To what extent can one be an asshole? And how blind does one have to be, to not see that. The first question is answered in detail in the following paragraphs, the second question I leave for you to answer.
When I had first joined college I remember being told by my seniors that by the time 3rd year will roll along your friends would become people you cant stand and the people who you cant stand will become some of your closest pals. Hogwash! is what I replied. Half of it did come true for the friends and almost all of the people I disliked became good friends of mine by the time college was over. Experience is everything and I was telling my juniors exactly what I had been told.
In the beginning there were four of us. I am not gonna mention two of them cause they make for better memories and stories. This one though pertains to a little asshole we will refer to as 'red-nose'.
A short, stocky fellow from suburban Mumbai and a liar from the word go. The biggest of those lies was that throughout his time in college he told everyone he wasn't fat and that all the weight was because of the lack of gyming and overuse of supplements - of which he carried multiple boxes. He had to so he could maintain the whole story. To further supplement the cause he would wear a belt under his clothes and tell everyone that it was for his slip-disc (a ready reason to quit the gym) when in fact he was using it as a cummerbund!
Now the fucker had some really nice threads, nothing less than a versace or boss, and this particular lie was one another friend pointed out. Apparently all these clothes were made by his local tailor in Mumbai and the labels were specially procured for these clothes. So he would go around proudly showing the brands and thus trying to prove that he didn't really have a peanut for a penis!? One has to appreciate the sheer dedication of the fellow! There are many other lies he lived and i don't wanna bore you, but i am sure you get the picture.
I for some reason couldn't see through all of this and continued to be blinded by him. When we had started college, to keep up his pretenses, red-nose claimed to be a non-smoker, tee-totaler with just an occasional beer and someone who stayed far away from the other illegal activities the rest of us partook in. Looking back he was a seasoned and habitual liar who obviously was good at creating an illusion about himself. As good as he was, his worst and most terrible lie came to light a good six months after he left college.
Mid-way through first year, one evening when we are all chilling in the hostel, red-nose walks into the room shouting furiously that he has been robbed. He apparently had 20k and another couple of grand in change and it was all gone and he was sure that his his roommate had taken all of it. Now this roommate of his was not someone who was particularly liked by any of us and so it wasn't very hard to antagonize us. We immediately started the hunt for this guy. With no luck in and around the hostel we decided to wait it out in the hope that the guy will come back at night. In the meanwhile one of us had seen this guy get into an auto and speed away. This pal chased him and he was led to the shady hotels next to the railway station. The roommate went inside one of them while the pal decided to wait on him outside. After about an hour with no sign of the roommate the pal decides to go in and check it out himself. While all of this happened, back at the hostel it was the usual Friday night with the booze and illegals making the rounds. Well past in-time the pal returns with the roommate and all of us pounced on him like a pack of wolves. There was first a solid round of beating post which we sat down for question, answers and explanations. Every time he refused to accept that he had taken the money he was answered either by a tight slap or a cigarette burn. We were really high! An hour an a half later he had finally admitted to stealing the loose change but still vehemently denied even the existence of the 20k. We decided then, to keep a watch over him through to the morning and then haul him up to the princi's office.
The news of what had happened that evening had already reached the princi before we could reach him and this is how the shit hit the fan. We went through the usual – writing what had happened, naming everyone involved and then waiting incessantly for further action. After two days all five of us involved in the beating and the roommate were told to vacate the hostel and find out own digs. All of us were thrilled as we had all wanted to move out anyway – except perhaps a minor glitch that our parents had been informed about all of it.
A month passed by as all the brouhaha settled and it came to be that red-nose, a senior and myself were living in common digs and the whole incident was put down to another eventful memory. The roommates mom had come down to pay the 20k to red-nose which he splurged on sprucing up the digs and also take a 4 day break from college. On his return the cookie really started crumbling.
Red-nose came back and we were shocked to see a 180 degree change in him. Not only had he come back with all kinds of toking paraphernalia, he also toked with us, started getting drunk with us and rolled like he had been born with rolling paper in his hand! Not that it really bothered any of us, it was just that none of us had ever seen this side of red-nose.
