As I mentioned somewhere in the September of 1982 five of us were staying in the B hostel room 315.S V Giri, Srinath Shetty,Jerald Harry Dsouza,Arvind Poal Masaji from Nippani Belgaum and myself.
The hostels of NIT Calicut and its vicinity had many Coconut palms fully grown and mature with abundant yeild. On few occassions it dawned on us to venture in the night and pluck few of these for ourselves.There was something risky about this but we ventured few times sometimes near the auditorium.
Dsouza was an avid climber and excelled at felling coconuts and then descending from the tree and the whole activity had to be done with care to ensure that the coconuts did not fall on anybody.
Then came the task of peeling them at which Shetty excelled. Most of the time I was only a spectator at the mercy of the skills of my room mates.What followed was excellent a total feast of high quality Coconuts some times with lot to spare.We never knew that these trees were given on lease to a tenant farmer who would not have appreciated what we were up to but most times they did not object.
A bizarre incident happenned in the June of 1983 when a Bengali lad one year our senior fell from the coconut tree near the AC lab and met his end.This was a shocking incident for us all.Rains the earlier day had left the palms wet and he happenned to slip from the top.Sadly I dont remember his name and if any one reading this column knows his name I could include it here .
With this incident ended our quest for coconuts and our adventures in the night.Well it was a jolly experience for we adoloscents at that time but I would very well advice student folk at Universities around the world who are in such circumstances to may be refrain from such acts.Nightfall is to have a good sleep in the room and not to embark on such adventures for good or for bad.
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