Loyola & CET Bloopers

College life along with school life provide us with a treasure horde of myriad memories which we can carry around for a life time. While school provided us a secure studying environment, the life at CET introduced us to the unchartered areas of student life. Strikes, gheraos, demo days etc. where terms which we did not even come remotely face to face with during our school days.

While students are the uncrowned badshahs of bufoonery in both school and college, the Professors are the silent rajas of comedy. Read on below to find out why.

Our Chemistry teacher takes us to the lab to demonstrate a few experiments. On the walls of the lab are potraits of great chemists like Lavoisier, Mendelev etc. After showing those to us, he says "One day......I will also hang there", meaning, one day his fame would also make his potrait hang on those walls.

The same teacher, during the demonstration of the Golden Spangles Test, warns us to pour out the chemicals into the test-tube slowly. "Dont pour..pouuuuuuuuuuuur".

Also by him were "Take an empty beaker full of water" and "Take an iron rod of any metal".

Our Chemistry teacher was also the main organizer from the staff for the Loyola Youth Festival. While revealing the outcme of one event there was great tension between GG and JJ house as to who would come out first. While revealing the winner of the 2nd place, he announced "And the 2nd place goes to...........GJ House", leaving both the house supporters wondering as to who had actually won.

Our PT Sir on the rehersal day of our school sports meet. "The 24th Annual Loyola Sports meet will delcare the Chief Guest open".

The same PT Sir telling the boys of a class to seperate into 4 groups. "Seperate into four halves".

At CET, the level of English usage by the professors was taken to the next level. The examples below are courtsey the Orkut community of CET, and, most contributions are by boys of that rocking department - The Royal Mexx - those who experience the royal life at college :-). The examples below also include some non-english related bloopers also.

The words of a lecturer who wants to explain that there are also other persons in the college who share the same name as his "I am not the only "Rakesh" in this college.....there is also yet another "Rakesh" but that is not me"

How about a Prof in Mech asking Rohit after his seminar on "Inter continental Ballistic missiles""oh ok...seminar kollam...but tell me its daily use" . A visibly shocked Rohit replied"Sir...it can be used to bomb countries". The Prof replies "Oh..Good, good" !

Or the time someone went to Ayyappan sir a.k.a Oxford Ayyappan for change of elective. He was initially refused on the famous 'technical grounds'. Then he actually applied pressure via some uncle or cousin or somebody to which the Sir replied "If you have hold, then don't make anonymous calls"

(read) "If you have influence, then don't come with any recommendation"

Ayyappan Sir asking a student on him discontinuing the course:"So you discounted???"

One lecturer of machine design desperately requesting the Mech students to write an assignment"Please .....shall i give one assignment.......just one.......its enough if one person writes it on behalf of the class"

Some one was flying paper planes in the class..and this lecturer comes in yells out.."aaaro Arrow vittu"

Ayyappan Sir telling "dont throw paper through the window.. understanding people will suffer"

During Viva in Electrical Machines Lab

___________________________________

Instructor: Can u tell me why the Induction Motor Torque-RPM curve falls down at high RPM?

Student : Gravity sir :-)

_____________________________________________________

Once Oxford Ayyapan was taking his class. He started having a suffocated feeling inside the class , the reason being, closed windows. On seeing this, oxford aiyyapan yelled,"Open the windows,let the air force come in"

Ayyapan became a grandfather. Look how he describes it.

"My daughter born again. The boy is a girl"

One royal mech at strength of materials lab was asked @ viva

q-what is hooke's law?

a-stress by strain.....

.q-what is stress?

a-hooke's law into strain..

q- %$#@&^

How about this from a Mech student

This happened in HE(heat engines) lab. The students had to write their names(full name) on a piece of paper and read it out loudly and walk away ..All of us wrote the full name and read them out one by one . I jus read out my first name (vishal). lab prof was shyamlal sir , and when i did that , he shouted "WHAT IS THE BALANCE".. he wanted my surname

In Computer Science class, where the HOD was taking classes

Someone flew a paper plane in the class which happened to whiz over our miniature 4feet 3inches tall HOD. Furious she turned round and asked : Aaranu ivide rocket vidaaru? (who flies rockets here?). pat came the reply : VSSC

Another blooper from Ayyappan Sir

When a student went to him to get the marks of MD corrected...his response was.."Once put is put. Now no more puts"

This is another one as narrated by a Mech guy (God , they truly enjoyed college life!)

