College Days

1st August. College. The beginning of a new life for over two thousand students here at ITER. Apprehension, excitement and anticipation everywhere. But that’s a story told only too many a time. As I settled into my new room, my second, the first one being occupied by a crack addict and a drunkard, I felt a curious sense of belonging. Ignore the fact that the room was bleak, what mattered that it was mine. On the same floor, across the corridor was Room 324. It was here that I would make the best friends of my life, guys who have been through almost every possible thing with me. And how. Here’s a taste; first night in my new room, I was ragged by a tall lanky fellow with glasses. After the ceremonies were over, he came up and introduced himself as ‘Jeet Maity, first year’. Fuck that was embarrassing.

As the weeks dragged on, the euphoria settled and the bad mouthing began. ‘Stupid college, the food sucks.’ ‘These assholes couldn’t even give us a proper soccer field’. And so on. By the third month, we positively hated the place. Manas, King and Pranay, the other guys in Jeet's room also became some of my best friends. In the meanwhile, I met a friend of Jeet’s. Ankeet. We started hanging out every evening the three of us. Shyam Bhai, the local tea stall just outside the college. And it became a ritual, a habit. Just as things were going smoothly, Jeet fell ill and we rushed him to the hospital. Damn it was awful, that feeling of helplessness that descended over Ankeet and me while in the auto. It was then, that I realised what my brother meant when he said, ‘the friends you make in college will be the best ones you will ever make’. But he was wrong on one count. I cannot call Jeet and Ankeet my friends. They are brothers to me, in every sense of the word, not by blood or relation but by little things, insignificant separately but as a whole, much more than friendship.

The past one year has been an experience that I wouldn’t miss for the world. Good times, bad times, sad times, and happy times. They all amount to something unlike anything ive ever felt before. I felt it when i bid Manas farewell at the auto stand. Call the dude gay but as we hugged each other, i felt that neither did he want us to go. And yesterday, when I was saying goodbye to Ankeet, it hit me. Suddenly, I didn’t want to go home any longer. And even though the bastard acted cool, I could tell from the way he didn’t look me and Jeet in the eye, that it’s the same for all of us. None of us could say goodbye properly and even though all of us are home now, we feel bad. Watching the fourth years say goodbye on the station made me feel sad, sadder than ive felt in a long time. One guy in was crying on a friend’s shoulder. This other boy, he walked up to him and told him how it would be all well and good and how they would all make new friends again. All that the guy did was look at the boy and raise his index finger to his lips. That gesture made me realise that there are some things in life that you can buy, borrow, beg and steal but the bonds you make in college are ones no amount of money, time and effort can ever buy. Nothing beats the strange sense of belonging you feel once you are there.

My mother once told me, ‘After four years of college, when you all go your own ways, it’ll feel so bad, you’ll cry”. I do take pride in the fact that ive not cried since the seventh grade. But today, watching that platform recede, I understood what she wanted to say. And when it comes, I don’t think I can or will hold back.

To college, brotherhood and the best friends a guy could ask for