Premature Nostalgia!

     After two weeks of exhausting compree's (read final-exams) resulting in sleepless nights, here I sit at 2 in the night before my laptop, not with the despair of messing up two nor with the delight of cracking a few but with a set of feelings I am not accustomed to. Its not insomnia or gratification flowing in my mind, but rather it is nostalgia. This time it is not a typical last compree feel where I count the seconds to board the flight. This time it is bidding Good bye. Three years of my graduation is about to be completed. Three full years!They passed away so quickly, that I still remember wiping the tears rolling down my cheeks when my dad looked back & waved his hand while leaving Pilani on the first day of my campus life.It feels like yesterday. But a lot has changed over these years. Friends formed, hangouts increased, bondings developed, Individuality grew, personality developed and of course, knowledge & wisdom, the essence of my Journey to Pilani! Deep down, the DNA has evolved so much, that I feel like a different person now. This place has truely transformed me. And like all good things, this is approaching an end. A more appropriate phrase would be 'taking a break', as I would be back for my psenti sem(last semister) for one last time.
     Probably,we,Bitsians, might be the only breed who virtually complete their degree at the end of the third year. Even statistically,what else is left? One PS2(read internship) and a psenti sem with a couple of courses and loads of placement sessions to attend to. One way of looking at it would be to contemplate about the prospect of a 6 months internship in a new city and looking forward to life with bright hope. But sadly, the other one is to realize the fact of bidding good bye to half your friends & probably, the complete 'typical' Bitsian life. Both irreplaceable happenings especially when your dearest mates are leaving. I feel like approaching the end of a journey. I feel like I am gonna gravely miss my travel companions.Even before entering to the final year, I feel like experiencing a farewell. It is like Au Revoir? coming true. It is like premature nostalgia. An inevitable event, but reaching far before my expectation. With loads of mixed emotions & heart felt wishes, I am bidding farewell to many of my pals.
     If life was a fictitious novel, this would be the last page of a chapter. With only ifs & buts, this would be the point where the author reflects upon the past & makes way for the future. Cherishing all my happy memories, I wish this wasn't an epiphany striking me hard. I wish I had saw the nostalgia forthcoming, if not for the premature occurrence.        

The Grand Finale!

     Yesterday marked the end of the financial year for the corporate world;Today represents the birth of Lord Rama, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu where as tomorrow signifies the sweet little taste of victory.It has been a year since India has re-emerged as the world champions.Reemerged after a long wait.A wait of 28 years.A wait which could have ended under John Wright & Sourav Ganguly if not for the batting debacle at Johannesburg during the final match of the '03 world cup. A tournament in which India exhiibited commanding performances,only raising the hope.The hope which lasted During the semi finals against Kenya.The hope which raised when Sachin Tendulkar hit a mighty boundary against Glenn McGrath during the first over of the Indian Innings of that match while chasing an enormous target set by the Kangaroos.But sadly,the hope didn't last beyond that over.

     By 2011,things changed.Tremendously.India found an extraordinary 'Captain Cool' and a perfectly capable youthful team,heading towards the competition with the tag of 'favorites',asking for huge rise.And the big men,rose to the big occasion.Raina emerged as an outstanding finisher,Yuvraj solved the mystery of fifth bowler,Sachin & Gambhir led with consistent stroke plays & Zaheer Khan proved himself an Ace amongst the Indian Arsenal.And giving the billion people a reason to cheer & cherish about.Few damn good memories.

