On the Leopard's Trail

I must allow “Ze King of the Jungle” to take precedence over other insects and animal forms in the IIT lush green campus which many of us don’t know is a part of a 107 square kilometre jungle fondly called as the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. The king being our very own leopard(s) from the jungle which often makes a visit to this technology park – probably to look into the newest and the bestest innovations taking life in this university. Hey hey .. some of you might have taken offence and must have pointed out that the King of the Jungle is the Lion and no one but the Lion – But pardon me monsieur, It is not Ze Lion which command respect inside the campus , but it is the blood thirsty, the original man-eater leopard.

There are many a stories about this magnificent beast that are part of every IITian’s story – But I shall move away from the stories and indulge in some loose talking about this creature. There are stories about the beast attacking people, but little do the outsiders know, there are stories about the beast intimidating only firings, to count em on the finger of my hands – There are exactly four who have faced the creature to tell the truth. Can’t debate on the truth of this particular tidbit but then am not the one complaining. I would rather take comfort in the fact that am not a part of the favourites. So far .. so good !!!

Nights are a busy time for the Special Security team out here as they check every nook and corner of the campus – each gutter and narrow alley for this creature. All equipped with torches and other tools, they are quite a treat to watch (if spotted). God forbid, if there may be a spotting of this spotted creature, then all alarms are up – The RTs (Recievers – Transmitters or better known as Walky-Talkys) go ON and each department / hostel is informed. Mails are shot – Each student receives a mail within 15 minutes of the discovery about the possible threat lurking outside in the shadows of the night. Just a couple of years back, there was a leopard spotting near the Mechanical Department in the wee hours of the night and all students from IDC were frozen in the department till the sun was up and shining, not wanting to trudge back to their hostel and be a possible ‘designer’ prey for this beast, who’d never on the Earth come to know that it is consuming a rare species off the face of the Earth – a person who is a designer and who is sincere and hardworking too.

I usually end up staying back in my design department till wee hours of the morning, at times just the time before it may be dawn and the night not having finished its reign yet. A refreshing walk at 3:30 – 4 AM is what I like back to the hostel before I may crash into my dingy room. A Friday night of hard work is what really gets an IITian geared for a nice long sleepy weekend. I have stuck true to my professional IT attitude and I DO NOT work over weekends. J - so all the work happens over the Friday night.

It was one cold rainy Friday night as usual. The clock strikes 4 and I decide it is time to bid the department Good-bye and move my tired feet and eyes towards the hostel. It was my first night-out in the department and the walk to the hostel was to be a solitary one. I picked up my bag and moved on. A walk down along the Mechanical Department (Yuss Sire, the same Mechnical Department where Mr. Spotty was spotted the last) through the lobby, the Central Library to my right and voila, am on the lonely road to Hostel number 01 (That’s the place where I currently exist over the weekdays). It is raining cats, dogs and leopards (lol) and I get onto the long walk back and I see it – All four feet, standing at a distance – at a distance of nearly 300 yards. At such long distance I cannot see its ferocious fangs, but only the lonely silhouette of the four legged beast. I freeze , more than ice could ever freeze. I pray that the creature may not have seen me – may it be myopic. Damn !!!, I though hard work always pays and not preys (Pardon the poor jokes in this excruciating moment). I am still pulled in that direction, I rub my eyes to get a clearer view and to my horrors, one more four legged creature joins the earlier one. I must have lost my senses and would have collapsed at the spot, making myself an easy, non-resistive prey for these creatures of the night. A cold chill down my spine, but I still move towards the silhouettes. A few metres more and there are more to join the couple. S*** , I must be having a really really bad nightmare .. I rub my eyes, I pinch myself hard more than a dozen times and I walk ahead – full of courage within me, prepared to take on the nightmare with both hands. I move ahead inch by inch and suddenly I see its grotesque face and it snarls with a loud “Mooooo” and I am more dead than alive.

Later I was told that all the #$%#$#@ cows and bulls from the IIT campus, for some strange and weird reason, make the parking lot just ahead of Hostel 1 main door as their abode for the night and it usually is a pain for the house keeping guys from Hostel 01 to keep the place dung free and odour free.

So much of an anti-climax for a night of terror, but am glad to be alive to tell this story. These days I try not to stay in the department for long and make my way back to the hostel by maximum by 2 AM and ofcourse, I take the longer, better lighted route via the Main Building to the Hostel and avoid the shorter path down the Mechanical Department altogether.

Ahhh .. !!! The fresh air of the beautiful dark night – is much better when you take the longer but definitely safer way back.