Harnessing Gravity: A Lecturer's Dream of Free Energy in Nepal

The Kathmandu dusk seeped into my cramped faculty room at Golden Gate International College (GGIC), Battisputali. It was way back in 2013, feels like a lifetime ago now. Outside, the usual evening clamor of scooters and those insistent bicycle bells was finally quieting down. But inside my head? A riot. It was all thanks to this dream, see? A dream from eleven years back that just wouldn't let go.

I, Jay Sharma, just a physics lecturer then at GGIC, had this incredibly vivid dream about a device. Not some sci-fi fantasy, mind you. It felt… real, somehow. Like it was born out of the very forces holding us down, but cleverly twisted to give us something back. Electricity. From gravity.

In my dream, I could almost touch it – this intricate dance of weights and levers, perfectly balanced to catch the Earth’s constant pull. As one weight gracefully descended, it wasn’t just dead weight at the bottom. Oh no. Through this clever network of gears – the kind you could probably find in any bicycle repair shop around here – and a modified old electric motor acting as a generator, that downward push transformed into smooth, spinning motion, and then… a steady hum of electricity. It was… elegant.

“Come on, Jay, seriously?” That cynical voice in the back of my head piped up even in the dream. Perpetual motion alarm bells were ringing, loud and clear. But the details! They were so sharp, so seemingly engineered, they just stuck with me when I woke up, like the lingering scent of masala chiya.

The next few weeks? Forget about it. I was a man possessed. My lectures, the same old stuff about electromagnetism and Newton’s laws, suddenly felt… urgent. I was practically bouncing off the walls with enthusiasm. My colleagues, bless their hearts, must have thought I’d finally cracked. Ms. Shrestha, the English guru, always had a wry smile for me during our tea breaks, the sweet, milky steam swirling around us.

“Jay ji,” she’d say, her eyes twinkling, “you’re practically glowing! Did you finally figure out where all the college’s missing stationery goes?”

I’d laugh, trying to sound normal, but my mind was miles away, already sketching madly on the back of some poor student’s forgotten assignment. That core idea from the dream, that gravity could be tapped… it just felt right, deep down. Even if I couldn’t quite put my finger on how, without breaking every law of physics I knew.

So, I did what any self-respecting, slightly obsessed academic would do. I dove headfirst into research. My evenings were spent not just marking papers, but hunched over dusty textbooks in the GGIC library, and battling the glacial internet to access digital archives from universities across the globe. I remember those late nights so clearly – the glow of the screen in the dim room, the distant hum of traffic. I was devouring research papers from Europe, poring over complex equations from the States, even trying to decipher translated abstracts from China and Russia, hunting for any hint, any forgotten footnote that might support the crazy contraption from my subconscious.

I learned about potential energy, that stored power just waiting to be unleashed. I wrestled with the intricacies of turning that into motion, and then into electricity. And then there were the ghosts in the machine – friction, air resistance – those sneaky energy thieves that plague every single mechanical system. The data was overwhelming, often a cold splash of reality, reminding me of the near-impossibility of creating a perpetual motion machine – which, let’s be honest, my gravity-powered dream device was flirting dangerously with.

But I wasn't aiming for the impossible. The dream had shown a system, a flow of energy. Gravity pulling down, electricity flowing out. The real puzzle was the reset button. How could I lift that weight back up without using more energy than I generated? Maybe a tiny fraction of the output itself? That was the key to making it a cycle.

One afternoon, I found myself in Mr. Thapa’s chaotic engineering workshop. He was a senior lecturer, a man whose hands understood mechanics better than most textbooks. The air was thick with the smell of oil and solder, a comforting scent in its own way. I was trying to explain my barely formed ideas, my hands gesturing wildly as I pointed at my scribbled diagrams.

“Jay,” he said, peering at my sketches over his thick glasses, “the basic principle – potential to kinetic – that’s solid. We see it in our hydropower plants, right? The real beast is efficiency. How do you beat those energy losses?”

That was the question that kept me up at night. My dream hadn’t magically solved that. It had just shown the what, not the nitty-gritty how. That’s where the science, the real grind, began.

Thinking about those local markets suddenly felt important. The dream had emphasized "local resources." Kathmandu was a treasure trove of discarded materials, if you knew where to look. Sturdy metal rods, gears from old bicycles, dead electric motors from who-knows-what appliance. That’s where my mind started to go. A heavy weight – maybe a solid stone from the hills – suspended by a strong cable. As it dropped along a track, it would spin a series of gears, turning a repurposed motor into a generator. And then, fingers crossed, the electricity generated would power a small winch to lift the stone back up. Simple, in theory.

