Its been 9 years since I had bid farewell to classroom education with a B.E degree from College of Engineering, Guindy. Shriya likes to feel younger though by saying its only 4 years since she completed her MBA :) Out of all good things that happened in college, Shriya's friendship must be somewhere at the top. Our friendship reminds me of a nice quote in a card that another one of my best friends had given. 'Friends are people you just like without even trying'. Our friendship started off just like that by the end of the 1st year in college.
All these years, we have managed to stay in touch regularly even when we were in different states or countries. Now that I am settled in Chennai, we get a chance to meet whenever she comes home to Chennai. On that day, we decided to meet up as she was in town for the weekend. I suggested meeting at our college instead of the usual place (her home). I chose to leave my bike at home and go by public transport. I had some apprehensions about whether they would let us in without any ID card. I did not want to further complicate that by taking my bike there.
As in college days, I woke up late and rushed off from home to catch a train to Guindy, and a bus from there to my college. The only difference during college days was that it was always hitch hiking that got me to college. While I was on the bus, Shriya gave me a call and said the security guy did pose some questions but let her in when she said she is an alumni. I got off the bus and tagged myself along with some of the college students and got in without much fuss. She had told me that she was waiting near the clock tower, the iconic building of our college.
We met up there and went to the canteen to quench our thirsts. After moving through the queue at the canteen, we treated ourselves to some fruit juices. We noticed the things that have changed (example, new look RCC, giant clock in working condition) from what they used to be and how some things have pretty much managed to stay the same way (a Reva car roaming around the campus and the Xerox centers). There were new round tables near each department with an umbrella shade have popped up through out the campus. There were some studious minds discussing and working on their laptops.
On our next stretch of walk, we walked by our department buildings and saw some extensions being done to Computer Science department. We then roamed around through the hostel areas and saw much to our surprise the new hostels that have been constructed. Those were called International hostels, not sure whether that International portion referred to the students or the building quality. The new hostels looked great and inviting with a well built structure and well maintained appearance. Hostels are no longer named with numbers, each one of them has been given a flower name (mostly written in Tamil). We did reach one end of the college and slowly returned to the college exit through a different route.
While we were on this nostalgic tour, something weird happened. One of our mutual friends, who is in Singapore, called me on my mobile. I noticed that the call was coming from his local number and he told me that he just flew into the city last night and asked me if we can meet. How is that for a coincidence? We just couldn't believe our luck. I told him about our get together and asked him to join us for our lunch plan. Shriya and I went to Adyar Sangeetha and waited for our friend to join us. Once he joined us, we had a sumptuous North Indian Thali and returned to our homes.
Needless to say, that was nostalgic and unforgettable. We had talks about the college days and remembered quite a few incidents from those golden days . Revisiting your college for a day with your best buddies, just priceless. Try it out some time.