     I clearly remember the events of that day.The big day of Final.The first thing I looked forward to ,after waking up at noon, was to fresh up & settle down in the Auditorium.I would have never missed the chance to watch India win it when 2500 fellow students were cheering about it,in a place where accommodation lasted for only 1500 of them!Not atleast after seeing the match against Pakistan in the same place and enjoying the after effects of it.The match started with a fierce bowling spell form Zaheer & went on at a slow pace until the slog overs where a few bad overs resulted in setting up a modest target.And then came the Indian batting!The not-so-full Audi then became overcrowded in anticipation of an extraordinary climax.People started cheering every single run scored.Applause erupted for every boundary.Boos for every moment of brilliance shown inside the thirty yard circle.
Loud laughs for every misfield.Then came the shock when the opening batsmen departed.It was huge moment of silence when Sachin started walking towards the pavilion.That moment of realizationthat defeat is as far away as victory!It was followed by a dry patch of overs making boundaries hard to come by.The crowd fell into retrospection for a fraction of period,until Gambhir & Kohli started building a steady partnership which couldn't last long.When Kohli departed & the cameras turned towards the pavilion,there was sense of astonishment in the audi.As a matter of fact,in the nation.It was Dhoni,who was walking in, instead of the in-form Yuvraj.It was a bold move.A move which might not have been worth the risk & gamble, if not for his terrific & electrifying captain's performance.They played a patient & tactical game,Gambhir & Dhoni,slotting the ball into vacant areas, utilizing their strengths against spin bowling,converting singles into twos & twos into threes,looking for that occasional boundary to keep up against pressure & on a whole looking for that upper hand over the game leading towards the end.As the match approached the slog overs,it was not the same Dhoni, who has shown erroneous performance through out the tournament,it was a vintage & flamboyant Dhoni who has worked his way into the India team through hard hitting.It was boundaries raining all over the pitch inspiring the crowd to cheerful ways.With just inches away from victory,all the students went crazy.Standing on the chairs, screaming through joy,beaming with smiles;it was a paradise for cricket lovers.And when Dhoni finished off the game in style,atmosphere went crazy.People were hugging,laughing,screaming,celebrating & doing what-not.It was chaos all around.Chaos resulting from extreme happiness.The one moment where the entire diversified nation of India,felt very proud of!On television,I could see the team celebrating & waving hands at the crowd, while moving along the perimeter of the Wankhede Stadium.When Sachin walked out smiling like a school boy,I could sense the feeling of achievement & satisfaction in his eyes.Drops of tears rolled through my eyes.

    Turn in to the present scenario & you will sense a turmoil of form.The last few series depicts the contrasting results.A ruthless performance at home followed by a dismal away display,seldom performing like the world champions,the title to which they are entitled till the next world cup.But still,memories float afresh recollecting the beautiful memories of that day.The day of the Grand Finale.Memories,which may last still the very last moments of the lives of all the Bitsians!

Au Revoir?

Back on the blogging ways!With a short fictional article.                        

          "It was a quarter past noon, when the last & final announcement was made for Mr. Singh, for the departing flight of Indigo Airlines. I was sitting on the corner chair of the group of connected plastic chairs, placed right before the plasma television of the domestic terminal of Indira Gandhi International Airport. Considering the increase in the usage of the aerial route by the standard Indian middle class, the dense population of passengers struck me by no surprise. Albeit in this noisy place, sitting beside my best friend, my mental presence did not corroborate with the physical counter-part. It was lost in thoughts, or rather, in memories. It has been seven years since I first met him in high school. It has been a joy ride with him through the junior college & the four years of Engineering.  It has been too long a journey with him to just end it with a goodbye right then. What else could have been done, I was flying to my home town where as he was going to Mumbai to catch a connecting flight to the United States, where his family relocated to recently. I haven’t exactly thought of that moment before, not while filling the placement form, not while choosing the career path and not even during our last discussion about our life ten years from then. For once, I wasn’t my usual sense of pre-determined thoughts. For once, Ignorance wasn’t bliss.

We weren’t talking to each other, but instead, my soul was taking a nostalgic walk down my memory lane. It was a slide show of happy moments going across my brain. The crazy celebration of a cent percent score in high school maths, the thrilling experience of double rafting through the biting cold water of Rishikesh, the foolish prank we played on a guy who was trying to bully us, the ecstatic occasion when we were awake well past midnight to watch our beloved football clubs take on each other in a cup final, the eureka moment when we figured out what went wrong in a project execution, the countless beaming smiles as a result of instances when we completed each other’s sentences , the summer trip spent on the sidelines of the west coast, the cheerful & elated celebration after a well-fought win in a volleyball match, the strange yet hilarious dance performance he put up on the fresher’s day. It was like smiles all along the journey, the kind of which was then present on my face as a result of this contemplation. This was when I realised, that he too was smiling. The same smile to which he has held on to throughout his life. The same one which demonstrates his ease in reading my mind. The same one which re-ensures my memories.   

This bitter farewell has hardly kick started with a conversation when the boarding call for his flight was made. May be words weren’t meant for those moments.

Unlike the previous times, without any alacrity, I reluctantly rose, enacting him. With a low-toned goodbye and a small hug, he just smiled and turned away. He picked up his cabin bag and started making his move. When his stride-less walk was trying to gather some pace, a solitary me was answering the self. If it was any other situation, I would have gladly recollected the famous quote of Paulo Coelho, when someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive. But it wasn’t ordinary. It was one of those moments which made me remember that growing up is all about facing the inevitable with a heavy heart. After all, it was meant to happen. Amidst this dense contemplation, I could figure his hand waiving at a distance. I couldn’t help but think, was it a happy ending? This tech-savvy era wouldn't even consider it an ending. But this rational explanation couldn’t reach the heart. At the end, it was birds of a nest flowing in two opposite directions, letting the destiny decide about the future."