Chronicles Of An NRE Kid

Growing up between two worlds as a Non-Resident kid.

NRE- - Non-Resident Earthian

July 27th, 2164:

It was a slightly cloudy morning with a hint of sunlight that prophesied an afternoon filled with rain and thunder. It was 9:30 a.m. and most of the students of MANIT were either walking towards their classes or were doubling or tripling to Mata in their hover cycles to grab a quick breakfast of chai, sutta and poha. Just your typical everyday college routine, which everyone knew too well and had adjusted to, seeing as the new term had started a month ago. Everyone except for the 1st years that is. For today was their first day of college.

Rahool was feeling pretty nervous. His father had assured him that everything would be absolutely fine and he'd adjust to Earth life in no time. Being around such greenery, such "Earthiness", made him feel so foreign and strange. He felt so far and removed from the clean and sharp structures of his hometown, Mons Central, as if it were light years away. Which, to be accurate, was technically 12.5 light minutes away from Earth.
Heck, he came from a long line of MANITians. His Dad had studied here. So has his Dada and his great Dada. It was probably encoded into his DNA to survive and thrive here. Growing up, he'd heard a lot of stories about the college through the ages from his Dad and Dada and about all the stuff they had to go through. So yeah, no pressure at all. All he had to do was ace his Nanotech & A.I. Engineering course as well as live up to his family legacy. No biggie.

"All first year's assemble in front of the gate. You'll be escorted to TB-01 in 5 minutes. Follow the set route and do not waddle away. Also beware of any seniors. You don't interact with them, they don't interact with you, everyone remains happy. Anyone who does otherwise, will have to deal with the Warden. Understood?"
Hearing halfhearted assents from the assembled first years, the Head guard, a lanky old man in his late fifties, with an unnerving curled mustache, gave a smirk and nodded, satisfied that his work was done.
Rahool still couldn't believe that in this day and age, they still had to fear their seniors and be separated from them. He'd heard stories from his Dad of course, but had frankly dismissed them as myths from a bygone era. He turned around scanning for his friends. He spotted Alban and Nalen standing near the entrance of H23. Dharav, Menesh, Yagenesh, and the rest were probably wolfing down the idlis from the mess. The thought of the idlis made his stomach grumble, reminding him that he hadn't eaten, a choice he made after taking a single bite of the clay like spheres they served in the mess. He'd rather go hungry with the hope of a more edible lunch than eat that and be confined to the bathroom for the next week. 
He was really lucky to have gotten a fellow NRE as his roommate. Dharav was eccentric albeit a pretty cool dude. His place was around the outskirts of LunaScape 22, one of the major habitat cities of the Moon. A bit older than Mons, then again, the Habitats in Mars had only come up within the last decade or so. To be honest, even though he was an Indian, he hardly knew much about life here or as his father called it, "Growing up sheltered and protected on another planet with no clue on how things occur in the real world". Aside from the occasional visits during his holidays to visit his Earthian relatives during the Martian summer break, he didn't really know a lot about his birthplace. Which is why he was really glad he ran into these group of peeps who felt just as foreign as him, if not more.
Dharav was from the Moon, Alaban from Venus, Nalen from Saturn, Menesh was actually an NRI from USA and Yagenesh was actually this extroverted Indian whom they decided to adopt to their group. There were other's as well from Venus, Jupiter, including one from a space habitat close to Pluto (who'd reach next week) as well as a bunch of NRIs from Nepal, Middle East and other countries. All different individuals, who grew up in different countries and planets. Their only common and uniting factor being that they were Indians who lived abroad (and above) and had to deal with a lot of preconceived notions about not having grown up here from their fellow batchmates.
Sighing, he continued beyond the gate. Alban and Nalen joined him, having an argument about which Hovercycle model had a better battery to mile coverage which quickly morphed into a discussion about the latest holophone. By that time, they reached the 1st Year's teaching block, TB-01. This looked like it was going to be a long day.


August 23rd, 2164:

By now, the first years had slide into a routine and adjusted to life in college. They'd realized by now that while college was fun and filled with freedom, it also was monotonous and drudgery. For as first years, they had a lot of restrictions and limitations placed on them, both by the administration as well as by seniors. For times change, but the social paradigm doesn't. 

