The Great Escape!

This entry is based on a true story. Some incidents/names may have been conveniently neglected.

Read on!

Location: The Main Gate, SVNIT, Surat.

Situation: Grim. Monday 7th August,Time - 20.30 IST.

Students(like me) throng the gate looking for ways to escape the onrushing water.But there were others(students,of course,the real "engineers") who were at the gate trying to work out the speed at which water was entering the college and were thinking of ways to build a barricade in order to prevent the water from entering the hostels.

Location - The Canteen, SVNIT, Surat.

Time - 20.45 IST.

Situation: Closed. I mean the canteen is closed. Ran into a few seniors of mine. Talked jovially for some time about the floods that were engulfing Surat and in particular, SVNIT. Came up with all sorts of weird ideas to get out of college but nothing seemed particularly logical. For, what everyone seemed to think of, was an exit via the Main Gate, which by that time had become highly improbable due to reports(rumours??) of chest high water in a place called Sargam Shopping Center which stands a few hundred metres from SVNIT.

Location - Hostel No.- 8, Tagore Bhavan, SVNIT.

Time - 21.30 IST.

Situation: Tense. Every imaginable cell phone seems to be ringing. Or someone is on the line already talking with his parents.The whole hostel seems to be in a quandry. Students perambulating here and there without any reason. Insects flying all over the place. Stray dogs wandering around without a semblance of any notion. It looked as though the hostel had pressed a gigantic panic button!!! And then comes the lethal blow. That thing the whole hostel had been dreading. Pardon me its not the water. But it was the failure in electricity supply.Everything comes to a standstill. The hostel plunges into darkness. And then the unthinkable happens. The power is back as fast as it went.The hostel is back to its noisy best. The drone of the insects. Everything seems to back to normal(or is it abnormal??).

Location - Hostel No.- 8, Tagore Bhavan, SVNIT.

Time - 21.35 IST.

Situation: On Cloud Nine! The brief setback received by the students is taken in the stride. Things seem to be going normally.And then the unthinkable happens. Again! The power supply goes off again. The hostel bears a saturnine feel all of a sudden. There is an unmistakable, eerie silence prevailing through out the hostel. Students now find it impossible to sleep. The mosquitoes attacked like a Mongolian horde. Armed with a hiss-like noise they invaded the ears of those lying on their beds.Everyone trying to sleep were singularly made to wake up by the attack of the Quitoes. Nothing could stop them. No one could beat them to pulp with their fists simply because they couldnt see them. Encouraged by the success of the mosquitoes other insects followed suit with varying degrees of success. But for humans, the situation was sadly worse than grim.

Location - The Terrace of Hostel No.- 8, Tagore Bhavan, SVNIT.

Time - 21.45 IST.

Situation: Sang-froid. Incorrigible optimists(Ha! Ha!) continued to remain in their rooms thinking that God would bestow them with power(huh... i mean electricity!).Realistic students realized the depth of the shit they were in and decided to leave their rooms for the pleasures of the terrace. The terrace also had its fair share of problems but they could all be overcome, for, there was not a single individual on the terrace,but groups of studs discussing crazy things amidst a probable life or death situation. There were reports flooding in stating that,the girls hostel had already been broached by the floods. BSNL also started sending messages requesting people to take aid in shelters 20 feet above ground level.Reality was starting to get harsh but students bore a major brunt of it without much trouble.

Location - "Shit Zone", SVNIT.

Time - 02.10 IST.

Situation: Adrenalin-pumping. People feel the need to sleep however terrible the situation seems to be and that's how it turned out for a majority of the hostelites. Despite the gruelling conditions(remember the Quitoes and the power cut) students started to sleep without any ado.Within minutes over 80% of the hostel fell asleep leaving a select few like me to ponder over, what happens next. The time i felt was ripe for an adventure, so, me and 2 of my friends set off from the Hostel. We braved the dangers of the "Shit Zone"(a notorious place where crows gather and keep dropping shit on passers-by) and managed 2 get as far as the Library.The situation looked as though it hadnt worsened, for, the water hadnt encroached a lot of territory. As we came back to the dastardly "S.Zone" we realized that we had overlooked the water approaching from the left flank.We understood that the water in fact wasnt coming through the straightforward main road but had taken a route through the staff quarters and girls hostel.Till that point of time, i had never experienced floods in my life nor had i known that floods had brains!!!

Location - AG-14, Hostel No. - 8, Tagore Bhavan, SVNIT.

Time - 02.30 IST.

Situation: Boring. My friends bade me goodbye and dozed off in their rooms. No one else in hostel was awake except me so it was time for me to sleep as well. I tried and tried and tried for a long time but my efforts were in vain. I just couldnt close my eyelids in the presence of those marauding Quitoes.It was the most boring time i had ever experienced in hostel. Nearly 2 hours passed in my efforts to sleep.

Location - The Terrace of Hostel No.- 8, Tagore Bhavan, SVNIT.

Time - 04.30 IST.

Situation: Still Boring. I made my way up to the terrace again in the hope of finding someone awake. Thankfully i found a few friends of mine in the terrace.We discussed the reasons behind the loss of sleep and decided that we needed to get mosquito coils asap!! Asap in this case meant a few hours at least, therefore, sleeping again was an option that was ruled off, by default. We came to a decision that it was time again to check out the "flood-like" situation in the college and we set forth on yet another journey.

Location - "Shit Zone", SVNIT.

Time - 05.00 IST.

Situation: Sleepy. As we set forth on the journey we noticed an unusually bright flame from the ONGC refinery. We actually mistook it for the sunrise but soon realised that the sun rises from the east and not from the west!!We made our way through the dark road hoping that no1/thing pounces on us. Thankfully nothing pounced on us. But the spread of the water, as we noticed, was nothing short of relentless. The "Shit Zone" had been encroached upon by the water. Hostels 5 and 6 were already flooded. It was all just a matter of time before the whole campus went under water.....

(To be concluded)....