With great reluctance we bring to you a man who is one of our own (special correspondents that is). Almost a BSP G.Sec., this person is well known for his writing skills, vocabulary and fluent English. Popularly known as Tantan (or Tantee) he is the Bong Maddu – Sayontan Sinha.
The Bong Maddu (BM for the rest of the mail) was an ulti-cracky whiz-kid before he came to IIT. For one so used to excelling and being the best the Bong (and/or the Maddu) somewhere something went terribly wrong. This brilliant person has all but left acads. Give him any excuse to not cram and he will do so, never working until a pass grade depends on it he is always found meandering about when the grades are about to be put up. And when he manages to pass he tells anyone and everyone about how close he was to flunking and how his superman heroics saved the day in the end.
A classical example was his PH210 (about which we have heard ateast a dozen times!!). He had a PMT of 7.5 out of 50 and scored 26/50 in the major psyching not only the prof but also himself. But the way he passed the Graphics course is something he would rather not talk about. This particular escapade of our Bong Maddu was totally unintentional and it was only with the help of SC and KKB (a totally baseless allegation that was later dropped when our brave hero refused to autograph anything) that he found himself spending hours waiting for his fate to be decided.
This Bong Maddu has a habit of not shaving and if it weren’t for his visits home his whiskers would be something special. He hopes to grow his hair for an year (but for that he will have to stay away from family for that long) – something that might be possible if his fantasy of doing a PhD in Europe comes true (something that he has postponed for the time being).
BM has a lovely sense of humour and his laugh (or rather guffaw) is a pleasure to hear – loud, clear and unashamed. He loves narrating “kissas” which he typically starts of with “uske saath bahut sahi huya”. It is a different matter that his narrations (verbal ones) tend to have him playing a dominating, witty or even heroic role.
Any account on BM would be incomplete without a mention of his “padosan” and other females in his life (or females he would love to have in his life). The Nil junta is familiar with a largish supply of chocolates that used to accompany BM whenever he came back (Dumir sadly only got to hear of the “padosan’s chocolates” and only got the occasional eclair!). It is unclear as to the degree of involvement on BM’s part but there was a time when the “padosan” used to write to him very regularly (twice a week! We got that from the horses mouth).
To explain how close these people are we must narrate an incident that happened during his summer training in Pune (this is perhaps a breach of trust but we won’t apologise because M&D is all about exposing facts – by any/all means). His padosan had come to (meet him in) Pune. The Bong Maddu made his meeting his padosan official by asking his dad to send some money along with her. So when our hero went to meet her he ran into padosan’s dad and younger sister who told him that “padosan” was also coming (at which point of time BM felt a sigh of relief – and only he knows what else). So after the transfer of money “padosan’s” parents sent the two (lovebirds?) off on their own to roam around (arm in arm?).
Another clear indication of his on-going affair was that BM refused to forward some stupid mail to us in front of us – the reason being that there were a lot of sensitive, secret (hot, steaming and s**y) mails from his “padosan” in that folder (actually it is only our guess that the mails were from his padosan but we don’t think our dear Bong Maddu would two-time his dear Padosan). Well he did have a habit of reading his “padosan’s” mails during MuP lab when we weren’t reading over his shoulder.
The Bong Maddu seems to run into a lot of females at the wrong time and wrong place – the latest being his TOEFL exam where the presence of a QUOTE max tote bandi UNQUOTE resulted in his not hearing the listening comprehension questions in his distracted state. One has to see very little of BM to realize that if one wants him to do something then one should get somebody from the “female” species to approach him and put in a request sweetly – BM is doomed and will not rest till he has done whatever was asked (I hope no one will take undue advantage of BM’s weakness).
BM has loads of enthu when interested which happens only when it has nothing to do with academia. When in full flow he can accomplish anything (especially if his enthu stems from some feminine inspiration). It can be just before a minor or in the middle of the vacations (but definitely not just before the grades are put up), it doesn’t matter, BM will carry on with relish and will spend nights working on it (that is the reason for there being hopes for our Yearbook).
BM’s association with hostels other than his own gives great insight into his character. You can judge the character of a person by the company he keeps – as for the company he keeps; if you search for “Sayontan Sinha” at google you are guided to the Kailash homepage!! This fact has helped M&D understand Kailash like never before.
BM however is not a true Nilite. He is our informer (or the traitor if you prefer) who gives us all sorts of insider information from – why KT scored 2300, not 10 more not 10 less, why Moti loves pizzas so much, incidents about Ahuja, Shaggy, Sulabh and even Manchu (things that have helped us understand their Yearbook entries and things we will make public when we get around to them).
But perhaps the traitor in BM came out most when he attributed his own “kissa” to the innocent and blameless Ahuja – Ahuja could never have answered a bandi’s comment about her not being anybody’s true valentine by “Yeah precisely”. BM loves to make fun of people and this is never more obvious than when words flow from him and he produces creative writing. Whether it be mocking P.Su.Kr. or Ahuja or even his hand in the Mischucher scoop, the Bong Maddu shows a sadistic unforgiving streak. It must be said however that M&D seems to have improved the coherence of his articles and the experience has done him good (to quote “someone” – his articles in CR were childish and petty).
Another instance of BM ditching someone occurred just before his BTP presentation. The gullible Mankee asked BM to take him along when he left for the presentation. The Bong Maddu went and gave the presentation on his own without informing Mankee (who incidentally had done little work during the semester just like the Pseud on one pretext or the other). Still it was rather malicious of BM to not even let Mankee do as little as sit through their BTP presentation.
M&D sees the Bong Maddu playing scrabble from Europe to the US (with (just good) friends in univs) with long hair, cats whiskers and a natural goatee (he will no longer write as his creative writing skills will leave him along with his inspiration). He will continue to make fun of anyone who gives him half a chance (so please watch out for whatever he writes on Mankee & Dummy’s yearbook pages).
M&D