...STOP!!!..id card... said the huge guard standing on the gate of college, "i am a graduate, i have came to collect my character certificate. He moved his head up and down in acknowledgement, and let me pass in, here i was back after soo much time, back into SD college, i wasnt confused as to where i had to go , neither did i feel bewildered or amazed to see the old college back, it was still pretty much how i expected it, the crowd was exactly what i expected,i avoided all the eye contact and went where my steps first took me, i did not thought about it nor did i plan it, by steps automatically took me to our beloved place... under the mango tree or UMT. This was something as if instilled into my DNA , whenever i would used to enter the collge that would be the first place i would visit before any class or any place else, i generally knew what to expect waiting for me there..... my mind would know as i would walk towards it all my friends siddarth, tarun , saurav, vishal, anuj, deepak, b.sc group, my juniors, the NCC group or some other friends that i would ocassionally see around to be always there... for some reasons, in the subconcious of my mind i expected to find atleast some old faces at UMT, as i reached there my vision got clearer and my steps slowed down....there it was UMT, blank , uneventful and filled with faces i had never seen before.... i was not used to seeing UMT being so uneventful..... as it was one of the places i always expected to b filled with amusement.and fun. there was always something going on, either making videos for sanyam and saurav, just wrestling around each other, playing UNO or chess, or even people bringing out guitars and everybody singing together, or a cricket match.. or something but i never for once saw UMT being so quiet and deserted. I sat there for a while , just to remember the feel of it.... it was a typical summer day..but a bit too quiet for my taste, i thought maybe i should just do what i came here for, get my character certificate. I remebered Vishal was still in the college, i messaged him to come and stood by the fee counter for my application of character certificate. It was still the same college in which i had spent 3 years in still something felt missing from it. Vishal came, i submitted my application he asked me to come to him at 3 as only then would i recieve the application. I sat in UMT with vishal discussing the old days, and all the crazy things we all used to do . after a long chat it was time for Vishal to go as his exams were going on he had to study. After that i just sat alone in UMT thinking about memories a if they were playing right infront of my mind in full motion video. I felt an extreme desire to drink coffee which is one of my addictions... i stood up and went to the college canteen.
Now the college canteen and the UMT were the two primary spots in the college it was a mere matter of preferance which one you wanted... if you liked more quiet and and just personal time with your friends you preffered UMT if you liked being in HUGE crowd and merry environment you preffered the college canteen, but one fact no one could deny was it ocasionally produced some really good food and shakes. The chairs were customiseable as you would feel, i had a walk there ,took my coffee, and stood there for a while just analysing the view... i could see the show offs, the happy couples, the freshers who were still confused and bewildered by the fact that they were in a college, and many other type of people you would expect to see and i remembered all the time that i had spent on this place.
By this point the nostalgia had started taking me over, and i was lost in memories, i walked in the open field of the college just around the UMT remembered the countless football matches or cricket matches..the field was quiet too... and i could feel it in the untouched hot summer wind that was blowing around...i made way to the basketball court...and remembered all the time i spent there.. so many classes that i bunked for this ...and when not playing it still made for a great spot to sit around and chat.. it was also one of the prime destinations for the shooting of Sanyam and Saurav.
i looked at my watch...and saw there was plenty of time left for my certificate to come..so i thought maybe i should visit the IT department once and meet the old teachers, it was yet another familiar place of which i didnt need any introduction or direction... by steps took me quickly to the top floor....as i entered the place i saw Monika maam locking the doors and about to exit... i greated maam with a goodmorning tough it was afternoon.. some habbit just dont go... and had a brief chat with her ...she told today was the september exams so there were no teachers to meet...as all had left.. still she talked for few minutes asking me where i was and how i was doing.And said that praveen sir and paramveer sir were still there if i wanted to meet them so i went in to meet them and had talked to them just as well. After i came out i just took few brief moments to roam around the facility we had.... enter an opened lab... and just remember the feel of it.
....I went down....took my character certificate... went out of the college from the same old unorganised parking lot i knew by this time had figured out what made me feel so alienated in this college today... despite spending last 3 years here
.... i plugged in my ear phones... and went walking towards the 32 sector market anyone spent time in this college would have by default spent a lotta time in this market.I went to the place we would all normally go for a quick lunch called Flames... i remember eating a lot of chana chawal there the food wasnt of the best quality but it was satisfying when you had so much to do and so little time for anything...and right behind it wa MTW where would go for ocassional chats , tikkis and other stuff... and just spend time there sitting on the chairs talking and stuff..also there were nukkar dhaba and some other eating places ... the famous sweet stre called CANDIE and also a subway joing which i loved but most of my friends hated.
I went to the bus stop and just sat there waiting for my bus home... the song let you go by passenger started playing in my phone.. it had some beautiful lyrics saying
Well you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snowOnly know you love her when you let her go
there was the answer to my question i din know how much i would miss my friends untill they all went away and in seperate ways...not the most perfect of bunch but a bunch that filled my life with much needed colour...and the reason why my college felt so alienated to me was because there were no friends with me there to cheer my mood up and to back me up in all the crazy thats the reason everything felt so uneventful.
i pulled out my phone scrolled my way through the contacts list to call mom.. "Mom i would be really late today, so dont wait and dont worry, bie". Then i got up from the bus stand and started walking towards sector 34, I was soaking in memories and there was one more place that I just had to visit before the day ended, I scrolled down the contacts list and pulled out the number that read"infomaths -2"........(to be continued)
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