Mithya XI: TTK's Classical Defence

This is the second 'chapter' of my almost autobiographical composition. This is in the form of prose, but its not regular prose. Hope you like it.

The tale (part 1)

 

Player II: TTK's Classical defence

Can you please keep this short? You should have taken a prior appointment; besides I am watching a match; can I do dome multitasking please? I know that means I have a monkey-mind, but so be it.

Thanks for understanding. Yes I know this is not a trial, just an interview and I will do my best to answer to the best of my abilities; wow wasn’t that a brilliant Googly?

Yes, my name is TTK Sudarshan and I did play for Mithya XI. And I do pledge to speak the truth and nothing else but the truth.

Of course, I remember that Test. I hadn’t played as well as you guys expected, but I believe I put up a good fight, right?

What do you mean by Match Fixing? How can you even insinuate such a thing? We were all playing for Mithya and we cant even think of that in our dreams. Oooh, that ball had some pace, it was nearing 150.

Yes, I am speaking for myself, and others too.

Umm, you can call him my best friend, yes we were very close. Almost like besties. That was a slower one, right? He’s mixing and playing with the batsman’s mind.

Well, he was good with the bat, a bit quirky though. 

No, we never opened together. I guess we both wanted to, and as locker-mates we had come pretty close. Whenever, I sing of the song ‘Chanda Re’ I think of him. He seemed lost up in the air- a bit philosophical and I did try to drill some practical common sense in him whenever possible. We had a lot of philosophical discussions. Nice long drive.


Yes, he had political ambitions. As a matter of fact he used to say that the reason he had chosen IITD over other IITs was because of the fact that Delhi being the capital had a vibrant political environment. He was quite ‘serious’ about this. Oh, what a knock!

Yes, in the context of the hostel too; after all he did fight and win the election for the Cultural Secretary of the hostel.

Yes. I too had political ambitions. But I have been practical about it. I want to work in the peak of my career, make up tons of moolah and finally settle down in a village, adopt it and oversee its development and functioning. You know I plan to lead a spiritual life.  To be a MONK who has the KEY. That’s my long term vision but for now let me prepare for CAT and become a management consultant so that I can fund my dream. 

No, our political ambitions never collided. As I mentioned before we were best of friends and I was truly happy when he became cultural secretary. As a matter of fact I was instrumental in trading votes for him so that someone from our wing could win- he was apparently not too naive himself- but as I said we batted for the same side.

No, he didn’t talk much, and still he did use to disclose a lot about himself. Rather he said he was an open book- though I strongly doubted that. Well he also used to quote, ‘don’t ask and you will be told no lies’. I don’t know why you are asking me so many questions! That was the second bouncer of the over and so close to hitting the helmet.

Any quirks you ask? Well, like Bozo the clown become one example, I guess he tried to become another example in quirkiness. Who else would openly claim that his aim in life is to prevent the third world war from happening. I warned him that even professors were making fun of that. One of the profs had said that people who say things like these actually cause world wars and clash of civilisations. Holy shit, how did he miss the line of the ball? There was such a big gap between his bat and the pad? What was he smoking? Did you see that wicket fall?

Ok, sorry, Coming back to the point, I wont say he was that popular; but yes the width of his popularity became apparent when the Protest happened and even the usually reserved and above approach Kailashites supported him whole heartedly. I used to make eclair trips to  Kailash and was genuinely surprised by the support and indignation of the Kaileshites. I conveyed the same to him and maybe in those dark hours that was the only thing that restored his self esteem (and faith in humanity)  a bit! Talk about having a silver lining!! What would I not do to garner such sympathies!!

Yes, that brings us to that day. The reason you are bugging me. The day our top order collapsed and the tail followed suit leading to the lowest all time total for Mithya XI.

You ask what happened on that day, but perhaps we need to start a bit early. If we have to place the blame shouldn’t we start with the selection committee? How do you end up with a squad so poor? Who was to blame for the no. 4 goof up? Why did we not choose the right team in the first place? Anyway as things would have it, in the second semester he had just been elected the Cultural secretary of the hostel and became part of the select club. 


Oh, he didn’t remain the CultSec for long, so it's hard to recall his achievements. He was good with the bat but the pressure of captaincy took a toll, I believe. He did organise a very successful Hostel day. The theme was traditional and I having classical tastes was really enamoured by that. He wanted to reverse the brain drain and make India palatable; this traditional themed hostel day was a step in that direction. I was fascinated and so looking forward and eager. Oh no, commentator’s curse again, I just wish someone will ban this commentator from praising our team so often; we just lost a wicket. He was playing so good!


Ok, coming back. Well, in the next semester, he got bowled out on the first ball.

Yes, I would elaborate.  Being CultSec he was made a member of COPMIN (Committee for Prevention and Monitoring of INteraction with freshers- who remembers such names, except perhaps the one who has been burnt by such things!) - a body whose function was to prevent ragging. He, along with a few others, came a few days earlier than rest of the seniors, to interact with freshers and make them strong to resist ragging.

Ragging to me is like taking a new batsman into ones wings and teaching him how to play well by handling pressure situations.

