The Stranger - 1

This  story  is written based on a  true incident that took place when I was in my 1st year of  
Under-Graduation. Slightly altered, though.


Time        :  Mid December, 2005
Location  :  Sri Vivekananda  Junior College, Srinagar Colony , Palamaner.
Genre      :  Crime
 

Now dip your toes  into the truly happened drama....

                                 It  was  mid december  of  the year 2005 when  this incident  happened.  But long before  that, in the month of May, Chittoor's highly reputed  Sri  Vivekananda Junior College extended  its  wings  to  palamaner  by inaugurating  a new  branch  with  the  same  name. And  this  made  many of  the  localites  (including me )  to stay back and  join Vivekananda institute  instead  of  leaving  for Vijayawada, Tirupati  or  Hyderabad  to  seek  corporate  education.
              Chandu ,Deepu,Noushad,Yusuf , Gowtham,  Tabrez, Wilson,  Kiran, Haricharan (enugu/elephant)  and many  of  them  were my close  buddies at  my  College.  Everyone of  us  had a quite  good rapport  with  every  other  and  we always used to keep our feet together wherever we go irrespective of movies, hangouts, grounds and even toilets in lunch breaks. Since  our  institute's   head  office was  located  in  Chittoor, our  staff  including  principal  were  mere  commuters  who  used to travel  for about 40 km  to Palamaner and travel back to Chittoor right after the college gets shut down.

              Noushad, the key person in this story and as well as in the college , used to be super-active in all activities ranging from collecting the roll numbers of attendess  to fetching the pieces of chalk from the staff room. He was tagged with  several  miscellaneous duties like controlling the class in the absence of  lecturer, distributing the answer sheeets along with the question papers during the weekly exams,  collecting  back those answer sheets , playing pranks in the classroom even at  times when lectures are being delivered. So now we can clearly make out that our bubbly Noushu was least bothered about studies, exams and their serious consequences. Thus he used to carry some leadership  reputation with whatever work he accomplished, no matter how silly the work was. Obviously any Principal like our D. Lambodharam Naidu would suggest Noushu's name for every activity. Also our princy's Hero cycle was used and  looked after by Noushad when the Principal gets off the college in the evenings. Thus Noushu was more popular in the college than the principal.
                           Now Coming to our curriculum. We were taught by lecturers from Chittoor. Regular running notes was given for MPC students and especially in Mathematics, every single problem given in the text book was solved just because we had 4 complete days of math in a week.   We the students were examined regularly with weekly and monthly exams and  the examinations usually carried some kind of caution with them. This is because our papers underwent stringent correction by the Chittoor Management and  students performing below their mark were warned, scolded and some times even beaten up by our furious  Principal and Chairman (A.V.N). We were fed up with those exhaustive and repeated exams & assignments. We somehow used to manage and write those exams just because we were supposed to. Days were passing by with those irritating untimely exams but with asusual marks and remarks. Then comes the twist in the tale.

                          Our Principal , D.L.N usually brings the empty answer sheets, question papers, additional sheets and other register books  from the head branch and used to cautiously store them in his private office room. Then everyday after the classes, he  locks his room, double-checks the lock , hands away the cycle key to Noushad and atlast places the room key in his shirt's pocket and  only then leaves the college. One fine lovely evening after the college , principal was supposed to leave for Punganur(instead of Chittoor) and so  felt that he might not be attending the college for the  next 2 days. And also by the time he finished his daily work , all the staff had already left for Chittoor. Something unusual happened that evening.  Principal handed over the room key along with the cycle keys to Noushad and asked him to unlock the classrooms for next 2 days and  lock them after the college in the evenings. Principal also asked Noushad to inform the mathematics lecturer M. Janardhan Naidu (M.J.N) about the former's unexpected Punganur visit.