Chapter 2

"But dad, why do I even need a degree in the first place? I can help you out at the village with the patients without one'' says Pavi over the phone.

"You can't call yourself a doctor without one Pavi everyone has to get one.'' his dad explains.

"Grr..fine.'' Pavi grunts.

As he reaches the gate his jaw drops, he is in sheer awe at the size of this institute.

"I'm scared, idk if i'll be able to make it in this time.'' says a student in the background.

"Ah, Pavi i forgot to mention a thing, this is an institution for elites, the percentage of student that are able to make it in is just 12% out of all those who apply.'' his dad ends the call.

"Tsk..that old man! This is gonna be a hell of an ordeal.'' Pavi murmurs to himself.

Pavi enters the gate into the campus. The gatekeeper gives him a glare but Pavi, too overwhelmed by the sheer size of the institute, pays no heed and walks straight to the hall. At the bottom of the stairway a group of third years notices Pavi. 

"Whos this newbie doesn't look from around here?''

"Another freshman huh, finally some new entertainment"

Pavi approaches the stairway.

"Hello Shawty."

"Oh hey where is the um-"      

"Hey Cuck hoose come look at this"

A boy from the group steps forward and tries to snatch pavi's bag.

"Let's take a look at what kind of shit you got in there!"

Pavitrine tries to stay calm, he did not want any unnecessary trouble on his first day at the campus.

"Ooh, we got some money in here as well" -said hoose while trying to take his 100 rupees from his bag.

"Dei thevidiya leave me alone"  

('dei thevidiya' is a common tamil swear) 

He tries to get past him but the third year blocks his way. Pavi pushes the third year onto the floor.

"Argh…Now you have done it ! Come here u little shi- "

The guy gets up as his friends surround pavi, slowly getting close.

[few minutes later]

Not so tough now are ye eh?'' the third year exclaimed.

"Agh'' Pavi gasps.

"You better hope we go easy on you"

Said Hoose while clenching his fist.

Then suddenly a woman approaches pavi and helps him get up.

"Back off, don't you have anything else to do than cause trouble?"

She wipes the dirt off of Pavitrine

 "Hey now, he was the one who pushed me.. I'm not the one you should be shouting at"

Hoose walks away while giving pavitran a stern look. His friends look at him as well. 

"You shouldn't be messing with degenerates like him- wait you're a freshman?"

"Well yeah I was just gonna ask them where my class was but those pricks started acting up" 

"I'm Mavale, Pun De Mavale, a second year student. Nice to meet you"  

"I'm Pavitrine west, nice to meet you too''  

Mavale told pavitrine not to dick around with those boys. She helped Pavi find his class, which was on the 15th floor of block A. 

The campus was a stunning work of art. As pavi took the glass elevator to his floor he could see the institute's various amenities. A 120 yard multi purpose ground, a fully fledged 10 block, 20 story dorm system, parks and gardens and a lot of buildings full of classrooms. It was India's most influential school in Chennai after all with an acceptance rate of just 12%. 

"Ok! We're here.. Oh and there's your class pavi" 

said Mavale, but Pavitrine was lost in his own world. He had never seen anything like this before. He was from a small village and had only seen huts and small concrete buildings. 

"Hey? Aye wake up!'' Mavale shook him.

"Huh? Wha-'' Pavi stuttered

"Ah sorry I just zoned out there.. It's a pretty huge school eh?"

"Weirdo, either way there's your class.'' 

She said while pointing to the last classroom at the corner.

"By the way, there's an admission ceremony for all the freshmen after 1st period in the lower hall near the canteen.'' 

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks again!''

 Pavi heads towards the class. He hears two boys speaking from the class next to him.

"Hello! What's your name? " asked the tall boy with Blonde hair.

"Hey! I'm Bah duPunding Hee from South Africa, what about you?" 

"Ah, I am Pus E. Nakki, from Russia. Nice to meet you." 

He then walks inside his class. On entering, he finds students from all over the world.  He could say it just by looking at them. They seemed roughly around his age. 

Pavi takes his seat at the back. After a while, the teacher enters the room as the bell for the first period is rung.

"Settle down now, I am Mrs. Mayirukutti, your class teacher for this academic semester. Now everyone give yourselves a brief introduction.'' 

