pleasure by doing this. These were men brought in to protect you, but they seemed to have intentions of malice. I found out later that these were people filled with hatred for the very essence of SVNIT — technology. Knowing that enthusiasts of technology often walked the roads of SVNIT, what better way to keep an eye on the happenings than to be inside the college itself? Oh no, these weren’t ordinary security guards. As it seems, these Luddites hated technology. But why was that? Wasn’t technology here to help people? Not so for them, it seemed. Their leader, whose great-great-great-great-grandfather’s uncle was once a sorcerer in this town could predict the happenings before they even happened. For decades, he gathered the respect and trust of his folks and followers, until one fateful day arrived. On one stormy night, a man of science entered the town looking for refuge. The engineer slowly started teaching the ways of science to the commoners — the laws of gravity, basics of electricity, and even a bit of biology. The city grew, with a particular interest in textiles. As science unraveled itself to the people, they started seeing through the lies of the sorcerer. A year later, they banished him and his tribe of followers kilometers away from the Tapi river, calling him a charlatan and burning his house down. He didn’t take that very well; it was treason. He took a blood oath of striking down any work of science. Since then, the tribe went around breaking scientific paraphernalia, burning down
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Renesa - Farewell 2020
peer-reviewed journals. Through the years, the tribe spread to different parts of the world. Some of them later formed what is now known as the Flat Earth Society. But the bloodline stayed pure, and later, one of the disciples founded “The Securicult”. Decades later, the plan was finally starting to fall into place, when The Securicult was hired by this institute. It seemed inconspicuous to the administrative department (a rare sight), so they signed the contract to protect the college with the help of The Securicult. Unbeknownst to the college, there was something much darker in the works. Not long after they were recruited, on a terrible rainy night, one of the members came running down the road with a drenched register in his hand. He rapped his hand on the college security office door frantically. A man in a blue robe stepped out. Suddenly, as if alive with new hope, the guards from all around the college started to gather around this man, who seemed to be their leader. Exactly at the witching hour, he said these words, which still ring in my ears as a dark omen, “Just a few more days, my brothers. Just a few more! Then it shall be our turn to prove ourselves to our lord and avenge our forefathers! In the name of our lord, we will strip this stupid excuse of a college away from all technology!” To do their evil bidding, they were ready to sell off the souls of the students of the college, beings like you. They planned to do this by some wicked ritual which required every single one of the college students to be present in the college.
They planned on using their registers filled with details of the students as an offering for the ceremony. Little did they know, the information they sought was easily available on the college website, accessible through the technology they so vehemently despised. Once this rite was done, with the power they would gain, the cult planned on turning the institute into a vocational college — where the only vocation taught would be that of a security guard, brainwashing all its students. However, there was always one thing which came between them and the success of their evil plan; it was none other than my precious students, who always found reasons to stay out of the college at night. Because, as you see, the ritual which they sought to perform required all the students of the college to be present on the campus. Not on a single night was each student present on the campus and with each passing day, the band of security guards grew evermore contemptuous. Some lost hope in the cause and ended up buying their first smartphones, while others stuck around in the hope of finally seeing our college get destroyed from within. To this day, the blue-robed man roams around at night, with hope in his heart and anger in his glowing red eyes, waiting for the night he can finally ascend to the Lord of Luddites. I see him walking around every night, cursing under his breath, but there’s little I can do to stop him, for I’m just a bust.