My notebooks started filling up with equations:

·       Potential Energy (PE) = mgh – that felt like the starting point.

·       Kinetic Energy (KE) = ½mv² – the transformation as it fell.

·       Efficiency (η) = (Energy Out / Energy In) x 100% – the number that would make or break the whole thing.

My late-night research wasn't just theoretical anymore. I was hunting for specific solutions. European research on low-friction bearings caught my eye. American engineering journals had articles on high-efficiency magnetic induction generators. And those translated papers from China and Russia? They often focused on practical, robust designs using readily available materials – exactly what my dream seemed to be hinting at.

The "local resources" aspect wasn't just a quirky detail from my dream. It resonated with the reality around me. So many communities just outside Kathmandu struggled with unreliable electricity. Could something this simple, powered by the Earth itself, offer even a tiny bit of sustainable help?

The calculations were a nightmare. Trying to guess the efficiency of a cobbled-together system was more art than science. Friction in those old gears, the power lost in the generator, the energy needed to lift the weight – it all added up, chipping away at my already slim theoretical output.

I remember one evening, hunched over my calculations, trying to figure out the perfect gear ratios, my wife, Maya, sat beside me, her knitting needles clicking softly in the quiet room.

“Jay,” she said, her voice gentle, “you’re completely lost in this, aren’t you? It reminds me of when you spent weeks trying to perfect your mother’s aloo paratha recipe.”

I chuckled, rubbing my tired eyes. “This is a little more complicated than potato bread, Maya.”

“But it’s the same fire,” she said, her eyes full of that quiet understanding she always had.

The biggest stumbling block was always lifting that weight. If the whole cycle – the fall generating electricity and that electricity lifting the weight – wasn't significantly more efficient than the energy lost, it was a dead end. My numbers, based on the rough estimates for my scavenged components… well, they were worryingly close to breaking even, if not a net loss.

There were these fleeting moments of pure excitement, when a certain combination of gears looked promising on paper, followed by the inevitable crash back to reality as I factored in the real-world drag and inefficiencies. The dream had given me the spark, the initial what if. But the scientific method demanded cold, hard proof, a working model.

And so, I started collecting things. That heavy stone – with permission from a construction site, of course! – a pile of rusty bicycle parts from a local kabaadi (scrap dealer), and a small DC motor I was hoping to coax into working as a generator. My faculty room slowly morphed into a chaotic workshop, much to the silent bewilderment (and perhaps a touch of alarm) of the college administration.

“Dr. Sharma,” Dr. Pradhan, the college principal, had remarked during one of his rare visits, carefully stepping around a stack of gears, his brow furrowed in that characteristic way of his, “everything alright in here? Are you… perhaps developing a new pedagogical tool?”

I’d just offered a slightly embarrassed smile. “Something along those lines, sir. Exploring… unconventional applications of physics.”

The truth was, I was driven by this almost childlike curiosity, this burning need to see if the elegant simplicity of my dream could actually exist in the real world. The research papers from those fancy universities had given me the vocabulary, the local scrap had given me the potential building blocks, and that persistent dream… well, that had given me the unwavering nudge to even try.

I never did get that gravity-powered generator to hum to life during my time at GGIC. Life, as it often does, had other plans. But that intellectual adventure, that deep dive into the possibility sparked by a dream, was incredibly valuable. It hammered home the crucial role of scientific rigor, the frustrating but necessary gap between a brilliant idea and a working invention, and the enduring magic of a simple concept, even if it originates in the strange landscape of our sleeping minds. The calculations were tough, the data often discouraging, and the final working device remained just out of reach. But the dream, and the journey it sent me on, that’s a story – a very real one – I still remember vividly from my days lecturing at Golden Gate International College.

***

Country Mouse and City Mouse

Reading Practice Test-009

Task: Read the given poem and complete the tasks that follow.

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse

In a snug little cot lived a fat little mouse,

Who enjoyed, unmolested, the range of the house;
With plain food content, she would breakfast on cheese,
She dined upon bacon, and supped on grey peas.

A friend from the town to the cottage did stray,
And he said he was come a short visit to pay;
So the mouse spread her table as gay as you please,
And brought the nice bacon and charming grey peas.

The visitor frowned, and he thought to be witty:
Cried he, " You must know, I am come from the city,
Where we all should be shocked at provisions like these,
For we never eat bacon and horrid grey peas.

