If you've read Madhouse, you're not likely to have missed several amusing anecdotes featuring a Malaysian named Selvarasu Supaiah, written mainly by Satish "Satkya" Joshi. Selva was darkish and bearded and must surely have been a zoo curator in his previous birth.
He was forever seen roaming around with both dead and live snakes, a monitor lizard, a kingfisher, a massive fish that he had caught at Powai and he occasionally had issues with pigeons in his wing, which he settled by roasting them for dinner. Selva departed from IIT forever in 1979 I think and there was a huge farewell party in his NWSF (north wing second floor) where country liquor was served in buckets. Selva left, but left behind enough memories and enough stories of his escapades that found their way into the book. In those remote bleak and black & white days, inland letters initially helped people stay in touch. But people moved too frequently and inland letters often "bounced". Though a large part of the world was recaptured with the internet, Selva remained elusive....not even trips to KL by many could sniff out Selva.
Imagine our delight therefore when another elusive but an equally legendary Vasant "Faatu" Joshi "fished" out Selva in Sungai Pelek Malaysia!! Ironically, the fisher had become a fishee. :-) Rediscovered Selva is still to learn that his antics have been immortalized in a book and that a few hundred souls await to welcome him back into a new virtual H4 that has been recreated in cyberspace.
While rummaging through our dossier of unpublished stories, I discovered several featuring Selva and have selected one that not only features Selva but also features an important, frequent, regular hostel activity that has gone surprisingly unreported in our otherwise impeccable collection of nostalgia.viz. the water fight stories. Looking back, it was teen-aged hooliganism where someone started by drenching someone else with a bucket of water, for no rhyme or reason. For a simple "Just like that". An enraged Drenchee then avenged the humiliation by moving his bucket into the battleground as a drencher. A seemingly harmless spat between a few juveniles then morphed itself into an army operation which was restructured and fought along wing lines and with strategies and tactics. This snippet is also from Satkya. Read on...
He was forever seen roaming around with both dead and live snakes, a monitor lizard, a kingfisher, a massive fish that he had caught at Powai and he occasionally had issues with pigeons in his wing, which he settled by roasting them for dinner. Selva departed from IIT forever in 1979 I think and there was a huge farewell party in his NWSF (north wing second floor) where country liquor was served in buckets. Selva left, but left behind enough memories and enough stories of his escapades that found their way into the book. In those remote bleak and black & white days, inland letters initially helped people stay in touch. But people moved too frequently and inland letters often "bounced". Though a large part of the world was recaptured with the internet, Selva remained elusive....not even trips to KL by many could sniff out Selva.
Imagine our delight therefore when another elusive but an equally legendary Vasant "Faatu" Joshi "fished" out Selva in Sungai Pelek Malaysia!! Ironically, the fisher had become a fishee. :-) Rediscovered Selva is still to learn that his antics have been immortalized in a book and that a few hundred souls await to welcome him back into a new virtual H4 that has been recreated in cyberspace.
While rummaging through our dossier of unpublished stories, I discovered several featuring Selva and have selected one that not only features Selva but also features an important, frequent, regular hostel activity that has gone surprisingly unreported in our otherwise impeccable collection of nostalgia.viz. the water fight stories. Looking back, it was teen-aged hooliganism where someone started by drenching someone else with a bucket of water, for no rhyme or reason. For a simple "Just like that". An enraged Drenchee then avenged the humiliation by moving his bucket into the battleground as a drencher. A seemingly harmless spat between a few juveniles then morphed itself into an army operation which was restructured and fought along wing lines and with strategies and tactics. This snippet is also from Satkya. Read on...
Ha! I remember that water fight. Since we (North wing 2nd floor) were furthest from the point at which it started - we had plenty of time to prepare. We had a line of buckets collected from every room on one side (12 or 14 altogether) filled with HOT SCALDING water - the heater in the bogs was working for a change. We had a hose of our own connected to the taps ready in Selva's hand with some one standing by the tap to open it the moment Selva gave the signal. Mittal (I think it was Mittal - or perhaps Saheb Patil I am not sure) and I were on duty standing by the buckets of water ready to pitch in. One tall Bawa (I forgot his name) from the 1st floor came up and joined us when he found out that we were ready with a battle plan. His own wing mates had chickened out and locked themselves in their rooms instead of retaliating which he couldn't take. He had come equipped with a long broom - the kind that has a long about (4 ft) bamboo for a handle. We all lurked around the corner near Potty's room and in both the boggs with only Selva - the general (the battle plan was his design) standing at the head of the stairs with the pipe in his hand.
Pretty soon accompanied by loud hoops the triumphant gang came up the stairs - so far in all other wings they had vanquished all that came in their way and were expecting nothing different here. On seeing them on the last flight of stairs - Selva roared - with that the tap was opened with a jet of water from his hose hitting K.V. Rao (who was one of the leaders of the invaders) squarely in the eye, that tall Bawa (whose name I forgot) jumped in waving his broom wildly from side to side, I, Mittal (or Saheb) and a couple of guys (again I am sure who) started throwing the buckets of hot water at the folks on the landing - for a while there was complete mayhem and chaos with no one sure about who they were fighting with nor I guess did it matter the idea was to generally get wet, get others wet. I hope my memory serves me right and I am not making a mistake but even the usually gentle and well behaved Shoeb was yelling as loudly as Selva and was as busy throwing buckets of water around.
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