The Placement Prank

It was placement time at the BVIMK. All the self appointed captains of the team were trying to get companies to recruit at the College but with absolutely no success. I was supposed to be the head of placements myself but had long given up hope of anything positive. The preparedness of the school was total and the desperation was visible.
Once again it was the 1st of April and the devil in me was egging me on for one final prank before I leave BVIMK and Kolhapur. Immense success from last year was also telling me I could pull off a real huge one.

So the plan was to call up our course coordinator Prof. N J Chavan on the official BVIMK phone and tell him that the Notre Group had met with me - Llewellyn Desouza - the College’s placement head and would like to recruit from the B-school. The story would gain more credibility when Prof. Chavan would connect with me to find out more about the Group showing keen interest in recruiting. Next the Placement committee would put the brigade to work and ensure that the people in charge of hospitality get ready for a welcome and the guys interested in jobs from Notre Group would get ready in formal clothing.

The planning and execution of this entire practical joke was being done by Rathore and yours truly as usual.

As planned, Rathore called up Prof. Chavan at 5pm on the official number of the BVIMK. By now I had acquired quite a reputation of being a master prankster. So to ensure that no one suspects me I was right there standing in front of Prof. Chavan talking to him about my project work when this call came. God alone knows what Rathore said to Prof. Chavan but he came back to me in 15 minutes in a real upbeat mood. He patted me on the back and asked me about the Notre Group. Like a real pro I acted as if I did not remember about this company and told him it was difficult to say as I had been to so many companies with the college brochure.

Prof. Chavan then called Amir a classmate of mine in charge of hospitality for placement companies and told him about the Notre Group wanting to recruit at the BVIMK. Amir was super exited as this was the first company wanting to come to recruit. Amir further put his network to work and thus the juniors got involved.
When Anup Tiwari of my class heard about this he was almost sceptical. Anup had closely worked with me on placements and knew that this was near impossible. Speaking his mind out to Prof. Chavan, Anup told him to beware of the fact that the day marked for the visit of the Notre Group was April First. Anup the sharp classmate of mine had smelt a rat and had almost blown the lid on our prank. Anup had a big enough following and this would mean that by just speaking to people in his hostel he would sow the seeds of cynicism in their minds.

By late evening both Rathore and I after making almost flying visits to the various hostels realised that people were believing what Anup and his group was telling them. We understood that the credibility of the system was at stake and we needed to do something that would make people believe in the ‘official’ version.

We thought that if when we were in class with Prof. Chavan and he gets summoned form the college office for a phone call from the Notre Group on the official number, people would believe his word and thus the prank would work. Also if we were in class with him at that time no one would suspect us. But how would we call him when both of us were in class?

Besides the MBA Students at my hostel, we had a few rich MCA juniors. Shenu was from Kerala and he had the most advanced possession of the time – a mobile phone. When I first had used it I had no idea how it worked but knew that this hand held wireless devise would help us solve the credibility issue. I took Shenu Mobile and his roommate Sajan Pager (that’s how the whole of Siddique hostel remembered them) into confidence. Trust me it was no mean feat as they both hardly spoke or understood any kind of language I spoke or understood. After the negotiations I felt I should have been a hostage negotiator for the Government. Anyway Shenu readily agreed the moment he understood that I was playing a prank on Prof. Chavan. Shenu just hated Prof. Chavan.

In the class the next day Prof. Chavan made our life easy by organising a debate. I ensured that the debate was very lively and intimidated Anup into a fierce argument with Ashish Kapoor. While the entire class was showing off using jargon I was gesturing to Rathore very desperately to make the bloody call. Rathore had developed cold feet and I was very angry, irritated and frustrated. I somehow slipped to the back of the class took the mobile from Rathore and decided to make the call myself.

Now the mobile also needed to be hidden as it was not a very common device. It was bound to draw a lot of attention if noticed. Putting my entire ventriloquism to use, I made the call looking straight in the direction of Prof. Chavan. I spoke to a clerk and asked him to call Prof. Chavan. The idiot started to argue with me saying Prof. Chavan was in class. Left with no other option I had to put the call down.

Not to let anyone feel I was missing from the action, I almost immediately after cutting the call jumped into the debate. As most were speaking nonsense it did not look as if I was putting up an act to participate. All were talking and no one was listening. Rathore was however keen to know what had happened and opened my notebook and stared asking written questions. I was so bloody irritated with him I would have almost slapped him.

I realise after a few minutes that I could call again and try using the key word ‘urgent.’
Mustering up courage after you have failed at such a mission critical but non consequential exercise is very difficult. But I was committed. I called again and this time a peon answered. In a very stern tone I told him I wanted to speak to Prof. Chavan about placement and urgently. It did the tick. He ran and came to class with a message for Prof Chavan. No sooner had he come to the class the bell announcing the end of one class of Prof. Chavan when off.

