Long live St.Valentine

Last night, one of my friends asked me, ”What are your plans for tomorrow”, tomorrow being Valentine’s Day. I knew she was trying to pull my leg, ‘cause everyone knows that mechanical engineering is one of the biggest causes of the Valentine’s Day Phobia. But this time, I had decided that I am not going through the yet-another-valentine’s day-without-a-girlfriend crap. So I decided upon a two point agenda:
1. Try and stir some sort of anti-westernization campaign, and follow the activities of my friends at Shiv Sena.
2. Start a “Save Roses-don’t let them die” campaign, maybe try and stir up some much lacking regard for plant life (They too are living beings)

So I get up in the morning with these thoughts in my mind. Switch on Zee news and I can see the sainiks in action (“Balasaheb Jindabad”). Yup, this day starts off as expected. After having my bath, I am suddenly reminded that today is Formal/Saree Day, the continuation of the “End of Days Festival”. So dig in to my cup board, looking for that sole pair of formals that I have. A tie is also unearthed in the process…good. As soon as I get out of my room, Rai reminds me that there is a colour code also for the day, which goes something like this :

White – Seriously interested
Black – Stay Away
Red – In Love
Brown – Betrayed in love
Blue – Waiting for someone etc etc

Swell, I was anyway dressed in white.

Rumours of a Valentine’s Day bunk are rife through the corridors of mech dept. But alas, the first lecture takes place and the second prof is also in, before we could make a dash for it. But one guy took courage to stand and tell the prof that we want to go out and celebrate. He laughs and ask, “What do you guys plan to do? Go to canteen? Then what?”. We smirk. He then adds, “I generally go there to have tea”. Polie stands up and says, “Sir we will have coffee”!!! He finally relents and promises to leave us in half an hour. The clock ticks away, and the jeers and cheers emanating from the canteen make this the longest half an hour ever. We were very anxious to know what the hell was happening out there. Realizing that we were not paying even a single bit of attention to what he was saying, he tries a smart approach. The class was of Gas turbines and he was trying to explain us the concept of choke conditions and critical pressure (The only two words I heard in the class).
He says, “I’ll give you a Valentine’s Day example. This class has only one exit. It is filled with you guys at certain energy level. Suppose one girl comes at the door, equivalent to reducing the back pressure, one guy will get up and go out. If two come, a greater drop in pressure and two go out. But if twenty come at once, the exit will get choked as only 3 can go at once (calls it the maximum flow rate). So 3 girls corresponds to critical pressure and maximum flow rate.”
KUDOS sir.
Point noted. End of class.

Enter canteen. Guys in formals all around looking smart. And I must say the girls do look beautiful in sarees. So it was simply lots of hooting and shouting whenever girls entered or exited. There is more excitement when one of the guys (never a girl) takes up the courage to give rose to a girl. The whole crowd joins in and the decibel levels go berserk. All the digicams went flash-flash. And then the guy’s ass becomes the football of the day. But the spirit never dampens. I itched to join in. In the next 1-2 hrs, more and more guys do this and every one has a ball in general. And with everyone dressed properly and cams around, group photos were order of the day. As for me, I managed to gather all the Maharashtra guys n gals together for a photo shoot of our own.

After lunch, it was time for departmental photos. So we all mech guys get together and go around the college snapping our group. We catch hold of two first yearites to act as our photographers. Poor chaps. Library, ADM, canteen, department entrance, drawing hall, college gate…no location of significance was left untouched. I never knew there were so many of us in the class, it is always half empty!
During all of this, once the library was done and all of us were headed for the gate, it happened.

There she was, standing at the PMC. The guys see this and begin to nudge me. So I pick up the rose and head towards her, my whole class cheering and guys ready to click. I just give her the rose, with a smile and wish her a happy valentine’s day. She accepts with a smile.
Click! A Kodak moment!
(or was it a Sony)

Just when I think the day cannot get any better, I get to watch “Hide and Seek” at PT. A Robert De Niro thriller, it was really gripping. A story of how a small girl tries to cope with her mother’s suicide with the help of an imaginary friend, the movie scores on scary sequences and sounds.
A perfect ending to a wonderful day. With another half an hour still left in the day, is there more in store?