46. Convocation '07 : The last tango

Dated : 20th Jan '08
DA-IICT.

Seldom do I really feel sad. Its over. College is over. There is no going back now. Will i ever meet the friends i made here again? I may have seen some people for the last time in my life yesterday. Why do good things have to end? Why is life like this? You take time to get attached to a certain something/someone and by the time you do get attached, its time to move on and get detached. Why the fuck. What the fuck.

I owe it all to this place. Have changed so much as a person over the last four years. Was a frog in the proverbial well before I came here. Its made me wiser, stronger and open minded. The cliched phrases like 'enjoyed like hell','we had amazing fun','totally awesome','that was excellent dude','oh god, this is heaven'; started to make sense to me only after i entered this place. Its made me what i am today. The things i did here will forever be etched in my memory.
Just goes on to remind me of the lyrics from a song 'Graduation' by Vitamin C.

As we go on
We remember
All the times we
Had together

And as our lives change
Come whatever
We will still be
Friends Forever

I never thought I’d miss this place, dint feel so even after taking the degree from the hands of the 'Anil Ambani' replacement. But its only when I got into the train today that it all sunk in. This was 'the last tango'. People would go ahead on their own paths from now on, paths which would seldom intersect.

I look at my degree certificate and the first thing my mind wants to say is - "Yes! finally achieved something. Spent the last four years of my life to get this."....But that's not the complete picture. Its not just the destination but also the journey that matters. The things i learnt, the games i played, the friends i made, the fun we had, the profs who loved to screw us, the joints we used to hang out at - ' galla, SP, Haveli, Trupti', the jokes we cracked, the movies we saw, the exam tension we shared on the night before the exam, the nick names we had for one another, the music we listened to, the night-outs we had, the 1'o clock Maggi and the 5 o'clock poha, the toothpastes that we'd steal daily, the innumerable crushes and failed love stories, missing a pop-quiz coz u overslept that day, the ever dependable 'Daddu' and his son who always had PMS, the library books that we never returned on time, the proxies during attendance(there was one during the convo too), the 'Innovation center' foundation stone which has been there for more time than most of us, the stinky sprinklers which kept us from lying down on the lawns, the irritating gandhinagar government officials - be it the railway office or the passport office, the 'oh gandhinagarrrrr...' type chants from he jeep drivers on the highway, the lengthy train rides back home whenever a vacation would start....all these and many more. So many memories attached with this place, can’t just simply get detached and move on so easily.

This convo was like a refresher of sorts. After being out in the 'real' world for the last 6-8 months, it was so gud to get back to coll, revisit old times, times when things were simpler, when people around used to think the same way that you did, when the jokes you cracked were laughed at, when you dint have to adjust and compromise as much. But I guess it had to end some day. I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles. There's a saying that goes like this - "Life is'nt easy, live it." So what I need to do is pick up the pieces, move ahead with happy memories from this place, being grateful to that supernatural force for giving me the chance of spending years in this place.

I think there should be more of such reunions. There should be a "Home-coming" sort of an event(coming back to the alma mater) held every year during a particular time, so that everyone, whose there at any place can make plans and make time to attend the reunion. Some good colleges do have this sort of an event on a regular basis, its high time we started one for our college.

This trip to attend the convocation just reminds me of this one cool and meaningful song, title song for the sitcom "Cheers". The lyrics go like this....

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?(pause)

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.

You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

You wanna go where people know,
people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows
your name.

I end this post on a jerky note(cant write much more, am on the verge of getting teary, which I dun like....so I end this here)