It seemed preposterous at first – spending 30 hours on road,
on a well-deserved weekend, to spend less than 24 hours in our
alma mater.
Yet, it happened – we found ourselves packed in hired cabs,
negotiating the curves of Mussourie and the potholes of UP to finally land in
that patch of desert where much of our lives were molded.
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The SAC ambiance gave a sense as if
I was here only yesterday
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It was a complicated experience as it ignited different
feelings in each one of us; the feelings that consistently flickered and
replaced each other through each passing moment. As for me, the initial burst
of excitement soon gave way to fatigue which was subtly transformed into wonder about how
things that seem so commonplace today, were so pivotal then.
As is usually the tendency, each batch tends to highlight
its uniqueness and give wings to its vanity by proving that things have only
worsened since it graduated. Needless to say, we were not immune to this J, and with our newly
acquired bakar skills (courtesy the
UPSC exam) we could easily justify how pivotal we had been to the institution
as we knew it.
So while each one of us spelled out his/her theses of
exactly how things have taken a fall, it was interesting to observe the changes
that had slowly crept in over the past few years.
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| The Dug Up C Lawns where even photography is prohibited |
The “crowd” looked just as we had left it – extremely casual
(read sloppy) dressing sense, similar
faces and the same unmistakably unique BITSian lingo. The campus had undergone
a number of infrastructural modifications – from the more sanitized REDIs
to the completely dug up C lawns, but despite all this the feel of the
campus, as we knew it, was intact.
The interaction that we had with the BITSian junta and
others who happened to eavesdrop was unexpectedly exciting. We were all
expecting half-interested crowd of less than 20, who would (in a typical
BITSian manner) walk out as soon as we became boring. But what greeted us was a
hall brimming with people who were bubbling with excitement and filled with
queries. It was a wonderful experience with each one of us giving gyan in his/her
peculiar style.
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| With NVM Sir - Revisiting The Old Times |
Meeting NVM sir and other faculty members was also a
reminder of the fact that nothing has changed – for what makes an institution
is not its buildings but the people.
Overall, it was a well-timed
closure to the intense love-hate relationship that I shared with the
college that has had a larger than life impact on me.