" To town come with me, I will give you a treat:
Some excellent food, most delightful to eat.
With me shall you feast just as long as you please;
Come, leave this fat bacon and shocking grey peas."

This kind invitation she could not refuse,
And the city mouse wished not a moment to lose;
Reluctant she quitted the fields and the trees,
The delicious fat bacon and charming grey peas.

They slily crept under a gay parlour door,
Where a feast had been given the evening before;
And it must be confessed they on dainties did seize,
Far better than bacon, or even grey peas.

Here were custard and trifle, and cheesecakes good store,
Nice sweetmeats and jellies, and twenty things more;
All that art had invented the palate to please,
Except some fat bacon and smoking grey peas.

They were nicely regaling, when into the room
Came the dog and the cat, and the maid with a broom:
They jumped in a custard both up to their knees;
The country mouse sighed for her bacon and peas.

Cried she to her friend, " Get me safely away,
I can venture no longer in London to stay;
For if oft you receive interruptions like these,
Give me my nice bacon and charming grey peas.

" Your living is splendid and gay, to be sure,
But the dread of disturbance you ever endure;
I taste true delight in contentment and ease,
And I feast on fat bacon and charming grey peas."

by Richard Scrafton Sharp

(Credit source: poetrynook.com)

A. Write if the statements are true or false.

a)   The poem presents two mice.

b)   The city mouse paid a visit to a country mouse.

c)    The country mouse lives easily and is satisfied.

d)   The country mouse wants to go to the city.

e)    The country mouse liked his food.

f)    They ate and enjoyed their food peacefully in the city.

g)   The dog and cat disturbed them during the meal.

h)   The city mouse called the country mouse to show the dishes he ate.

i)     The country mouse wanted to leave the place.

j)     The city mouse chased the country mouse away.

B. Find the words for the following meanings from the poem.

a)    comfortable and warm

b)   in a good condition

c)    took food in gulps

d)   showed disapproval by facial expression

e)    unpleasant or unkind

f)    powder dessert or sweet sauce made with milk and eggs

g)   one's sense of taste

h)   very impressive

C. Match the following columns.

Column A

i. Country mouse lived

ii. City Mouse invited

iii. Country Mouse accepted

iv. City mouse didn't enjoy

v. Custard was served in the city to

vi. Dog and cat

vii. The country mouse left the place because

Column B

a. she didn't like the disturbance

b. the invitation.

c. the country mouse.

d. in a cottage.

e. disturbed them while eating.

f. the bacon and peas.

g. the country mouse in the city.

D. Choose the correct alternative to fill in the gaps.

a The country mouse had _________  to offer to the city mouse.

i)   a wide variety of food

ii)   bacon and peas

iii)  country varieties

iv)  bacon and custard

b. The country mouse and city mouse decided to___

i)   go to the city

ii)   custard and trifle

iii)  sweetmeats and jellies

iv)  avoid the disturbance

c. They started their feast in the___

i)   evening in town

ii)  evening in the cottage

iii)  custard and trifle

iv)  sweetmeats and jellies

d. The poem teaches us that____

i)   be happy with what you have

ii)   your friend is everything

iii)  always think big

iv)  don’t trust your friend

E. Put the following sentences (events in the poem) in the correct order.

i)    The country mouse urged his friend to take her to the safe village.

ii)   The mice started their feast in the evening.

iii)  The dog and cat disturbed them.

iv)  The country mouse offered the city mouse the bacon and peas.

v)   The country mouse lived in a cottage.

vi)  Once the city mouse paid a visit to the country mouse.

F. Answer the following questions in not more than one sentence.

a)   What is the story about?

b)   Who visited the country mouse?

c)   What did the country mouse offer the city mouse to eat?

d)   Why didn't the city mouse enjoy the food?

e)   What was the invitation for?

f)    Who disturbed the mice in their feast?

g)   Why did the country mouse leave the city?

h)   What is the moral of the poem?

The End 

Dev in College

In a short span of time, Dev and Vasant got used to college life. There was no more fear of ragging and abuse from the seniors.  As these brothers belonged to a nontribal family, it was not that easy still for the Bharti family to support their higher studies. Thanks to the elder siblings Madhu and Naina who worked really hard in their late teens to support the family need. Ganesh and Mina worked for their own grocery which somehow managed their basic family expenses.

