Origin of Mayur

101191
Anurag Acharya

the origin of mayur is legendary and only a few myths remain as a record of
that heady era when a hardy group of pioneers, thrown together by fate
(rather than by choice), met in the dungeons of doherty. according to a
friend of mine, who has since passed the veil of graduation and therefore
shall remain unnamed, there was much merriment and the steam tunnels
resonated with the sounds of abandoned celebration (the deep gouges in
the walls stand testimony to one Apunsaala Duniyakaraja's spree -- ever since
i heard this story, i have always wanted to meet this hardy soul, but he too has
passed over to the netherworld called "realworld" and has never been
heard from again). anyway, getting back to the point at tissue, just when the
meeting was coming to a close, mr. balasubramaniam anantkalyansundaram pillai
(hereinafter to be referred to as bala the first) made a casual suggestion.
"say machaan, letus form a club, na!". to his surprise the suggestion met with
widespread approval. a committee formed in no time and bala the first was
unanimously acclaimed president. our hero wasn't used to such an enthusiastic
response to his proposals. sad to say, it went to his head. he rashly
broadened his proposal, "macchi, there is no indian association here.
even hole-in-the-wall places like boston have one" (i guess the iron city
was real beer back then and not the mouldy water that passes for ic light these
days). to cut a long story short, the nascent club was instantly transmogrified
into the cmu indian students' association and it fell to bala's lot to choose
a name. the poor guy had never done so much thinking in such a short time and
started babbling, "macchi, all of you like udipi resturants.." the rest of
his remarks were lost in the tumult as apunsaala let out a war whoop,
clapped our hero on the back and said that that was it. that was the name
the club would carry and anyone who thought otherwise could fight him for it.
no one took him up on that offer and the motion carried unanimously. the
name stuck and survived suggestions like "rani jhansi maitri sangathan",
"amar shaheed utpatrao bapatrao vamanshlelkar union" and "indian-pakistani-
srilankan-bhutanese-bangladeshi-maldivian-mauritian-burmese-nepalese student
association" thrown up by alternating waves of nationalism and multiculturalism
on campus.

you might be a little puzzled how "macchi, all of you like udipi resturants"
can be acronymed to mayur. many of you might be asking the question, what
happened to the "l" ? why has it been banished ? according to my friend,
it is still there, only invisible. like silent characters you know. i did say
they were pioneers....