We were having our "Material Science" class in S4 by Mr. X and he was just tellingus abt the books for that particular subject for which one of my friends added " Sir, How abt the book called 'Rim Poche'?"Hang on! he replied,"I guess Rim Poche is okay but not better than Kanitkar"We wished he would hav seen "Yodha"

This is one of my favourites, an anecode from yet another Mech guy

Scene: Our sir, sorry i dunno his name, was taking class while my friend 'luke' catches his attention by doing something. He comes running and asks him his name. luke replies "luke". he runs back to the board and writes "LUCK" and reads it out Luke!!Ooooh, u shud have been there to see the response of my classmates!!

Our Civil Engineering Staff Advisor came asking for Darren Desalphine. He says "Where is Darren....". He is not able to read the surname properly. He pauses for a long time and then approximates the surname and spells out "Where is Darren Deshpande?"

The next scene is that from the drawing class. One of the guys draws the plan of the house without showing the steps. The lecturer, I think Thundu Rajan, sees this and asks "De De..ithenthonnade..PT Usha-de veedo? Steps onnum vende?"

CET life is full of such interesting experiences for the students, not forgetting the innumerables strikes and gheraos by the students expressing reasonable , and sometime, unreasonable claims. For example, read below:

I remember my brother who was from CET Mech and a 1993 batch (reffered to as the Golden Batch, since that passing out year was the Golden Jubilee Year for the college) telling me that their batch had formed an association named 'MAFIA'. While inside the college premises the full-form was "Mechanical Association for Inncoent Activites", once outside, the full-form became "Mechanical Association for Immoral Activites".

It was the year of the Bombay bomb blasts, and, the next day all the major dailies came up with the headlines 'Police claim MAFIA behind bomb blasts". Sensing this as the best opportunity, the Mech batch next day armed with many banners marched "On strike...On strike...MAFIA-kku Bombay bomb blast aayi oru bandhavum illa", referring to their so-called association.

It is said that the lab machines at CET are some of the most efficient machines in the world. General Motors and Ford Corporation are said to have been amazed at the efficiency levels of such machines at the automobile lab. Every year when the students attend the lab exam, they are asked to measure the efficiency of the machine. And, goodness gracious, the efficiency measured by each student turns out to be the exact value as measured by students of the previous batch, and the batch which preceded that previous batch, and the batch which preceded that preceding batch and so on. Even the individual values taken at different periods of time turn out to be the exact same, thus forcing the industrialists to conclude that the machines at the CET labs are truly out of this world!

Me and my classmate Kiran a.k.a Kurudan used to find the Survey Lab exam a really tough one, especially getting the correct readings on the survey instrument . On the exam day, after a few miserable attempts, I went to the teacher-in-charge and said "Teacher-e..ente kanninu entho kozhappam..Optical nerve-inu entho kozhappamundu..". Teacher-ku pettennu daya thonniyathano ennariyilla , avarenne matti irutthi reading edukkan sahayicchu. Ithu kandu ente bhagya deivathe kanunnathu sahikkanavatha Kurudan ente athe adavu prayogikkan nokki. Pakshe avanu kittiya uttharam " Ohh..kanninu kozhappam alle..aduttha thavana suppli pariksha ezhutham..kannu athinu munpe shariyakum.."

P.S: When I was doing my MBA at REC,Trichy many of my classmates from Tamil Nadu used to laugh and tell me "Your college is so different". All I could manage as a reply was "Yes, but your colleges there are all the same".

