A Bout of Nostalgia!!

I am in a nostalgic mood today. Have been for some time actually but today is when its hitting me the most. I gave my 1st exam of the 4th semester end sem examinations today. Another 5 exams and 11 days later and my 2nd year of engineering will be over. And while it'll still be another 2 years to go before I can call myself a graduate, I just can't help but realise how these two years seem to have gone in the blink of an eye. When we return to college on 21st July from our homes, we'll be in 3rd year and I guess that's when we'll officially start ticking down the time we have left in this place we have called home for the last 2 years-Manipal. No, I am not counting down the days yet as there's still some time left for that but I guess once you realise that you are about to enter the 2nd and final half of your college life, getting nostalgic is something you just can't avoid. Especially if you are as emotional a person as me or have the fantastic group of friends that I do. Almost each moment remains cherished and I just can't beleive that I have been with these boys together for almost 2 years now. Really~I couldn't ask God for a better bunch of friends and God Himself couldn't have given me better friends even if He wanted to. When he send me to Manipal he almost seemed to say-"Farid, this is it!This is the life you dreamt of, these are the friends you have always wanted and you are one of those few lucky people who is actually getting the friends that you are going to get in Manipal!" And I really can't thank God enough for that.

And it's been a journey that I'll never ever forget. It has undoubtedly been the most remarkable period of my life. When I was in school I had heard a lot about how your college days are the best days of your life. Two years into my college life and I can tell you that all of it is true. College days are indeed the best days of your life. And though I have no intentions of extending my stay here for more than the presribed 4 years needed to earn your degree, a part of my heart wished it could. But I guess all good things have to come to an end and last only for a short while.

Almost every memory is still fresh in my mind as if it was yesterday and yet somehow it all seems so long ago now. I can't really believe that it's been 4 semesters already here~it seems just yesterday that I had taken my train from the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai and got down at Udupi station to get admission in the Manipal Institite of Technology. Has it been really that long? I guess it has for my exam hall ticket says I am giving the 4th semester exams now. Seriously~good times do fly. We can't wait for a 1 hour lecture to end and yet how many of us has actually realised that each of those hours has now contributed to a whole 2 years?? We have surviving those boring torturous lectures for 2 years now. And we still ain't used to them.

2 years ago I had entered Anish's room in the 11th block hostel with his parents still there and we had discussed about our plans to conquer Manipal. 2 years ago I had entered NLH-104, our classroom for the 1st semester with Anish and looked around at our new surroundings with complete awe. "Is this really a classroom?" O had wondered to myself foe these classrooms could have easily been substituted for a multinational company conference meeting or a multiplex theatere screen. 2 years ago on a saturday I had walked up to that podium, stood in the centre and given a speech on "PEN" in the speech class and had blown the entire class away. It was then that I knew that I had arrived. It was then that the person called Farid Baig-till then just a short, stout, bald boy began to be noticed. It was then that I had made friends with Ritayan and Sameer-a friendship which 2 years later is still going strong. Those two room mates were the first official friends I had made in my class after Anish(whom I knew from before). And that was a sign of bigger and much better things to come. This classroom also introduced me to Abhijeet, Anish's roomie and together me, Abhijeet, Ritayan, Sameer and Anish formed a group that is still going strong. We are all in different classes and different branches now but our friendship remains strong.

Once I got to know Ritayan and and Sameer it was only a matter of time before I was friends with Neelabh, Nikhil, Anshuman(my current roomie), Balli, Sankhya, Mandar and Bhaskar. Together with this group I would do all the masti in 1st year and in particualr first sem. The chutiyaps that we did in 1st sem are really too many to recall. Rechristening Abhijeet as Ghoda(the honor belongs to Ritayan) was one of them. Cursing basic electrical technology and wondering if we'll be able to even pass that subject was another. Luckily~we all did. Oh~and how can I forget our great plan to go to Goa in 2nd sem that we made on that fateful night of the 1st sem at KMC Greens. It was an iron clad plan, one that could never go wrong. The fact that the plan was never executed is an altogether different story. But it doesn't make any lesser a story though.

And oh~how could I ever forget the 1st semetester end sem exams. Honestly~I had never had so much fun in my entire life and I couldn't have picked a worse time for it. Almost every day of the end sem we would hang out at the Inoocation Centre steps at about 7 in the evening, then go have dinner at any restaurant we could find, thus wasting 3-4 hours in the process when we should have been busy with our books, and while coming back from dinner as we went past the girls hostel we would sing songs in loud voices (to ensure that the girls could hear) "Tujhe Dekha To Ye Jaana Sanam" or "Mere Haath Mein Tere Haath Ho". God~those were the days. When we felt we could actually get away with anything, when immaturity was allowed and when these actions were actually looked like as having fun. Now as we are about to enter 3rd year, if we went singing in front of the girls hostel, we would probably be branded as rowdies and immature seniors, instead of innocent and fun loving juniors. How views can change in a matter of 2 years!! Oh~and ofcorse, on the final day of our 1st semester with a Maths paper still to go, me, Nikhil, Abhijeet and Sankhya went about clicking pictures of the college during the afternoon. Oh~and I gave a pepsi treat to everyone in our hostel mess as a tribute to our 1st sem and our friendship. And during evening all 14 of us were clicking pictures at almost every spot we could find(we didn't even leave the gates of the college canteen....I mean come on~who clicks pictures of the college canteen gates? But we did.) and when we were done doing that, at about 12 in the night we all gathered in Ritayan's room to celebrate Abhijeet's birthday which co-incidentally happened to fall on the last day of the sem. So as Abhijeet cut the cake aptly titled "Happy Birthday Ghoda", the rest of the hostel went about tearing anyone's shirt they could find as a celebration of the end of the first semester. If you were wearing a shirt and dared to step outside your room then you sure as hell never wore that shirt again.

Really~that first sem seems almost like from another lifetime when I think of it. None of those things that happened in 1st sem happen now. I guess it's because we have got used to the life here. Almost nothing seems to be new as if we have done it all before. Excitement for parties has almost vanished. Actions like tearing each other's shirt or singing in front of girls hostel which seemed so much fun in 1st semester is now almost looked down upon as being immature as we come close to entering 3rd year. Have we really changed that much? Have we really grown up that much that we now look down on things that we found fun just 2 years ago as chilidish behavior? I guess we must have. But it still doesn't feel so though. It seems that we are almost forcing ourselves to grow up. For we have juniors now, and therefore we must present our selves as being more mature and wise than them. And now that we'll be 3rd years we have to act more mature. W are not kids anymore. 1st years are~and that's why they can get away with anything. For childishness is expected out of them. Yet somehow I can't help but thing about the child inside me still waiting to sing in fron of the girls hostel. For that was so much fun. And what's the big difference between being 19 years old and 21 years old?

We really haven't grown up that much. We just think we should grow up for it's time for placements now, it's time to give campus interviews, we'll soon be having jobs and therefore we have to show maturity. We can't afford to be immature. But inside~we all are still kids. It was exemplified by a very simple act in the Group Study Hall yesterday. At about 10:30 in the night, me, Sameer, Shashank and Neelabh got together and out of sheer frustration and boredom decided to play a Bhojpuri song in the entire Study Hall just for fun. And as the song'Bagalwali' played at full volume and every person busy mugging up last minute notes looked around for the source of commotion, me, Shashank and Sameer just couldn't help burst out laughing clutching our stomachs and rolling onto the ground in mirths of laughter. Really~it was the most fun I had in a long time. And it maybe an act of immaturity~but it still was fun doing it.

IN OUR HEARTS, THERE STILL LIVES A 1ST YEAR!!