Over the next couple of months, thanks to our seniors who lived right across from us, we ended up having the greatest time of our lives. College was a time when everyone was perpetually broke yet somehow, during those few months, we never ran out of food, booze, ciggs and pot. I for one had found a family away from home. Red-nose was also an intricate part of all of this, sometimes even leading the way to a higher high. The change was tremendous.
A few weeks later the seniors went away to finish their industrial training while we were left to pull up our socks for the finals that were round the corner. It was time to put our heads to the books and red-nose, another friend and I studied day and night over the next two weeks to ensure that we made it to year two. It was harder for us as we had to constantly go back and forth from the hostel getting notes and tips from the people who had actually paid attention through the year.
The day after the finals all of us went home for a much needed two week vacation. I went away with the memory of one of the craziest years of my life and confident that I would be sailing through to the next year.
Ten days into my vacay I get a call from my roommate, the senior who had gone on his IT. He first told me that I should be elated 'cause I had made it into year two with flying colors. He then went on to tell me how he had returned a couple of days ago to find the front door of the house open and the lock broken. He had conducted a little investigation and found out that a few boys had seen red-nose and that he had plugged the exams. I told the senior to hang tight till my return as I couldn't do much from back home.
Upon my return on Saturday the senior told me that red-nose was still in town and was shacked up in some random hotel town side. I was furious at my broken lock (an heirloom my grandma had given me) but got even more agitated when I realized that he might have been behind the whole charade and he was actually in town but not at the digs. As strange as all of it was, both of us decided to pay red-nose a visit.
I had a million questions when we entered his room at the hotel but when I saw his disheveled condition and remembered the fact that he had plugged the year, it simply made me sympathetic towards him. He explained how he was very scared of facing everyone not only at the insti but also back home, that he had lost his marbles and he had broken in to retrieve his possessions and then decided he was going to hole up in this hotel for as long as he can. He apologized profusely for everything. 'Cause he looked pretty fucked up we decided to lend him all the support we could and told him to get his stuff together as he was coming back with us. All throughout, though, both of us had this nagging feeling that red-nose was high on something other than just pot or alcohol but, we let it slide considering the trauma he was going through.
Back at the digs it was a big party for the next three or four days as after that the seniors would be going home for good. On one of these nights while everyone was having a ball red-nose disappears into the bathroom and doesn't show up for a long time. Luckily the bathroom had a window that could be accessed by climbing the railing in my balcony. When I peeped in, I saw red-nose sitting on the commode passed out with a ciggy still burning between his fingers. That was the confirmation all of us needed to prove that he was on something way stronger than all of us. The fucker had come back with a substance abuse problem and we knew that substance could only be found in Mumbai. We tried confronting him but he denied it all and told us that the craziness of him plugging had taken a toll on him.
Anyway a few days later red-nose left college for good. A couple of weeks after that I shifted back into the hostel and somehow became friends with the same roommate that I had helped beat up. One afternoon the roommate invited me over to his digs 'cause he told me that his family was moving abroad and how he wanted to party with someone before he left. As we're getting nice and proper the roommate asks me if he can make a confession. Sure man go right ahead, I said. “Dude I swear I never took the 20k as red-nose claimed. Yes I did take a few hundred bucks 'cause I was going through a rough patch but I never even took the two grand that red-nose said I had. Red-nose planted the rest of the loose change in my cupboard so he could prove to all of you that I was the one who had stolen every penny.'
'Where did the money go then, 'cause he did have the money as his mother had told us that she had given it to him?'. 'I am not denying the fact that he never had the money. All I am saying is that I never took it and my mother had to pay for something I did not do!' I don't know why but, in that instant I saw truth in his eyes and I knew I'd fucked up my judgment. I knew all of us had been played by red-nose and in all probability red-nose had spent all the money in one shot and from fear of his mother had cooked up this whole story about it being stolen from him and made the poor roommate a scapegoat.
I apologized to the roommate and told him how I had been blinded by my friendship. 'You don't need to apologize. I didn't tell you all of this for an apology, I told you so that you would know the truth and so that you can tell everyone else that I am not a thief because I don't wanna leave college with that tag on me.' He eyes were wet when he said this to me and I felt like such a prick at that point of time. Red-nose may you rot in hell for making me do what I did to this innocent chap!
