RAMANESAN_ My Friend

RAMANESAN_ My Friend

By Vijay Mahendran.


Ramanesan is one of my friends. It is different whether he admires Lord Rama.or not. He doesn’t love the world. It may be said he loved his own body.
However he manages to have full meals three times a day, faithfully with
absolute devotion. His appearance reveals distinctly he is from agraharam,a Bramins,dwelling area. He is known to me from my college days. He used to apply VIBHUTHI with KUMKUM on his forehead. His laughing is like a horse neighs. It will irritate me frequently. My college
girls liked to have chat with him. To me, it seemed that he neglects
the people in the world. His activities appeared that he is the only
the intellectual in the world, nobody else. Therefore, I had more dislikes against him.

He had no expenses in his college. One college mate will be available
for giving him a two-wheeler lift from his hostel to college, one for taking him to cinema, other for donating him a new shirt and another for other
expenses. Why all these are waiting in que to give favors to him. It was a great confusion to me and I could not understand. None does any favor without expecting a deal in these modern days. I determined to have a secret probe through his fans. After hard efforts, many matters came to light. They are quite interesting to readers.


Many others in my class needed his assistance and cooperation. To prepare the notes for exam, to copy the assignments in his good handwriting, to clarify the doubts then and there, his presence was essential for them in different ways. It may be fair even when he stopped with these items. At times he kneeled down to the bottom.


One Miss.M. Bama, a co-student in my college had handed over her suridar to him for getting altered as it was in big size. He managed to approach petty tailor for alteration. He had received
double charges from her against the charges demanded by the tailor.
It was a hot topic in my class at that time.

One of my friend Mr.Kumar
Informed me that Ramanesan handed over the suridar to the tailor for alteration after he had laid down on the suridar for two days.

He was such a type. There are so many hearsay stories about him.
On one occasion he approached Subbulakshmi,(Co-student) who was in saree and told her “ I am willing to marry you”. She replied” Do that if possible” and rushed to her seat.

Ramanesan told my friend Mr. Kumar “ I told her seriously. But she took it as a joke “. He used to dance in “Bachelors party” held by the students consuming abnormal alcoholic drinks even not caring for the dhoti in his waist.

To the surprise in the next early morning he used to wake up at dawn. He used to take bath in cold water, chatting” mantras” applying “VIBHUTHI” in his fore-head He looked like a sacred saint.
He was a selfish work-man. I did not like him. He used to canvas me
frequently with horse-neigh brand laugh. I used to turned down my face. I did not expect any favour from him. I did not want to be a slave
for idleness. Therefore I disliked his activities. My experience with him was more than I heard about his caliber.

Someone in my class used to smoke a cigarette in a petty-shop. He used to go there and neigh. He used to request “ one pup please”. The smoker used to give away the cigarette and leave the spot. He will smoke it till the end of cigarette sponge .Someone
used to come there for having tea. His neigh-laugh will begin automatically for tea.

“What Ramanesa? Tea” said one. “Yes strong tea” said Ramanesan. Seeing this I got irritated. How he manages to drink, to eat free without feeling shy? I murmured to myself.
I consoled myself that he has a face-luck. He will do anything without any hesitation or shyness. Whenever he feels that his hostel meals is not good, he used to go to one of his
friend’s house of his choice without any invitation. It may be daylight 3 o’clock or midnight 12 o’clock. He doesn’t care for anything. He wants to eat tastily. It may be green’s curry
vegetables or chicken Briyani. (Ramanesan used to eat chicken briyani in Non-veg item)
He used to say that he was accustomed to eat chicken briyani from his child-hood.


Once Ramanesan has gone to one of his friend’s house. No meals was available at that
time since the relatives of the friend had emptied the meals on that day. His friend was in
a dilemma what to do. Ramanesan straightaway went to the kitchen not caring for his friend. He found iced-rice (spared cooked rice poured with water) was in a round shaped
vessel(Kunda) and mango pickle in a bottle. He swallowed iced-rice with mango pickle. He demanded a Wills cigarette. It was not available at that time as it was midnight and shops remained closed. He told his friend to go and search the cigarette from the pocket of his
father. What to say about this, giving troubles to others at odd times? His glamour was not
tarnished of such of his activities. His college mates continued to support him. His
popularity grew further. However I used to look at him with my stern face frequently. But Ramanesan did not care for my irritation. As usual he continued to be a good friend to everyone. He was a versatile to the vicinity.

The climax of his madness was that he left for Thiruvannamalai to join as a saint(samiyar). He has met a bogus saint called “THULI Samiyar” in his native place
Tiruchendur. Thereafter Ramanesan did not attend college for a long time. I had grasped
from his friend’s group chat that Ramanesan joined as disciple to “Thuli Samiyar”. When the Samiyar was in a deep-happy sleep (“Ananda sayanam”), he managed to escape from
there. He got into a onion-loaded lorry and arrived Trichy. His friend told me that Ramanesan walked upto Madurai from Trichy. Sadness prevailed over his face for some time. After one or two days he turned into his normal life.

College days were over. We dispersed from the college to seek our future. Ramanesan was completely forgotten. One day I found an invitation at my house door-steps, when I returned from my office. To my surprise it was Ramanesan’s wedding invitation and my present address was correctly written on the envelope. After my college life, my residence
was shifted more than three times. The invitation was printed saying the marriage is to be held with the blessing of bride and bridegrooms’ father, mother, grandfather, grandmother etc., self-profession was noted under Ramanesan’s name. I am sure that it may not be the
profession of face-lifting job. I murmured to myself that marriage is surely a curse for such a person. My friends invited me over phone to attend the marriage. I replied “ I don’t want to see his face “. My friends compelled me again saying that marriage will be a forum to meet all of our old college friends and the choice to attend the marriage is mine. I have rolled over on my bed spending sleepless night recollecting college days’ memories.


How many stories are there in an individual in college days? One such Ramanesan will be there in thousands of students, in a college, in a class. My thinking why he is such a type will be a question to others revealing his identity. It may be a law of existents. Who knows? Among so many memories, the memory of Ramanesan frequently disturbed me. It seemed that he liked me and was nearer to me. Though I disliked him in college days due to infatuation I begin to like him so much as he had not done any harm to me. Life had not layed with him. He had played with life like a disbursed play cards. To me it seems he had
added the interesting scenes of life with him. He made others happy. As an average spectator in life, I felt that he was far above to me.

Finally, I decided to attend his marriage. I wanted to see the courage bride to marry such a type of person. I conveyed my decision to my friends over phone that “ I will attend the marriage”.