Can't express oneself

In a spacious living room, the TV was on, broadcasting unintelligible sounds from local Indian programs, but no one paid attention to it. Lyman lay on the sofa, covered with a thick blanket. The air in the room was extremely cold, making him reluctant to expose any part of his body except for his head. The windows were open, and the sound of drizzling rain could be heard, occasionally accompanied by flashes of lightning and thunder.

In the quiet environment, any sound was welcome. Just like in a lonely night, he always liked falling asleep to the sound of the TV.

It was now 10:10 in the morning. Lyman had been awakened early by the sound of rain hitting the windows. As he looked outside, the whole sky and earth were enveloped in a solemn atmosphere, washed by the pouring rain. Therefore, he naturally informed the crew to take a day off. With such heavy rain, the filming work would not be easy no matter what. It was better not to push it.

Today was December 16, 2001. The shooting of "3 Idiots" had been going smoothly. Most of the indoor scenes had been filmed three days ago, and only the outdoor scenes were left.

The actors performed well, and they had a complete script with detailed shot breakdowns. They rarely encountered situations where they didn't know how to shoot a scene. Moreover, they had the finished film in their minds as a reference, so they had a lot of experience in controlling the shooting process.

Lyman rested his head on his hand on the sofa, gazing out of the window, absentmindedly watching the rainy scene. The door creaked open, and René entered with several packages in his hands, while Thomas carried a plastic bag. They were still slightly wet with traces of water on their bodies and their hair was slightly damp. It was really pouring outside.

"What the hell is this weather? It's pouring rain early in the morning. I stepped out and my shoes got soaked," René complained, placing the packages on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

He sat down on another sofa, looking at Lyman, who was lying motionless, and suddenly chuckled with a deep meaning. Lyman didn't notice, as he was still lost in the rain outside. Thomas also noticed and quietly placed the plastic bag he was holding, then sat next to René.

Suddenly, the thick blanket covering Lyman was lifted by René.

Damn, it's freezing.

He was only wearing pajamas, and they were not very thick.

After December arrived in India, each day was getting colder, especially with the rain outside and the window open for ventilation.

"Don't disturb me, give me back the blanket," Lyman quickly said as he came back to his senses.

René didn't really want to freeze Lyman to death. Seeing that Lyman's attention had returned, he covered him with the blanket again. "What are you looking at? You're so engrossed."

"Nothing in particular. By the way, what are you guys here for?" Lyman casually answered René's question and asked in return. He truly didn't know what he was looking at, whether it was the rain scenery, the buildings being washed by the pouring rain, or the street in front of the hotel. In any case, his thoughts were wandering aimlessly.

"Do you want to eat? Aren't you hungry?" René opened the packages, revealing various breads and pastries. Speaking of which, he hadn't eaten anything today. Early in the morning, seeing the weather outside, he informed George to cancel the shooting plan for the day and didn't even think about going to the hotel for breakfast.

"What do we have?" Lyman struggled to sit up, wrapping himself in the blanket and leaning against the sofa.

"Thomas and I bought a lot of food, and we even got takeout from a French restaurant, not just random stuff," René said. For the past month, in order to save expenses and focus on filming, their meals naturally consisted mostly of local Indian specialties.

He noticed that everything in India could be made into mush. Onions, in particular, appeared with exceptionally high frequency as an ingredient. Even rice could be turned into mush. Indian food may not look very appealing, but the taste was actually quite good. However, constantly eating it was not a particularly pleasant experience.

After listening to René, Lyman became interested. He took out a packaged steak from the plastic bag, took the knife and fork handed to him by Thomas, and started eating. René and Thomas hadn't eaten yet either. They went out in the rain to bring some home-style flavors. The three of them ate, chatting from time to time, enjoying this rare moment of rest.

The next morning, the sky cleared up.

Arriving at the campus film set, producer George was already there, directing everyone in the preparations for the shoot.

"Good morning, director."

"Morning, director."

"Director..."

Greeting each other along the way, Lyman approached and said, "George, everything was fine yesterday, right?" With the cancellation of the shooting plan, the previously constructed set naturally had to be dismantled. After all, if a heavy rain came and damaged it, what would they do? He had wanted to go to the location and take a look, but in the end, he didn't.

"It's all good. The equipment and everything on set are well taken care of."

"Thanks to you," Lyman sincerely said.

