spilled out of lacy lingerie and did a neat pelvic movement with herright hand placed just under her belly button, a bit like a bar-dancer. I gasped inshock, as the others burst out laughing. I was beginning to discover that there wasindeed something liberating about an all-woman atmosphere. Here you could beyourself totally. There were no men who would ogle at you, there was no need towatch if your bra strap showed and skirts could be as short as you liked, tops couldbe as transparent as plastic and nobody really raised an eyebrow. It was acapsulated, insulated world and I was slowly beginning to understand it."Whoa! Nice! Is it Lovable or Victoria's?" Priya called out."Juana, that is enough. We all know your secret fantasy to star in a cabaretmusical in Madrid. Now get back to practice," said Sanjana before Juana couldanswer Priya's question. They were obviously used to this kind of ribaldry and fun."Oooh! Don't get worked up, darling," drawled Juana as she buttoned up hershirt, did another seductive move, and blew a kiss at Sanjana, who rolled her eyes.It was Juana who had choreographed the entire song. Sanjana and Suvi helpedwith the costumes. The dancers wore smart soldier costumes complete with alldetails including the caps worn by the U.S Army Corps. The song they had chosenwas a old popular wartime song. The underplayed sensuality, the uniforms, theprops, the well chosen piece of music and the superbly coordinated dancemovements made the whole scene look like it was right out of a movie. The girls

never missed a beat. They were dancing like professionals! For all her foolingaround, Juana really knew her stuff and had done a great job in coaching the girls. "Surely we'll win western dance." I told Sanjana as I watched them, mesmerised bytheir performance."Yeah, we will. Eyes of Mahaveer guys will pop out," sniggered Priya knowingly.Mahaveer College was a co-ed college. It was an inside joke at Agnes that eventhe best looking girl at Mahaveers, could not match up to an average looking girl atAgnes. And funnily it was true. At cultural events like these, the guys fromMahaveers would be trying to impress the Agnes girls desperately, and strangelythere would always be very few girls in any of their own teams. There would be alot of other management institutes too taking part and they would travel from allover India to stay in Cochin for three to four days, the duration of the festival. Heretoo men far out-numbered the women.It was at Symphony that year that Sanjana introduced me to Abhishek, Dhirenand Christy. She already knew them from previous years and had met them manytimes. Abhishek was the general secretary and Dhiren was the chairman ofMahaveer College students union."Meet Ankita, our new Arts Club Secretary," said Sanjana as she introduced us. "Ankita, watch out Christy is a great quizzer, Dhiren and Abhishek are very good atpublic speaking.""And I play the guitar too," smiled Abhishek."Hi," I smiled as my brain registered all the information. Dhiren was tall andthin, clean shaven and dressed in a formal shirt and trousers. Abhishek was muchshorter. He was stout, had a roundish face that sported slight stubble, wore glassesand looked friendly and jovial. Christy was very fair, muscular, and slightly tallerthan Abhishek."So what do you do, apart from being so pretty?" asked Abhishek as he shookmy hand ."Excuse me!" I answered. "I expected a line slightly less corny than that one.""Oh! But it's true. You are very pretty."I was amused at his blatant and shameless flattery and did not know what to say."Catch you later guys. We have things to coordinate" said Sanjana, stepping in torescue me."Where's your list?" she asked. She and I had made a detailed list with names ofparticipants, props needed by them, timing of their events and the venue they had

