I am an engineer - to be. Tomorrow I am (supposed) to design products that may (should) suit your needs. If I were to write down all the stuff that me and a few of my friends cook up in class, most of you might not believe it.

For me , every morning is Monday morning. The other day, my Machine Design teacher kicked me out for being regularly irregular to class. No calculators, no data-books, and late to class. However, I'm lucky he didn’t check my bag. I've one pen and a book titled “reporting for the media”, stuffed inside my bag and that's it.

If Kerala University were to make attendance non-compulsory, that might be the end of the glorified 'campus life'. Seriously, that is the only reason I go to college. And I've been trying to meet the goal of 75 per cent attendance, unsuccessfully, since six semesters. My staff adviser, an angel of a man, wheezes, pants, curses and prays to push me through a semester.

I have arranged a guy to give me proxy-attendance when I’m not around (which is most of the time). The promise of a grand treat at the end of the semester, (if I make it through) keeps him going.

Last year, we had a few new staff. I used to sit near the door and soon after the attendance is registered and when the teacher looks the other way, I would slip out of the door. I have got caught once too.

Now we have better chances. The new teachers do not seem to know the rules. There is this new teacher, this semester -  he comes in; we go to him and say our numbers; he marks the attendance; and we state random reasons to disappear.

For the past three-four weeks, his class records show above 90 percent attendance while the actual number is 10-15 out of the 60 students who are supposed to attend his class. The poor young guy still has the bewildered look he had the first time this happened.