01/01/2010--- a nolstalgic begining

I never thought 2010 Jan 1 would be so special for me. Its not that I got a promotion or my proposal bids, but what I could get was a feel of what I had lost for last 16 months. Nothing but my college days. Time could wash the days but not the memories. All the days of those precious 4 years(2004-2008) lie impringed in my heart(our heart)-not a single guy can afford to forget those days.

After buying some sweets for teachers we (I was accompanied by stan, bejo and sika) drove our way to our lovely Govt Engg College TSR. The same Vadakke Bus Stand, which used to stuff both us and cuties of Vimala College(Ladies Arts College-God has been kind to us), Chembookavu Junction, Pallimoola Bus Stop(the destination-highway engineers seldom use these words).Intentionally I missed Chembookaavu. That place have lots of stories to tell, and the hero of the story is none other than Mr Stan who stopped the car there to have a feel of his old battle field. Today he has won the battle and conquered what ever he wanted. Stan –hats off to you gentle man. I can’t go beyond this as my good friend has himself decided to write about his days in chembookaavu.

The gigantic architectural beauty welcomed as usuall and as we 4 marched into our department, we all were spell bound by what we saw in front of us. Shabna taking Survey 2 for the juniors. Shabna is our classmate now working in our college. But teaching Survey 2 was hard for me to digest (Survey 2 is not your choice if you hate mugging ). Goodness gracious. What is happening all around?

We went to meet our tutor Reeba mam, but to our bad luck she was on leave. Stan really wanted to see her as he would be flying back to Dubai in 2 days time. We met almost all of our teachers and HOD and they enjoyed distributing our sweets through out.There were a few fresh lecturers there and when HOD mam told them-our students bought these new sweets (pointing us). I rarely feel the power of certain words-OUR-Today when HOD uttered that word I found inexplicable meanings for that.

Though we are away by hardly 5-6 kms, we never turned up to college. Not because we have been tied up by busy work schedules but the college would be the same when it had the aura of our team. With stan and bejo around today, I could smell the fragnance of yesterdays (though many were missed)-The culverts next to our department and seminar hall-it is houseful during internal examinations, the canteen ( where you get masala dosa for 5 Rs and chicken biriyaani for Rs 18-I am not talking about early 90s-Its 2008),milma which is famous for its thanni mathan ,pazham pori and bajji , the gallery where we spend half the class hours-we discussed more issues than UN executive meetings would have done, M H-men’s hostel-those days and life I will have an exclusive session-our room D 40 (bejos), hockey ground, basket ball court, the labs ,western amphi, eastern amphi, the college bus-gentle man of GEC, main block graphics hall remembered for not engineering graphics but for the bulk of our university exams, survey lab, the landscape of gec and what not……………

Gone are those days when we all reigned the campus, gone are those days when each nook and corner of the campus welcomed us, gone are those days of masthi , fun and mazaa….

Today when we walk across the campus something was missing……..not books or bags…but something that stiff I cant make out……even the posture of walking was different. 2 years back we used to walk with hands on others shoulders. But today all were a bit stuff in their body language. The society wants us to be looked and behaved in that way………Is this what the corporate culture buries in you or is it the burden of being an engineer…….

Will we get those days back……….

I know it won’t……but days like today when I get to recollect my past would come and sweet memmories of these 4 years will reiterate in my heart of heart…….

A nostalgic new year gift………….