An Event called Convocation

Going back to college was never on the top of my to-do list...it didnt even make it to the list....in fact...not going was high on the list. 4 years of the intensive grilling was more than enough to keep me away from those gates...besides there is always that lingering thought about the uncertainty...what if you went back and there is nobody to spend sometime with. After all, the people i met there made it more memorable. We just learnt to enjoy with what the place had to offer. Sometime after a year of my passing out, the CONVOCATION was announced...it first came as a rumor that lasted for around 3 months..then I decided put up a small ploy just to meet the aspirations of the entire batch. It was tried and tested and pretty simple... The so-called BANGUs have always reacted aggressively to rumors. I had once spread a rumor that the exams were going to be postponed because some students seemed to have the paper leaked. It spread like wildfire...like it always does...and the whole of Hall 2 knew this within the next 3 hours. The Bangus were eveready to leave for home on the weekend...they came to my room to check if this was true...the exams started on Monday. I was out drinking that evening. Seeing this many were convinced that the exams were actually getting postponed. That evening saw the most no. of Bangus doing rounds of my room..the exam never got postponed and the revelation came from a drunk teenager...but the rumour worked. This time i tried to use it constructively...I called up some of my Bangu batchmates and told them that if we donot get the degree..there will be trouble when our companies want to send us to onsite..they bought it. Two of them promised to go to college and inquire. After a week, I hear that the entire Bangu community had called up the college relentlessly and 2 weeks later it was official...the CONVOCATION was announced for the 7th of November. And suddenly I get a call from AsExplainedbyaJunkie.... >>Hello.. >haan bol.. >>kya chal raha hai >abey convocation ho raha hai.. >>haan suna maine >main toh ja rahaa hoon.. >>sahi bol... >haan..ConceptLevelMan ne poora plan banaya hai..i m sticking along..woh tickets sab kar dega.. >>acchaa...main dekhta hoon...TL chhutti dega to...pata nahin.. >dekh tu...mereko bata.. ... A day later i spoke to my mom and she said...You must go...after working so hard to become an Engineer, go get the degree!! I said...ya rite.. So it was decided...and to make it all the more special...i booked 21 day peak fare budget airline airtickets to and fro. For the next 20 days...there were innumerable fone calls dissecting the possibilites awaiting us in a land that cannot be described in a blog...only certain events that have taken place on it. We didnt care about the degree...or actually we were incapable to place it in our lives...it was the reason why we went there in the first place...and why were were getting back to it again. I was happy that AsExplainedbyaJunkie would be right there with me...in this strange homecoming of sorts. I didnt know what to expect....and my heart was racing to the boil vapours of colorful dreams with hopes that they would condense into sweet crystals of memory. Fortunately we still had friends back in college...the concerns of logistical requirements were handled. And to my surprise..they were expecting most of us to turn up...and were taking initiatives in spreading the news of the announcement. My trip started with an early morning flight..and the Dum Dum airport at 5.40am looked lazy with the employees waiting to get back home from their night shifts. No change there. Change of tense.. Outside I share a vintage kolkata ambassador taxi with another software guy who has to go to Dhanbad and is rushing to get the Shatabdi..we have small talk. I am in no hurry...he realises and eventually our conversation drops of at some unknown point because i m more interested to look out the window...Morning Calcutta...school going, office going...busy..bustling Calcutta...and i was searching for my sutta and chai...but there was a shatabdi waiting... The Howrah bridge..Hindu hotel...scum and dirt...tin-thoka bus..mini buses..beedis and cigarettes burning...and with them, a big machine running...Howrah Station.. The software guy bails out...we exchange bye-byes...Dadas and boudis running by...teenagers and children tagging along..with the eternal presence of sweaters and monkey caps...and I take a breather of the tensed air of Howrah station...pacing slowly towards a part of the station that used to be the ticket counter...and it still exists in the same way...with majority of the people buying platform tickets.. And I wonder if the Railways department ever wondered about this small occurence, why are so many platform tickets sold and yet the trains are always more crowded...and the only thing that I conclude is the love for the possibilites in our country. I buy express tickets to Durgapur. The next express train is 2 hours later...I walk towards the platform anyway. Streams of people crossing at important junctures...T-sections...L-sections..X-sections..we have them all...there are a lot of people standing at strategic locations to hear the next announcement...I hear some mumble on the microphone and suddenly people start rushing towards platform 8. I rush anyway...and ask one fellow about the details...it