to be at with dates, along with the transport details, which college bus would bepicking them up, from where and at what time. It needed a lot of planning and Ihad written it all down in a beautiful thick hard bound, brown leather diary, whichwas my dad's gift to me. The diary also had a lot of high quality glossy pictures ofpaintings by great artists. I really liked the diary and it had come in very handy. Itook it out of my bag and both of us went over the details together, along withPriya and the other office bearers.We made three teams consisting of two office bearers and decided that eachteam would be present at the three different venues where the events were takingplace, so that if any contingency arose we could take care of it. Sanjana and Iheaded to the Ravi Varma auditorium where the public speaking and later thewestern dance events would take place. What I did not anticipate was that acontingency would arise at our venue."Hey Ankita. There's nobody for English Elocution from our college," said Suviin a panic."What happened? Jeena was supposed to be here. What about Sindhu? How canboth not be there?" I asked the panic beginning to show in my voice, as I looked atmy diary. The event was about to start in 20 minutes and it was the first event ofthe day."Jeena's grandma died this morning. She got a phone call and had to go. Sindhuhas laryngitis and is not able to speak even a word. I found all this out just nowwhen the second bus came from the hostel.""Damn! What do we do?" I looked at Sanjana in dismay.Jeena and Sindhu were excellent orators and had won it the previous year. Theywere strong candidates and without them, I felt crippled.I really admired Sanjana's calmness. "These things happen," she said unruffled."Don't worry. I'll step in for Jeena and you for Sindhu," she said."What? Me?" I was aghast. "I have never done this before.""Calm down. There is no other option. We will lose points if there is a no-show.Yo u'll just have to step in."I stood there in the auditorium that day, feeling foolish, ill-prepared and verysmall as I took the mike and spoke on the topic of the day which was "Is theMandal Commission report justified?" I had no idea what I said. I had not read theMandal Commission reports in the papers. Sanjana was very well informed about it.Apparently in her third year, she had just written a paper on it. I stammered and

muttered and spoke for about two and a half minutes before concluding andstepping down, my cheeks burning with embarrassment and shame. Sanjana spokebeautifully and the auditorium resounded with wild cheering after she finished."You were not bad at all for a first timer," comforted Sanjana, later."Not bad? I was a disaster. I spoke for less than three minutes. ""The maximum time allowed is six minutes anyway. Three minutes is really notbad," she insisted.When the results were announced, Abhishek had come first, Sanjana managed asecond. A wild cheer went up from our girls in the audience and I joined in theircheering. I was relieved that we got at least a second place. Every point would helpin the tally for overall championship which was our aim.The second day of Symphony went off smoothly, with no absentees, no hitchesand everything running like clockwork. My legs hurt from being on my feet for longhours and I realised it was a painful mistake to wear high heels. We were in thesecond place for overall championship by the end of the day.In the bus on the way home, Priya said "We all saw Abhi hovering around youthe whole day today, especially when you sat down. He just wouldn't leave yourside.""Come on!" I said "He chose to sit there just like that. Just to make small talk, Iguess. Dhiren and Christy were sitting too. It's not like I was sitting with himexclusively. And he looks like that at everybody. You should know!" I defendedmyself."No, I do know him. Abhi is not like the rest of the guys. Now, Christy beinglike that would be natural. Do you know what Christy did last Valentine?""What? " I asked curiously."He gave fourteen red roses and fourteen 'I love you' cards.""Wow, to you?" I asked."Well, technically the correct answer would be yes. But apart from me, he alsogave it to thirteen other girls," she laughed.Everybody joined in the laughter ."And whom did Abhi give it to?" I asked, curiosity now getting the better of me."No-one!" said Priya triumphantly. "See, he was waiting for you!""Shut up," I said. But I smiled.On the third day of Symphony, the tables turned in our favour. It was a close

