Farce..

Screeeecchhhhhhhh.......
Neyveli Railway Station welcomes you..

The train reached Neyveli at around 2am and the 3 guys got out.. They looked around to see that the station was almost deserted but for some track guards..
"We'll stay back at the waiting room till it's dawn..",someone enlightened others..

Three of them,Nithin aka nimo,Hasif aka kudu and Nitheesh,were set to Neyveli to enquire about their external project at NLC and fortunately enough they arrived the station at the most unearthly hour when even the stray dogs were deeply into sleeping..and they were obviously forced to wait till 6am to ring their patron,the one they are obliged to for securing the internship at NLC..

"Lemme slip into my nightdress and manage some sleep..",kudu was almost drained enough to hardly keep his eyes open..yeah of course,only hardcore nocturnals manage it quite well to keep awake at as early as 2am after a cumbersome journey..
"Heyy kudu,let's see if we can manage some coffee and check out the surroundings..hand us over the tickets and our college id in case somebody comes around smelling fish..",others interjected..and soon left out leaving kudu and the luggage back at the rest room..

Nimo and Nitheesh returned after a while with their coffee and soap and paste and whatever stuffs it was when they heard a familiar scream from the station master's cabin..
"Help..Help...two men..drunk..dragging me..trampling me..help please.."
Well,thoroughly discomfited and aghast,both of them ran to the cabin to see kudu blanched and confused,amid a gang of people obviously the RPF..

"What is the problem sir?",Nimo asked..

"Problema..??You wanna know what the problema..??I suppose he's your friend..This nitwit slapped me right on my face.. and for your kind information,i'm from the RPF..and we are having a hunch that you guys are terrorists,especially taking into account the islam background of this fellow..and don't you dare think that you guys could walk out of Neyveli as easily as u thought you would.."Someone,certainly not in uniforms,blustered out in a heavy tanglish(tamil+english) accent..for the sake of addressing,lets call mr.policeman as Muniyandi..

"WHAT???What kudu?What the hell did you do??"

"Man,i was sitting in the waiting room when these two drunk bastards came in and asked what i was upto and where my tickets were and all.. Why the heck should i answer some drunk schmucks??I said something and they started plundering our bag and that was when i tried to recapture it by slapping him on his face..and they trailed me here to say they were police officers in mufti.. What to do now??",kudu somehow managed to explain the state of affairs partly with the mallu and partly with the ITC lessons he had been taught so far..encrypting the words into symbols,binary or ternary or whatever and send the cue..

Perceiving the heat of the situation,nimo asked Mr.Muniyandi,"What should we do sir?"

"I can help you both..but i won't let go this man who buffeted me insolently.."

"Sir please,we are no felons or criminals or terrorists.. We are just engineering students and unfortunately enough we happened to land on Neyveli at this untimely hour,not to plan an explosion but to enquire about our internship.."

"Students..Ahuh.. Don't you guys keep track on day-to-day events?? The most deletirious explosions in the country lately had been carried out by students and that too by proffessional ones like you..",Mr.Muniyandi barked..

"We are sorry for his disdain sir..But it was a mistake..not a deliberate one.. Now please help us get out of the snag",Nitheesh pleaded like duh..

"Alright,you guys gotto pay a fine of Rs.750 and i'll let go off you both.."

"No sir,we 3 gotto be safe.."

"Pay me Rs.750 now.."
Reluctantly enough,someone handed him the 750 bucks..
"Ok..Now gimme 250 more.."

"What for sir?We'd already paid you the fine,right??"

"This is the official one and you gotto pay me the compensation for disregarding my position..Do you understand..?"

"Ok sir..But,could you please hand us back those 750 we gave,..We don't have any more change..We'll hand over a 1000Rs note instead."

It seemed like the olfactory glands of muniyandi was working too well to sense the presence of excess cash with his prey..and demanded another 250 for which the boys had no other go but to abide by..

And the boys somehow settled the issue,or so it seemed,when the singularly greedy schylock in muniyandi peeped out again waging for the mobile phone..
"But sir,..we'd already given you 1250..Why should we hand over a phone??"

"You rascals,..I can arrest you under POTA and keep you indefinitely for suspicion of terrorist links..You get me?Now you will handover the phone or not?"

Admitting the culpability of the situation,kudu handed over his phone..

"Alright guys,now you may go..Immediately leave the station,..Hire an auto and get back to the bus stand where you'll get the bus to your destination..Travel Safe.."

Being damn obedient,our heroes left the station parting with their 1250 pennies and a multimedia cellphone..and in 15min they were in the neyveli bus stand.. Figuring out a place to ensconce themselves and rest their ass,they went ahead..
In less than 10min of pandemonium,they noticed an auto scouting around and a familiar hideous mug getting out of it..
Mr.Muniyandi strikes again.!

"Heyy guys,..I'm sorry to say,but then things are no more under my control now..DGP wants to meet you guys and enquire personally.."

Smelling the avarice in his words,Nimo slapped back,"Sir,we have no more money in our possession..We've just enough money left to get back home.."

"Gimme a phone..lemme make a call to the DGP and ask if there's a way out.."
Gaining access to a phone,he dialed a no: and switched on the speaker mode just to vindicate his innocence in the matter..

"Hello sir..DGP sir,..the guys are innocent sir,they are just students..Can't we just let them go..?"
"No..i gotto enquire them..bring them here.."
"Sir please sir.."Muniyandi tried to sound genuine...
"Alright..Fire them enough so that they don't loiter around carelessly this way in their future.."
Strangely enough,the Mr.DGP at the other end of the call sounded not more than a 10th std literate who lacked the poise or dignity of a bureaucrat in his words..

"Do somebody wanna talk to him??"Mr.Muniyandi extended his substantiative bait..

"Lemme talk,.."Nimo took charge and started asking things dubiously in English,..partly because he was not well versed with the local dialect and apparently to test the genuineness of the prank..

To his surprise,..or rather more as expected,there was not even an angresi word that Mr.DGP could utter instead kept on humming and huh-ing..and soon the call ended..
"Anyhow,I'll let you guys go,but then i have another police-pal with me who gotto be treated as well.."
"Sir we told you,we have no money.."
"Make it to Rs.500"
"No sir"
"300?"
"We can manage 250 sir..not more.."
"Alright..gimme that.."
Handing over another 250,cursing all sorts of swear words in mallu with a smiling facade,the boys gasped for a bit of oxygen..
"Happy journey dear boys..You can be on-board the bus in half an hour..Bye.."

And there ended the eventful Neyveli expedition of the bankrupt engineers...

**This is nimo' version of narration..Nitheesh and kudu might have something more to add as well.. Readers,please pardon me for the flaws if any...

Khuda Hafiz
~Gayathri~