In college, the NCC (National Cadet Corps-the youth wing of Indian Armed Forces) enrolment for basic survival skill training was compulsory for all students across all faculty. Dev, along with his brother, Vasant, was to move to Laitkor for a period of one month for the training in his second year of the pre-university course.

"You know Vasant, I'm really excited to start the training to be facilitated by the Eastern command wing of the Indian army."

"And so am I. Just imagine we are in camouflage attire and targetting the enemies like Sylvester Stallone in the Rambo sequel."

"No illusion dear, keep working harder, the day is not far when we'll have joined the army and fought for the nation."

They packed their luggage and headed to board the TATA Stallion for Laitkor, Assam Rifles Public School campus, Shillong Peak.

In less than two hours did the truck drop them at the venue for the month-long NCC training. This was a huge green plateau in the midst of tall pine trees with the chilling wind. 

In the boys' group there were 286 and in the girls were 358. It was for the first time the camp had received such a huge number of NCC trainees. The army men together with the boys and girls set about 175 tents for 3-4 inmates per tent in less than an hour! Dev and Vasant were really excited to have gotten the responsibility of checking if any of the tent fasteners were not done well. What was evermore a thing of pride for them was the camouflage uniform that made them forget that they were actually college boys and not the infantry.

Their training started on 14th August 1998. The first part of the training was a sort of institutional training where cadets are taught the theoretical aspects of life in the army, basic adventurous survival skills, and the fundamentals of defense services. 

At first, most participants could grasp nothing but Dev for his curiosity and inquisitiveness kept asking and clarifying his doubts to the officers, and soon he was out of the wonderland. Vasant on the other hand was looking for adventurous hiking and trekking to learn survival skills in the extremes of nature. 

It was now already a week of their training where they learned basic life skills like the values of discipline: duty, attendance, order, personality traits, work ethics, self-confidence, self-reliance, need for voluntary service, charity, communication skills, the value of confidentiality, leadership or commandership, the fundamental rights and the directive principles of state policy supporting secular mindset.

This one-week-long theory class reminded the cadets of their regular classes in their colleges more than challenging the extremes of their mind and body. They were desperately looking for something challenging in nature and guess what! The commandant officer declared a one-week-long adventurous training. This was not just a fun-filling training but full of challenging sports and learning like hiking, trekking, camping, rafting, identifying edible plants and herbs for survival, rock climbing, swimming, mountaineering, sea sailing, paragliding, along with the application of basic medical aid in snake/ wild insect bites. 

Accidents and mishaps are easily encountered when such a big number of students/people make a move to the unknown for something new for the first time. During the camping, Rina Rai from Lady Keane College in Mt. Abu group was stung by a northern rough green tree snake. This was never expected. Although the snake was not poisonous, she was screaming out her guts for fear. The boys and girls from her group were also at a loss as to what they should be doing next to save her. While everybody else was waiting for the orders or advice on medication and first aid, Dev took immediate action. He gently lifted her in his arms and took her to an open airy place.

"Hey, Rina ... Rrrina ... wait ... wait! Cry not for fear. This is a harmless snake and it lives on trees. Locally, we call it vine snake. It's found all over our farms, pastures, and forests. Please take this ibuprofen and the pain will subside in a while." 

Rina slowly opened her eyes and swallowed the tablet. But she was still panicking. This was like a fatal blow to many in the cadets' groups but for boys like Dev who has had far harsher and painful experiences in his young days was nothing as such.

Rina couldn't even express her gratitude to Dev as he was a complete stranger to her as yet. She just gazed at him until he was called by their commandant officer, Mr. Jacob Kutty. He was praised for his presence of mind and the timely action before it would have become a matter of commotion.

As expected, the college students found the second-week training more fulfilling than the first as it was an interesting experiential learning. This was hiking to the top of the Shillong Peak, 6433 feet from sea level, a 14 km ascent from Laban. The cadets were to start it from the lowest point in Laban after breakfast at 6 in the morning and reach the top by 11just before lunch. Thirty TATA Stallion trucks brought down all 644 students at the base exactly at 5:20am and after a short briefing- the dos and don'ts by Mr. Kutty, the cadets started their ascent. 

It was indeed a very big crowd to handle by a single commander. Mr. Kutty, therefore, chose a group leader for every 50 cadets from among themselves. Dev was chosen to look after Mt. Abu Group. This was a piece of exciting news for Rina because it was he who had saved her life from the snake bite earlier. She grew more confident and felt safe to hike under such a caring leader.

