Yes.It's over.The official invitation came yesterday... Farewell on monday.Suddenly it's all coming back...entering as a nervous 17 year old..unknown city.. unknown surroundings.. and then tumbling head along into life. No looking back since..
It's all coming back.. those hours on the college roof..hours of non-stop singing under the grey, dull,unending monotonous sky.. eden and victoria etched on the horizon.The new nicknames.The periods bunked for tea at 'sanju da's' debating over authors,singers and politics..and the inevitable fight over who pays for whom.The cricket matches at maidan and the shameless sledging.The days of walking around esplanade having nothing else to do.The numerous first day first shows (there are 7 theatres within 15 mins walk).The new slangs..and then using them with ease, as if i knew them forever.Finally understanding the meaning of 'flings' (it's still unacceptable to me though).
It's all coming back as if a slow flashback.. B's checking his hair everytime we passed a parked car,bike anything... A's fear of dogs, and the strange coincidence that the dogs always barked at only him. :) Getting kicked out of class for playing hangman in the last bench.Learning to play 29..and the addiction thereafter.Those getting drenched in the rain and roadside pakoras.The dayouts and inevitable crossing the 'come home' deadline..and then running down streets, bumping into people,screaming at the taxi driver to go faster.The laughings till our stomachs hurt and eyes watered.The endless addas on S's roof..till dusk fell over the railingless ancient central kolkata house..seeing eachother in the pale lights of cigaretes and ocassional flashes of matches.Our shadows on the naked bricks..Not a care what lay ahead.
It's all coming back in a sudden flash flood...some misty..some clear as yesterday.A warm clutter of intangible emotions..
Not all that's coming back is good though.The various masks of people...the bitchings and back bitings...brocken promises...the tears and and seeing hearts break..Yet for today,I choose to ignore them.Today I allow cynicsm to lose hands down.
This post is just a honest note of gratitude to Maulana Azad College, to the wonderful people I found... and to the three most topsy turvy yet enchanting years of my life.