Rahool and some of the guys were sitting at the ledge of the terrace, sharing ciggs and having some cold drinks, listening to some songs played by Nalen's Apple iHolo X7.
"So, is it true that all the people in other planets ride spaceships and stuff? Cause I heard that people living there are so loaded, that they can buy these light speed travelling ships and take joyrides to even the edge of the Solar System and stuff. Am I right? " asked Jhaved, one of the local guys they hung out with. Rahool replied, "Nah man, that's absolute baloney. Living expenses there is pretty high. We gotta pay for oxygen and stuff, plus all the organic food. Only some of the elite and billionaire types have travelships, and that's just limited to travel within the planet or between habitats. Not everything you hear is true dude."
"Okay man, just asking. I thought y'all had such things. Everyone got a jetpack though na?" responded Jhaved.
"NO! Jetpacks are like super expensive dude. Not all of us even have hovercycles." he replied back, getting annoyed.
For to these people, the ones who lived down here, held the weirdest views and conceptions about them. And thus, they were always peppered by questions or prejudiced assumptions. Like the fact that they assumed all NREs must be rich and called them misers when they talked about splitting the hovercab costs. Or that they could get treats from them, especially at the high-fi places like Cloud Roof, one of the priciest restros in Bhopal, located at the 34th floor of New DB Mall. Or the fact that they must be best of buddies with aliens, which was absolute nonsense (he'd seen a Martian a couple of times while visiting Olympus Mons, but had never bothered interacting with them much). They even acted surprised when they revealed they were Indians as well. The professor in his Nano networks class was in denial that he had an Indian Passport, until he showed it through his phone. He legit thought all NREs were aliens.

"Calm down bro. He doesn't know better. It's up to us tell them how things really are." said Alban calmly. "Anyway, did you learn the intros properly? Jackie Boss said they might keep a call tomorrow after practice. If you don't know, you're done for bro."
"Ah no. I'm almost done. I'll learn all the fundas by tomorrow. Chill. Thanks for reminding though."
In reality he'd forgotten all about that. It seems that years, decades and even a century passed by. But the concept of fundas and the senior-junior hierarchy, which he'd heard from the tales told by his Dad and Dada, remained the same. Being forewarned about the chances of this happening (as well as getting a crash course on expletives from his Dad), he wasn't call that surprised when, during their first weekend, they were invited for a "friendly introduction and discussion meeting" at H18, by their NRE seniors. Talk about a rude awakening for some of his batchmates, tch tch. He had to learn the intros of a few of the seniors from the Mechatronics and Robotics courses. With so many seniors from so many places and 15+ different courses, the expectation that they remember all intros seemed a tad over the top.
He didn't mind all this though. Apart from a few unsavory ones, most of the seniors were pretty chill and fun to talk to. He couldn't wait to go tomorrow. Dartaj Boss had promised to take him out for a treat after they tested out Boss's new PSVR4 to play Fifa '62. What could be more fun than free food and holographic VR football?
"Rahool, I double dare you to go to GS tomorrow and buy Pepsi for us."
"Alban, I'll only do that after you go to Mata and buy a couple of ciggs. I double dare you."
"Alright, alright, we've both established we don't have death wishes. Dare cancel out."
"Glad to see you've still got a bit of sense brotha."

October 12, 2164:

One of MANIT's founding blocks, prevailing from the time when it was still MACT, was not just Unity, for which it's students were known for but also GTs. The pure joy of planning, discussing and executing the mass bunk, as well as facing the professor's wrath. There wasn't a better rush than that. But GTs are a thing of lore, a relic of a time that the youth of today cannot imagine about, cannot comprehend about. For GTs weren't just about bunking. It was an emotion, a symbol.

"Wait, so you're telling me that GTs are real? Not some made up fantasy dreams by the bozos from my Nuclear Mechanics class?" Menesh shouted excitedly. "This is great! Let's discuss on the class groups and put a GT tomorrow. And one day after. And another after..." Rahool interrupted him, hating that he had to burst his bubble. "Actually dude, I don't think we can have those. Before my great granddad's times, GTs were rampant and prevalent. But the year after he joined college, they tightened the attendance rules and introduced real consequences for bunking classes. It made a comeback right around the time my granddad was in college, albeit temporarily. And again, for a bit when Dad was here. Kinda depends on your luck really. The administration and faculty are really unforgiving towards GTs. "
"Ah man. You showed me the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for a minute there. Damn you man. Your family is cursed. Y'all are the reason this college doesn't have GTs."
"Shut up, it isn't." "You know it is, GT breaker!"
And thus they continued their bickering, going back and calling each other every obscenity they could think of, courtesy of the informal education imparted to them by the college. One sure does learn to cuss while in college. And then they sat back and laughed and joked around and dreamed. They dreamed about the days of old, when GTs were long and beautiful and Diwali holidays went on for 2 weeks to a month, rather than the 2 days they were getting now. The things they could have done with so many days. As first years, they were, as of then, still unburdened, and could dream of things to do and be excited.
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(Remaining transcripts of virtual records corrupted. Please run crrpt_recov_mgr.exe to fix corrupted data)