"Dev, you are a true leader. You have all the characteristics of able leadership. Can we be good friends?"

"Ha.... ha... please don't flatter me. I know nothing. In fact, I'm learning a lot of things from you all guys."

"Do ya think I can ever flatter? I spoke the truth I'm experiencing. And now don't tell me that I can't even speak the truth."

"Oh..., c'mon Rina. Take it easy and forget this serious stuff. By the way, where do you stay?"

"Not far from the residence of Naina, a really hardworking girl I know. She lives in Raid Laban with her parents and three other siblings. They are a really hard-working family; the Bharti Family."

Dev became serious and more curious at Rina's reply. He started pondering as to how come She knows so much about the Bharti family. Despite his curiosity, he only listened to her and wanted to divert the topic of their talk in sound but he actually wished Rina told more about her knowledge of Naina's family.

"I wish such heart-rending test of time never came to anyone in their entire lives...never in their innocent childhood."

Dev was reminded of the 1986-87 summer days how his parents had taken the little kids to safety from the obscurantist tribals and all that had ensued for the next 3 years.

"Hey, Dev what's wrong... what's up? You look a little moist-eyed. Did I make any mess?" I'm sorry if I've hurt you."

"No, no... nothing. Everything's fine. There was an insect, a fruit fly, that got into my eyes, you know these insects are hotter than Naga Viper, the chili." Dev couldn't speak the truth this time, nor could Rina decipher the truth.

By and by, they were halfway through the steep slope of the deep pine forest to the peak. Dev regarded his watch and it said quarter past eight.

"Friends, walk up hard and fast and not rest a while, the time's running out. We need to go past that huge rock that is standing in our way." Dev was heard encouraging and leading his group on and off.

"Aye, Dev...dev...wait for me. I'm here down about 50 feet from you all." Nobody had noticed Rina was left behind. She was never used to walking uphill like that. She was absolutely fatigued and waiting for someone to help her.

"How come you're so far below the rock when most of your hike mates are almost atop?"

"Dev, actually, there's a leech-like insect that was stuck on my thigh and when I tried to get rid of this, everyone unheedingly left me behind. See this blood still oozing out." Rina pointed her index to him that had some blood.

"Oh, so sorry to know this, but you could've used the salt that was in your backpack to get rid of such insects, they are highly sensitive to salt and alcohol. You may also rub some Ultrathon if you are carrying it at the moment, trust me it works."

"At times, I ask myself how on earth you know all this stuff; from plants and animals to the problem solving that comes in your way at any time."

"Not at all. I know nothing in fact. I just suggest to you what my instinct and some experiences guide me. You know what, there's so much to learn and understand from our environment that one life is never enough. I enjoy observing even the minute things in the environment like watching the anthills and knowing how these tiny creatures build such colossal mountain castles. Maybe we've learned to build our skyscrapers from these inspiring beings, haven't we?"

It was nearly quarter past ten when they were able to go past that big rock. Most of the hikers had already ascended the peak while Dev and his team were making their way through the thicket under the dense pine forest. Now they had only the last three-quarters of the hour left to reach the peak. However, it was no competition that would declare the winner but measure how safely and timely the cadets complete their mission.

Around 11:15 am, the last team successfully ascended the peak where 30 TATA Stallions were standing to drive the cadets to their camps some 12 miles south of the peak.

Dev got onto the truck after having ensured that no one was left behind. He was especially concerned for Rina for some inexplicable reasons as yet.

Matriculation Euphoria to College Ragging

Dev and Vasant, for their industry and the support from their teachers went on making steady progress in studies and completed the elementary level, Grade-5 in flying colors. Of 75 students in his grade, Dev had tried to stand first but another boy from the town, Herbert Addison led him by only 2 percent. Vasant was but a boy of different interest than scores in the tests and examinations. He was more into music and painting, unlike his brother.

Dev took it to his heart, "How come Herbert or any other classmates outperform me in the Final Examinations when I have put all my heart and soul into the preparation right from the beginning?"

Unlike Dev, Herbert would not work as hard and long but he had his father to influence the results. Mr. Timothy Addison was a local politician who had a slight sympathy and support towards tribal politics that carried an ideology of one tribe rule and deportation of all the non-tribals from the state. The school management would therefore not dare to go against any imminent questions from the local leader, however unethical it might be.

