Delving back 'n' forth in time

I am at the crossroads again. Another crucial year of my life, the last one was miserably disappointing, disheartening and what not! It was the year 2002-03, the “IIT-prep” year. Anyways that’s not the subject of this post. What I want to share is the feeling of nostalgia that hits me hard at this point of time. Looking at my seniors move on, cherishing their final moments together, their last night-outs of IIIT-A life, the get-togethers, the farewell party…the culmination of four years of togetherness, co-existence, rivalry, intimacy, communion, merriment, hard work…it all finally comes to an end.

Next semester will be a whirlwind romance, a tryst with destiny for most of us. Oh I didn’t mean cupid would be at play or anything just that our careers would be at stake…so wherever our luck would land us is still to see. Although I have two long months ahead strewn with hectic preparations (hopefully!!) for the placement season and the CAT this November, I still want to sit back and give a thought to the times gone by. My favorite yahoo SM now-a-days is the famous Casablanca OST, “As time goes by”. Very befitting, given my current state of mind.

Well it’s been three eventful years for me. Hopefully I will be in my final year after the results are out this June. My college years have been anything but a bed of roses, but when I contemplate the times gone by… they just bring a smile to my face. May be that’s the magic of these BTech years. No matter how much you hate them, but you’re sure to miss them once they are gone. I remember vividly my first trip to Jhalwa, the road that lead to my alma mater. The bumps, the potholes, the “amiable” Jhalwa crowd… but then our destination made it all up. One look at my IIIT-A, and mum was rest assured that I hadn’t landed in some far off Timbaktoo college. We were all jam-packed in a Santro, and mum forced me to get off the car and go into the building (which I later came to know was the Mecca-Medina of college: CC-1,2) and ask all the (silly) relevant questions to my seniors, the consequences of which I suffered during my ragging …oops… PDP time. Paro later told me that incident gave me the name of Santro girl. I don’t remember too much of my batchmates from my earlier days of first sem, reason being we were too much in awe of our seniors. Our first interaction was for the performances we had to put up for our fresher’s. We had a whale of a time preparing the event. It was then that those disgusting cheap creatures for us transformed overnight into perfect gentlemen (I agree girls are whimsical!). After that there was no looking back. We routed for our batchies everywhere, whether it was in front of our seniors or juniors or on the playground!

One of the most memorable experiences of my college life has been the 2nd semester cricket tourney. Our batch team was the underdogs. We had no expectations whatsoever. The girls had promised a treat to the whole team if they defeated the Matkas(!!) in the opening match. Much to our surprise, the team did win! Every match that our team played, we were by their side, pampering the players to the max. Our excitement and enthusiasm was second to none. The team skyrocketed to the finals. The finals were dismal to say the least, with a lopsided victory by B2K1. But B2K3 had left its mark! A sore point in our stay at IIIT-A has been the inability to win a tourney. Every event, we are this close to winning it and just then some other team ends up winning the cup.

Now delving back in time, I can safely say that the most memorable period in college has been the freshmen year. We all were dying to shift to Jhalwa then, but come the sophomore year and we realized that the golden period had gone by. Everyone became recluse, caught up in their own virtual world. Even birthday wishes were through yahoo and Orkut(!). But that is the tradeoff I guess. Back in NSC we led a wild life, whiling away time. Our real education… or may be the pretence of it started from Jhalwa :p. Not that we got serious about studies or anything, just the realization dawned in that we were not on a holiday but pursuing our graduation! May be little more focused you can say.

This doesn’t sum up even half of our first year experiences which are scattered with small unforgettable incidences which are may be too trivial to state here. But college life would seem incomplete without them. Also excuse my inept literary skills which fail to summarize appropriately the wonderful times IIIT-A has given us.

Before I am blamed again for droning on too long I think I’ll wind up now. About 2nd and 3rd year may be in my next post. Till then… adios!