He was
one of the countless souls whose adrenaline would rush at the sight of their
beloved ones – mostly movie stars, and rarely a cricketer – being incessantly
trolled in all the social media. And on that particular day, he had got really
pumped up back at his class while he was scrolling through the News Feed in
Facebook, the penultimate bencher he was, thereby gaining the advantage of
doing all sorts of “non-class activities”, according to the Professor.
There
was one meme which compared the hairstyle of his favorite hero to something
which could not be mentioned at all; perhaps, he would have left it as such had
there been a metaphor of vanilla or limestone or whatever, but this was
intolerable. In a fit of rage, he just retaliated by posting in the comments
section a photo of the compatriot from another recent movie, where there is an
interesting encounter between a so-called “tiger” and a “human tiger”. Since
the data pack was draining out, he just switched mobile data off and tried to
accomplish the nearly impossible task of listening to the theory class, where
the PPTs slid one after the other like an old man’s diary which would lament
sympathetically about his personal sufferings.
While
returning to hostel, a sharp tinge of emotion hit him hard as he felt bad for
his silly act. He knew both of these stars weren’t worth it; there were others
who deserved more, say the guy who would reduce his weight to about 80 pounds
just for a movie and build up his physique like a beast for a trivial role. Or
the man who would gladly accept to do a supporting cast if he thinks it would
create a great impact. But the thought of “once a fan, always a fan” loomed
over and he had to justify his act somehow, at least for personal consolation.
As he
walked through the corridor, he could sense ireful eyes staring at him, those
fiery looks penetrating and piercing his feeble heart like the sharpest end of
a needle, magnifying his fear to umpteen times. “Oh God, this is not going to
be good”. He was a newbie to hostel only that semester, but had already heard
stories of how some of the guys got beaten up brutally for messing up with “The
Bang Bang Gang”. Now, this gang comprised of fans of the actor, whom he had trolled
in the comment. Despite some of the gang members being his classmates, he was
sure that was not going to stop them from blasting him up. Come whatever, he
was not ready to admit submission, at least in his looks; so, he maintained a
rigid stance and strolled off to his room.
Thoughts
of an escape from this thrashing filled him up, and he had almost forgotten to
get ready for a treat before one of his other friends reminded about that. “Chill
out and calm down, bro. You haven’t done anything wrong. Don’t freak the hell
out of you”, he spoke to himself when he came back at around 9:45 in the night,
after the treat. Usually, this beating and abusing sessions would normally
begin after 10:30 when the watchman would have already dozed off. The Butter
Naan and Paneer Butter Masala were doing their parts sincerely, trying hard to
sleep him away but he wouldn’t budge. There he was, hearing ARR with full
volume in the headsets, thereby attempting to bring in that dormant dare within
him.
There
was no knowledge of when he had slept, but on hearing chaotic noise around him,
he tried to wake up, but he could already feel his body being carried by a mob
to some place upstairs. Four people were carrying him, two by his legs and two
others by his hands. It was pretty clear he would bleed in a matter of minutes;
he was only hoping for some mercy, being that lean, lanky figure, who would
easily be misinterpreted for a boy born in some land with famine prevailing for
several decades. They just dropped him on to the floor and he could see they
were taking out a knife from a cover. One of them hid it behind his back and
they started kicking him crazily. And suddenly out of nowhere, a fifth guy, who
was his close friend, brought out a box. Together, they yelled, “Happy
Birthday, you Dumbass!” and started beating and slapping him. Amidst all those
Facebook issues, he had totally forgotten that it was his birthday. The time
was 12:05 AM. The knife was then handed over and he cut the cake, receiving at
least a hundred slaps in his back during the process. All is well that ends
well.
