Nostalgia Again

It is that time of the year again, when engineering colleges throughout the country are getting over with the 2nd semester of the current session. And across Orkut, you find headlines such as "Leaving xxxx", "Bye-bye xxxx" and the likes of these. All this just reminds me of my engineering college and the time I left it, which was the same time as now last year. Even otherwise, at various times of the day I think about what I would have been doing at that time, had I still been a student at TIET. It sounds funny. TIET, short for Thapar Institute of Engg and Tech. I guess the college also realised that and now its called TU or Thapar University, which I guess ranks higher up in the cool quotient.

As you might have seen from the numerous number of posts on TIET, I really miss my college and Patiala and in a strange, weird, slap-me-and-wash-my-mouth-with-soap-for-saying-this way Punjab too.

Coming to think of it, all the incidents, all the people, every small thing that took place, it all seems so unnatural now, as if it was all just a dream and suddenly I woke up one day, back in my room in Delhi. With only memories of some strange and weird people, of some stranger and weirder incidents, in a place that refuses to be erased from my memory.

I usually get so pensive only during the evenings or when I see the profile of somebody still in engineering college and look through his scraps to realize, that's what my scrapbook looked like not a very long time ago but it'll never look that way again. A stupid line I know, but just a thought.

This line fits in well right now - Those were the best days of my life...

This is what I hate about life. I hate changes and moving on. Both of which I will have to deal with and keep dealing with.

If you've come this far folks, then do let me know you address. You definitely deserve a bravery award!

Being Backstage

For 4 years in Thapar, I saw most stage events from backstage (because I had a hand in organizing them in some way) and I must say I loved it.

Just hope that if I ever make it to IIM Ahmedabad, then there too, I watch all events from the place where I can see everything in profile view.

Would feel just like home.

Bengali: The Economist

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Here is Kingshuk Das a.k.a. Bengali. He was called so because he was the only bengali fellow in the hostel. Add to that, he looks like a typical bengali too.

In our hostel, we had something called a 'night canteen'. It was an arrangement in the mess where we could get eats like maggie, biscuits, milk, tea etc. at night after dinner. It started around 10-30 PM till around 12 AM. That was the time most people got hungry and most of the time, like always, no one had anything to eat.

A typical scene at night.

In my room-
Bengali: chal, contri(contribution) mei maggie khaa ke aate hain!
Me (happy that bengali is actually talking about spending his money): chal!

Maggie costed 15 bucks in the night canteen.

After this

Me: paise nikaal...

Bengali gives me a two rupee coin, saying: ye meri contri!

Me---> standing their bewildered! Deciding whether to kick his ass or simply laugh.

And yes, I almost always had to pay the rest of the 13 bucks.

Bengali is now doing an MBA in HR from TISS, Mumbai and having the time of his life. Miss you bro!

Weekends at Hostel A - Part 1

I was just reading Jitin's blog on his Sunday ritual and I was reminded of my weekends in the hostel at TIET(Thapar Institute, my alma mater...feels weird saying that!). So I thought of writing a post on it.

Since I didn't have a girlfriend in there, which in retrospect seems to have been a good thing, I had more or less nothing substantial to do on weekends. Needless to say, we slept really late on Friday nights. Even if we didn't, waking up before 11 AM on Saturday was a crime for me. By the time I woke up around this time, breakfast had ended in the mess. Not that I really looked forward to it, but compared to the other meals, it was quite tolerable. So on most, rather, every morning including weekdays, I missed breakfast as waking up in time is something I can just dream of. Its become a habit now, not having breakfast, much to my mom's chagrin!

That's my bed in the hostel. With lots of other stuff also on it usually. It was quite a task to actually make space for myself and sleep on it. I guess that's what hostel life is about...adjusting...lol






Anyways, with breakfast over and with nothing else to fill my stomach with, I went back to sleep or go to other people's rooms to scrounge up something to eat. Mostly with little success. And neither did I have the energy to bathe or even brush my teeth. So there was no way I could go out too, looking the way I did, not that I had the energy for that either. So, lounging around in the hostel, passing time in the cyber-room, playing cricket in the corridors maybe or go back to sleep was what I did to pass my time till evening, when someone would go out and get me something to eat because dinner was still too far away.

That's Rajgariah posing for the camera. He doesn't play that well actually.

And that's the great man himself - Pappu. Playing the shot from behind the wickets. Ishneet and Sahil standing in silent applause.

Lunch was something I deliberately missed on weekends. Most times, I'd go to the mess, have a look at the food and come back. The way I am, I'd rather not eat food than eat bad food. So, I had to remain hungry.

That was the story till 5 PM, when someone would go out and hopefully remember to buy what I asked him to, for me to finally eat. And then, if there was a plan, then we would go out to eat, which was most of the times, as the mess food was intolerable. By final year though, if nothing else, we would simply crash weddings. That was fun.


Later on in the night, there was Rahul Sareen's room to watch movies. Almost miraculously, the haraami had a new movie almost every night. He was also the TV Room secretary. A post he had been born for, I guess.

If not Sareen then you had to look for someone whose a friend and planning to watch a movie. Because unfortunately, yours truly did not have a computer...:( But watching movies was important. At times, almost the whole weekend was spent watching movies except when it became really important to sleep or when you had to go for other really important stuff...;) A few times, there was this 'Hostel Film Festival' (which I am sure every hostel has had) where anyone you saw had a film DVD in his hands and was running excitedly towards a computer, followed by a few more equally excited morons.

After the movie, it was back to sleeping or bakchodi sessions. Those are what I really miss now. Films, cricket, gossip, politics (both hostel and the real world), current affairs, philosophy, who was a loser and who was not, bitching, making plans to play pranks, scheming up of ways to make Jagga throw parties, Jagga sessions where anyone and everyone ganged up on Jagga, serious and important issues and loads of things I don't even remember now were what we talked about.

That's Jagga, by the way. I love the look on his face. Like a lamb before its slaughter...:p

Since most of the C block had gone home, it was mostly me, thudda and bengali for the weekend.


That's us, starting from left, me, thudda (Harsh) and bengali(Kingshuk) at Red Dragon in Patiala. A frequent haunt, thanks to cheap prices, decent food and bengali's undying loyalty and insistence to eat at RD.

Sunday morning, again I woke up at 11-12 in the afternoon, with the rest of the day much the same as Saturday, except this time we would go to a cheaper restaurant like the one below.

Bengali Hotel, cheap and very good food. It was quite far from the college, so we went by rickshaw and came back walking all the way to the hostel. Keeping healthy and saving on money.

By the time we came back, it was another movie or going to sleep thinking about the rigmarole of studies in the coming week.

Weekends at Hostel A - Part 2 coming up soon. On C-block.

4 Years

When I was in 1st year, in the 1st semester when I had just started out in Patiala, I didn't unpack my clothes from my suitcase, I hadn't set my almirah and more or less still 'lived out of a suitcase'. Why I did that was because I wanted to pretend to myself that I was in Patiala on a very short and temporary basis. Such was my homesickness. The fact that I was going to be there for 4 more years still hadn't registered.

And at the end of those 4 years, I felt the same way. Except that I didn't want to leave college and come back home.

Now, at times I even watch Etc Punjabi on TV.

As I wrote the last line, I almost died of laughter!...the way things change.

Anyhow, one thing I understood after meeting up with old college buddies, after college got over was that things will never be the way they were in college. As someone rightly said - times change, people change. It was a different time then.

And I for sure miss it.