The entire class looked like it was waiting for someone to start. Finally a girl broke the silence.

"Okay then I'll go first! I'm Koo thi nai from Japan. My hobbies are drawing stuff and playing video games. Um.. That's all I got to say.. Nice to meet you all." 

She sat down and poked the arm of the black haired boy near her, urging him to introduce himself. The boy stood up.

"Hello.. I am Uchha Kumi from my hometown.. I like to watch anime. Um.. that's it.. I would like to sit down." He said before taking his seat.

"Next !"

"Hey everyone! I'm Thevie Diya and I'm so excited to know more about you guys! Looking forward to studying with you!" said the girl.

'Finally, a good one.' thought Mrs. Mayirukutty.  

Next was a student from the last bench behind Thevie. He was apparently staring outside the window until Thevie snapped him back to reality. 

"Hello, I am Pavitrine West from Thakalton. Well, there's nothing really interesting about me to tell.  I'm really looking forward to learning with all of you."

[A few minutes later]

''Ok so that's everyone, we will be continuing with our first class now and after this you all have a welcome ceremony organised by our producer at the lower hall.'' Mrs. Mayirukutti explained.

After the class ends everyone heads down. 

''Pavi dude ya needa hurry up we are leaving'' Thevie calls out.

''Yes- yes i'll be there one second'' 

The two of them meet up with the group and enter the hall. At the entrance Pavi notices a banner stating the event's chief guest will be Director of I.M.P.P corp Professor Lu- his thoughts are cut short by a sudden announcement in the hall asking everyone to be seated, Pavi finds his class and sits with them as the ceremony begins. After a few events by the seniors and the principal's say, came the speech of our chief guest Luke Periyathambi. The hall came over by a dense atmosphere as he grabbed onto the mic. He clears his throat n begins with the speech-

''Students, from this day forward you will learn what it means to be a doctor. You will learn how it has nothing to do with how many grades you got in the past or your family name. Everything will fade away when a dying patient will be in front of you and you can't do anything to help him. You will watch him take his last breath and even then trusting that you would save him, his family outside the ward in distress and you will have to look 'em into the eyes n say sorry he/she couldn't make it.''

''Sir-'' a girl cuts his speech. 

"So according to you there was no point in what we had done till now ? All the hardships we went through to get good grades wouldn't help us become good doctors?"

"Was it all meaningless you ask?" he questions.

"NO IT'S NOT!" he says with enthusiasm.

"All the hours you've spent waiting and the ones you will spend on theory will seem to fade away at the time of need but my students, you must remember those hours of agony you spent memorizing everything again and again till they were imprinted on your soul. They all will eventually come back into your head at that time and the world will test you whether, despite all the hardships until then you cower back or face the challenge head on. Today as your generation moves ahead, it carries all the fruits of medieval research and knowledge of those that came before. No matter whether it be a flu, a pandemic or even a plague. If you just remember your past agony you will prevail and I know my students would never back off from helping a patient in need and would never be afraid of the sight of a carcass. As you all, my students graduate and take the doctors title and oath you shall save the lives of millions! My students push forward! My students rise up! AND HOLD UP YOUR HEARTS!"

A loud roar of cheer was followed by the crowd. The whole campus was taken over by claps and howls. Luke steps down from the stage and the ceremony continues.

(after the ceremony)

While heading out, pavi stumbles into a big figure and falls back. He looks up and sees a huge man standing in front of him.

"Watch where ya headed kiddo-' the man stutters then pauses.

"Wait, you… are you from-" before he could finish Luke steps in.

"Hey aren't we getting late?"

"Y-yes one moment sir i'll be right there"

Pavi gets back on his feet and watches them leave.

"Could it be?" the man thought to himself as he was leaving.

"Who was that fatso? do I know him?" Pavi says to himself and like that, the first day at the university ends.

As the first day ends, pavitrine returns to his new dorm. This new 20 story building was where he will be living for 3 years now. As he enters the building and takes the lift, he looks at his ID card.

"Uhh..Room A.. and 8th floor"

He reaches the 8th floor and starts looking for his room. Then he sees two boys coming from the other end of the corridor. It was Puss E and DuPunding from his class.

"Hey look, it's Pavi, the new guy."