Life in every art : The Loyola Youth Festival - 1

When i started this blog I expected to put up at least an article each month. But with laziness being my forte coupled with an unusually dull month of November, I have stuck loyally to the cliché that rules and oaths are meant to be broken at least with respect to my life. Also the choice of a topic to post seemed to make me very indecisive. Finally i decided to stick on to my comfort zone - Loyola School. I feel that I need to jot down my memories on this great school before my grey cells start to fail me in stirring up wonderful thoughts on my alma mater.


I had said in my earlier post that the BB Cup was one event that brought the entire student fraternity of Loyola together. But another annual event of equal importance and celebration is the Loyola Youth Festival which is an inter- house event unlike the Lafest and the BB Cup which are inter-school events.


For the non-Loyolites who are reading this post: The Loyola students are grouped among 4 houses: Apollo Pioneers (AP), Sputknik Spacemen (SS), Gemeni Giants (GG) and the Jupiter JetSetters (JJ).

During my 13 year stint at the school (1986-1999) , AP was synomously associated with being the sports champions being comprised of star athletes. GG had great allrounders in both sports and arts, JJ house had also a mixture of both though not to the level of GG while SS from 1993 started to stamp their authority and voice themselves as the undisputed champions in the Youth Festival.


My memories of the Loyola Youth Festival are limited to highlighting some great performances by some very talented Loyolites in their respective art fields.


One of the much viewed and enjoyed spectacles of the Loyola Youth Festival is the Fancy Dress Competition. In 1995 for the Seniors section this section invoked some good performances. But the highlight was the performance of Antony Unni Xavier. He dressed as a roadside beggar. Usual stuff, eh?? No, this performance in a Fancy Dress is something I will never forget for a long time. The appearance, actions etc. were so good that for a moment everyone in the audience were stunned in amazement. Then he took out a package and thrust food in his mouth like a man who had been starving for ages and then a dog came out on the stage and both had morsels of the food!!!! It seems Antony had brought his pet dog from home for this purpose. And this gave the A.P. the first prize in the Senior Division for Fancy Dress. I would be happy if any other Loyolite present at that time could shed more light on this.


Drama was another event where students could prove their mettle in histrionics. The award for best actor in Malayalam Drama for the senior section was one given by the late Fr. Mathew Pulickal who always patronized the inculcation of such programmes. In 1995 (If i am not mistaken) the award went to Praveen S.S., a bloke who had proved it big on such events.


But the best ever has to be Tariq.B from 1997 S.S.L.C , our dear batch mate and one who had provided us many entertaining moments during the L.A. periods in class. Tariq also was in A.P. house and was a proven talent in the Malayalam drama. It was obvious right from the beginning that he was the one going to win the coveted Best Actor award for Malayalam Drama. Tariq was aided in his drama by the team of Arun Sathyan, Mukesh , Zeno etc. The character he potrayed in the 1997 Youth Festival was a character named "Ayeshama" , a muslim lady, and the way he introduced that character in the drama would make some the film directors proud. His creative skills were just too good for anyone to challenge him. His scripts used to be created out of nowhere, was 100% comedy and i remember students enjoying it irrespective of what house they belonged to. When the award was announced on the final day he was cheered by one and all as someone who was destined to win it. Another timeless moment from the Loyola Youth Festival.


The 1997 Youth Festival also saw a new talent emerge through the English Drama for Seniors. Binu Ninan was my classmate and I can vouch for the fact that till around the 9th or 10th Standard he was never a keen participant in the Youth Festival. But after that he had a sudden surge of adrenalin and confidence which saw him participate in elocutions, debates and finally the school drama. One thing i always liked about Binu was that whatever task he undertook, he ensured that it was done with certain finesse and made to look simple and neat. The drama which he presented was that of a totally absent minded, muddled and eccentric doctor who always brought havoc in whatever he did for his patients. The actual script i heard was quite lengthy and twisted but Binu had edited to the just perfect state. Again all enjoyed the drama which was packed with comedy. In fact i always tell people that Binu never acted in that drama. Guess i feel he would have been like that even if he really had been a doctor :-)..Just kidding bunny. I remember that drama had a scene where Damu (also my classmate) comes telling to the doctor that he is fat and needs to lose weight. Then he puts him in some machine and forgets about it. Then to show that the machine was getting overheated, Binu had Tariq and others from the backstage to burn incense blocks to give the smoke effect and the explosion sound was done through Binu’s favourite synthesizer. It was very simple stuff but in such situations as they say "It takes a lot to keep it simple". Our whole batch was happy when Binu received the award for best actor, especially considering the fact that unlike Tariq he was not a veteran.


