‘I walk back towards the entrance, breeze rustling leaves across the road, fluttering in the wind. I walk past the lifeless canteen with no one to shout. I peep into the empty classes, missing the screams of joys and ‘treat!’. I stand in front of the library where scores of girls bore the brunt of our jokes, now lifeless and serene. A single tear escapes my eye and rolls towards the emptiness of grass, as my mind races in thought. Alone I stand as its all over.’
Leaving one’s college can be considered a barbarous act. But it’s also like the job of an executioner. He knows and does what he has to do even though he feels sad about it. The golden era of your life passes you by and all you can do is to watch it like a mute mourner. The 4 years of life which brought to you moments of immense joy, sweltering anger, hopeless love and despondent anger. The 4 years which you’ll long to relive and which will remain etched in your memory for the rest of your life.
When I retrospect on the years in VNIT, I see myself as a naïve individual when I entered this college. The department was not the talk of the town but it was the scarcity of girls in the college! The first year opened the gates to limitless possibilities. It taught us to broaden our horizon and think the unthinkable. Now everything in life had a solution only thing was to know where you had to look for it. A lot of futile time was wasted in daydreaming about what we wanted to achieve in 4years of college. And one fine day you wake up and see that you are in second year! One year lost from the time allotted to achieve what you aspired.
The second year saw the department opening its arms for you and for the first time you feel alone in the crowd of strangers sitting around you. The fact that you have to spend the next 3 years with the people sitting around you whom you don’t even know creates a lot of apprehensions. Then an even harsher reality hits you in the face- ‘no girls in the batch’. This comes as a killer blow. You suddenly find yourself staring into the darkness of hopelessness. You imagine yourself sitting in the same classroom, staring blankly at the front where some teachers is preaching the unfathomable and all you see when you look around is 60 guys and no attractive incentive to keep you there, and that imagination leaves you a bad taste in the mouth. Then there was another stigma waiting for us to be dealt with- the unspoken drift between the day scholars and the hostellers. Each group supposedly thought of the other as a bunch of no-gooders and themselves superior in every aspect than the others. But I believe that we dealt with the stigma quite well. We pushed the envelope and filled in the void that existed between us and the day scholars and the rest as they say is history.
‘Its strange when the stars suddenly shine bright, the hearts meet, when u become partners in everything, when tears flow only in front of them, and a smile comes just by looking at their faces, then u know something special happens, and life becomes more endearing, then u know it's you're time finally, and you've found what u needed the most- your FRIENDS...’
This was when we made friends. These lines depict the exactness of the feelings felt in the second year. The getting together of us with the day scholars and the bonding between us started to show. We were already the most envied bunch of guys.
Then came the third year and it continued piling up the misery and frustration. This was supposed to be the toughest year as far as the academics are concerned and it did prove itself worthy of the dread. But what it also did was to gel us together. There were no longer any small groups of guys who hung out only with there group members, as was the practice followed in the other departments. This was mechanical 3rd year. It was a pack of 60 boys who had the balls and enough fire power in the form of wit and humor to overpower any situation posed. This was a crazy lot who knew each other very well and whose sole aim was to disrupt the lives of any living thing of the opposite sex. We began to see the positive side of having no females in the mech population and we enjoyed it. The unity brought with it the strength and the style. We were unique in every way and in the eyes of envy of others. We were registered into the black books of every girl of this college and now we were hell bent to make the list blacker! And it was my good fortune that I was bestowed the opportunity of leading this bunch of lunatics for one year. And I did everything in my power to help these guys realize their sole purpose. By the end of the penultimate year of engineering, it was a common ratiocination that no boy from mechanical 3rd year can make a girl fall for him. This was the grandness of our legend.
The placements started at the end of 3rd year. All of us were eager to prove our mettle and we succeeded. We showed the world that the mech guys can master the art of competition too. Our batch bagged the best packages offered and once again the eyes of envy were staring at us while we continued unfazed. We started and continued the tradition of having a job treat for the whole batch in the canteen, sponsored by the person placed.
Then came the last year of our stay in this college and I wouldn’t write down our exploits as they are well known to everybody in this college. But all this sums up to just one fact- the college life is to be enjoyed thoroughly. No matter what circumstances come, never stop believing in yourself and trusting your friends. This college has provided us the launching platform from where we can leap and find the apogees of success. And leaving the college is not the end of the road but it’s the augment of a bend, a bend which will take you into the glittering horizons of future. The world is out there to be conquered; you just need to find the sword.
The following lines are the tribute to the final year students. We rock the world as the poet does.
A life which is to end
Only when I am no more
A life which transformed me
In a fighter to the core
A season of love and friendship
For eternity which will last
In my future to follow
I will long to relive the past
Memories of this part of journey
I’ll carry all life long
Memories of those precious moments
Which made my life a beautiful song
My eyes go teary
Emotions fill my heart
As my days left here are few
Now its time to bid Adieu….