"Hey guys do you happen to know where m-"

Pavitrines was cut off by a gust of wind blowing from the corner of the corridor. It was late in the evening and everyone had returned to their respective rooms. There was a tapping noise coming front here as well, he could hear the sound of flip flops. He could see a foot wearing torn slippers from the corner. There was a foul scent of expired beer and shit in the air. Then DuPudding a third year student realises who it is.

"Warden vantaaru da!"  ( 'the warden is here!' )

As the wind blew hard, the man's stained lungi was fluttering with the wind. And there he stood, with a stick in his hand staring into Pavitrine's soul. It was a really frail middle aged man who just stood there menacingly with a looming look in his eyes. 

It was the Block A's infamous warden... Murali.

He started walking towards the three of them. While Pavitrine was mesmerized by the sheer intimidation of this man, the other two were trembling down to their knees. 

"Murali sir! Why are you here now? Uh… isn't it your sarakku ( 'booze' ) time now?" said DuPudding in a quavering voice. 

"Oh, no no.. I heard about this new kid in our block."

"That would be me sir" says pavitrine.

"Ah, it's you eh… It's been about time since they assigned a kid over here, so I thought I'd come say hi and tell you some rules we follow around here."

"What kind of rules would a mere dorm have?" Pavi thought to himself.

"Well you see, it's about 3 AM now.." Says murali but he is immediately cut off by Puss E

"*pst* sir! it's 7PM now "

"Oh.. eh sorry pa I had a little too much to drink...  ahh ill get to the point."

"Thambi ( 'brother/child' ) , It's 7PM now, whatever work you have.. I simply don't give a damn, but you must reach the dorm before 6PM and no going outside" 

"But if I catch you outside no…" 

He glances at DuPudding and loosens his fist, slapping the boy without any hesitation and knocking him out in one go as Pavi and Puss watch in horror. They nod trembling.

"I hope you understand… Seri, so if u understood take him to his room, I'll see you later then"

Murali leaves the corridor, Pavitran looks back at Puss E. They take a sigh of relief.

"Well that was scary.." says Pavi.

"Honestly, I never got used to it... Let's just go find your room"

The two of them show pavi his dorm room and leave. Pavitrine had a really long day so he heads straight to bed.

"Oh my god, this bed is so comfortable! Why don't they have this back at home?" he exclaims before drifting off to sleep

           " t h a k a l i "                                " t h a k a l i "

                                   " t h a k a l i "                            " d a d   w h a t   a r e   t h e e s e ?"

                     " t h a k a l i "

                                     " t h e y   a r e   t h e   h e r i t a g e   o f   o u r   v i l l a g e  s o n "

                                        " T H A K A L I ! "

"Ahhh!!….."

Pavitrine wakes up to a cold sweat. breathing heavily, He remembered something, something about some kind of a heritage.

"Eh it's probably a weird nightmare… I should be sleeping now, I need to wake up early tomorrow"

(The next day)

Pavi comes out of his dorm when he notices the gatekeeper having a chat with the coconut vendor on the other side of the street.

"Hey aren't you the freshman from yesterday?"

"Huh? Oh hey there Mavale."

"Yes, hello so how was the first day? Did those seniors bother you again?"

"Ah no, by the way the professor's speech really was something."

"Yeah I know right? He gives that to the freshmen every year."

"Oh? So what's up with those two over there?"

"You mean the gatekeeper and the vendor? No clue. They have been here since forever as far as I know. They don't interact with students much so we don't know much about them."

"Is that so?" Pavi sighs.

"Hey since you are early today let me show you the notice board on the ground floor and gives info about everything happening around."

"Lets see...Huh? Mr.Shukla is on sick leave? That's pretty strange"

"What's strange about taking a sick leave?" Pavi asks.

"He is a retired militant, he never used to take days off, I wonder what's up." Mavale wonders to herself.

"Hmm.."

(Meanwhile...)

"This is it boss," says one of them.

"Ooh this looks pretty grand aint it? well anyway I need to go take a piss. Before I come finish the work pa"

"Uh.. Sir, Boss Sanki told us to bring him back alive.." 

"Apudiya ( 'is that so?' ), well shit. Then you guys itself bring him i'll be back after I piss"

"Got It boss"