The 1995 Youth Festival was one of the most closely fought Youth Festivals in the history of Loyola School. GG house which was the undisputed champions till that time were suddenly finding tough competition from S.S. One of the last events was the English Declamation for seniors. The late Vivek Rajendran (GG House) gave a fiery speech and was all heated up for the occasion. To the joy of GG House supporters he received the first prize but alas when the Final Results came GG had lost by 1 point to SS. From then onwards started the surge of SS House in Youth Festivals.


The Sutter hall provided a serene ambience for the Youth Festival events. Simple in construction, pleasing in design and built to last this building will be a lasting reminder to all Loyolites on the simplicity and efficiency of everything in Loyola. But with a supposedly new auditorium coming up I sincerely hope that this monument donated by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Sutter doesn't slip into oblivion.


The English Recitation had also provided many memorable moments. My classmate George Varghese who used to participate in it used to invariable give out a speech of Julius Caesar starting with the lines "Friends, Romans, Countrymen". Whenever i think of this event i remember our favourite teacher DP (Deepa Pillai). During one such event Vivek Krishnan (1997 I.S.C) , one of the founding student members of LAFest had recited a poem (I forgot the name. see what did I tell you on my grey cells). It was about a boy who is killed during a war because of the bombings. The final lines end something like "The boy..Oh..Were was he?".

Vivek had recited this poem almost to perfection. And then Boney.M.Ninan (my junior) had recited the poem "Daffodils" shouting, huffing and puffing as though it were a fiery speech. But the judges had the final say and Boney was given the frist prize. Later in the class, DP had come to teach and all of us were telling how Boney had won the prize from Vivek. DP then lamblasted the judges (I mean not literally but explaining her view) telling that while Vivek had recited the poem perfectly , Boney had totally messed up the Worsworth poem which was such a soft verse by raising his voice. Finally she also new nothing could be done since the judges had the final take on it.


In 1995, the solo instrumental round for seniors saw a new participant with an instrument which not many had tha panache or talent to play. The drums were handled deftly by Kuruvilla and for a few moments it seemed that the Sutter Hall was hosting some kind of rock concert. This performance had us all spell bound and without mentioning we knew who that days winner in this event was.

Another popular event was the Tableau. One incident which comes to my mind involved my senior KrishnaMohan (I don remember which batch ) was all ready with his team for the tableau. The curtains opened and the team was ready each holding some sticks and rods about to present something. But unfortunately due to some problem with the tape recorder the voice which would have described the tableau didn’t come. I can never forget Krishna Mohan angrily throwing away what he was holding and walking off leaving the audience wondering as to what on earth was going on. Later i heard DP had consoled him and told him not to get upset over it.


Before the Youth Festival started the prelims for elocution used to be held at the Assembly ground. My favourite speaker used to be Deepu Chandy. Deepu had the gift of the gab and could speak for hours on almost any topic using stylish words and a wonderful accent. The topic once given to him was "Unrest in schools". He started speaking and what followed after that completely stunned the listeners as he spoke on bikini's and the culture of skimpy clothing wear by students of schools. Only later did he realise that the topic had been "Unrest in schools" while he had taken it to be "Undressed in Schools".

My classmate George Varghese used to be a regular participant in the English declamation event. Once during the prelims he was declamating some famous speech and midway his memory seemed to fail him. Frustrated at this he exclaimed "Shit" unknowingly in front of the mike itself. Though we were shocked to hear something like that in an English Declamation we later had a hearty laugh over it at the expense of Georgie.

