I was lucky to be a student of “pre-degree” as my batch was the penultimate one of its kind in University of Calicut, Kerala. It was year 2000, like most of other guys and gals’ life in Govt. Victoria College, Palakkad was the best thing ever happened to me too; I cherish every moment of it and will keep doing it forever. The best thing about life in Victoria is I was always; I am emphasizing on the word “always” surrounded by friends; the best of it. So the question of you getting bored or you getting an opportunity to think about yourself is beyond imagination. So me and my friends were one of team, we called ourselves as Victorians.
I being a day scholar and a local, going to college was like going to a club for partying; every day there is something which kept me and my friends busy, apart from studies. Sometimes we used to think why do we need class rooms in a college? Yes, it’s a good logical question, isn’t it?
Our circle of friends was not only within the college but also just outside the college, surrounded by the famous, PMG School, Sugam Parlor, and our favorite Hotel Harris. We used to team up behind the hotel, doing the most prestigious thing a guy can do at that age, yes smoking cigarette 
and discussing nothing but how to enjoy. After having a cigarette we used to have all those after-smoke stuffs, like mint, Pepsi, some food, and lots of other things, so approximately a cigarette costs us Rs 20 to Rs.25 where as the actual cost of one was Rs. 1.75 (Wills Navy Cut). We had to spend it, because we were damn scared of getting caught, Then why do this… right? We didn’t ask this question to ourselves at that time; in fact we didn’t want to.
Everyone of us had different medium of transportation to college, Makku and I used to go to college together, not only to college, hardly few people saw me or Makku alone, we were/are great buddies. We used to ride our by-cycle during the first few days of college; later my father allowed us to take his 1988 model Bajaj Chetak, with radium green and with dark-yellow combination body color, I hope you can imagine how embarrassing it would be to ride a scooter of this kind, but for me and Makku it was like a dream come true, because first of all we have a scooter to ride and with this color combination, there is no way we get unnoticed while riding it , moreover riding a scooter towards a girl is much better that walking towards a girl with RFP’s (Request For Proposals) . With all these reasons we loved our new companion and we gave it a name “FLUORO“.
Just like nobody saw both of us alone, no one ever saw us without Fluoro. If some one asks about us, people used to say that the radium machine just flied this way. Believe me the only part of Fluoro that doesn’t make any sound is the Horn, and that’s a fact. I remember once Makku riding the pillion with both our seats, the petrol tank cap and one signal indicator in his hand. . Fluoro was a multi-purpose utility scooter; it served the purpose of a scooter, of camping instrument, of common-students utility-transport, as a wine-shop indeed.
Parking Fluoro is another interesting topic, Fluoro parks itself as it has a kind of auto-parking technology implemented and we who parks Fluoro don’t enter the parking slot, so we jump-off Fluoro just before it reaches the parking slot, hence a self-parking technology. Moreover, no one in the college was interested to park their bike or scooter next to Fluoro as it absorbs a positive energy:), I mean, even though most of my friends did ride on Fluoro, when it comes to filling fuel, poor Fluoro was alone and exhausted . While on a long run (yes, quite a surprise), Fluoro had to run for almost 2 KM on Petrol vapor, and trust me it did managed to reach a petrol station where we had to threaten (alias beg) the person sitting at the station for 5 rupee petrol. So because of these fuel crunches, sometimes, only sometimes, Fluoro or his masters tend to absorb the positive energy of petrol from neighborhood, which quite permissible in a democratic society, to serve peers:).
Fluoro was a real party animal, once I had to take Fluoro to one of my friend’s (I wish I could use the name, can I?) girl-friend’s birth-day party, where I also went with some kind of expectation (it’s a different story, I don’t want to blog it, my wife cooks, and she do cut vegetables with bear hand). Party went through very well, and it was raining heavily outside, so this girl-friend’s dad suggested that he can drop us in his car. We exclaimed, “No, No, we have our vehicle”, then a girl shouted, it must be Fluoro? Then Makku said, “No, No we don’t use Fluoro anymore”, unfortunately everyone understood the irony of the statement. The point to note is that, Fluoro was parked at around 500M from the party-place, so we were sure that no one is going to see the master piece. But with all surprise, when we were about to leave, the rain stopped, so all of them decided, they would like to see the new so called “vehicle”, so every one followed us, the scene we saw was utterly pathetic, Fluoro fell down because of the erosion, and we found Bull S***t all over it. We didn’t have the courage to turn back and look at those girls standing there so we tried to kick start Fluoro. Believe it or not for the first in my life Fluoro Fluoro ignited with the first
kick, even after being in all these rains. Then there is no look back, on the way it started raining again, so as to overcome the embracement and with the reason of rain, we thought of stopping by a shop and have a cigarette, after enjoying the smoke as usual we spend some more money.
After all these shows, I did managed to reach home and I saw my mom was standing at door with a towel, sympathizing her son, she grabbed my hand and let me in, Suddenly without any know reason she started staring at me, I was wondering, What?….
I expected it to be a mom’s feeling for her son, but unfortunately it was the smell of cigarette that I smoke. The rest assured……….
In year 2001 selling off Fluoro was really a tough call, but my dad told me, keeping Fluoro would be a disaster….
~Jithu…
A friend of mine offered me drop at my apartment after a long day at work. On our drive I thought of discussing a topic with him just for the sake of relaxing. Honestly after a hectic day, I was not in a position to think of topic, but I really wanted to get loosen up. So I asked him, “What would be your excuses for not to wear a seat-belt?“. I saw the storm of surprise in his face. I bet he might have thought that am a lunatic. His facial construction gave a strong vivid impression that he never thought of an excuse for not to wear a seat belt while driving. Fortunately I could empathize on the situation and conveyed him that I never used to wear seat-belt while driving in India, even though it’s illegal. Then my friend gave me a rave on why one should we wear seat belt, whereas I was looking for excuses for not to, which made me a heedless auditor. 
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