Goodbye 1

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 13; the thirteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Dil chahta hai ....a kind of summer of 69’

             How often we miss the good old days of our college & hostel life, we always feel to return to that life, at-least we find pleasure in telling to friends some memories we remember. I had never stayed outside my home before moving to the hostel of SDM college of Engineering, Dharwad. This rhymed poorly with Havard, & we shamelessly took pride to quote: 'Rejected Harvard to study at Dharwad'. As usual it was ragging & introductions with seniors in initial days at hostel & college, (Thanks to ragging in a way which made us friendly with some good seniors whose advice & help has helped us in long run). It was really nice being ragged by senior girls though, kind of gave a gentle kick. Then there was anti ragging committee formed, they were the ones who ragged, the best way to deceive the hostel warden. It was always tough to find time to study amidst all the hostel life fun. We were like the birds freed from the cage called parents & home, just trying to find wings - trying to explore many things which were actually fun, which essentially included bunking classes. They some scrap fellow came up with the idea of shortage of attendance. Now we had to be very calculative about bunking classes. 

       Elec & Commnc  branch - huge strength & we really had to do lot of work to score decent marks. Internal marks were always tough to get. There were assignments & practicals, they screwed if our outcome varied by just millivolts. Our marks were determined by the trajectory in the V-I (Voltage- current) characteristics on graph. We were interested in other curves rather than these curves. There were like millions of theory classes, loads of copying assignments(later in life in software job, we do this in more sophisticated way CTRl+ C/CTRL+V), getting photocopies of notes, labs & meddling with CRO -cathode ray scope to get the desired output. Many a times the fresh fragrance of books were felt only just before the exam. We realized the value of time just before a day of exam always, only to forget it again soon. 8085 microprocessor practicals - consisted of keying in like over 20 opcodes to do just simple addition. This was more efforts than LKG when i used to add using the fingers on my hang & leg in less than a  minute. Engg Graphics class consisted of something like imagining a line parallel to one plane may or may not be available in true length in another plane. What the hell ? it was so easy to imagine to sit in last bench & imagine & fantasize the most beautiful girl hanging out with me although it was so unlikely, these technical concept more than being likely, i.e being a reality were so hard to imagine. How the hell to imagine the transistor amplifies the current on which the whole electronics industry is based. Very tough subjects like Signals & Systems or Fields & waves only myself & God knew the way i understood things & managed to clear the exam, now only God knows. 

              Hostel had a central open roof ground in middle surrounded by rooms on all sides. Palm tennis is patented game of SDM college. Tennis court instead of racket we used our palms to hit the ball. there were few who were so crazy about this game that they even bunked classes to play. It was the time when desktop PC's became affordable for students students, & we found new way to have fun, may it be movies of any kind if you can understand what I mean. On a Sunday when there is no internal on Monday, one random guy would be glued in front of PCs, would get up late afternoon, exclaiming: Neough of studying !  kidding,  Enough, had overdose of porn, need to get a life !  All learnt the 'F' word & started to find it's usage in almost all the things may it be good or bad. I used it in my welding class for the first time that too in front of Sir. They give welding shield which protects our eyes as we should not stare directly at the flame. As I held it came out the expression owing to overdose of seeing Hollywood flicks & chicks : What the fuck ? nothing is visible neither the tip of wire nor the metal joint to be welded. 