I have described Tariq's histrionic skills in an earlier passage. Also the drama troupe of Tariq had the advantage of not preparing a detailed script and going strictly by that . They had the ability to do on the spot corrections if they felt that something was going wrong. An example of this was seen during the Youth FEstival drama. The drama was going on and during the course of a particular dialouge, Mukesh had difficulty holding his mundu and at the same time concentrating on his dialouge delivery. Arun Sathyan who was one of the participants on the stage saw this and just about unexpectedly said "Enthade. Mundudukkan polum arinjukooda. Poyi nera odithuttu tirichu vada. Ivanayokke entha cheyya". He said this as though it was a part of the script. This saved them from otherwise what would have been a very akward situation to handle. And then eve Mukesh had the quickness to understand the intent of Sathyan delvering the dialouge at that time and quickly made amends.

Unlike many bloggers i find it difficult to go on and on despite the nature of the topic. This is all I can rope in in this post. I will definitely make a 2nd extension to this post to get back to you all on more past happenings from the Loyola Youth Festival.

Till then wishing you all a great and prosperous New Year!!!..Cya..

The Man with the Golden Stick

This post is not about an Ian Fleming created James Bond adventure. Its rather about a personality who has touched the lives of many a Loyolite in one way or another.Sumod Mathew (1991 I.S.C) had written a poem in the "Loyolite" magazine on this very person with the title I have given for this post.

The first thing that comes to the mind of any Loyolite when he hears the words "Fr. Mathew Pulickal" are not that of a serious, dull and boring preist but rather that of a lively, friendly, jovial and at the same time a no-nonsense person. Fr.Pulickal was indeed all these rolled into one.

He first came to teach us English Grammar at the 6th Standard. Till then the way most Loyolites learnt grammar was to take the wren&martin one day before the exam and go through the usual chapters. How were we to know that the term "parsing" would make us study English Grammar more than physics and chemistry in the coming years!!! The real test was only going to come.

Usually any 8th standard student would say that the toughest subjects to learn were physics or maths. But at Loyola the 8th standard students feared only one subject. "History"!!!!!

Any senior Loyolite would give a wicked smile and say 'Wait till you come to the eighth standard and start learning history'. Me and my classmates learnt the meaning of that statement after Fr.Pulickal started teaching us. Though i was miserable when it came to getting marks in his paper I knew that the subject was being taught exactly the way it should be. He taught it in a very logical way and didnt believe that a student could never score 100/100 in a subject like History. But we knew that the final exam marks could spell history for us if we didnt clear this subject. Luckily all of us did with Sahasranaman Anand scoring the highest (If i am correct).

His history lessons save for the exams which came after that were a treat to be a part of. He encouraged students to think for themselves and gave his frank opinions on whatever part of history he used to teach us.He taught us to be happy and most importantly to laugh at ourselves. I remember the time when he collected the entire fine amount (for not talking in english) and treated the whole class to sipup from the canteen. Even now whenever i see kids buying sipup from the bakery shop I am reminded of Fr.Pulickal and the canteen at Loyola School. He had a vast array of knowledge on various topics right from the speeches of Alexander to the happenings of the second world war, Indian politics and the latest articles appearing in the Readers Digest.

When he taught us History during the 8th Standard he came to our class one day and announced that in our best interests we had to write sensible things in the exam paper. Otherwise, he said he would put up a list of all blunders we wrote in the exam paper on the notice board with the Title "Wisdoms from students of Loyola in the final exam". All of us laughed that day since we though that he was making a nice joke and that no teacher in any school had done that sort of thing.

