I give in. This one’s for the nostalgia. The last one week i’m being bombarded by senti FB statuses and sad smiley msgs from all directions. And I managed (mostly) to remain resolutely cynical. But today got me thinking and i decided to compile a list of the things about college I’d remember the most. I know there are loadsa more incidents that i’ve failed to mention and several more that I’ve forgotten all about (as my friend’s slam books remind me every time) and other embarrassing ones that i’ve conveniently repressed but these I believe will come with me to the end.
My 21st birthday cum advanced new year cum temporary-farewell-for-anjana-and-maya party:
Due to the public availability of this post and due to peer pressure and due to anjana, maya and niru promising to kill me if i post any finer details regarding this incident, I shall refrain from doing so. But after a very very long time, I felt truly excited. My actual birthday, to say the least, was a mess. Unfortunately stupid CTS decided to hold his campus placements in our college the day after my birthday. As a result, most of my friends were too busy preparing. A well meaning friend actually tried to convince me to stay over at her place to teach me 4 years worth of Information Technology. But I didn’t want to remember my 21st birthday as the birthday I learnt IT, so.... And so the beat part of my birthday was spent sitting at home, staring at my Fb wall and refreshing it every few seconds. Sure i had a great lunch with my mom and sis at the Adyar Park (courtesy of some vouchers my mom had) and sure I got some totally cool gifts from my friends but anyway.....
So getting back, my actual birthday was a very ok-ish one. But this.....this was what a 21st bday was supposed to be about. Loadsa firsts. Loadsa comedies trying out the firsts. Loadsa frowning on anjana’s part. Loadsa phone calling on her mom’s part. An ultimate suprise that the idiots actually managed to maintain as a suprise (History with a capital H)-cutting cake in the middle of the road with the Raintree parking attendants looking on weirdly, driving back close to midnight on a Scooty on reserve, praying praying praying it wont stop midway, catcalls in the petrol bunk......*sigh* Total hoot!
Sitting under the tree near the dustbin at stores and discussing ‘Vine of desire’:
Anpu, Rd and I- the feministic trio of our class. Or atleast the more vocal trio of the feminists of our class. And also I would like to believe the better read trio of our class. Throughout these four years, through all the fights we’ve had and through all the silent treatments, despite it and maybe because of it, we’ve always shared books. One book that totally blew us off our feet was Vine of Desire. I remember me closing the book midway ‘coz i got a headache from all the emotions it made me feel. I remember Anpu messaging me to say she was scared of what the book was making her feel. I remember Rd sending me an almost replica of the same message a few days later. Sitting under the tree discussing marriage and love and betrayal and Rd’s expectations in a guy and laughing and laughing over it and walking to close to conduct interviews of all my classmates about what they look for in a guy and then writing a crazy blog about it months later when I come across my interview notes by accident..... Not something I’d forget easy.
Lotsa other conversations would come close. Like the time, the three of us sat together in System Software or some other forgettable class and started talking about whom we would save if a hypothetical anthrax warhead went off in the boys side of the class. Which led to whom we would save if one went off in the girls side of the class. And then in the event that one went off in a Staff meeting. Then came the other department students. Which led to the realization that the people whom we like and whom we considered worth saving in the entire college wouldn’t fill a College Bus. Sad but not reallyJ
April Fools day 2010:
Thanks to my project guide who hardballed me into staying late into the evening for Documentation purposes, i had to return home by ptc all alone. Which led me to play the most successful pranks of my entire life on a few unsuspecting souls. And the ironical part is the prank wasnt even my original idea. It was one I’d fallen for earlier in the evening and decided to try it out on my friends. Man did they fall hook, line and sinker. I thought I’d definitely lose it when Anjana called to confirm but boy am i a great liar! Sometimes I think I went too far, but it wasn’t my fault some people forgot and continue to forget what I’ve mentioned to them loadsa times. And i just had way too much fun. So long suckers!:)
Kathipara-post some Benny Dayal and Krish concert -10.30 in the night -80 kmph-Anjana screaming behind me:
I remember this every time i climb Kathipara. Hopefully I will for the rest of my life.
IPT:
Story in short: I got stuck at an in-plant training at my mom’s office (so guess what, i cant even bunk) with two idiot love birds who were resolutely trying to pretend they were just friends. And i was the proverbial extra limb. Gave an all new meaning to “three is a crowd”. I can still remember Mani throwing I-swear-just-born-babies-would-lose innocent looks when I (like the clueless klutz that I am) tried to tease him. And reading Michael Crichton’s Airframe all alone in a corner while the other two played Chess (Yes brilliant idea you two! Bring a game that can only be played by two when there are exactly three in the group). And waiting all alone in the lobby while the other two would saunter in laughing together (they both came by train, albeit different trains still trains, so they would wait for each other in the station and then come together). Not to mention the friend’s wedding I went to where for the first time in my life I felt like a tag-along. And to top it all, convincing the rest of the suspicious class that they were just friends and that I would KNOW if they werent. To all the friends of couples, I take a bow. And remember the golden rule- If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck....
Canteen:
Nuff said.