Without much fret and frustration, the boy continued putting all his efforts and industry into his studies. Three years later when they were in Grade -8, Herbert himself did not feel it good to have been declared first in the finals in the past by means of his father's influence. By Now he was a teenager of 14 and he could easily make out what's right from wrong. He had indeed become a good friend to Dev. Dev would help him understand the difficult concepts of Geometry (Mensuration), Trigonometry, Algebra, and Arithmetic along with the numerical problems in Physics and Chemistry. Besides, Herbert even shared his lunch and tiffin with Dev. Sometimes he invited him to his home, but Dev would not feel it nice to visit him at home, not because of the class difference or the difference in their tribe but Dev was a boy of self-esteem and pride in his own lifestyle. 

At 17, Dev was now taking the SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) Board Exams that were scheduled for March 20 to commence were to end by the month's end. There were three months to the test, but for him, every day was like the board exams and he had had a thorough preparation of the whole syllabi of all the 5 subjects like English, Maths, Science, Social Sciences, and Health & Physical  Education. The most imitable way of his study and preparation was how readily he helped his classmates to understand the difficult concepts in the technical subjects, besides his interest in the discussions in regard to social sciences.

On July 16, 1996, the results of the board exams were published. Of 75 candidates from Dev's school, only 47 including Vasant could open their gates to colleges while many had to apply for a supplementary test. And guess what! Dev had topped the district. His score in Maths was 98 followed by Science 94, Social Sciences 92, Health & Physical Education 91, and English 89-all distinction marks.

When Dev's triumphant classmates were at school with sweetmeats to celebrate the achievement, he was in Mawmluh, Cherrapunjee with a taxi driver to drop the dead body of a child that had died in Nazareth Hospital. In the evening when he got the good news from his brother Vasant and other classmates, his happiness knew no bounds. For a moment he was lost in disbelief that he was not only a school but the district topper. When his parents reinforced, he was on cloud nine. He could neither eat nor sleep the whole night. He only imagined what he would do now and if his parents could afford to send them both to college for their higher studies. However, he had forgotten that he had worked for those three months' time as a helper for the taxi driver and made some Rs 3500.00 which was comfortably enough for the college admission in the stream of Science and Technology. 

With some hesitation and a little sense of guilt, Dev along with his parents went to his school to express his gratitude towards his teachers and the staff for their roles in his achievement. 

"We are a little worried about your higher studies, Dev. Have you thought about it?" said the Headmaster.

"We have no idea as to what we as parents and Dev as your student should do next", replied Mrs. Bharti.

"Actually looking at his prospects in the technical subjects, we were thinking of sending Dev to study science and prepare for the NIIT (National Institute of Information Technology), AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences), or  IIM (Indian Institute of Management)" said the Headmaster.

Never knowing the future; being optimistic, and working accordingly are perhaps the sole attributes of human beings. The teachers expressed their happiness and applauded the unflinching spirits Dev had in achieving his goals. The responsibility had also fallen upon the school to not let Dev get distracted and discontinue his studies, unlike 9 years ago in 1987. It was the first time the school had ever produced a district topper since its inception in 1957.

 

The next week the Headmaster and his team created a fund to sponsor further studies of the most deserving students like Dev. He went to four different colleges to apply for his Pre-university course in sciences and he topped the entrance test in all the colleges. One of the colleges he was much interested to enroll in was St. Anthony's College. But the tribal student unions, in fear of his outstanding performances in the days to come, did not allow him to get enrolled there. They had simply threatened him by similar tortures they had meted out on some brilliant Bengali students leading them to commit suicide on the college premise. Dev was a clever student and did not take the chance at St. Anthony's.

His parents were all the more worried that their son might be assaulted or hurt in the crowd of the tribal students. He went to St. Edmund's College but the infamous ragging (Extreme rough practical jokes played by the senior students in most Indian colleges and universities that often lead to unimaginable psychological trauma and physical assaults to the freshers and newcomers) incident of the past year shook his confidence to stand out there too. In the end, he enrolled in Shankardev College which was a walking distance from his home and the fee was as little as a quarter of the other two. There was no provision of scholarship for a non-tribal student in spite of being the district topper.

It was not that there was no record of ragging in Shankardev College, but rather that the freshers did not speculate about the future consequences within the control and tolerance limits. Dev and his group of students also suffered the evil practice where they had to organize a cocktail party for the seniors in a nearby restaurant on the following Sunday evening which fortunately saved them from the fear of future ragging. One of the wisest things Dev did was to be in a big group of the freshers which prevented the seniors from attempting any further ragging.

Read the previous part.                                                                                              Read the next part

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