Note: The idea for this blog came up when I read a fellow blogger's experience of mixing some cocktail with his friends. Sorry for borrowing this idea!!
July 31, 2004, 7 P.M., Canteen 1. Just finished dinner and sitting with some batchmates trying hard to make a conversation; we all were "trying" because all our minds were busy thinking what the seniors had in store for our ragging tonight.
And there came a second year guy, asking all of us to buy a drink (the normal ones, guys!!). I went and looked at the drinks stall: Qoo(lol..what names, man!), H-TWO-O(read H2O), RedBull (Energy Drink, maybe I needed it!)...ya, finally something worth trying, Sunkist Orange. I quickly left the Jia-Jia Herbal Tea(God only knows why the Chinese have every word twice:Jia-Jia, Xing Xing, etc.) and Iced Lemon Tea and paid for the orange drink. I saw that all the girls and most of the guys had some "edible" drinks. Then the senior who had asked us to buy the drinks came along and looked at our drinks in utter dismay. Only Sunkist Oranges, Cokes, Pepsis and Iced Lemon Teas.
"Keep these back", he said,"and get grass jelly drinks, each of you."
I looked the other side. I didn't want to get 'grass jelly' drink!!!!
He came to me though, and I cursed my rotten luck.
"Go return this and get a can of root beer" he said.
Oh Damn! Not that thing!
Well, for those of you who've been fortunate enough not to taste it, let me tell you how it tastes. Mix a teaspoon of Iodex in water and viola! you've got root beer! It's no exaggeration, it really tastes that bad! My apologies to anyone who likes it, but I must admire your taste buds if you actually like it.
So I sighed and bought root beer.
Who were these people to tell me what to buy, dammit! (I didn't know that this wasn't to drink, but for something else!)
So as was the usual procedure, after dinner we all queued up to be taken to the Sports and Recreation Center. (For those of you who'd like to know what happens during ragging, excuse me.."orientation", you could read the blog "My Orientation Experience" in this address.)
Once we went there and the usual ragging procedures started, soon there arrived one of my batchmates, struggling to walk. We all stared at him. Of course, he couldn't walk because he had a huge red bucket covering his head. We all controlled our laughter with great difficulty as seniors took good care of him. (Laughing is a great, terrible offence in orientation!) And we listened to him explaining what all he used the bucket for: washing his clothes, dumping his dirty clothes, etc., all the while wondering why all this was being asked; isn't it quite obvious what a bucket will be used for?
Soon we also came to know why we weren't allowed to drink the cans we had bought. That's the sad and actually hilarious story.
We were all lined up and made to sit on the ground. And one by one, each guy and girl should come and pour his or her drink into the red bucket our batchie had bought...and how should it be done? Going round and round the bucket, singing and dancing and also pouring it. Bloody, you spill a drop and you are in for it.
So all of us did it and by the time each person had poured his or her drink into the bucket, we were all dizzy with going round and struggled to find our ground.
This was condition number 1.
Condition number 2 is to sit with the empty drink can on your head and not drop it. No laughing, no movement absolutely and hence, no dropping the can. We all would have looked quite a scene to all the chaptas walking nearby. Sure, squatting with empty cans on their heads, who wouldn't?
Condition number 3. The most horrible one. Drink that (shit) we all had poured into the bucket. It was properly mixed so each of us would get the nicest taste possible. This again, was to be done in order. As we watched the reactions of our first few batchmates who were drinking the 'cocktail' we all feared our turn. And seniors standing right next to the bucket made sure our cans(which we had kept on our heads all this while) were full with the 'cocktail'.
"Yyyyyyyyyuuuuckkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!"
Chill, one guy had just puked.
I held my can and peered into it. There were strange things floating inside that brown mixture inside. I held my breath and took a sip.
I spat it out. It was one of the most horrible things I'd ever tasted in my life.
Seniors standing beside us were enjoying the show. Some of them were encouraging enough to make puky sounds when we were about to sip that nonsense.
And while I was holding my nose and drinking it, something strange went inside my mouth. I looked around and saw that others were staring helplessly because they'd tasted some solid inside too. We all looked at the guy who'd brought the bucket. What on earth did you do with your damned bucket?
After taunting us for a while by trying to tell us what that solid thing could've been, the seniors told us that it was grass jelly.
Whew! After what seemed eons, the drink of mine got over. I was shaken and my whole body was shivering. Seniors looked at me and were pleased. The drink had done it's job properly.
Yeah, it had.
Never to drink any cocktails, any, mind you, I vowed.
And never buy root beer or grass jelly drink.
Anyone interested in this cocktail?