04: About the new College Rules

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The morning, the college, the streets, the people... Everything was all the same. The guard was giving the same weird stares at people, the wailing woman from the cleaning staff was screaming around the same way. The new canteen boy was hitting on the guys the same way. But there was a group of college regulars for whom the day was not going to be all the same. Rather, their life was about to take a big turn. When Sunidhi arrived the college gate that morning, she was not alone. And her companion's presence triggered the group mentioned above to start off with their Red Alert alarm. The stray dogs that were as much a member of the academic society of the Engineering college as anyone else. Sunidhi had brought along her pet, a Labrador, to the college, which by the way, is just not regular, and not permitted inside the college (or so we assumed).

[Inside the Dean's office]
"Sunidhi! Do you understand that we do not have a provision for pets inside the college premises?" said the Dean, his statements being served like sarcasm baked in absence of kindness.
"Yes sir!" Sunidhi replied so fast that for once Dean didn't even understand whether she had answered him or attempted to interrupt.
"Your pet is a big dog" he said.
"It sure is, sir!" replied Sunidhi in the same way. The Dean was confused, for if there was any fear on Sunidhi's face, of being in Dean's office for committing an offence, it was below the limits of 'detectability' to naked eyes.
"Sir," she broke the silence which was effectively intimidating the super-smart, faster-than-computers mind of the Dean. "there are no rules against bringing pets in either."
This was followed by a long stretch of silence and staring, and some discomfort to the Dean.

[Outside Dean's office]
"Do you think, Sunidhi will be kicked out of the college?" said Anish.
"I think they'll just tell her to never repeat this." came from Rishab.
"Or for worst, may be they'll punish the pet by keeping it with the Dean." added Kanishk, trying to be humorous. (Duh!)
"I think whatever they do, she'll be just fine with it." Smiti added, with optimism finally coming in.
"She's definitely not going to love the consequences.." said Antara, her hands going around slowly in the air, and her chin up as if she was receiving some information from the other world.
"I think if that girl was my girlfriend, I would have never seen her face." said Armaan.
No wonder, everyone was blank because of a weird add on to the discussion. And then they realised what it was and screwed their noses. Armaan was looking at a girl dressed scantily.
"Oh perverts!" said Armaan. "Look at her bright face.. She's just amazing and divine."
"Oh sorry. We thought-" said the others when they realised Armaan was actually looking at the divinity of a girl.
"Yeah, I know." said Armaan and gave the best of his Innocent boy looks.
The door of the Dean's office opened, and Sunidhi came out. To everyone's surprise, Antara's prediction came true yet again.
Sunidhi told everyone what happened inside.
"I have been asked to go through all the rules of the college"
"Oh Good Lord! I have never read the books for exams. And now you'll read it for a punishment!?!" said Armaan.
"That's fine! Once I was told to read-" began Kanishk to explain how once he got a punishment that was worse.
"AND  REDRAFT  THEM!" Sunidhi interrupted.
"Oh..." exclaimed Kanishk.
"FLAWLESSLY" Sunidhi added further.
"What do they want?" screamed Armaan.
"Didn't I come to your dreams and tell you that you should not make any mistake today?" said Antara, pointing her finger at Sunidhi.
"No! You didn't." replied Sunidhi.
"Oh! I should have realized that. I told her she was not supposed to make a mistake, and she didn't even make a scene at all. It just couldn't be Sunidhi." Antara said crossing her arms.
"Wha- What? I don't make-" said Sunidhi looking at everyone for support.
"Be nice, Antara!" said Kanishk. Sunidhi thanked him. "And that is just between us." said Kanishk to Antara and winked.
"Was she beautiful?" asked Anish with a naughty smile.
"Beautiful? Didn't I just tell you I took her to be Sunidhi?" immediately replied Antara.
Meanwhile, Rishab and Armaan walked away looking at the notice boards.
"So, divine, eh? Finally." said Rishab to Armaan.
"Are you kidding?" laughed Armaan. "Dude, she was the ultimate chick, and her-"
"Got it!" interrupted Rishab and went away.

[Few minutes later, in the college cafeteria]
Armaan, Kanishk and Smiti were sitting in their table 'for eight', even though many tables for four were free. Rishab reached the table with a Chocolate shake, and two burgers.
"Here" said Rishab keeping things on the table, turning to Smiti. "Your Chocolate shake and burger". Then he turned to Kanishk and realised he had forgotten the rest of the things.
"Yeah! So out of everything, all you could remember was Chocolate shake and burgers!" said Armaan.
"And chocolate shake for Smiti, who hates to have the Chocolate shake here." continued Kanishk.
"I'm a human, guys!" explained Rishab.
"Really? I thought evolution is a slow process." snapped Smiti. Rishab knew he was going to get a lot of bashing. He got prepared when a phone rang.
"Pratigya!!" celebrated Kanishk, and immediately cooled down on realising that everyone was looking at him. He got up and went away to take the call.
"You have a bad memory, Rishab! You-" said Armaan.
"Why did he go away?" interrupted Smiti. Rishab took sigh of relief. He tried to find some good reason fast (Pst, it was just to shift the focus)
"Yeah!" he said. "Guys do this only when they are in-"
"LOVE! Our little boy is in Love" celebrated Armaan spreading his arms wide open, with a jerk. However, since people are not prepared for such sudden obstacles showing up in a cafeteria, a girl carrying some food got hit, and her burger fell on another girl sitting on the next table, right behind Armaan.