But surprise surprise!!! after the final exams we had to face that very thing we dreaded. I remember all of us rushing to see whether our names had come up in that list. I felt lucky that day since my name was not there and there was much to laugh about reading other's blunders. Some of the blunders i remember are;

1. The battle of Plassey was fought at Panipat.

and courtsey Jiby I have two more

2. Rani Laxmi Bai had no male natural hair

3. The 1857 war was fought by British to get independence from India.

I would definitely like to get my hand on the rest of them. :-)

When we were to begin the first computer class at 8th standard by Mr. Sunil Prabhakar he came down to our class and told us that though he didnt know the "ABCD" of computers he expected all of us to get proficient in it since he believed that they were going to shape our future. His words certainly make a lot of sense now considering the fact that the majority of us work in this field.

He spent his last days at Calicut and those days were the days of decline of his health. His demise was mourned by many including the large family of Loyola School (teachers, students, non-teaching staff and many more).

He was the first to introduce us to the term "AMDG" literally transalating to 'For the greater glory of god'. It is the very term the Pope uses to end all his writings and the same term like Jiby said 'countless students of history under Fr.Mathew Pulickal used literally hoping for a miracle to happen so that they could pass their exams'. The only tribute that I could give right now to a man who taught us the importance of laughter and more importantly to laugh at ourselves.

AMDG

The BB Cup

I was just reading Vineeth Krishnan's (ISC 2007 batch) blog on things that have changed in Loyola. And one thing which surely changed (for the worse unfortunately) and something which i had heard from many was the result of the Loyola Junior Basketball Tournament. The sport seems to be on a downhill as of now at Loyola School which once prided on having one of the best teams among the schools in the state.


Looks like my batch (1999 ISC) has been the last to see Loyola lifting the cup. The BB cup used to be one event (and the most famous) which bought all Loyolites together. I am not here to give an analysis of the various tournaments I had seen during my Loyola days. Those have already been beautifully penned down by Jiby in a really wonderful blog. My blog is just about a few memories which I have about this great spectacle at Loyola School.



Till the 4th standard our viewing of the basketball tournaments were confined to the steps near the school day stage. We just knew the side to which our team had to score the points and a loud cheer from our side would accompany each point being scored by our team heroes.



From 1986 to 1990 Loyola though not able to win every tournament had produced some great teams with one memorable one being the team of Andrew Danty Thomas . Danty (as we called him) was a superb athlete and an allrounder in almost every sport he played. But unfortunately when he headed the team we lost by a whisker at the finals. But i think all who knew him would admit that Danty was one of the best basketballers to have played for Loyola.I still remember seeing Danty at times ride his bicycle when coming by the school bus and let me tell you, i wonder whether I have seen someone ride a bike faster than that!!!!



But the best was yet to come.

The real involvement, thrill and ambience was experienced by our batch in the 5th Standard. Year:1991



It was the year , like Jiby said, which saw the emergence of two dream teams. One the American National team with all its NBA superstars (since the Olympics had allowed the entry of professional players into the national team) and the other our very own Loyola team spearheaded by Jayant, Tojo, Eapen and Randeep Hari.



It was almost as though the team just needed to make an appearance and everything was set for them. The basketballing prowess was at its peak in Loyola School. The finals saw a clash between Marthoma (if i am right?) and Loyola. Vinod (from Vipin's batch) started the cheering "Are you ready for the magic?"..and magic it was..for the next 1 hour one saw a display of basketball which was simply best described as outstanding. Tojo and Co ensured that the cup remained with Loyola for that year. Later in the school day speech i came to know that Eapen.T.Joseph had got a berth in the State team and Tojo had narrowly missed out on that.so much about the quality of that team



The next year the team was headed by the dynamic Vipin.K.Varkey and the team looked set to follow the footsteps of its predecessor. But then came the St.Joseph's team (facing accusations of fielding overaged players and among some who were supposed to have been at colleges) which showed why they were rated above the rest.



In the first match Loyola easily overcame the opponents ( I remember Deepak shooting a great 3 pointer in the beginning stages of the game) and at that time I am sure many would have felt that retaining the cup would be just a walk in the park for the team. But the finals proved otherwise. After 30 minutes all faces in the team and the crowd began to drop down. Frustration creeped in the faces of Vipin and Deepak. Few minuted after the first half Vipin scored a flurry of points through some amazing dribbling. But St.josephs was in mood to give up the trophy. They finally romped home deservingly and most of the Loyola team members were in tears. It was painful but one also had to understand that this team had to live up to the expectations set by a supremely talented 1991 team which in itself was a little far fetched from the beginning.



