Announcements

It was an ancient looking college with the entrance gate carved exquisitely with statues of two women welcoming the visitors. The work was so creative that the gates when closed looked like a single woman welcoming the world with her palms closed in greeting. When the gates were opened, this single woman transitioned into two young girls with their plaits over their shoulders showing the way into the college. The statues had originally been painted with different colours to indicate the dress worn by them, but now all that remained was the naked statues with nothing left to imagination. The amount of detail in these statues was so minute that people felt that real women had been petrified in their bathtubs and then fixed on these gates.

The path that led to the palatial building was well maintained with neatly manicured shrubs standing guard on both sides. There was a divider in the middle that had bonsai trees in it, the whole campus had been electrified and would be a spectacle to watch at night. The triangular building had three parts – the Administrative Block, the Academic Block and the Education Block.

The academic block and the education blocks were usually very busy throughout the day while the admin block thrived during the day. The college took great pride in the value based, skill based education that it imparted to its students who reinforced that belief with their tremendous contributions to the society that had resulted in the whole planet being one empire.

However, no two humans are alike and so problems are bound to rise sometime or the other. There had been no issues in the college for the past three centuries but that was going to change. Just as there is day and night, the wheels of fate were about to usher in a change that was going to throw the empire into chaos.

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The college auditorium was packed with staff and students. A special meeting had been called making attendance mandatory for all. It had also been mentioned in the circular that absence would mean missing out on a historical, trend setting meeting. Those students who were unable to attend due to illness or any other reasons had been told to send their elder or younger sisters/cousins/mothers to the meeting while the married staff members had to send their spouses or sisters of their spouses in case they were unable to attend. This had ensured 98% attendance and only two percent were family members of students who were absent.

The buzz of chatter died down as soon as the Vice-Principal led a tall, broad shouldered, haughty looking man onto the stage. The man had a military bearing with short cropped hair and was dressed impeccably. He gave off an aura of being in absolute command. The vice-principal on the other hand seemed nervous. He was constantly wiping his forehead for no reason.

He stood up and silence fell in the auditorium as the audience realised something unusual was going to happen. “Good morning everyone.” The vice-principal was reading a prepared script. “It certainly is bad news if he is reading from a pre-written script.” One of the girls whispered to a parent sitting beside her. “He never looks into a script, even during important ceremonies conducted in the college.”

“I am happy to welcome the new principal, Major Asgar, who took charge a short while ago.” The Vice-Principal looked very unhappy. “I call upon all the staff, students and parents of this college to continue their support and patronage to the new Principal. With all hope for a successful and fruitful endeavour under the able guidance of the new Principal, I invite Major Asgar to address the meeting.”

The Vice-Principal sat down wiping his forehead again and emptying a glass of water down his throat. The Major looked unperturbed and stood up gazing round the hall till he had everyone’s attention and then he spoke.

“Ladies and Gentlemen. I am a man of action and I believe in action. So, starting now, I am implementing some changes which have to be followed in the college.” He paused to look round the hall again.

“That’s very bad. The previous principal never said ‘I’ in his address, it was always ‘we’.”

“Henceforth, Professor Asad would handle women and girls affairs. He would be responsible for solving any issues regarding women staff and girl students.” That brought a gasp of surprise from the girls and a smile on the faces of some of the boys.

“Asad is a known misogynist and his decisions are going to be biased against women.”

“Professor Aman would be incharge of all emoluments of female staff and also the scholarships and female students.”

“We are dead!”

“Professor Kasab would take care of examination department and Professor Wani, Professor Kamra would assist him.

“They hate women and they will definitely make sure all girls fail!”

“Anti-ragging(hazing) committee will be headed by Professor Saad and he will choose the student members of the committee.”

“What a joke! Girls will never even get to complain if he heads the committee.”

He continued to name the lecturers and their responsibilities. All the female staff who had been HOD had been relegated to the post of lecturer. All departments were now headed by male staff. If this was any indication, the college had just become totally unsafe for female staff and female students. All power was exclusively placed in the hands of male staff.

“Everyone must know their place and grievances, if any, must be routed through the proper channels. Direct approach to the principal is prohibited. Violations will be punished as per the principal’s discretion. Dismissed.”

Are we in a military base camp? The audience thought as they slowly filed out of the hall. Some of the girls had a taste of the things to come as they felt hands feeling them up in places that were sacred to them and there was nothing they could do about it.

The world had just turned upside down for them.