is a train that terminates at Burdwan via chord line...I take it. Within the next 5 mins I chart my route back to college.... I sit in a window seat that is against the trains direction...a college student sitting in front of me...Its 9 am in the morning and he is going back home...I wonder what sort of college sends its students back home at 9 in the morning...at the same time I see him staring at my cell phone.. I ask him about the no. of FM channels in Kolkata these days..he says 5.. I tune into one playing Bangla rock...to my fancy..its Fossils with their latest song for Kolkata Police... He asks to see my cellphone...inspects it and is quite happy with the design..then shows me his Nokia XXXX...i nod.. The chord line is supposed to be a shorter way to get to Burdwan frm Howrah but it has this aura of super laziness with stations with absurd names..but I am happy to experience long-sighted glimpses of paddy fields after a year...a contrast to the 200m range of vision of bangalore.... There are daily passengers on this train and their concern is that the train is losing time progressively....there is a verdict...we will be delayed by 30 mins. Finally Burdwan arrives and my anxiety also rises as I near Durgapur... I enquire about the earliest train to Durgapur..it doesnt arrive in another 2 hours..I decide to take a cycle rickshaw to the bustand and onward I go...this bus must have been the most beaten one in the entire bustand or may be it felt so after a year of relatively better roadworks of Bangalore Municipal Corporation. The journey is long and it takes me 2.5 hours to reach anywhere close to Durgapur...and then suddenly I find myself within a familiar sight of GT road...I am 30 mins away...my milestone count is intialised... The bus driver agrees to stop on Gandhi More... What I felt when my feet touched this familiar ground is unexplainable.. I turn and wait for the bus to leave. In front of me, the Hanuman Mandir... 10'o clock - some signboard that was always there..below it...a Taxi stand and pot bellied taxi drivers sleeping in a small shed...its 3 pm and I m starved...somewhere along the way I promise myself that the first morsel of food will come from Shani's...it is a promise in intend to keep and so i start walking..I have AsExplainedbyaJunkie's guitar with me..and a rucksack...and this looks very classy... I cross the ever-important junction...Gandhi More and start plodding towards jhoops...Pathik passes by...some memories go by along with it.. chota gandhi more...the bus stop with no student sitting there...a small surprise...even the tea stall is closed..Buddha's jhopdi on the other side of the road...on the edge of the mini-nilgiri forest...the juice center shack...I walk on. By now I can see the campus...freshly coloured boundary wall...and a setback..!! The entry point at that corner was no more... I can see Shani's jhups...my pace increases....at a certain point I see...Jeet at the stove...some dog lingering about..Shani's cycle parked on the bamboo...and there the man was sitting..his back facing towards me..cigarette smoke emanating... There are two recognizable faces at jhoops too...Arun...and someone grizzly looking guy with a guitar..later I am told..Imtiyaz...I enter.. Arre Boss, tera naam bhadwa hai kya?? Shani turns....explodes....we hug each other....my trip is complete..anything after this goes to Bonus points. I take my preferred seat in front of the Shani's dias...only to learn that these days the cooking is mostly done by Jeet and there is a Trainee-Chhotu undergoing induction for serving..this is Shani's Hotel Management where you learn on the job. Shani only sits and drinks and sometimes does the khata work. But on seeing me...it was as if his face regained the lost lustre of mundane activities...he sprang into action -- Bol, kya banau... I ask for chai, poch and for main course...Lottery...something that only I ordered in the history of Shani's jhups. It is whatever Shani makes of it... We start talking...Arun is quick to check out the guitar in my hand..Imtiyaz looks like he's been struck by a lightening bolt..shabby, dirty..and incomprehensible... The question everybody asks - Haria kab aa raha hai? Pata nahin yaar... .. Joints are quickly rolled and I am quickly reintroduced to the new stalwarts of the jhoops arena..the electrical students are still stuck wid some shitty lecture...couple of mechs have bunked some sessional...meta..chem..civil are also there in the quorum...some electronics are off on sessionals...the IT guys are in their rooms habituated with their afternoon sleep since first year...there are no Compu guys either... As i breath that first puff of Durgapur weed...the taste swirling a million twisters all the way to my lungs and then further on condensing into my blood....i sit speechless for a few moments before my heart asks for seconds. At the same time, my poch and tea are given to me by Jeet who has managed a smile at my return...much to my delight. No words required...no words spoken. Over the next hour...i meet familiar faces and occasional stares...by now I am comfortably set into the Durgapur evening and the guitar is out...I have an audience...it couldn't ask for more!! The chai keeps running and so does the smoke...the longing for that taste has been satisfied for the moment. We all eagerly await the arrival of Haria.. (Continued ...)