The Mirandastics

Song for the mood: Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey - Yeh Dosti ham nahin todenge

Once upon a time there were a bunch of guys, friends for a long long time, who went to Tirupati and keeping in mind the temple traditions got their heads 'tonsured' (this is for Vijay). They always ate, played and moved together so they were quite a sight - 4 or 5 clean shaven heads walking together in a single file ... just fantastic! If you remember the old Mirinda ads you can guess by now why they were named the 'Mirandastics'.

Ok, before I proceed further, let me set the mood for this post. The Mirandastics are great friends of mine. They are quite a bunch; there is a lot of camaraderie amongst them. They are all very warm and helpful by nature. Although they speak in Telugu all the time, one of them speaks Telugu even with me (if you know them you can easily guess who it might be), and I don't understand a single word of it ... I never feel like an outsider whenever I am with them. In fact just a couple days days back I was out for a treat hosted by a Mirandastic, it was great ... :-)

Now lets get down to the bashing :-D

The Mirandastics are the most feared gang in college, yes like a true gang they always move together. They all stay on the top floor of my hostel building and you should see how scared people, especially juniors, are to go to that floor. Heck, I was scared to go to their part of the hostel before I got friendly with them.

As I said, the Mirandastics are very warm and friendly ... you can always feel their friendship. In their punches when they say 'HI'. In the punches again, when they say 'See You'. As I said, you can feel it. On these cold winter days when a Mirandastic greets me, my first reaction is a defensive stance that protects my face and stomach followed by a foot long back leap. I do say Hi, of course I do! But that's after the slight Muhammad Ali impression. Not that it helps, I still get punched. Their love especially pours out on birthdays. Birthdays bumps are served lavishly. I get kicked for just about anything. I once got kicked for getting good grades in the exam ... I was ambushed by a Mirandastic in the canteen and he along with Pranav twisted me around like merry-go-round while kicking me, at the end of which I was too dazed to realize that I had gotten close to 50 kicks! Yes, they counted. Another recent kicking was when my internship was confirmed. Very touching indeed ... :-)

The Mirandastics, apart from being a gang, are great individuals. There's Ravindra, the self-proclaimed "busiest lazy guy in the world". You always know when Ravindra is around, trust me. Plus he is a good photographer. Shashank is the quiet guy, as cool as ice. Always calm and collected no matter what the situation. Ravikanth is known as the 'Director'. He can make great videos, he has already made a few for the college. Nareen, and I have told him this, is the most mischievious guy ... and he does it so discreetly you'll never know. Rakesh looks quiet, but then he'll pull a joke on you when you least expect it. Rajashekar sleeps the whole day, wakes up at strange hours and goes to work when everyone's in neverland ... I meet him for breakfast in the morning many times ... difference being it is breakfast for me and for him it is a bedtime snack. Vikrant is the foodie. Plus he has a bike that no one except he can drive ... in fact only he can start it.

Whew! I can't write enough about these guys. The innumerable occasions playing marathon 12+ hour sessions of Call Of Duty multiplayer in the college lab would've been very dull without them. Here's a piece of advice, never put more than 3 Mirandastics in a single team when playing COD ... you'll lose. Forget the game for a bit ... the amount of antics and the edge-of-a-cliff rush that they bring to the game is fun! You can't stand in the room if you're not playing. I am not saying someone will chase you away. You'll go mad with the amount of noise! The celebrations that follow after a victory are nothing short of a battle march...

Do you know any such Mirandastics? If you don't then you are losing out on something. College life is fun when you have such folks around. They are a big part of whatever memories I carry with me when leaving this place ... if you ever get kicked so much, you won't forget either :-)