Memoirs - 1

Initial days at bhopal weren't very pleasant, atleast, when the past was present. We were into our introduction days with the seniors, remembering their names and doing small errrands for them, apart from the schedule at college. It was almost mid september and the seniors were expecting the semester exams in december, max. The day use to start around 6 AM, all the first year students getting ready before it was 7, the time around which seniors use to get up, and then use to rush to get ready for college. The juniors did minor errands for them, all conventional and nothing which could hurt the modesty or be derogatory for an individual. Classes use to start at 8 AM and continue till 2 PM with a 30 minutes break in between. Physics lab on alternate monday (i think so !) had both its share of blessing and swearing. Blessing, because the lab was beside a pond, which after the rains, was full of water, and the serene garden opposite to the Indira Kanya Chatravaas, the lab inside was also cooler, somehow. Swearing, because we had to walk all the way from the hostel to the lab, a distance of around 1.2 km, in the burning sun, the rays like the mythological MAYA, trying hard to stop us from reaching our goal, sometime feigning itself as sleep, sometimes as fatigue and a host of others.
Suddenly, one day, like the sudden rain on a otherwise hot day, like a drop of water for the thirsty throat, our seniors announced that the preparations for the Durga Pooja festival will start soon and they need active participation from us as well. We, students from different part of the country, felt, for the first time, our power, the sense of unity, the first lesson in organising an event on a large scale, even if i was just a link in the chain. We collected chanda from all the university departments, satya bhawan, and among ourselves too, decorated the hostel, cleaned our rooms and the Devi Bhawan opposite to the mess. Finally, on the due date, we all went in trucks to bring our Devi and venerate her for the next 9 days, seeking her blessings and asking forgiveness for our sins. These festivities continued, bringing a slight morning chill with them as well, the season was changing, so was our lives, we were no more new to the place, we were slowly getting acclimatized, like a new born, feeling the care and warmth and in the mother's lap. We were going home too, for the next 20 days or so, for diwali vacations, although not official, but a first hand example of mass bunk, not knowing then, what irreparable damage we were going to do for ourselves, shattering our image in front of the teachers. Going home, first time from Bhopal, had a different charm, i no longer had to think about getting admission somewhere, i was free to enjoy the time, the real vacations after 2 long years of struggle to get into a good engineering college. Time flew fast and i was back to the hostel, rules back in place, the air outside was chilly but my inside was burning like a bonfire, young but wild. But this fire did not last long and we had our freshers party on 6th December 2001, and we were free birds, seniors now allowed us entry into their fold, we liked them and they too, slowly appreciating our efforts and breaking the ice.

I have become old, remembering those good old days which seem as if they happened yesterday, bring back memories of the people i met, the relationship we shared. May GOD bless them.