It was half past five in the morning as I got down from the train. A whiff of realllllly cold air (by my standards) greeted me; after many, many months, I suddenly felt free from the heat, the humidity and the madness in general. It took hardly moments for the nostalgic and sentimental me to take over.
Memories of hurriedly rushing to the prepaid counter to get a rick (fondly referred to as an ‘auto’ in this part of the world) in time to get back to campus, unpack, shower and change JIT for the 8 a.m. class flooded my mind as I made my way very slowly to join the end of a serpentine queue.
On my very first day in campus, I asked a PGP05 what he liked most about IIMB. Pat came the reply: “The Campus”. I realized the weight of those words the moment my vehicle reached campus. I walked all the way to the main entrance, through those hallowed corridors where I had taken my very first GD/PI, peering through the doors in to the library where I had searched for solace during the storms, drowning in the greenery of the grounds where the ‘Con’s were ‘Vacate’d with an elaborate ceremony.
What with change being the only permanence and all that jazz, Chai Unchai has finally closed, Athicas has shifted. The shift has done it good I should say. It has expanded, relocated to a better place even, and has become more easily accessible in general. The chai has not changed even a wee bit though. After ‘putting chai’ and declining to ‘put sandwich’, staring further more at the corridors leading off to C Block and in between all this, snatching some time to shower and change which was the agenda of that 40 minute long drive, I came back to the mess to, as I would put it, ‘absorb the mess air and revel in its ambience’.
If not for two reminder calls and some messages, I might never have got up from the place as no one likes leaving home. For, that which is irresistible, comforting and inspiring all together, is home after all.
Note 1: My Bangalore, to me, is just IIMB, everything else being sundry and secondary. That is why I do not have a tag on Bangalore in my blog, unlike the ones on Chennai and Mumbai .
Note 2: I wanted to make my 50th post all gala and grandiose. Luckily, readers have been spared of all that arbit as I did not realize that this was my 50th post till I finished writing it.
Memories of hurriedly rushing to the prepaid counter to get a rick (fondly referred to as an ‘auto’ in this part of the world) in time to get back to campus, unpack, shower and change JIT for the 8 a.m. class flooded my mind as I made my way very slowly to join the end of a serpentine queue.
On my very first day in campus, I asked a PGP05 what he liked most about IIMB. Pat came the reply: “The Campus”. I realized the weight of those words the moment my vehicle reached campus. I walked all the way to the main entrance, through those hallowed corridors where I had taken my very first GD/PI, peering through the doors in to the library where I had searched for solace during the storms, drowning in the greenery of the grounds where the ‘Con’s were ‘Vacate’d with an elaborate ceremony.
What with change being the only permanence and all that jazz, Chai Unchai has finally closed, Athicas has shifted. The shift has done it good I should say. It has expanded, relocated to a better place even, and has become more easily accessible in general. The chai has not changed even a wee bit though. After ‘putting chai’ and declining to ‘put sandwich’, staring further more at the corridors leading off to C Block and in between all this, snatching some time to shower and change which was the agenda of that 40 minute long drive, I came back to the mess to, as I would put it, ‘absorb the mess air and revel in its ambience’.
If not for two reminder calls and some messages, I might never have got up from the place as no one likes leaving home. For, that which is irresistible, comforting and inspiring all together, is home after all.
Note 1: My Bangalore, to me, is just IIMB, everything else being sundry and secondary. That is why I do not have a tag on Bangalore in my blog, unlike the ones on Chennai and Mumbai .
Note 2: I wanted to make my 50th post all gala and grandiose. Luckily, readers have been spared of all that arbit as I did not realize that this was my 50th post till I finished writing it.
5 comments:
Congrats on the 50th post
Did u go to campus?? Am jealous.. I miss Bangalore (which to me is so much more than IIMB - having spent 7 years of my life there).. Where has Athica's shifted to? What did u do there?
- GodM
@ mani: thanks:) @ godm: yes, i was there for just two hours last week sometime. Athicas has relocated to the place right opposite the mess, near the hostel. It has become a full fledged shop and all that!
hey kavitha, when did you come to campus? Must have give me a call. :)
@ Ganesh Jeyaraman: Came around 2 weeks back, spent the wee hrs of the morn (6 to 8 when the whole campus sleeps :)) in campus, and I think PGP2s were on term break that time; coming again this saturday, will definitely catch up then!
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