The bus rattled and bumped across the narrow lanes lining the slums and we were bounced around mercilessly as I tried to crane my head out of the window to catch a glimpse of the place that I was to call home for the next five years. I had chosen a college during counseling without even bothering to look at it just because the other colleges I had as options were not in the city. My mind made every building that was moderately sized become the run down shack that it was going to be my misfortune to be a part of. As the college building eventually drew near and grew in stature as I approached it, I heaved a sigh of relief. Actually I think it was a big whoop of relief. The building was big. There was a campus. There were other students. I was going to be ok!
The first few days were amazing, in a new city, no parents, new classmates, new WOMEN!! Even looked forward to ragging.
After the first few days of settling in and my first and last strip tease for drunken guys, measuring rooms with match sticks, learning crude initiation songs, and learning to call everybody regardless of gender, caste, creed, species "sir", women who had their noses in their books all the time, and guys who preferred speaking the local language to English, I was rattled. Also led to the realization that man is a hardy animal and will adapt to anything given the time and appropriate doses of boredom.
The next 4 and a half years passed in record time bringing and taking with them a mixture of happiness, friendship, fun and games, muddled romances, a fair share of sadness, missing home and losing friends. And in the back ground without doing anything spectacular other than break a few records for minimum attendance possible, I managed to finish my subjects and before I knew it transferred back home.
I realized I had been waiting to come back but I realize now that I am here that I was glad to have been there as well. My college wasn't the best in the world and I didn't have the social life I had dreamed of, but 5 years turned me form a boy into a man and I will always cherish them dearly.
The college itself had its fair share or more than of problems. Management that served their own selves before the institution, indifferent students and teachers, stuff I am told is more common than it should be. Now this institution is broke and fighting derecognizing from the centre and everyone who is associated with the college is on an internal strike with no signs of an immediate solutions. Its heart breaking for me to think of all my friends who are still there and all the teachers I had admired (very few!!).
Our graduation is coming up this month, and a celebration, though in order for getting through a grueling course, could have probably come under better circumstances. To make the most of a bad situation, we are hoping to gather and remember what our college meant to us and pray for a new lease of life for it remains a part of our identities for the rest of our lives .
Dear Aloque:
Please do not copy paste stuff from Word, as it causes problems with the HTMLArea that we provide you for formatting. Please first copy paste into Notepad or some other basic text editor, and then copy into your blog. Cheers!
Regards
fullhyd.com
thanks for making the link open guys. learnt my lesson!