[In her computer lab, Sunidhi was sitting analyzing the policies. The lab was empty with just Sunidhi and Antara sitting there.]
"Who wrote all that crap?" said Antara. The way she looked at the computer screen could have made people believe that she was actually looking at the dirtiest public toilets of the World at their worst.
"I know! It is like living under the Raj inside the college while the country outside enjoys freedom." said Sunidhi, as she carefully read the rules.
"I just don't think these Management guys should be allowed to write at all. They should be banned from using pens." said Antara. Her volume kept increasing. Bad timing! She couldn't hear the footsteps of the Dean being suppressed under her voice. Sunidhi saw the Dean standing right behind Antara. He was now listening to the ultimate speech on his and his management's worthlesness.
"But I think-" said Sunidhi trying to interrupt and stop her.
"I know" drawled Antara, still not stopping. "I know what you think. They don't use pens. They can't. That is why they use computers to correct all their silly blunders. And see, they still can't do their job perfectly. So many computers, a big college, a lot of students, " Antara started listing some stuff, and turning around to look at everything. "and the king of it all - A useless Dean!" And then she saw the Dean staring at her, his face all red.
"Now you'll take me to your room, right?" said Antara. The Dean still stared. He meant "Like there could anything else I could do right now."
They moved to the Dean's room.

[In cafeteria, Kanishk was still on with the call]
Smiti had just finished the Maggi she had taken.
"Guys, I'm leaving. Caustic has called me to her lab. She's got issues with the answers I wrote. Apparently, she does not agree with my explanations." she said.
"Then you should show her the book." Rishab said, interrupting Armaan who was sharing an interesting secret with him.
"Ye..ah!" Smiti drawled. "I would have considered that. But that will only weaken my stand. Books disagree with me too."
She didn't wait for any one to reply and left with her bag.

[At the college main gate. Vineet had just entered the college]
He called up Armaan.
"Dude! Where are you?"
"Hey! I am sitting in the cafeteria. Come fast. I need to tell you something."
"Ohkay! I am reaching there."
Vineet rushed to the Cafeteria. He was in a hurry and hit a girl when he reached the Cafeteria door. She had a sandwich and an Orange float which, unfortunately, could not safely bear the force and spilled all over the girl's body, and worse, hair. It was even more unfortunate that the girl was none other than Divya, the girl whose hair had already gone dirty once. Thanks to Armaan's sudden gesture of celebration, forceful opening of arms.
"Hey! I am sorry." said Vineet trying to pick the things up.
"Sorry? You come rushing into the cafeteria like your wife's gonna deliver a baby here, hit me and spill things that were supposed to be in my tummy, all over me. And then you expect to cover for it all with one word?" screamed Divya. Her friend standing right behind her tried to calm her down. But it all went in vain.
Vineet tried to explain. "See! I was in a hurry. My frie-"
"So now that you are in a hurry, you can bang into anyone.. ANNYONE?". Divya's face was nearly red as if on fire.
"Divya!" her friend said. "Don't be rude. The guy's feeling sorry!"
"Yeah! Right.. And that should be enough, because I have been packed in a plastic sheet and I never get dirty when my meals get spilled all over me." replied Divya.
By then Vineet had already had enough and he decided to give it back to Divya.
"So Div-. Sorry. Miss-Not-Made-Of-Plastic-Sheet, what else can I do to apologize? Should I roll over whatever you were carrying to get just as dirty as you? Or should I stop walking around?"
Armaan saw what was happening and reached the gate. "What's the matter guys?"
Vineet explained what had happened and waited for Armaan to say something on his behalf.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" said Armaan looking at all the food spilled over there.
"You can't talk like that-" he said looking as serious as he could.
"Yeah!" celebrated Vineet.
"-to her" Armaan completed and suddenly brought Vineet to silence.

[Kanishk finally returned after an hour-long call]
"So, finally all the chatting done?" asked Rishab as he took a sip on his expresso and said to himself in his mind "Oh God! I should not have experimented. Expresso is weird over here."
"Yes! Almost. But then the battery went out." Kanishk answered. Rishab didn't give any reaction and kept thinking about something.
Kanishk said with a lot of concern "Weird! I say something that again establishes that I am an idiot, and you don't celebrate at all? Is everything alright?"
"Yeah! Hey, do you think it is fine to miss Smiti even when she's sitting next to me?" Rishab said, and then giving it a thought he suddenly felt that he should not have said that and immediately spoke again. "No! No! Wait.. I wanna say something else."
"Are you sure this is what you wanna say? Make your mind up and press the Save button whenever you want!" snapped Kanishk. "So you've started missing.. WHAT?" That was when he realised what was going on.
"Promise me you'll not share with anyone whatever you have realised." said Rishab.
Kanishk said nothing and went all blank. Rishab looked at him once and then got back to his coffee, all worried.

[Meanwhile, Armaan and Vineet, who had been the best buddies were about to begin a street-fight]
"I don't really want to hear your baragouin!" screamed Vineet.
"How dare you call what I am saying.. uh, whatever you called it?" shouted Armaan.
"Oh yeah! I just did called it baragouin. I am not ready to take your cacophony anymore."
"Enough!" said Armaan. "That's too much. You have already used two words which I don't know the meaning of. That's too much of an offence to Armaan. You're dead." He was about to punch Vineet in his face, when Divya's friend stopped him and said that the two should stop when fighting. They left, and so did Armaan and Vineet. And since Vineet when into the cafeteria, Armaan went out. Later he realised that he had left his bag inside and asked Rishab to bring it with him.