Secretary, Students Union

Arun Nagasubramanian III BE Metallurgical Engg.

Thrilled and chilled is exactly how I felt when I read these lines on the notice displayed on our college notice board. Thrilled because my name would be known to around 3000 students now. Chilled because I had not expected it and now I had to be in that post for a year. For sometime, I was not willing to believe it. Simply because, the performance I had given in the interview was nothing short of ridiculous. At one point of time during the interview, one of the panel members even asked ‘how is it that we get the same answer to this question year after year?’. ‘That’s what shibhu had asked me to tell you saar’, I thought to myself but said nothing. ‘Even if it is crap, be confident of it’ shibhu had told me. Add to that a little amount of peter and it did the trick.

I have to say that it was an awesome feeling. The year that followed was one filled with some of the unforgettable incidents of my life. The first of those was the students union inauguration function. It was the first time in my life that I was wearing coat-suit-boot with tie and I felt more like Obama walking to the swearing in ceremony – confident, greeting people graciously, walking coolly to the dias. But the moment I stepped on to the stage of the mammoth q-angle, all that changed. Petrified would be the most appropriate word to describe my mindset at that moment. The crowd was enormous. The only comparison I could make to it was the kabali kovil ‘ther’ festival crowd. The only difference being, I was now like the saami on the ‘ther’ and there were a thousand faces looking at me. Inside, all the nerves seemed to collapse simultaneously leaving me limp. Never had I been chilled so much in my life. I was glad that I got the chair to sit on.

Soon the proceedings began. I was to present the activities of the students union for the year. I had sat down with shibhu for that the previous night and had practiced it at least two hundred times, determined to maintain the peter I had put up in the interview. But my efforts were effectively brought to null by the overawing fear that had been generated in me. So much fear that I did not dare to even change my seating posture to a more comfortable one. I sat, frozen, praying for my chance to come and the function to end asap.

And it came after an eternity. I got up, pulling out my speech paper and walked to the mic. I opened up the paper and placed it in front of me and looked up to see the thousand faces staring at me. My heartbeat would have been close to 200 easily then. I made a decent start but halfway through, stammered and stopped. God knows why to this date. I turned uneasily to see our principal Vijayarangan giving me a stern stare. I had commited precisely the mistake he dearly hates. I experienced a pressure similar to being at the bottom of Marianas trench. It required one helluva effort and courage to gather myself again and continue till the end.

After I had finished, the claps said it all. I had screwed badly. I cringed when I had to face the principal after the function. I cannot forget that ‘Boy, you better make your next speech properly, else that’s it !’ stare till today. A year later though, it was a completely different ending. I managed to prepare and deliver a speech impressive enough to earn a pat from Vijayarangan himself .

This post is dedicated to my senior shibhu – an awesome personality and the former secretary without whom I would have never seen the light of the day in that year

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