September 16, 2001.

The most memorable month on many accounts. During this period Lona joined Tapan Consultancy Services. It takes eight hours for him to reach Bangalore on the Kanyakumari express train. Before the trip, he did a proper haircut, a proper shaving to change the ‘shocked rabbit’ looks of that age. That was a phrase used by one of his teachers during school days. ‘Kutti kattil ninnum odi vanna muyal’ means the appearance of a rabbit running out of a small forest out of certain unknown shock. Maybe it was customary for any boy to have a detailed shaving and haircut when you go for the job for the first time. Yet another transition from a boy to a man. Even if that does not happen before joining the job, Tapan would provide necessary etiquettes to make that transition smooth. The full-sleeve formal light shirt, a tie, dark trousers and other guidance on the office dressing based on the day of the week will automatically change you. Like domesticating an elephant from the forest using a trap. The word ‘Tapana’ in the Malayalam language literally translates to the supporting elephant (was wild once upon a time) helping the incoming wild elephants from the forest to be suitable for domestic work.

Whatever it was, it was his first train journey from Thrissur to Bangalore by train. The white-field office was thirty kilometers from Bangalore central railway station. Whitefield was established in the late 1800s as a settlement for the Eurasians of Bangalore, the land was granted by Mysore Maharaja Wodeyar to the Eurasian and Anglo-Indian association of Mysore and Coorg. Whitefield remained a little settlement till the late 1990s. Then the IT boom of Bangalore reshaped it as a major suburb, with ITPB setting up India’s first information technology park in the white field.

The training center at Tapan had the capacity to train around six hundred fresh graduates. The wild elephants. Three months of training. Three months of cleaning up. Last round of college life. New friendships and collaborations. But the event of September 11, 2001 had affected most software companies. Most students who received offer letters from different companies were also put on hold for a year. Tapan consultancy did not stop recruitment or the training.

Thursday De-paul Class - The Sex Guide

Lona recalled the Kalabhavan comedy drama where students ask the biology teacher how babies were born. At the age of ten, that satisfied the curiosity of most of his friends. Students ask questions like, what if a boy of age 8 and a girl of age 8, ding dong dim. Biology teacher blushed when he heard the question. “What ding dong dim…Don’t ask stupid questions. Nothing doing.”  But students were adamant in getting the right answer from the right teacher. “Teacher, teacher …It’s our serious-doubt, what if a boy of age 9 and girl of age 9 get married, will they deliver babies?”  With hesitation, the teacher says, “No marriage at nine.” Students pursue again; “What if a boy of age 10 and a girl of age 10 marry, will they…”  Teacher answered loudly “No.” After that the teacher gets the next round of questions, “what if a boy of age 11…..” The teacher continued…”stop stop….you will come to know when your time comes.”  

That was the first coaching. Lona  remembered his friend Romeo helping him while the drama was going on. Romeo said; “Lona, the truth is, I have seen real things live. Don’t believe this comedy drama. After marriage, men and women go under a big carpet. I have seen that through the window while delivering the milk. That’s how everything happens, you know.”

Lona asked; “What happened under the carpet, Romeo?.”

Romeo answered with maturity, “At the age of ten, this is enough.”

Though he was unusually angry, the school principal was open-minded. Everyone feared him for multiple reasons, everyone liked him for obvious reasons. At DePaul school Principal Fr. George delivered the most important Thursday sex classes that cleared most student’s doubt’s without paying any additional fee. Being a priest, he could teach the nuances of missionary position with a polite language. He was the best to teach the Grammar - 12 tenses in English without any tension, best to teach grammar of sex and best to teach history. Though the positions were contentious among the senior erudite crowd in the class, it served the purpose. There were subtle differences in the way he conducted the sessions. These special sessions were not as loud as the history and the English Grammar.