        It's very surprising how varied personalities came under common culture called SDM. There are so many humorous moments i can recall, many more are forgotten though. There was a guy- Raj who used to sing Sonu Nigam's song all the time. By default everyone became bathroom singers as couple of bathroom doors would never get latched & you have to sing to indicate your presence inside. Thilak, who kept track of all things happening around him, just didn't mind interrupting you whenever he could making some scrap joke all the time. Sachin, whose room was such a mess, heaps of clothes lying around, not washed since ages, so bindhaas that just wear some jeans & hang out, all jeans looked exact similar & were originally had look to look very dirty. thats the most innovative way to make appear clean all the time. He found something he intended in this mess so easily, that it made my efforts of organizing things seem waste. If we are organized, after a while we may forget where did we keep a particular thing. but if its a mess, then that thing is definitely there in that heap. Then there was Pai, my friend, philosopher & misguide, who ate equal to ten people's share, i always wondered how come he so slim. Then there were good guys who used to simply mug up things & get highest in exams. There was a guy who used to overact just like our Bollywood actors we named him 'extra' for that. One guy used to apply Vibhuti on his forehead & I found him visiting some nearby temple all the time. There were few guys who kept talking all the time, just wished promptly good morning afternoon & evening just dropping in all the rooms. There were couple of them whom were silent most of the time but very strong personalities within. By final year we had finished all scoldings in English & Hindi unclassified dictionary that we had to come to common understanding that 'huchha' was supposed to be very high intensity scolding. But all this meant was 'mad' in Kannada. There were many humorous ideas like gifting a condom on someone's birthday & birthday bumps left a bad ache on the birthday boy. Holi was just tearing of shirts & making one unrecognizable by applying all the color all over. Then there was a malfunctioning phone, put a rupee coin & speak unlimited to impress your girl friend in hostel in same campus. Then, there were small fights and big fights among groups formed for some or the other reason like hitting on a girl, who was supposedly someone's girl friend etc. Once a guy washed another's underwear by mistake as it had same color & came & asked is this yours in room full of ten people. Next day was his photo on notice board with a quote : Get your underwear washed for free. We had cultural event called 'Fantasia' in which the participants from various engineering college in the state took part & it was a whole lot of fun. This also gave a chance to hit on other college girls as the saying goes, girls in neighboring college are always prettier & believe me it's true.  I played various roles in the 'mad adds' event naming a cycle brand as 'Max Climax' - condom brand for cycle ! Thanks to this esteemed opportunity which got me on stage first time in life for such a prank -selling a condom named cycle. Thanks to girl's hostel being nearby many found their love apart from completing their education, many hearts broke as well. Though we did not have a convocation for graduation day with black coats & hat throwing etc, I feel very honored to be awarded the title 'SCHOLAR' by some random guy in hostel which in short meant an intellectual person. I felt overwhelmed when the title was prefixed with common words 'Saala kamina Kutta Gomse Scholar hai be'. This was more prestigious to me rather than engineering degree score which was just a normal first class. I must admit I was never interested in Electronics field & never understood how that works, but this came with many many lessons in life. so much fun & so much insight into oneself. Life always teaches the lessons you never want to learn anyway. Then there were all kind of professors, strict, expert, kanjoos to give marks & always angry ones. All the scholars from hostel dropped in when it was the pretty mam's class & there was no place to sit. Overall, College & hostel life were great. The benches were filled in FILB - first in last bench order though we found that this order is not followed anywhere in our operating systems subject later. I became friends with all kinds of people, so diverse characters, yet special in some way, got to learn so many things from everybody, got to know the value of everything in life. Indeed life is all about learning, Isn’t it ? 
      The last semester was more emotional- atyachaar sort of painful, all guys learnt to drink & becoming all senti that they are going to miss each other's company. It’s more than 5 yrs now, all have moved on in their lives, taken their own trajectories. As I recall the sad moments when we had to depart from hostel, college the last goodbye was so painful, with a false promise that we are going to be in touch in life anyway. Wish I could run across you all guys & gals at some point in life & sit & share the fun we once had, just recall & relive the moments. Wish we could have a grand reunion in college campus sometime, but that's not gonna happen. Many friends are settled abroad. We once rocked the world…it was a kind of summer of 69’ those were the best days of my life!  I keep in touch with many through Orkut, Facebook, but days go by without even signing in leave out checking updates about all friends. 
   I want return to that Sid & tell sorry for hurting his feelings, tell thanks to Sameer for being there all the time, and Shalini to express my love. wait a sec, Shalini was that hot chick.Ah, it's been so long since I fantasized about her. Dude, she was awesomely hot ! 


    Strange isn't it, the irony of life, when we didn't have money we had all the company of friends & time to chill out, enjoy. Now we have money & working in a company, but no one has the time to share that chilled beer ! 
 This pic was of my seniors room, BTW we had strict NO for eatables & drinks in hostel, we assumed drinks meant Pepsi & cola. We were grown boys, No one needs to tell us to take a chill pill. We drink chilled beer all the time. 


But seriously folks, I miss the Sameer, Sid & Shalini, shalini a bit more of course, & how can I forget my love, my only love, I guess not one sided love. Wish I could gather the courage to tell her just once that she looked so pretty and I am madly in love with her. Probably she would have said that she too loves me. 
 Hum CRO mein waveform ko nachate rahe, aur zindagi humko nachate rahe ! 
      Aur najanae kab yun he chaar saal guzar gaye !  
Seriously miss those moments of highest levels of Awesomeness in life !     
     

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