Then he called the production coordinator over and looked at today's shooting schedule, preparing for the shoot based on the shot breakdown script. The film crew was like a high-speed machine. The more they wanted to ensure smoothness, the more thorough the preparations needed to be. Once they had a clear plan in mind, everyone's spirits were lifted, ready to begin the formal shooting.

The sound engineer held a noise-canceling microphone positioned half a meter to one meter above the actors' heads, just at the right spot to not be seen on camera but capture clear audio. The lighting assistant held light-blocking cloth and spotlights to create a slightly gloomy lighting effect. If they didn't do it this way, the scene would be wrong. The whole film had a bright tone of lighting, but it didn't fit here. To enhance the atmosphere, a blue cold light was also used as a fill light.

"Action."

Camera 2 was positioned on the windowsill of a room, directly facing the center of the room, capturing the clear silhouette of the hanging actor. In the shot, a remote-controlled aircraft slowly rose into the air. It was a graduation project discarded by a senior and happened to be found by Rancho, who picked it up with the intention of fixing it and surprising the senior.

It ascended slowly, flying steadily.

Camera 1 continuously focused on the flight of the remote-controlled aircraft.

When it reached the senior's window, Camera 2 came into play.

A person hanging in mid-air, the camera pulling up, discovering the senior's suicide.

Rancho fell silent, his previously smiling face during the smooth flight turning gloomy.

At this moment, Camera 4 captured the panoramic view of the group of cheerful students. It was fixed on a large tree, overlooking everything.

The remote control slipped from Rancho's hand and fell to the ground. He ran to the senior's dormitory building like a madman but felt powerless.

A student died at the school under pressure.

Because he couldn't graduate and wasn't recognized by the dean, he ended up on a dead-end path.

"Good news, sir. Everyone thinks this is suicide. What do you think?" Rancho said to the dean at the senior's funeral.

"What?" The director looked puzzled.

"What I think is you pressured him to death. It's you," Rancho said with a mournful tone as light rain fell from the sky.

But "Virus" remained firm, "If one student can't handle pressure, is it our fault?"

Rancho said that when he blamed the education system, he had checked the data and found that Indian students ranked highest in the world for suicide.

Faced with such a statement, the director fell silent, but not for long.

"I can't speak for the rest but this is one of the finest colleges in the country I've run this place for 32 years. We were ranked 28th. Now we're number one. Could all of this be wrong? Who are you to say? Competition has always been fierce. Just think, for you to be admitted to this university means another student who deserved it was denied. Are you that innocent?"

After the funeral, Rancho remained persistent. He always believed that it was the director who killed senior Joy.

In the office, the dean couldn't bear it and interrogated him.

"What's the point, sir? Here they don't discuss new ideas or inventions, they discuss grades, jobs, settling in the USA. They teach how to get good scores, they don't teach Engineering."

"This is a school, Rancho. We, as teachers, are not concerned with grades, than what should we be concerned about, having heart-to-heart talks? Playing? Matters beyond studying should be the responsibility of their parents."

"But it was you who told Joy's father everything, leading to his suicide. Don't you think you did something wrong?"

"All this talk, and you still think that I am the reason for his death. But do you know? With his obsession with flying machines, I advised him many times, but he never paid attention. When his grades were low and he didn't have enough credits to graduate, he came begging to me. Why was he so self-righteous? Did I refuse him? It was his own doing."

The more the director spoke, the more infuriated he became. He grabbed Rancho by the collar, his eyes icy cold. "There's cause and effect. He brought it upon himself."

"You thought his work was excellent. Is engineering only about grades? Isn't it sad?"

"Now you will teach me how to teach?" The dean, unable to contain his anger, forcefully dragged Rancho and brought him to the classroom, making him give a lecture, embarrassing him.

This scene of the shoot seamlessly followed the progress from the previous month. Disruption, division, and unity. As everyone got caught up in the intense competition of searching for words, Rancho fell into his trap.

"... This is a college, not a pressure cooker Even a circus lion learns to sit on a chair in fear of the whip. But you call such a lion well trained, not well educated."

"... I was teaching you... how to teach. And I'm sure one day you'll learn because unlike you, I never abandon my weak students. Bye, sir!"

Rancho's powerful retort represented the struggle between two class perspectives. The belief in merit-based grading and Rancho's statement, "Follow excellence and success will chase you, pants down," reflected the idea of pursuing one's career with great interest and passion.