Supercomputer And Party Poopers

"It can take years to build something, but it will take only a few seconds to ruin it."

Whoever said this, really knew what life is all about. Even though each and every one of us had chances to experience the above, it always comes to haunt you.

Just put yourself in a situation, where you could lose all, or at least some, of your friends one fine morning. All of us in E2 came prepared for this on 25th of August. But our class advisor, by not turning up, gave us the hope that there won’t be any shuffling this semester. We were all very happy with turn of events. We slept well after many a week (weeks full of fear of exams and fear of shuffling). We came to college on that fateful Tuesday, all happy and joy. We cut class and went to play cricket. We were in for a dramatic ending in our last game for the day, when a sms arrived spelling our future.

"We have been shuffled. New class list is available in class."

Leaving the game mid-way, we rushed back to class, to find E1’s staff advisor in our class. We waited until she had gone and entered our class.

I haven’t gone to too many funerals, but I could understand that my classmates were all in grief, as if someone close to everyone had died. As I walked through my classroom to the table where the list was kept, I could see long stares and half smiles coming my way. From the people I got those, I knew my condition before I even looked at the list.

The list bore my inferences. I was to become a victim of shuffling. I was made to join E1. I lost my good friends, who always gave me great company. Almost everyone did lose someone. No one was left unhurt.

Why should there be shuffling, when the people who are to be shuffled feel they don’t need it? Teachers say that it is to break up the gangs. But I can see that the gangs in E1 have been left unharmed. They have either been left alone, or shifted completely to E2. Where else do you hear of such principles other than in our very own CET?

That’s not the end of the baseless claims that we have heard over the past week. We also heard that a ‘computer’ was used to shuffle the students, and that it was done on a ‘random’ basis.

But I don’t think that they have made a computer, which can see through peoples’ feelings and split them such that it will hurt them the most. I don’t think that they have made a computer, which not only splits up the gangs (of both guys and gals) in half, but also splits almost all the love couples, such that the hero is in one class, while the heroine in the other.
That’s why we decided to call this brutal computer ‘The Supercomputer’ - the only ‘computer’ in the world, which can sense the feelings of the people around it. We can be proud of the fact that CET is the home for this cruel machine.

Just when we left ourselves to fate, another thing to be proud of came up last Sunday. We have heard of cousins fighting against each other in ‘Mahabharata’. But we had brother fighting against brother, and that too all over the town. I was not a witness to the events that unfolded at Senate Hall, but my friends have filled me with the details.

I don’t want to talk about who did what first, and why he did so, but I would like all the CETians to visit the Orkut community ‘CET Trivandrum’ and read the topic ‘The lowest level’. All ex-CETians are of the same opinion. No matter which group or section you belong to, it doesn’t matter after you have passed out. After you step out of the college, you are a CETian, nothing less, nothing more. People won’t ask you which section you belong to, but only ask which college you belong to.

The college has been suspended for this week. Since it the marriage season, people keep coming to our house to invite us for weddings. And when they come, they ask me. "Don’t you have college today?" I have to give an answer which leaves me in shame – "There was a fight in our college. So, college is now suspended." I have always been (and will always be) proud to be a CETian. But, right now, I am made to feel bad, because my brothers don’t think about what they do.

I know that our world isn’t ideal. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t leave together. If a few people have superiority or inferiority complexes, then let them leave their life alone. Let the rest of us live together, as one big family.

One of the outcomes of this unnecessary fight is that this years’ Onam celebration, which should have been held tomorrow has been cancelled. This festival, which is to welcome one of the greatest kings in history, has always stood for the unity in Malayalees. All Malayaless, irrespective of religion, caste, financial status, etc have always stood together and welcomed Mahabali.

Next year, this time, I will be having the last chance to celebrate Onam with my college mates at college. I hope that, at least by that time, my brothers realize the folly of their actions and come together to celebrate as one unit – CET….

I just wish that CET will always be known for the write reasons.