I glance at my watch. Its 9:25 a.m. I am breathing heavily, sweating profusely and trying to increase my speed with every step I take. I'm walking in through the college gate, already late for the 9:00 a.m. lecture. There's something new on the notice board, but it will have to wait. This is an emergency... the everyday 9:25 emergency. I'm late for the lecture, and there's a fight going on inside my brain. One half of it is giving me the usual reminder: 'You are twenty-five minutes late...Have you no shame? Its an insult to the teacher if you walk in now...an insult to yourself...and you've already lost half of the lecture...'
The other half is just as intense in arguing back: 'The watch is slightly fast, so its not twenty-five minutes yet..and anyways, the teacher also walks in fifteen minutes late...and who's worried about the lecture? Its just the attendance...' Typical self-satisfying talk. Within seconds, I get so engrossed, I'm actually talking to myself. All this while I'm rushing through the corridor, till I get there...in front of the stairs.
This is the part I love. I don't tell that to myself often enough, but I do love it. Rushing up the stairs, as fast as I can, sweating faster than ever, and always taking two steps at a time...
That's exactly how those four years were. Four years in college. Defined by confusion, by fantasy, by so many other things...but importantly, by a frantic rush. An emergency - to copy the remaining half of that assignment from someone, to cover that journal and stick that label on top, to call up those quiz organisers and tell them to show me the final draft of questions, to tell that friend to get a printout of that computer program for me as well, to go and have a quick game of volleyball near the canteen if I can, and oh yes, I have to participate in that debate in the break today! Nothing could define those years better than 'Two steps at a time'.
But that's done now. Four years of Engineering Degree Course are over. Now I'm a 'professional'. Supposed to be one, anyway. Supposed to concentrate on my work and carve out a career for myself. But ask me if I have forgotten those days. Ask me how many times a day I think of that place, and the various memories associated with it. One of my friends, an engineer from another college, has said that he doesn't 'love' his college because its a commercial establishment, something you can't associate love with, according to him. Ask me if that's what I think of my college, too.
Anyways, that's enough for today. Its nice to finally start blogging. If you have taken the pains to read through all that was there above this, you have probably got a rough idea of what you are likely to find here. A big HI to all of you, all over the world. Let's see if I can still take two steps at a time, consistently. See you soon!
