TP = Taar Paar

Our college had a few awesome rituals and customs. These were customs passed on from generation to generation (I mean from one batch to the other). "Taar Paar" was one of the first things that our seniors taught us. It was for surviving in the college for the coming four years.

Our college, though worthless, had professors who were extremely paranoid about attendance. Apart from a rare few the others were disastrous. Could seriously screw anyone's enthusiasm for education. Only those who have passed out of my college knows what an achievement it was. (Not to mention that it was under the extremely, uhmmm, how should I put it? awesome university... The Great Mumbai University) I can already see a smile on all those tortured souls who have graduated out of MU :) Peace brothers! Peace! We have been there! Done that!

Alright so back to my story. We, the hostelites of RSCOE, solemnly swear that we are upto no good :), Yup! That was the basic funda. Our college had strict rules about getting back inside the campus. I think the deadline was 7 or something. Don't recall it now. And the guards used to make a huge hue and cry if students came in late, take their ID Cards, complain, and god knows what. Dumasses! Anyways, it didn't suit the students and so they found a way out. It was worse for students who used to come to Bombay on weekends for coaching classes. They generally returned on sunday nights. And if they left without the college's permission, then they would not be let in. The funny thing was that the college would not allow students to come back on weekends even though it was an attempt at trying out ways to pass out and graduate. Of course that didn't stop anyone from leaving the campus at their own will :P

During one of our ragging (oops, introductory sessions) nights, our seniors introduced us to the concept of TP.

"Abey! TP kya hota hai pata hai?"
"Haan bhaiyya! Time Pass"
"Ch!@#y@ hai kya? Time Pass! Abey gadhe yahan Time Pass ke liye TP karna padta hai. TP ka matlab hai Taar Paar. Campus ka Taar Paar karoge to hi kuch kar paoge. Jitni jaldi ho sake seekh lena"
"Theek hai bhaiyya! Kal hi seekh lenge"

Thus we were introduced to the idea of TP. One of our batch-mates who had come earlier and now was a professional TP guy, showed us the route to freedom. A section of the route fell in direct view of the guards, though they used to be generally quite far away. During the day, that was a tricky part. Usually what students did was slip out with the day scholars and return the TP way in the night. But there were emergencies when we needed to leave college during college hours and that too was an issue :( So TP was inevitable.

So we needed to pass that area within a flash of a second, somewhat similar to the cartoons where the sly fox slips from behind tree to tree to reach the hen coop. After that we had to pass through some pretty disgusting areas, with certain areas covered with extremely questionable material. I think I'll skip the Quantitative Analysis of it. We just tried not to step on it.

And then there was a wall with barbed wire on the top. We had to slip between that. Pretty difficult in the beginning but then we got used to it. The adrenaline rush was just awesome! :) Towards the end, there were guys who had literally stopped using the main gate. They TPed, even when we had authorized timeout. :D The authorities obviously knew that something fishy was going on, but never really was able to catch anyone (not in my knowledge). At times when the number of luggages were large, we had accomplices in the hostel, who would throw them out from the windows, once we were out. Getting in with a lot of luggage was a little more difficult. Care had to be taken to make sure that we were not caught between the main road and the point of entry.

It was a fun activity :) More like infiltrating enemy camps and then escaping to freedom after the mission was over :)