call. We managed to win the overall championship by just 10 points and this wasbecause of our victory in Western dance. Our girls had danced exceedingly well."YEEEEEEEEEEEAAAH" yelled the girls, deafening everybody when theyheard the compere announcing it. They jumped. They shouted they cheered. Theyfell over themselves hugging each other. Sanjana and I had already run backstage.I hugged Juana and all the dancers.Juana was crying with joy."Three cheers for St. Agnes. Hip Hip…" said Sanjana"HURRAH" yelled the girls.It was late in the evening by the time the prize distribution ceremony began. Wefelt great collecting the huge gleaming trophy for the overall championship ofSymphony that year. Sanjana, Priya and I collected it and then we called all theother girls on stage. Sr. Evangeline, Sr. Bertha and all of them would be reallyhappy. We hadn't let them down. More importantly it was a huge boost for us, aswe had not let ourselves down. Our confidence in our abilities soared with thisvictory. It wasn't easy but we had done it."Winner's treat. Join me for a cup of coffee?" asked Abhishek, after the entireevent was over. I had been on my feet the whole day and I was very hungry andsuddenly tired. The cup of coffee was tempting, but I wasn't sure I wanted to gowith Abhishek. I looked for Suvi to bail me out, but she was nowhere to be seen."Go on, I know you badly want that coffee," said Priya. "I'd have joined you butI'm waiting for Juana and the girls. They are changing and I am the guardian oftime," she laughed as she held out her hands. They were full of watches andbracelets belonging to the girls in the western dance. "Go for God's sake. Don'tthink so much for a cup of coffee!" urged Priya again."Okay, let's go," I told Abhishek."Oh my God! You have actually agreed? I cannot believe my luck! I must checkmy horoscope for today.""Shut up," I smiled, "I do need that coffee."We walked to the canteen which was on a small hillock, a ten minute walk fromthe auditorium. He ordered cutlets too, as we sat down. I pulled up an extra chairand he ran to get it out for me."Come on, just tell me to get it. Ladies should never pull up chairs forthemselves.""Ladies shouldn't put up their feet either, but excuse me I'm going to do just

that. Sorry," I said, as I propped my feet on the extra chair he had just pulled up.We sat in silence, eating cutlets and having that much needed cup of coffee. Iwas completely immersed in my thoughts and in the events of the day. My reveriewas suddenly broken when Abhi said "Hey, aren't those your college buses, headingback?"I looked at the two yellow buses making their way down the hill and jumped up.As the buses turned I could see the girls leaning out and yelling in chorus in a singsong voice, "Have fun. Enjoy. See you at college."I looked at Abhi and he smiled and shrugged. I was so angry with the girls. Howcould they be so callous, leaving me behind and how in the world could theypresume that I wanted to spend time with Abhi?! I was angry with Suvi, because Iexpected her to have convinced the others. Then again, a group of girls, high onadrenaline pumped by victory can be absolutely crazy and I doubted if they wouldhave listened to her. But the immediate problem on hand was to get back to collegewhich was a good 45 kilometres away. It was already 7.30.P.M and I could get apublic bus, provided I walked to the bus stop and waited there. I didn't even knowat what time the next bus would arrive, and wasn't sure if it was safe waiting in thebus stop all by myself, at this hour that too in a deserted remote area. Most of thestudents stayed on campus itself and most used their own vehicles to reach the city.Nobody really used the state transport buses."Look," said Abhi, "I can drop you back.""I can take a bus.""I'll wait with you in the bus stop then. But the last bus might have already left.We'd just be wasting our time."I still hesitated."Hey, I am not such a bad guy. I promise madam that you'll be safe with me."I agreed. I didn't have much choice anyway. Later I would know that this was alla part of an intricate plan that Abhi had hatched along with Priya, Sanjana and theother girls, just so that he could get me to ride on his bike with him. Thankfully Idid not know it at that point. Otherwise I'd probably have exploded with rage."See, I have a Bullet," He said as he wheeled out his motor bike proudly."The only bullet that makes an impact on me is the one you put to your head." Isaid.He laughed and started the bike."Don't try your stupid 'braking suddenly' tricks with me, " I warned him, as I sat

behind him, suddenly feeling awkward and a bit shy. "And listen, I am holding yourshoulder but please don't get any ideas." I added, as I placed my right hand on hisshoulder, to steady myself. I felt very self conscious as I did it but the last thing Iwanted was falling off the bike, on this unasked for, unplanned and unexpectedadventure."Come on, Ankita. I am already in heaven. And I am not that cheap too, to trythe brake trick. But may I ask you how you know about it?"Every guy knows that when a woman is on the pillion with him, the easiest wayfor him to get to feel her is to brake suddenly and by the impact, her body would bepropelled forward and would collide with his. "I have a brother. He tells me stuff."I smiled, as Abhishek accelerated and the bike sped towards the city.