Reportage: A Ganesh Nadar. Photographs: A Ganesh Nadar and the Sarvanan family. Design: Dominic Xavier, Rajesh Karkera

'There was this Sippy theatre in Tiruchi. It used to show English movies," says the other friend Karthik, "We never missed even one. Saravanan was a bike freak. We even planned to take part in a Scissors rally. We could not find a sponsor and the plan fizzled out."

Karthik is now a businessman in Theni and recounts the college election as if it were just yesterday. "In our college, the chairman was always a member of some political party or a very rich kid. We changed that. We decided to make Saravanan the chairman in our final year and succeeded. It was the first time the college had an intelligent chairman in a long time."