[Reader-list] Of how we became engineers..

[Amitabh Kumar]

It was 11 in the night and we were driving around the streets of Baroda.

Nothing out of the usual, just a drive in the night.

A police van stopped us and asked us who we were... and what do we  
do. Before I could mumble ' Faculty of Fine Arts..' , my friend said,  
" We are engineers,saheb, coming back from work."  The cop took a  
hard look at us and then nodded.

We sped away.

I asked my friend what that was about.

" These days are not really good for the fine arts crowd, man....  
these guys just need an excuse to pick up SOMEONE from the faculty.  
Anything.. I have been picked up once and harassed.. a few others  
have spent a night in jail. It's lucky we weren't drinking..."

I waited for the giggle that would signal the end of the joke.

There was none.