I am seeing snapshots of my
childhood in black and white, shutter closing and opening, years passing by in
a hurry, now I am in school, time spent with friends and family rolling in
front of my eyes, there is an eerie silence as if watching the show alone, but
in the background there is a lot of chaos, traffic, it feels as if everyone in
the background is talking to me but I can’t hear them. Now, first day at
college, being “ragged”, new friends, years pass, first day at work, years
pass, getting married, toiling with studies, nervousness before results,
interview for M tech ……. “Ajay !!! Ajay !!!”, my friend Anirudha shakes me and
all of a sudden I am back.
I can now feel the pouring sweat,
the heat, can hear chatter. A gigantic building faces me. I am sort of in senses
now, I realize I am here to get registered for my PG course. There are only two
kind of people here, those who know everything about the place & the
process and those who don’t. Being latter I try and orient myself. The setting
is fairly organized, I feel welcomed. I go and sit where an A4 print out of
“PGT” is hanging on the wall.
There are others like me, many of
them. I find out from them what is the procedure, what is happening. I get
registered. There is inquisitiveness now, what next. What all is in store for
me for the next two years? There seems so much to learn, so many friends to
make, so many activities to participate in, but where to start. Trying to find
answers to these questions I start looking around.
Outside the hall there are students
wearing T-Shirts stamped “mitr”, what the heck is this “mitr” anyway. I move
towards a stall where three young men are distributing a booklet. Herd
mentality, I follow. I get a copy of “Freshman Guidebook” at the cost of one
signature.
I am tired, I shove it in my
backpack and head out for some refreshment. I am hungry. I go out, herd
mentality again, I rush to “Gurunath”. I hog. Now is the time to look for a
house outside, broker has been vibrating my cell soo much I fear it has
loosened up. It is not the first day searching houses, but then today good
things have been happening, I am hopeful. Voila! Wify likes only the third
house we visit today, it’s a done deal.
We shift the luggage (these four
words are not as simple as they appear). Its night 2345 hrs. Suddenly I
remember the guidebook. I want to read it, give me anything to read now and I
will. It is much better than doing what I have been doing all day today. I go
through. I find in the Cultural and Literary Club section of the book that
there is a writing club. I remember I was looking for a starting point.
And so I write this……
Hope to keep contributing to this
club. Looking forward to meeting and interacting with all you lovely people.
Signing off.
