Aalok, I and Asatya – Part 2

"... Six! Come on Rahul, six!" shouted Asatya.

No. It wasn't a cricket match. Asatya was counting my push-ups. I was all skin and bones. Hence, after doing five push-ups, sixth seemed impossible. I tried hard to come up, but went down. I had already done 8 push-ups in the first round. There were giggles

in the room. I got up and stood on one side in the room, certainly looking abashed. I was gasping for breath while my friends were having fun at the cost of my feelings. I was on banian and pyjamas. Suddenly Jaspal got up from his place, held my arm with just two fingers and said, "Arre yaar, iske muscles dekho. Isko toh Mr. Universe contest mein bhejna padega." Everyone in the room burst out laughing.

That day again they were going to lock me up in Asatya's room like on the previous day. It was a punishment I had inflicted upon myself voluntarily; call it penance.

I will tell you how it all began.

I wasn't doing well in exams. I had joined engineering because every Tom, Dick & Harry wanted to become an engineer, and I was one of them. I neither had calibre nor liking for it. Only after joining I realized that to pass even in the simplest of the subjects was an arduous task. I was surviving on ATKTs. Every time I opened a book to read, I postponed reading and slept. I felt like having fun all the time and do no studies. My attendance used to be low and whenever I attended a lecture, I was caught talking to a friend and sent out. My notebooks and journals used to be incomplete all the time. I blamed everything on my stars and saw nothing wrong in my deeds.

One day while I was talking about this problem with friends, unfortunately Asatya

entered the scene. I knew that he would poke his nose in the matter for no reason. And he did.

"I might have a solution to your problem." he said.

Sometimes I wondered if he was reading P. G. Wodehouse and trying to play Jeeves. "No, thanks." I said. But the next moment my cunning mind suggested to myself that I

had a good chance to show Asatya down. If he did provide a solution, I was going to be benefited and if his experiment failed, it would give me an immense pleasure of having a sort of defeated him. In either case, I was going to win. So, I asked him what he was

going to do, not sounding serious.

"I will punish you for 2 days.", he said.

"What do you mean you will punish me? And who the b.... y are you to punish me?" I asked.

"I will lock you up in my room for 2 days" he said.

"And then?"

"And then your results might improve."

After this sort of questions and answers, and discussion with Aalok, Dinesh, Chandwani, finally I agreed.

The punishment was slated to start on Sunday. Monday was a holiday for some

reason. Asatya stuck black cardboard to all the windows of his room from outside so that I wouldn't be able to see the outside world. I was allowed to put on the lights.

Asatya was not to keep his transistor and table clock in the room. He even took away my wristwatch. I was told to read anything of my choice. Some film magazines were provided. They were kind enough to keep some snacks in the room. If you remember, televisions were not so common in those days (rather not so affordable and not allowed in hostels.) and there were no private TV channels. I was told to break the windowpanes in case of emergency and call out for help. One key of the lock was kept with the next-

door guy. He was instructed not to talk to me during the course of the day.

At 9 am on Sunday, all my cruel friends gathered at Asatya's room. And my punishment began.

First, Asatya asked me to sing a Bollywood song of my choice. Everyone wanted to laugh, but somehow, they controlled. Then Asatya put a drop of water on the floor and asked me to swim on it. He made me count numbers from 100 in reverse order; asked me to read one page of a book in reverse order etc. The ragging went on for about 15 minutes. Then all of them left me alone in the room; locked door from outside and went to have fun themselves.

I read some books, had lunch and slept for some time, but didn't know for exactly how long. After a few hours I heard noise outside. Thank God, they had returned.

Asatya yelled from outside "Hi Rahul, are you alive?" "You b d!"

"Rahul, I had given you an opportunity to commit suicide (laughter)..... People who fail in exams repeatedly, normally do (laughter).... especially when they are not shameless (more laughter).... You missed an opportunity to make your parents happy (even more laughter).

"Asatya, I am your most loyal friend. How can I die before giving you my shoulder?" I retorted.

"Very sad!... that you are alive. Anyway, how was the day?"

"Open the door you b..... d." I was getting indignant.

"I will. But before that just tell me, what do you think is the time?"

"Asatya, open the door, or else I will break your windowpanes."

"Don't get angry Rahul. I am serious. What do you think is the time?" "It must be 5."

"Very good. You are almost right. It's 4:50."

There was a clanking and squeaking noise of the door bolt, and the doors flung open. Everyone rushed into the room and started teasing me.

One part of my punishment was over.

I don't know what Asatya was up to, but I knew for sure that I was going to fail his experiment this time around. He told me that in the first part, the punishment was not severe, but the next day it was going to be physical. Now he was getting on my nerves. Was he to touch me, I was not going to take it lying down; I was determined to hit back.

So, that was on the previous day. Today, I had already done thirteen and a half push- ups. I was allowed to rest for exactly one minute. Then I was made to do 30 sit ups, then swing my hands up and down etc.

Everyone was amused. While all this was going on, Asatya was looking at his

wristwatch again and again. I knew he wanted to finish the ragging as fast as possible so that he could have breakfast and then go for a matinee show.

I was locked again like on the previous day. After a few hours, they returned. "Rahul, what do you think is the time?" asked Asatya from outside.

"It must be around 3:30." "Wrong! It's 5."

As soon as the doors opened, I quickly grabbed Noel's hand and looked at his wristwatch in disbelief. It was indeed 5 pm.

"Do you know why you couldn't guess the time today?", asked Asatya. No one spoke.

"We subconsciously measure the passage of time with reference to the events

happening around us, the amount of work we do, and the degree to which our brain gets tired, among other things. Today your brain is not as tired as it normally gets after doing the same amount of work...And do you know how much time you took to do that exercise in the morning?... Only 8 minutes. Congratulations Rahul, 8 minutes of exercise has extended you productive lifespan by at least one and a half hours; and the real life span?...may be by a few days."

There was a silence for a few seconds.

"Where was the need do to so much, just to prove such a trivial point?" asked Aalok. And alas! my attempt to fail Asatya's experiment was futile.

-Amol Sakhalkar