Pallu baby

Hilarious post on Pallu baby. Nice read, Karthik. Stay on course. Here’s his follow-up (which I can’t find on his blog any more).

Confluence 2005 is happening and there are students from so many B-schools who have come down to IIM-A. Some of my friends from BITS, now studying in other B-schools, have come down as well.

Yesterday I happened to get a call from one such friend of mine who’s studying in ISB (with whom I wasnt in touch at all). After a couple of hi-bye statements, the first thing she asked me was “How’s Pallu baby? And why arent you blogging at all? Your blog is very widely read in ISB. Everyone knows your blog in ISB. That Pallu baby post was circulated around like crazy.”

I felt a pang of guilt when I thought about all those who check my URL every day only to find the same 2-month old post on it. So I thought I should let you guys in on the post-Pallu-baby-disaster developments.

(For those of you who have no clue what I am talking about, read about the Pallu-baby episode in the following post, Fool’s Proof)

Now, I didnt really talk about how we survived the whole thing in that post. Well, luckily for us, we had a couple of other messages between us which passed around the assignment and had nothing scandalous written on them. So, we could take print outs of those messages and submit it to the prof.

I was basking in all the appreciation I was receiving for my Pallu-baby post just after writing it when the phone rang.

“Hey Atul, wassup?”

“I just read your post. Damn funny man.”

“Ha ha. Seriously dude. What an episode!”

“But did you realize one thing ?”

“What?”

“The print outs you submitted to the profs were messages from you to the others.”

“Okay. So?”

“You have your blog’s URL in your signature.”

“SHIT !!!”

After getting over my initial shock, I congratulated myself on the second blunder in two days. Then I contemplated on whether I should delete that post. After a brief struggle between ego and sense, ego prevailed (sense never stood a chance anyway) and the post prevailed.

Besides I justified it with the theory that profs wouldnt really have the patience to go over the stuff students write in their blogs. (Actually, the prof did make some comment about how we guys go home and talk about women and happened to look at me when she said that. The whole class roared with laughter, leaving me struggling to find a place to bury my head into).

A few weeks back, when the mid-terms were going on, I met BV on the road. He greeted me in an interesting fashion.

“Hey, what the fuck did you tell Pallu baby?”

“Huh ?”

“Did you tell her anything about the blog?”

“Are you crazy? Why would I do that?”

“She was the invigilator today. She almost accosted me and said ‘Hey Mister. What did you write in your blog?'”

“What !” I exclaimed. “What did you say?”

“What the fuck, I told her I dont blog. Then she said, ‘Oh yeah, go ask Karthik Laxman'”

“Wait a minute. It doesnt make sense at all. If she knew I was the one who wrote it, why didnt she come to me directly? Hell, I have my snap on the blog.”

“Beats me, man.”

“Thats because she likes you, BV. She really does. I have been observing all those coy looks she gives you whenever she bumps into you.”

“Shut up, dude. I am gonna whip your ass if anything happens to our ID grades because of this.”

We laughed and parted ways.

Finally she came to know.

A part of me however felt betrayed. After all that I have done for her, is this how she thanks me ? Does she have any idea how famous she is the world over? My estimates are that at least 2000 people know about her. Okay, so what if she’s known as Pallu baby and not by her real name?

One of the major motivations of my blog-readers from ISB in coming to IIM-A for Confluence was to meet Pallu baby. 🙂 I wonder how many more people have been motivated to participate in Confluence because of her. I am thinking of creating a counter especially for these people. I’ll probably call the counter “The Pallu baby interaction cell”.

I have my own theories on why she’d not be too happy with the developments. And I would probably attach 70 % of the blame to you guys – my esteemed blog readers. Following were some of the comments you guys put up to the post.

“Oka, you are a naughty boy. No hard feelings, but we have a job to do as TAs.
Moreover, its fun to make you guys cringe!
Well, until the next assignment…
-Pallu baby aka Pallavi Desai (Name changed intentionally)”

And this,

“was i looking pretty in the class today?? I kept looking in your direction but you were only paying attention to the girl sitting next to you. What is her name again?? I am quite jealous
-Pallu baby.”

And soon there were so many wanna be Pallu baby commentors on my blog.

“Wats all this non sense going on in your blog. Who are all these people pretending to be me. As for you, stop staring at me in the class, especially with that cheap smirk on your face. Come to mu office tomorrow and we shal talk this over in detail. Its completely unacceptable.
– I am the Real Pallu Baby.”

“Hey..’the original’ is a definate fake. I am the real one and i really admire your writing style.Thanks for writing about me
– Pallu Baby”

And this one probably takes the cake.

“you keep talking bout pallu baby,all the while ignoring me (the other TA in ID). Wait till i grade your end term exams. Or else you could always ask me out.
love struck ,
– Prajakta (name changed to protect identity)”

She must have digested all these in silence. And then one day things would have come to a point where she simply couldnt take it anymore. Something very inconsequential would have happened and all her pent up feelings would have burst out. And the person who would be responsible for this inconsequential incident could be someone totally irrelevant as well. Something similar to the squirrel with the nut in Ice Age. (By the way, I dont know if thats a squirrel for sure. I just picked the closest animal).

Earlier in the day she confronted BV about the issue, one of my section-mates happened to bump into her on the road. As they were walking towards each other, they smiled at each other in recognition. And then when he was close enough to be heard by her, he said,

“Hi Pallavi”.