Honing my morning ritual of a cup of green tea (thanks to a recently read health article), I came across a segment in the newspaper called Campus Cool, a guide for every fresher. Unknowingly a grin escaped my lips as I remembered reading something similar a couple of years back.
Like every normal fresher, I was nervous, excited, and scared to make my mark in my new college. So I read each and every line, tried to memorize each and every tip so that I can excel. Feels like a stupidity now, feel kiddish. I can’t imagine others but I can still imagine myself poring over the paper and checking out the dress codes that makes you cool in college (though I never got to try it).
Two years have gone by in the blink of an eye. From a wide-eyed, fresh of the school student trying to grasp everything to a not so scared SUPER SENIOR was an amazing journey. But I have to say, a guide did not help me sail through college to the final year. And if you are thinking this writing to be some kind of a nostalgic piece commemorating my college life, it is not. I still have one year of college left to shed tears and bid adieu to all.
It’s just a tribute, though early, to things and people who have helped me sail through my college life. As life is very uncertain, I thought of saying it now rather than wait for another 365 days to compose this piece.
What I learned from my college life, despite reading articles, was that the only thing that can help you are FRIENDS. When I say FRIENDS in the capital, I mean those people who don’t stick with you for sharing just a cigarette counter, for being cool or for carrying loads of cash.
You’ll need good, tough, and “Kamina” (there is absolutely no parallel English word to replace this word) friends to survive college. Friends, who will help and challenge you to move forward and excel. I am thankful to get these friends. Though I won’t take their names, they’ll know who they are. For helping me in studies to comforting me during heartbreaks, they taught me that you can either cry and look ugly or just move over to greener pastures.
There were fights - really ugly ones - and there were patch-ups. There were matchmaking and protecting each other’s backs. There were rebukes, (mostly to me and from me to someone else) there was love and most importantly there were a lot of CAMERAS AND A LOT OF CLICKING. Half my DP's is courtesy to my friends.
A thank you isn’t good enough for them, so it a request just stay with me as you are now with the love and the problems, I don’t think college is worth it without you people.
And of course, there is MASHI’S CHAI DOKAN (Aunty’s tea stall, bad translation). I have had a lot of teas in my life but her tea parallels none. Not because she treats us like friends not customers, not because I have a fair amount of money due to her, not because she brings in my favorite ladoos and makes tea without milk and with hajmola, but because she is an angel at times of need and that’s the only place where we friends get together to have a heart to heart conversation.
Mashi, always with a super cute smile on her face gives us changes of big demolition without batting an eyelid (I LOVE YOU MASHI). Her teas wake us up after sleepy lectures and help us keep our eyes open before sleepy lectures. And to everything I hold dear, I crave for her tea during every vacation like a pregnant woman craves for – I don’t know, whatever it is. She is the second most important thing that helped me survive college and though you won’t read this thing Mashi, I thank you and promise to pay off all my dues this time *mother swear*.
Thirdly, the event that helped me go through college, the one for which I waited every year, the one for which everyone waits every year is THE SPRING FEST at IIT Kharagpur. If I start writing about Spring Fest, I will never be able to finish this blog. So IF ANYONE IS JOINING MY COLLEGE, DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT MISS IT. It’s a different thing altogether. You 'll get everything in this one trip and you can get even more. As we all know “Har SF mein kuch na kuch hota hain."
And lastly and most unexpectedly, the Metro. I live far away from my college and if this underground monster wouldn’t have existed I would have failed and gone back home a long time back due to a shortage of attendance. The metro has made my journey a lot less uncomfortable than what it could have been. From entertainment to sleep and making my journey faster, thank you Kolkata Metro for being there and helping me reach college as fast as possible.
And with this, I end my tribute list. Although one year is still left I don’t think this list will change much and even if it does I know I don’t have to delete anything but rather add to it.
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