The panther is on the prowl again.

This time last year it was in its element, raw and bare, like the Gladiator's colosseum, daring Mood Indigo junta to the 'jungle' safari.

This year it has borrowed Brad Pitt's skirts from Troy and is harping on 'Mithology' instead.

Next year, some of us will be alive to 'MI another day (or year, or whatever!)' where it may even throw on a tux, sip a martini and flash a 'license to kill' the competition.

Or perhaps the panther can do an Ethan Hunt, Cruise style, in our very own MI 32 (after all, we had MI 2 right here in IIT Bombay way back in 1974)!

While at it, a panther doesn't really live long, does it?

It has had four years to grow. It's about time we look at plans to marry it off or at least get it into the dating game.

There is no reason to assume the females of this feline species would follow the trend set by their human counterparts and be allergic to the IIT breed.

The next MI then could have the theme 'RoMIo and Juliet' with love in the air, complete with moonlit boat rides in Powai lake. It would be the perfect opportunity for our friend to find his lady love and sing Can you feel the love tonight?

After all, if a lion can do it, why can't a panther?

All this talk about panthers begs the question -- what is it with IITians and panthers?

No, unlike project 'guides', panthers are not scary. They set us apart, within and outside.

Within, there are two kinds of people -- those who have seen a panther and those who have not. I belong to the former and, let me tell you, it wasn't exactly love at first sight.

I stood there, completely ignored, as the panther strode on its way.

It must have been my lucky day. I think that panther was a cranky male; the female of the species would have never ignored me so coldly.

There have been other close calls.

One night, I spotted a pair of glowing eyes in the bush and heard a deep growl.

The eyes, however, flew away and I could breathe again. They were fireflies!

And the growl was actually a groan from a cow suffering from indigestion, what with all the plastic it must have eaten.

It was another lesson, learnt the hard way, to be friendly towards the environment.

And the media -- CNN, BBC, Fox, Time, Vogue� have all been all have been here to record this phenomenon.

Well, okay, okay, Vogue wasn't here.

In one such 'live' interview, an obviously excited student, nervous and conscious of the fact that this could be his big break, let the cat out of the bag so to speak when he was asked, "So, how do you know when a panther is around?"

He answered, "Oh... very logical. All the animals in the immediate vicinity -- by that I mean a circle of radius 100 metres -- gather together and look tense."

That guy from Rajasthan is now working for a software company in Hyderabad, thank God!

All said and done, we love our panthers. And MI is just one way to declare this love to the world.

We've given the IIT panther status. In fact, it scored well over its more average counterpart in a neutral survey of female panthers when they were asked about their dream guy.

Our panther may throw tantrums at being forced to wear a skirt, but how many of its friends outside IIT can boast of being splashed in papers all over, of flashing teeth on television, of making it to the worldwide web?