Prof. Chavan had two classes back to back that day with us. Prof. Chavan asked us to take a break. I hid the phone in the draw of my bench as my entire class walked out for the break. By the time Prof. Chavan reached the college office phone I was in a position to talk freely. I told him that we from the Notre Group will be coming to recruit with our director today at 3.30. I also told him that our director would first like to meet the Profs of the school and then do a small presentation on the Group to the students and then take CVs of interested candidates for short listing.

The tricked worked and Prof. Chavan came back to class with renewed vigour. By the time he was back in class a lot of the students were back from the break and thus he shared with them the breaking story. Anup was still not convinced and asked Prof. Chavan about the whole thing one more time to ascertain facts. By lunch time the hospitality team had got to work on full swing ordering Samosas and chips. Another set of juniors was working on getting the brand new, but unused two year old Transparency Overhead Projector working. Some of the guys from my class walked over to their hostels and came back after lunch dressed in a necktie.

At 3.30 our Director Jacob and Prof. N J Chavan were given bouquets to receive the guests but no one had arrived. By Four, patience was running out and by 4.30 Anup was out telling Prof. Chavan that he always felt this was a prank. Both Rathore and I showed as if we were still hopeful until Six. Finally when everyone went home after eating the Samosas, we had the last laugh.Even today all feel it was a prank but very few know that it was us.

April Fool!

It was the 1st of April. We as students of an MBA seldom had classes for more than 2 hours a day so after that we got down to some serious work like meeting up at hostels and doing nothing at all. Since today was all fools day... people were out to outwit each other. Fooling the daylights of the system and people running it we reached the place of Syric and Rathore. They stayed in the first floor portion of a bungalow in the Ruiker colony. Pranav, another friend of mine was with me. The motive was to help Rathore & Syric finish the lunch that would arrive for them from the mess in a Tiffin Dabba by doing a 2 by 4 and thus saving some money.

Together the four of us thought no end of ourselves. We would always boast about the fact that individually we may not have it all that a girl desires but together we had everything like... Colour (Rathore was very fair), Figure (Syric was a pocket size mussel man), Brains (Pranav was an engineer) and Size (I was BignTall as ever.)

Once we reached the bungalow, we first checked for the Tiffin Dabba. As we were about to settle down to have our grub, we realised the Tiffin today was heavier than usual. As we opened it we realised, it was packed with stones. A note told us we were April fooled. Hungry, insulted and angry we decided to take our revenge. We had realised that this was the work of the group of girls led by a girl called Madhuri staying in the same block from where the food had been dispatched. The girls had colluded with the messwali aunty as she was also their landlady and worked this trick on us. We were about to pick up sticks and beat the shit out of the girls when the Saint in Syric told us to be ashamed of ourselves for even thinking in that way.

Soon an idea struck us. We decide to pack the Tiffin dabbas and the stones we had received as our lunch in a big shoe box. We then wrapped the box in Blue Dart courier packaging. To make the packet look authentic we used a sticker label to write the name of Madhuri. Resourceful Rathore helped us with the inside and outside address and the name of the Madhuri’s father. I still wonder how he had all these details.

The packet was ready. The plan was to pose as a courier guy and deliver the parcel claiming some money by saying the parcel was heavy and thus Octroi was charged. To fake the encounter we used an old Octroi Challan. To make the plan foolproof we needed a guy who would have guts, would not panic under pressure, and most importantly look like a courier guy.

As the people at the mess would recognise Syric & Rathore, their participation as the courier guy was ruled out. Pranav was smart but being a no nonsense guy was a very bad actor. With no other option the courier guy role was left to me. The role demanded that I look dirty and my unshaven look helped. The script was created by Pranav and Rathore and it was very unreasonable. I had not only to deliver the packet and collect the sum of Rs.275/- but also write out a receipt. This would involve not just dialog delivery but also acting silently while others were watching. Any actor worth his salt will tell you that this was a tough conman like act.
Before leaving on my Kinetic Honda I remember giving a look to Syric and almost pleading him to pray for me. Syric was a trained but non practicing catholic priest and I still sometimes ask him to pray for me. I believe his prayers always work for me.

I very confidently carried out the plot and to this day pride myself on the gag. No one suspected and I pulled of an act worth a million dollars. Even today I sometimes think of this and feel I am in the wrong line of work.

Back with Rs.280/-, as I pretended I did not have change, I with the remaining three decided to celebrate. We walked down to Kolhapur station and ate that afternoon at the PanchGanga. When we came back to the bungalow a magnitude of girls from the girls’ hostel had descended there. A visibly disturbed Madhuri was crying. I felt sorry for her. Both Pranav and I had almost reached for our wallet to reimburse her loss but Rathore was ruthless. He went into overdrive mode and even abused the girls out of the place by telling them that they were no saints when they put stones in his dabba.

Once the girls left we burped with guilt but decided to not to pay back. The Sunday that week we took Madhuri out on an all expenses paid trip to our favourite picnic spot in Panhala. Although not in touch but we are still friends and will always remain that way. This one is for you Madhuri.