Suby:
It was 3rd year and my friends and I were in Kurukshetra. I was tired but Asmi forced me to participate in K-Idol saying we have to participate in everything and get value for coming all that way. So despite my better notions I gave in and filled out their written test, wrote an essay on why Indian Engineering Education sucks and came out. I remember checking my phone to find 7 new messages and 21 missed calls, i remember thinking that if there were so many people trying to contact me, either a)results are out or b)somethings terribly wrong or c)all of the above. I remember noticing that all the calls were from my school friends and deciding that I’d better get out of there fast. And I remember Maya telling me Suby’s had an accident and that he’s gone and just sitting on the platform outside the Management Hall and just staring at my phone. And Srivi crying and crying and crying on the phone. And me calmly walking out and running into a few more school friends in the canteen who were calmly discussing the accident amidst arguments over what juice to order (looking back now, I guess we were all still in shock but it sounded callous to me then and still does a little now). Ironically I got selected to the next round of K-Idol and the next and had to speak on stage. And all the while I kept thinking Suby’s dead and I didn’t pick his last few calls, Suby’s dead and I ignored him, Suby’s dead and I’m on stage. It took me days before I could drive without saying a prayer first, a week before the shock wore off and I burst out crying in the middle of the class. The night Suby died, I went home and ended a fight that had been going on for months with one of my friends. But I haven’t changed. If i meet another Suby in my life I’d still ignore his last few calls and I’d still beat myself up over it when its too late.
568 C rules 4eva!:
Must also include 570 C and 119. Some of the best conversations I’ve ever had in my life were here. I guess half the revenue the 2 AC buses earned must have come out Arthy’s, Deepi’s and my pockets. Endless gossip sessions in the last row, yakking yakking yakking for hours, trying to get into Arthy’s head that she’d be better off without a few people in her life, trying not to stare too obviously at the couples coochi-cooing in the seat next to us, making up far-fetched plans and dropping them....
Also, another conversation I’d never forget was with Rd on a bus from Tambaram, discussing each others’ families, dissecting each others’ homes. It was the first time I’ve spoken to anyone about my family. I don’t think I’d forget that conversation for a long time to come.
GRE:
An exam I had super fun at and which totally skyrocketed me to celebrity status. An entire sem I spent advising long-forgotten friends and fielding questions from sons of colleagues of aunts about how to tackle the GRE (like I knew Shit! Again...so long suckers). I guess more people called me to ask about GRE than all the people on all my birthdays combined. And after GRE came TOEFL. For a few months of my life, I was so sure my life was made. And then I started applying and it was back to the dumpsJ Oh well! I had my sun-timeJ
3rd Year tour:
Dancing. Mock Interviews. A photo session at the top of a hill looking all sweaty and tired but looking like we’d just planted the Indian flag on Kiilman-fucking-jaro. Antakshari. Tug-of-war. Cheerleading for tug-of-war. The few (of course) fights and arguments. Perfect!
Farewell:
Loved it. Almost every bit of it. Just for the memories. The dancing and the photos and the (wierd) hairstyles and the ac breaking down and all the senti crying and the ride back in the car full of righteous anger and heaven’s wrath and all the comedies that followed the next few days restoring peace. Let me just say....Great entertainment. You made my last week at SSN Entertaining and Eventful with a capital E.
Lazy afternoons in the 'Secret Room':
Secret no more, I must say I was the one who discovered it. Aah...the number of movies we have spent watching there, the number of times we escaped to its relative privacy, the number of plans made, the time we ‘saved’ a newly-hatched sparrow and guided it in the path to freedom only to watch it get eaten up by a crow just when we were congratulating ourselves. Somethings are better not messed with.
Instincts:
The best for the last. For a long time, college was a place i tolerated between Instincts. It was a phenomenon. From the first to the last. All the memories: sneaking peanuts meant for the chief guests we were supposed to serve as part of our Hospitality volunteering work, endless sponsor hunting, sitting at Maddy’s feet like a sycophantic puppy (I swear i went into the light right then and there), learning to play Counter Strike from the pros in the days leading up to @nd year Instincts (Arathi and I kept dying within seconds until some poor guy who loved the game too much to watch us play it so horribly, took pity on us and showed us how to move forward and how to actually use our guns. We managed to survive for a whole 2 minutes after that :D), the 5 course lunches (biriyani all 5 courses. Advantages of being the youngest girls around and having doting seniors), the midnight kalaais and osi pepsis for which I still get ragged to death, showing my school friends what a cool college I had (walking with Hema, Sugi and Ramya acrossthe ground and being so sure that we’d be friends forever, jumping from chair to chair with Deepak trying to catch a glimpse of the dancers on stage during choreo night, arguing about the merits and demerits of Ragging with Dash while walking from one venue to the next). I met some of my best friends through Instincts and it is something I will forever be grateful for.
And so it all comes to an end. The fun. The laughter. The fights. The praying fervently after every semester. Hell, I’ll even miss Anna University (where else in the world can you get a degree with just black pen, blue pen and double underlining?? J). And God forbid I even miss my project guide. To all the memories I’ve forgotten and the people I’ve missed out, watch out for part 2!
