The last fortnight was truly an eventful one for me. I had my first ever glimpse of mobs (of the tod-phod type) albeit of the juvenile/minor kind. Where? Who?.. Mahatma Gandhi Mission's college yaaph yinginyering yaand tuchno(low,all time)gy, Students protesting the fee hike. Also, some really cool slogans which I learnt were: "Chor hai, chor hai, MGM chor hai", "Jhoota hai,jhoota hai, principal jhoota hai" and the tacky,corny crowd favourite "MGM hai hai!!" I must admit though; the hike notice really roused the dormant artist in them. Posters, and there were quite a few of them, were pasted on every vinyl inch of the college walls, cartoons mocking the principal and the head trustee, which they don't trust anymore, in addition to plain dumb graffiti like "NO FEE HIKE!" and the in-your-face warning "Do not attain lectures". Spelling mistake? Yes.. but as Ratan Noora would put it, "bhaavnaaon ko samjho". Those who took admission in 02-03, like moi, were exempted from the hike but to the majority it was applicable. On reading the notice (with great difficulty and with the help of last semester's PCT topper), the suave, uber-cool stew-dents formed a large mob before the entrance and shattered the glass doors in anger. Given the lack of ventilation in classrooms and inadequate sunlight, this indeed was an opportune move. Effigies of the principal and the head trustee were made and burnt using Ship matchsticks and pocket cigarette lighters. The nation's most eminent and pioneering news channels (ETV Marathi, NMTV and Sahara Samay) were drawn to this incident and the TV cameras certainly gave stew-dents their 15 seconds of fame they craved for. Giggling faces, feigned anger and "arre tikde bugh, camera aale" became the in-thing. The episode lasted for much of four days and later fizzled out into a more sedate "We are still in protest but will resume attending lectures the coming week". I doubt this would have been the stand if there were any glass doors intact though. For most, the week was something out of the ordinary given the undercurrent of excitement one could feel all around the campus. In fact, un-confirmed but largely believable reports are coming in that most vidyarthis were glued to their TV sets hoping to catch a glimpse of their exploits the whole week.
