The Eleventh Hour

I feel like I have been transported back in time- six years to be precise. It’s the same feeling, the heavy heart and the desperate need to grab on to something and never let go. It’s the same feeling we had when we left school, the feeling of being in unfamiliar territory. Leaving school was tough; not too much for me since I have changed schools every two years. But I remember the atmosphere and it’s the same now.

As college is on the threshold of a wrap, the sense of desolation is palpable. Tangible. Tangible enough to be sliced with a butter knife. If I were not a muggle, I’d have blamed the gloom on dementors. But as much as we love to place blame, that is not how life works. Life happens. It falls in your lap one fine day, and you have to deal with it. Moments pass and you keep walking in a trance until life writhes and wriggles in your lap, crying for attention, and you have to go deal with it again.

This is that moment. Life is offering us another realm, another front, except that we are desperately trying to cling on to the old and familiar.

I will be honest- I have spent the last thirty months cribbing, crying and complaining about the place- the food, the insects, the weather and what not! But I think I speak for everyone when I say that we have grown tremendously attached to life here. We have had our share of problems. More than our share, rather – fights in class, differences in opinion, clashes with faculty, not to mention we’ve been kept superbusy with assignments, seminars, documentaries, cycle tests, clubs and associations. But there have been tons of fun times that’ll forever remain etched in our memories.

It all began with the mutual hostility against seniors in the first semester. Nothing brings people closer than standing up against someone. A particular incident that always comes in mind is our freshers’ test when we all marked the same answers! Then there was the super-fun trip to Kalanai dam in a truck, with the rain drenching us to our skins. The third sem was the most happening- the mutinies by our juniors, the conflicts in class, the pay-back time – some of us, of course, paid a lot more than others. But we stuck it out, and were back to having fun in no time. Fourth semester was riddled with preparatory tests, GDs and interviews and the fifth sem had enough causes for celebrations.

Life here has been good, especially in hindsight. And I know, no matter what we say, and even if we put on the bravest of faces, the kinship we have developed is going to be hard to replace. Part of our souls will always be at MCA, NIT Trichy.