The Dummy Boy – Part 3

His first college day was spoiled by the encounter with the ‘inglorious rascals’, so he was determined to enjoy his virtual first day in the college. The Government Polytechnic  campus was beautiful with ‘Asoka’ trees decorating the banks of the pathways that lead to the main building. There was a lush green playground on the right side of the entrance gate and an old canteen on the left side. Students from lower middle class families(their dresses suggests that) were roaming here and there in the campus. The class timing was from 9 to 4 with a one hour lunch break from 12pm to 1pm. Being a government college, there was always a shortage of staff and seldom does the classes go beyond a good 2 hours, so the Government Polytechnic College was a centre of extra curricular activities ranging from small time criminal proceedings like robbery to dummy exam writing. There was a mafia group in the college for every politician and business man in the city, nurtured to protect the interests of these biggies. The college was a factory producing edgy criminals, hundreds in number every year, the major raw materials being desperate young boys of the age group 16 to 21 and the dirty mind of wily politicians and money centric ‘marwaadi’ businessmen controlling the entire financial transactions in the city.

Kanhaiyya entered the college with Hemant and Jitender(a local boy from the outskirts of Kolhapur city. Hemant introduced him to Kanhaiyya).

“Yesterday was a bad day man, there was not even a single hour of class and the ragging was intolerable”, Jitender said with a sigh.
Jitender was a tall dark boy with a good physique and a very slight stammer in his voice.

“……..so, what were you telling about the ‘Inglourious Rascals”, Hemant asked with untainted enthusiasm.

“Aah, they are notorious throughout the city, they are from the Baliram Patil group, you have not heard his name, Baliram Patil, Guruji.”
“No”
“Oh my god, you must learn about him man, he is one of the biggest dons in the city, he controls more than half of the cannabis business in the city and he is a corporator”

“Oh my God” Hemant frowned with the child like innocence that always prevailed his almost ugly face.

“Guruji is the pioneer of dummy exam writing in our city and his network covers the entire Konkan area also”

“Dummy exam writing?” Kanhaiyya and Hemant asked almost at the same time.

Their conversation came to a halt when they saw a crowd near the far end of the canteen.

The ‘Inglourious Rascals’ were beating the hell out of a man, presumably a canteen staff.

“Kill that cock sucker” Vikram Mhatre screamed while taking a broken piece of wood from the canteen verandah.

Swapnil and Rakesh were holding the man, with his hands tied back in a tangle and Kailas was unremittingly targeting his face with a sharp stone piece.

Blood was pumping out of his nose like water gushing out from a garden hose, his right eye faltered out from its sockets resembling interweaven petals of white and red jasmine flowers and his legs were wavering in the air like yarns in gentle breeze.

“How the fuck you dared to betray us?, you mother fucker.” Vikram started hitting him with the piece of wood.

“Strip the bastard”

Kailas started to strip the man with his ‘chaku’
Vikram put his hand in the man’s underwear and seized three packets of cannabis.
He handed over the packets to Kailas and seized the man’s head with both his hands. He started hitting the head in to a large piece of stone near to the entrance of the canteen like breaking a coconut in Vinayak chathurthi. The man was thrown in to the nearby weeds after making sure that he was unconscious.

The crowd assembly dispersed without a notice as if after watching the ‘The End’ insignia in a ‘tadka’ movie.

Kanhaiyya, Rakesh and Jitender were glued to the ground with shock.

Kailas came to Kanhaiyya and started watching him from knee to head.

“Now you will learn, how a hero can be transformed into a victim in a split second?, you mother fucker” Vikram shrieked at Kanhaiyya in his Gabbar Singhish smile.

Terror danced in the eyes of Kanhaiyya as he watched them move away from him.

………….to be continued