Nostalgic- Remembering my "first" Friends meet!

The Summer that year
Why did you want to join this college?

Sekhar(with a hulk like body): "Well, there’s no great reason. It’s closer to my place.  It’s convenient." Crowd was disinterested.

Sekhar: "The campus is lush green and magnanimous".

Crowd: hmppff!!

Sekhar: and and ..my girl is in civil engineering.

Crowd: hoot!! Hoot!! Claps!! Yee yeyeye! "Come on Boy!! That’s like some answer" J

Reema(Senior): Who is your girl?We need an introduction?

Sekhar: No Mam. She is just my girl. She doesn’t know me.

Standing at 5’ 11’’ tall Sekhar, addressing a very short but very active, funny and chirpy senior girl as mam and fearing her, was a funny sight.

Reema: "So what? She will know if u want her to, right?! Let’s arrange an intro with her."

Sekhar nodded gulping. Actually his girl is the girl whom he saw only once on the very first day he joined the college and it was love at first sight, so now he was clueless how he will plan this meeting :P (Boyzzzz J)

Ruchita (The topper with an air of importance and an almost know-it-all Hermionishh face): Well. I was even getting ECE in ICE college but I preferred this college as I wanted Computer science and I was getting a free seat here.

Crowd : oooooooohhhhhhhhh...ahannnn.. aaaahhh!

Hemant(Sr): So you could have gone for ECE, right? Landing in a software job is no big deal these days !!

Ruchita trying to smile cleverly: Oh ya,but somehow wanted to get hold of the subject before you land in the job!

Hemant: Oh, so you want to get hold? 

Ruchi (feeling a bit odd and tensed this time): Ya

Hemant: Abey Ram! Pass on those assignments . This topper here will do it for us. Ok mam? Finish it off by tomorrow evening.

Ruchi : But sir it’s just been a month and I have classes from tomorrow.

Hemant, with a stern tollywood villain look on his face: So what? We also have classes. If you haven’t finished assignment, I guess Reema will take good care of you back there in Hostel.

Tarun, with a chocolate boy face, stood up and replied: I actually wanted to do Marine Engineering and work on ships. Bad luck I dint crack my IIT. I tried to join at least GITAMs which is near sea but didn’t get a free seat even there. Finally, I had to come and join this college adjacent to Krishna backwaters. I regretted it in the beginning,but slowly the green trees, colourful girls and the pleasant evening winds are getting impressive day by day and am enjoying it!

I guess that was an impressive answer for the evening and Tarun didn’t get much in return from seniors other than a request to dance which he gracefully and happily did and he even asked if he can get his choice of song JNeed less to say he had definitely left an impression on few of the girls from the same batch.I got some trigonometry calculation to do as part of the ragging as I was from Bi pc but a girl whom I saw first during admission saved me saying “ I KNOW HER” and helped me with calculation. Kyra  was her name which I never heard before . Kyra, a girl with silky straight hair, had two other roomies who were from different group. All three were so pretty, especially Kyra. I don’t know the proper reason for liking her. May be as she tried to save me by helping me with math or I loved her hair or skin but I liked her the very first day! Few big shots of hostel knew me coz of herJwhich included trendy-sandy/Sandhya, the tallest and the most modern Spoorthy and her batch who were like “We THE SPICE GIRLS” of the hostel. Though I had no intentions to join the group, I felt good as they will not burden me with their stupid ragging. The hostel, friends, college were all too new to get used to. Other than few interesting things from our batch like a guy who was always funny --  Janardhan, whom we all called Jantha-Janardhan as he was always among people, like he is “born for people” and he always wore a happy dent smile with all bright flashy teeth.I never understood how he managed it!!Then there was Ravi who was a football player, another hefty person and a serious spectacled Sreeram, who had high ambitions and Venkat and Raj. These were few interesting blokes we all wanted to know and gel along. But there was no right opportunity and no proper unity among us, I mean girls. There was Ruchita, whose air of importance was so high that in that tornado speed of her air everyone was blown off! There was Suma, who was a simple girl, who doesn’t talk much, whose silence is like a silent killer. She attracted most of the boys or at least she said so to us  but I can’t say more about her or grade her by saying “people seem bright till they talk“ as she hardly spoke and when she spoke it was about the list of the boys, all new and old, who spoke to her for the day. YA we all ENVIED her. No points for guessing it!!

Kyra and I gelled along well. Her roll no. was next to mine. So naturally we bonded and we were together. The other girls were Leena from Delhi(the major reason which made most of the boys talk to her), Hema and Chaitanya (who doesn't shut her mouth once opened). Months passed and soon we were about to finish the first semester.We all along with some other girls and boys planned to meet at “HOT BREADS” . It was mid April and we were just done with lab internal viva. After summer break we would be having externals, so we thought just a get together is needed as we had free time to know each other better. Hot Breads is a famous Bakery/Restaurant and the plan was sudden and we all wanted to start at college at 10 in the morning. Usually there is always a problem for public transport (autos and buses) near our college premises as it is 10kms away from the town

There was no sight of an auto. Kyra, Leena and I didn’t want to make it a flop show. We insisted we have to go. “We will manage it somehow. From the top of the bridge we may get some bus or an auto. I AM SURE” —Leena assured us. Chaitanya, who always wants to give a long word of caution, said “Think again yaar. Hot Breads is not even in a walk able distance. I can’t walk all the way till there plus my back is aching as yesterday Sophie and Lakshmi splashed water on me from that hosepipe. Aaahh“. We all were laughing looking at Chaitanya’s painful face and remembering how she was running yesterday in the square corridors of hostel to escape their full on ragging and finally got bolted in bathroom and when she came out  she was a building to be extinguished as everyone attacked her. I too had a sore throat due to all shouting and singing in the mike till after 2 in the morning as Seniors arranged a fresher's party in hostel day before.Somehow we made up our minds,we will go today. We will not delay knowing the boys. It’s the end of 1^st sem!