After the disappointing result in 1992, the next year saw a team which again featured an extremely talented player who was in the reserves in the 1991 team and who had made an appearnce for a few minutes in the tournament in the previous year. The late Vivek Rajendran

was rated highly by many. And one thing one could notice immediately when he took the field was his speed. The team comprised of the big 3: Vivek, Subin (the captain) and Vyasan. There was no St.Josephs team good enogh to stop our team this time. But the challenge came from the most unexpected quarters. "Christ Nagar". As ill luck wouold have it, Christ Nagar produced their best team ever at this year and the result of the finals again went against Loyola. At the day of the finals I just happened to pass by the junior basketball court and the team looked extremely confident at practice and gleefully took up suggestions from various excited Loyola students who believed that the trophy would come back to the school. But what happened at the finals was heartbreaking. And the fact that we were defeated by a team which till those years had been nowhere near contention for the title hurt us more.



The next year saw the strangest (I cant think of any other word at this moment to describe it) tournament of all . Rain for the first time destroyed any chances of hosting the first two days of the tournament and this was the most frustrating experience of all . I remember father Pulickal coming to class one day and telling that he saw the team practice and he didnt have any hopes this year either. These were not the exact words he used but then those words were the best when heard from him in his unimitable style uncensored :-)...



So the first day match was scheduled to be held at the indoor stadium at College of Engineering, Trivandrum. And then we being in the 8th standard had no chance of being taken there to see the match and remained in our classes :-(. I remember all of us being tense about the result and sighing a breath of relief when we knew that we had won the match. And this time too Loyola made it to the finals.



As a sign of some sort of Apocalypse the skies cleared up completely at the day of the finals. The team lead by Akhilesh and comprising of Bijoy, Vivek and Arun were welcomed by the usual raptous applause. None of them were big names or extremely gifted but as a team they were there to prove a point. And after 2 long (!!) years the cup was back in the shelves of loyola. It was not a very tough finals considering the fact that the margin of victory was huge but the Loyolites were ready to give anything for a victory that year..and when it came it was sweet :-) Since we won the cup after 2 years they had a sort of post match interview with Akhilesh. He said that the team wouldnt have cared even if they met a tougher team in the finals and many more things like that..I think he would have escaped with anything he said that day...





The subsequent tournaments saw our team narrowly losing to St.josephs team in 1996, then being beaten comprehensively in 1997 and then winning it in dramatic ctyle in 1998 thanks to some last minute heroics from Harish Haridas who shot some amazing 3 pointers and walked off coolly like it was just another normal day for him .

The 1997 finals saw a St.Josephs team comprehensively beating Loyola in the finals with rain interrupting most part of the match. However the best player award went to Fahim. I think that was not the best decision considering the fact that St.Jopseph's Rahul had played some brilliant basketball throughout the tournament and missed an award which deservedly should have gone to him.

Jiby has mentioned in his blog that the time from the release of the ball from his hand to the time it went inside the basket were the longest few seconds for the Loyolites during the 1998 finals . I will just tell one thing. After the basket was scored i just couldnt believe that Harish Haridas had the audacity to try a 3 pointer at that very crucial moment and then even manage to pull the rabbit out of the hat in scoring them!!! When that 3 pointer (and i think 2 more after that!!!) was scored we knew we would win the game. Those points scored were a hint of some good thing going t0 happen for the team. And fortunately we were proved right.



And that was it..Teams came after that but for me the most memorable tournaments were those from 1991 to 1996 (when Shenoy's team narrowly missed winning it). Recently i heard that Loyola had struggled to put up a team for the tournament!!! It seems that gone are the times when we only had to see whom Loyola would have had to face in the finals!!

At times like this it looks like retaining the BB cup is a distant dream. But we can always hope, can't we?