The Idea: -
Many would find it hard to believe that the IDEA to start a KSU unit at Cusat came from the mouth of Rajesh Sivanandan a.k.a Lolan (He was also the founder of ABVP in Cusat, but that’s altogether a different story and we will come to that later)
Rajesh, Vinod and Thomas and myself hail from the same place (kollam) .We had studied together from LKG and here we are in CUSAT, in the same class studying Btech(IT). Imagine that...now thats what I call FATE. In spite of all this we were put up at different places in CUSAT. Vinu and tom were put up in a lodge near kalamassery. I was residing with four other newly aquired friends at a rented house inside cusat. Rajesh was staying as a paying guest.
First year at college is always exciting. You are in unknown territory, new friends, hot babes, career opportunities..blah blah blah. Adrenaline flows like anything. The fight with the seniors was settled and we had progressed to other areas, which beckon a youth’s interest (Sports, films, babes). Well sports and films to be precise. I put 'babes' just for the sake of it :)
The first thing you notice about Rajesh is his moustache (a Georgian one) and the next is the speed of his walk. All of us were sitting on the balcony of my house one day and sipping tea when we saw lolan walking at full speed towards our house. He came in, climbed up to the balcony and lighted a cigarette (One of the new pleasures that you get accustomed to in college).
"Eda I had a talk with some of the super seniors today, and they have invited us to have a drink with them".
All of looked at him with awe.
"Super seniors? asked tom. How do you know them?
We had barely completed 1 month in college and this guy was telling us that we were invited to a party with the super seniors. We looked at him with a hinge of trepidation.
"Eda is there some other hidden agenda behind this. Is this just a facade to rag us? I asked
No replied Rajesh in the affirmative. I know them very well and they would like to discuss some politics with us.
Now that got us thinking. "Super seniors discussing politics with us". Man, there is something wrong here.
No da, I am there na, said lolan with an air of supreme confidence. Just trust me.
Eda we do need some support of the seniors at college. We had already displeased a faction of the seniors.
This would come out good. Believe me said lolan.
Well the part about needing support from seniors was true and we agreed to go to the party on Friday.
When seniors invite you for a party in Cusat it means that you have to buy the alcohol and food and then once they are drunk, hear out all their absurd comments and then ensure that they reach home safely.
Well, that particular session with the seniors turned out to be ok. In fact we enjoyed it thoroughly.
They subtly put it across that they were planning to open a KSU unit in Cusat and would like us to play a major part in it. I quiet liked the idea. Starting a new political outfit in college and then rallying students behind us was going to be one hell of a task and I relished that challenge. It would also give us the chance to interact with a lot of students and also the opportunity to do something good for the student community during our tenure here.
Well we left there in a drunken stupor but also with a IDEA of starting the KSU unit strongly entrenched in our minds.
The BUILD UP - to be continued