We were waiting for some transport when Tarun, Ravi and Raj wearing their Ray Ban cooling glasses and their new jeans and tees came on their respective bikes. Sreeram, Venkat and Janardhan were sharing the backseats. They were also looking good. But Kyra  and I were staring only at Tarun, who was too cute that day wearing a chocolate brown Wildlife Tee shirt  with an impressive cheetah print on it and a pair of blue Levis jeans and brown shades .Even his watch seemed nice on him. He has got some nice taste. As we were lost in thoughts, Sreeram broke the spell saying “So girls, we can walk. Three of you can share the bike with these three people and Venkat, Janardhan  and I will walk with remaining three of you! Even before Kyra and I took a step forward, Ruchita went and sat behind Tarun. Silent Suma sat with Ravi, and Raj and Leena were happily smiling at us. I was like almost crying. Not that I have to walk but as Ruchi is going with Tarun! Tarun, mischievously, smiled at me! GOSH! Did I make it so obvious.!!??

I murmured “This is cheating. Now we have to walk all the way”! Chaitanya was almost fainting. Kyra said “Its ok, Janardhan, Venkat and Sreeram are there. I guess we can walk. The climate is also not that bad!” but the sun was  actually ablaze that day!  Chaitanya made a face, exchanging looks with me, Tarun and Sreeram she finally agreed.

Tarun said ”Hey in return journey, we will drop you people. These people will take autos or manage somehow and reach college.”

At this Ruchi beat him on the back and said “Hey Tarun! You can’t cheat us yaar!”

Even if I was starting to get irritated I tied my scarf and said “chalo lets start”

So we walked all the way along the river in to the town till Hot Breads (around 10-12kms) and I must say it was effortless with  Kyra pulling chaitanya’s leg all the while, Janarthan’s share of stories, Sreeram’s experiences, traffic free roads , and we stopped wherever possible for some cold drink or a cup corn.

Kyra was even giving tips on how to protect my skin in summer using Lakme sun expert and how particular she is about all the products she uses. Her dream ambition is to be a skin expert and open a beauty clinic and increase people’s confidence.  

Her eyes were sparkling when she told this and I thought “Why not? In India every one feels confident only if they are fair and have a clear skin or atleast thats what the ads make us believe right?”  We walked in groups. Me and Kyra were continuously chit chatting about what we want to do in life and many other past experiences, gossips, nick names etc etc. The walk seemed easy. We had coconut water, Sugar cane juice and were sharing ear phones of Kyra's music player constantly shuffling the songs and shouting excitedly at our favorite numbers. We were actually enjoying a lot !

All in all it was awesome minus Chaitanya’s ramblings. We reached Hot Breads. The machos were already sitting with their respective damsels and we had to take the remaining seats!!! They were surprised to see that we all looked fresh inspite of walking under the sun for more than an hour and half (as we took interim breaks)! Whether it was due to the Lakme-Sunexpert I applied which is given by Kyra or the smiles we were having due to better compatriots I am not sure but I was all glowing!

They ordered some cold coffee for us. After that we ordered pizza and some pastries and whatever each of us wanted. We were laughing loud. Myself, Sreeram(who was no more nerdy ;the first impression I had of him), Kyra, Janardhan , venkat and Chaitanya naturally formed a group and Hema and Leena were talking. Ruchi, Tarun, Ravi and Suma were also trying to talk. I said trying to talk as I saw the painful expression Tarun was having on his face when Ruchi’s chatter-box mouth was not shutting. She was talking about her future paper presentations, her ambitions, her dad’s job and Ravi was giving her a good company. In a way, both were enjoying each other’s conversation and achievements. Suma was a silent spectator. Tarun, silenty, sneaked out and went out as if to check for something he had forgotten at the bike and when he again came inside with a sigh of relief he joined us. Ruchi gave a sharp turn. Tarun smiled at me. It felt good. But as I was already having nice time, it was not an “Aaahaaa” moment to me but as poor chap was troubled and loaded with heavy conversations, we both didn’t mind making his mood a bit light.  Finally after 2-3 hours we dispersed. But this time day-scholars to their homes and we hostellers in autos to the hostel J. It was the first eventful outing for all first years and a memorable one to me and the reason for writing it is I went to the same bridge  recently where we walked after many years and there was a sudden surge of the memory of that day and many more things but for now only this which is still fresh in my mind J

It’s strange whenever you visit a place to which you are connected for many years, however modified or renovated that place is, you won’t be able to visualise the changes made to that place but instead your mind’s eye will open up and the strong colourful memories binding you with that place will come dancing in front of you. Same happened to me when I was travelling after I attended a wedding and was crossing the Krishna River and the bridge The revival of memories always rejuvenates me! So I suggest that everyone has to visit the good old places once in a while and relive those moments. It was definitely an "Aaaahaaaaaaa" moment to me. Venkat and Sreeram are doing jobs in US after their MS. Ruchita is doing her PHD. I joined a software company and so did many others. Kyra is working as a lecturer and has joined skin-care courses at "Lakme Salon" and is planning to start her beauty parlor soon. So she is actually pursuing her dream and we still chit chat for hours over phone.

PS: The image above doesnt show our faces :P Its my fav wallpaper from the movie HAPPY DAYS which beautifully shows the day to day happenings in a college and rest all images are googled.


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This post is for Indiblogger's "The Lakmé Diva Blogger Contest"along wih LAKME. Do acknowledge my post -> "The Summer that Year"and share your views. Thanks