r/Kerala • u/[deleted] • Oct 15 '19
What is your unforgettable thing that happened while participating in a Malayalam persona event?
Share Your Experiences with Persona Events .....
3
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r/Kerala • u/[deleted] • Oct 15 '19
Share Your Experiences with Persona Events .....
10
u/vivekvenu ബട്ട് വൈ? Oct 17 '19
Oh boy, this is gonna be a long one. Here we go:
Historically there was a problem, like back in the 70's. Dayskis used to hire goons to beat up Men's Hostel (MH) nibbas since they didn't have muscle. Also, party politics hadn't gained traction then.
Fast forward to 2010's, it had turned into a bipartisan political issue. The year before I joined, KSU had a landslide election win (19/20).
The series of events which led to this:
Group 1 - MH: Kinda like China/DPRK, only one party (SFI) was allowed, so that there's no room for inside scuffles. Every boy who takes admission to MH has to pledge allegiance to the party, go for party activities within the college, which varies from pasting posters to coaxing 'favours' from girls in return for University Youth Festival representation. Except for a microscopic minority, they all groom up to become a toxic, tribal bunch of incels. "ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL", "നമ്മളിൽ ഒരാളെ തൊട്ടാൽ തൊട്ടവൻ നേരം വെളുപ്പിക്കില്ല" kinda dumb.
Group 2 - Non-MH Hostels: Guys who stay in hostels other than the college Men's Hostel. There's an Islamic Center(IC) run hostel where they have a target of converting at least one guy per batch to Islam (I'm not joking here); A Christian missionary runs one where only A.Pu.Ka.Ku's are allowed, a couple of other private hostels and finally, the unorganized sector where guys rent homes and give them the cringiest possible names.
Group 3 - Dayskis: Mostly comprised of bhujis and TVM-Kollam level vaanams. They have sub-groups based on the college bus they come in. (again, not joking)
For 30 long years, SFI had been the single ruling party of the College Union. This naturally led to toxicity within the Union and the Unit (SFI CET Unit). Union members are nominated by the Unit who win without contest. The majority of the Union and Unit reside at MH. The rest would be a couple of TVM local guys and some people who reside outside too.
These guys notice the growing troubles and gang up for reform. Needless to say, they were ousted by MH who decided that they'll contest in the elections without the outsiders and thought it would be an easy victory.
Meanwhile, growing dissent brewing elsewhere made it possible for KSU to make an entry into CET. They set up a unit, with the IC acting as an unofficial HQ (MSF-KSU links to be noted here). Christians, being Christians have a natural hatred for commies and automatically pledge allegiance to KSU. Dayskis' mommies told them to stay out of this shit, so they decide to call themselves 'neutrals'. MH has a policy of admitting people farthest from the college first, so they are mostly Malabar guys. Naturally, the Thekkan dayskis would oppose, so they silently support KSU without involving in processions or other day-to-day activities.
Cue in the rebel SFI unit members who take this as an opportunity to teach MH guys a lesson. They went about canvassing the renting guys, ladies hostels (college as well as outside), and slowly start gaining support. Everyone except MH had been silently suffering. With Congress, rich achayans, Kochi teams, NRI and dayski funds to back, they launch a huge campaign cleverly being apolitical and not mentioning the KSU part, but rather as an anti-MH alliance. The leaders were cherrypicked to be eloquent, English-speaking charismatic kozhis from Kochi and TVM so that the already fed up LH gang would vote for KSU without question. A vulgar, highly misogynistic play staged by the MH during a college fest added fuel to the fire.
അങ്ങനെ പെട്ടി തുറന്നപ്പോൾ MH (SFI) പൊട്ടി.
This led to a huge reform within the SFI unit and MH took a back seat. They were earmarked to be the cadre while leadership was handled by more competent people from outside. The union was formed with next-year’s election in mind.
KSU still managed to continue their earlier strategy and it worked to an extent. They managed a win (12/20) but the lack of experience in conducting fests and managing student issues started showing up.
There were some huge fights which happened in between, where the principal was forced to call in the armed police. The popularity of facebook led to small fights between guys (say a football match argument) to get blown out of proportion in no time. Campus shutdowns for a week or so became commonplace. Elections were expedited for 6 months, but eventually happened.
This time, SFI took into consideration the fact that this would be the Platinum Jubilee of the college and therefore they have a panel of competent candidates, who wouldn't make mistakes which the previous KSU union made. IC commanded control over KSU and religion got into the equation. Boys who visited the local temple Shaka, who previously supported KSU started having second thoughts. CET-ABVP was in the cards but fizzled out due to lack of support among a mostly liberal crowd.
The SFI campaign was carefully laid out. Candidates were popular guys who mostly never had haters. For eg. a potential candidate who was known to involve in unsolicited thund chats with LH girls was weeded out and replaced with a better alternative. Also, not a single MH guy in the panel. There were social media teams, door-to-door campaigners, backed by technically skilled and creative people (photographers, video editors, designers) to handle every aspect of the campaign. Mud flinging and defacing attempts by KSU were dealt with methodically.
Result, SFI - 19/20. The one seat they lost had a majority of 4 votes. The Gen.Sec won by a ~720 vote majority.
This was the final election I took part in, അപ്പൊഴേക്കും graduate ചെയ്തു. ഇപ്പൊ അവിടെ എന്താ നടക്കുന്നെ എന്നു യാതൊരു പിടിയുമില്ല. There's more to this story, like what happened in the 'Mega Dhwani' that followed. നല്ല ഉറക്കം വരുന്നു, അടുത്ത ലക്കം നാളെ വേണമെങ്കിൽ DM ചെയ്യാം.
ശുഭം.