Nostalgia is wonderful. I like listening to an old Bryan Adams track after a long time and close my eyes. I see the Podar auditorium and can smell about 300 sweaty students swinging to ‘Summer of ’69’. I open my eyes and realise that time’s gone. But for those 3 minutes, I recreate my first jam session and love every second of it.
I like smelling an empty bottle of a perfume I used to wear back in my degree college. I take in the citrusy smell and close my eyes. I am in my car, loads of friends with me, driving along, singing to songs. I open my eyes and I am back in my room, smelling an empty bottle of perfume. The projects, the songs, some places, they just take you on a minute long ride back into the past, the moments you’ve cherished and miss deeply. And you come back to the present, with a smile, realising that you’re older, maybe wiser but most importantly, how much you miss the people from those old days.
When a girl from KC called me and said that as an ex-student, I have to come for the BMM orientation, I decided to take the long and winding road back into the past.
BMM was the best thing that ever happened to me. Nah, academically it didn’t do wonders, but it changed a lot of things. I mean college does that to everybody, but I don’t think I would be the person I am today if I’d chosen to do a BA or Bcom.
If I ever wanted anything badly enough to give my life up for, it’s BMM. I strived hard through 12th to get the 50% (yeah I remembered I had to study a month before the boards!). I prepped myself up for entrances and made sure I was well-rehearsed for my personal interviews. When I got into all the colleges I applied to, I almost thanked Paulo Coelho! The universe had indeed given me what I wanted.
See! I am doing it again… Just getting lost on the long and winding road. Anyway, I landed up at the orientation, excited and all that. The same gates, the same audi…awww.
Once seated in the ‘alumni’ row, I looked around. Not a single familiar face! Once upon a time, I could’ve identified each and everyone in the audi… And just then, I saw Mr. Gupta. And, I was glad to see a familiar face. Ankit Gupta and I were classmates, project-mates and very close friends… We joked around like the good ole days, giggling but something didn’t feel the same. Ankit had changed through those years and so had I.
But we were trying hard to recreate the old days. But we saw that there people who had taken our place in the course. Our time was back then and it’s gone. So we ran for the HR Canteen, where many a love stories had bloomed, many fights materialised out of thin air and many kilos were put on. The same old hakka noodles, same old crispy noodles, we tucked in. But the fun factor was missing yet again. There was no juicy gossip on the side or eye candy for dessert. It was just not the same.
So much for nostalgia!
All of the experience left me depressed and on the ride back home, I realised I wasn’t the only one. “Our lives revolved around this college. We shouldn’t have to try so hard!” Ankit gushed. It was a shocker. Ankit was not the emotional types back in those days. We started talking about the old days, the new days and everything and I realised that though the college doesn’t hold much for me now, it is people like Ankit, Mruns, Pooja, Pranali, Satam, Lathi, Sapna, Suraj and so many more, who make me miss those days. I am glad I have these people, who each have a piece of the jigsaw puzzle of our college memories. And when we get together after 4 odd years at a random coffee shop at Bandra, we still create a halla gulla like we did in college. We still tickle each other and make screwed up faces in photos. Who needs nostalgia, when you treasure the ones you love through the years…
So this one’s for you…yes I am going to take everyone’s name here, as if it were my Oscar speech!
Sapna- My first friend in KCBMM
Nausheen- For saying ‘penneka’… haah
Sanket- for being a good sport with all the jokes made about you
Mrunmayee- A friend, fellow ponderer and of course my partner in crime in scaring couples on AC buses
Ankit- for the late night phone calls, advice on dealing with a certain boy, fighting with me through most of BMM but still being a friend I can share a laugh with.
Riddhi- for being the bholi bacchi I could educate 😉 ur welcome lol!
Lathia-For singing with me in the car! Na sur na taal bus dhamaal!
Ashwini- For just being there
Pranali- For being the one and only friend who knows me better than anyone else, for so many things… I can’t include it all in just a line…
Satam- Same goes for you, thanks for chasing away my body consciousness and having faith in me throughout! LOL and of course- ‘guppa bus Shakti’! HAHAHAHAH
Delu- fellow music lover, radio enthusiast and guy basher… you have no idea babe, when I met you in London, I felt like I finally had family in a foreign land!
Shraddha- the drive to and from college, muthia and a lot more…
Nikita- my very own Maniben… never seen sans a smile… keep smiling
Sneha- her crazy jokes about the management prof… she took lectures to a whole new level!
Suraj- Haah… I have no words for this guy… Loved verbal thrashing around the whole place with him!
Mansee- The true free-spirit! Loved the little bit of hangin out we did…
Mathew- the 6th October lunches… burrrp… thank u Mat, thank you aunty!
Suhani- I haven’t met her for years, but I know that the day we meet we will connect… She and Mruns are the reason I decided I want to be a writer!
Pooja: The most straight-forward person in the class! Love u 🙂
I will keep adding names… I am too overwhelmed to write more… Love you all boyses and girlses…
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