Yes, I am coming to that. He was quirky and as part of his ragging inoculation and prevention attempts, he started by himself interacting with freshers in a good and acceptable way. He would ask them their AIR , ask them to do small tasks, and generally addressed them instructing them to cooperate with seniors as far as interactions went smooth and to resist the ‘ragging’ whenever they felt uncomfortable. 

yes, all noble and good. So where did he err? For one,  he was a person who had no use for either excuses or cowardice and hence told the students that if not comfortable they should straight forwardly deny doing anything, but not make silly excuses. Be brave and hit a six or lose your wicket and get out. Don't make excuses like the pitch was not a batting pitch.

Of course, to be more specific, he asked the freshers that if a senior asks you to shave your moustaches, don’t give lame excuses like I don’t have a razor etc ; if needed buy a new razor or borrow from him, but either confront the senior and he’ll be there to support the fresher; or else do whatever you think is reasonably demanded by the senior. Now asking freshers to shave was a normal initiation rite in IIT’s those days. Personally I find nothing wrong with that. One could always refuse. Why is he playing so aggressively, there is no place for good defence in todays world!

Well, what happened then was truly sad and deplorable. A fresher was asked by a senior to shave moustaches, he went to him for borrowing a razor and my friend obliged. Was’t that an easy catch at silly point. He handed his wicket on a platter.

Yes, we have heard it that that fresher was a relative of the dean, but we didn’t knew it then. Hold on a minute, the action replay shows that there were not enough players inside the circle, this was a no ball. The batsman is claiming as such.

What happened next was that Dean came storming into the hostel looking for the cultural secretary, gathered all the freshers,  accused my friend of ragging and when he touched the feet to clear any misunderstanding and placate him, as he was always reverent to teachers, the Dean took that as a sign of weakness and literally pushed him down the stairs and asked him to vacate the hostel before the night was over and intimated him that he had been terminated from the prestigious institute on account of ragging. Phew, will we take a DRS or not, time is ticking?

Yes, it was shock for him; he was pretty strong so he didn’t cry but he was definitely taken aback.

What happened next was unprecedented, The students of the hostel, the wanar sena , of which I was leading as Sugriva, gheraoed the dean and demanded that he take back his proclamations. YES! DRS taken and successfully too!

Outnumbered and outwitted, the dean had no option but to give in to public demand and assured us that no action would be taken. We thought the issue had been settled.

Not so fast! Well, the issue was not settled because he demanded an apology from the dean; he had been falsely accused of ragging, and worse assaulted for the same and subjected to trauma, and his demand for an apology seemed reasonable to me. Well, that spun too fast, this pitch does have turn.

Why did the Protest happen? well it was because things didn’t return to normal in the next few days. Having lost his face, he justified not going to classes and said he was boycotting classes and college till the dean apologised/ resigned. Isn’t the new batsman taking too much time to settle down. We seem to have lost all momentum.

He did gather courage to venture towards class on the third day. I was having breakfast with him. He was in a better mood and looking forward to the day. Finally a boundary after 35 minutes.


So what happened, well, his eyes caught glance of a headline on the front page in the daily newspaper ‘Errant student let off after deal with authorities’. He had finally made it to the front page of a newspaper though not exactly in the way he would have wanted. Isn’t it cool to be famous. I love when people ask for my autographs; so glad to be part of Mityha XI.

No, we didn’t go after the newspaper. He went after the dean and we followed suit. A written apology from dean was required to absolve him of his tarnished image. His protest continued. This partnership can really save the day for us. It has been building beautifully over some time, exactly what was needed, but let me shut up, lest commentators curse take hold.

Not really. Not everyone was behind him fully. Some were afraid that if a DISCO (disciplinary committee) was set up following this incident, maybe he will go scot-free but they, who had actually indulged in the nefarious acts of actual ragging, would be prosecuted.

My role in the whole thing? well, I had friends on both sides. He and his supporters were my best friends, but so were some of those who were putting forth the theory of DISCO and questions in parliament. A parliament session was going on and it was not unheard of that questions related to ragging in IITs, directly tied to that incident, could be raised and many students face suspension/ termination. So I was ambivalent. I could see merit on both sides. The DISCO/ parliament session combo was a fast one even for me. I could merely duck!

What did I do? What do you do when bouncers keep hitting you on helmet? I gently convinced him that it was not worth going after dean’s resignation; an apology should suffice. A movement was building up- he was not going to classes and monkey see-monkey do, some of us had decided to wear black ribbons as a mark protest ourselves if this continued for some more time; Even some teachers in humanities department had voiced concerns and things were getting chaotic. Numerous Lion Kings were emerging. Being the Monkey King, I tried to restore order to things.

Yes, I succeeded. Dean apologised in writing and in person. He didn’t resign though. He resigned though. Dispirited he resigned from the post of cultural secretary, never to venture in that territory again. He started attending classes again. The situation was diffused.

Why did I do it?  Well, I never did rag, so I was not afraid for myself. I never even had that much of sympathy for those who had actually ragged and might have been impacted if situation continued to snowball. What I was afraid was for him- the more the situation continued the more he was losing - a bit of his former self day by day and that I could not bear. I did it for him.

My regret or lament?  Yes I do have one.  Why wasn't another article published in that same newspaper:  ‘Errant Dean let off after deal with students’.