Perennially Nostalgic

BITS-Pilani
Rajasthan-333031

I am back to where the journey began-The journey from the valley to the sands, the iterative journey every semester, the journey which marked the beginning of so many beautiful friendships, the journey which gave us a home away from home, an entire clan of Bitsian Brothers, sisters, ID daughters, ID sons, Grand moms, Grand pops, groupies, Ps-mates, Department/club seniors, Sideys, Super sideys, Oppi’s, wingies and Psenti’s (for some)!

Journeys always seem pleasant in retrospect and for Pilani, it is so very true! You don’t realize how important part the present will play in your past! If only we did! If only we could turn back time and relive those moments once again, with the same enthusiasm, passion and double the time span. It reminds me of a cliché, memories are very strange; they make us laugh when we cried and make us cry when we laughed the most! When I look back, I feel sad to think of the good times we spent and also laugh over the moments when I cried over small things!

There’s something enigmatic about Pilani, which makes you hold on to it. A charisma that it never lets you get influenced by places/times which you’ve experienced before or which will come henceforth. Despite the scorching heat, hoards of insects post rains, power cuts at night, tight test schedules, tutorials at 8 in the morning, assignment deadlines (which were more like assignment starting times for us) and the Open Book assaults, we still remember the good things, as it always is! The Sky hangouts, The IC breakfast, frequent chai’s at redis ,C’not treats, The Dhaba grand treats, birthday confessions, the walk in the rains, Lazing around the Saraswati temple, Gussing classes, Last minutes GHOT sessions, Audi movies, Oasis with friends and departments/clubs, The Prof-show fever and the resonating after-effect which continued right up to compre’s, Assoc Grubs, Batch snaps and photo sessions, etching out treats from friends for minuscule reasons-First ZUK treat, Test topper treat, Psenti-treat, job treat and what not, the bedecked and scintillating clock tower during Diwali, the colored and more often muddy faces as well as clothes during Holi, so on and so forth.

 There’s so much to write, the people, the places and the bonds which sustained. The Bonds… Yeah! I feel there is a defining moment in each friendship when you find out if they are your true friends or not.. After that you have a real friend or one less thing to worry about and I’m proud to say that there have been many such defining moments at Pilani, and I have found the best of friends here, some one I can always look back to, in joy and distress alike, no matter where they are and what they are!

I don’t know whether it’s the same about other college campuses or not. But definitely, none of the alumni of other colleges feel as strongly as we feel about our campus. Had there been a Passion quotient, for one’s alma mater BITS Alumni’s would absolutely score the highest in it. (All course toppers! CT). We definitely cannot grow out of BITS! It’s a part of us! After Life @ bits, our life is divided into 3 phases- the life before that, and the life after it and we constantly compare our lives with those golden four years.

And now as I am back, things have changed yet seem similar. Or maybe I perceive them to be similar to suit my convenience, To feel that I’m back home again, back to the place which gave me the best of friends and the best of times I could ever have spent. So Yeah It hasn’t changed; just that it’s a bit more colorful, with the new flashing white color buildings and new people of course! The Redi’s have vanished, though as promised, they will be back in a new refurbished avatar soon! But didn’t we like the Old Rustic Yellow colored Pilani more? Sky isn’t as crowded as it used to be and C’not is deserted at 10.00 pm and you feel like asking these deserted places, “Where are the people, man?” with a hope that they might have a clue. Or maybe it’s just ‘my’ people who I miss- the seniors whom I would greet, the juniors I would smile at, the batch mates I would talk to. Although no amount of consolation would do, but yeah there are a couple of similar faces whom I recognize and who recognize me as well, other than the faculty of course, and they are the Cycle waale bhaiya outside Meera Bhawan, the Mess bhaiya’s who would give a big smile when you drag yourself to the mess full of alien faces, The Shopkeepers at C’not and of course the Famous Chimpu Ji of Blue moon and Pappu Ji of Sky and many more such people.

 Not that, I am not happy to be back; I still love the place and I always will, But I’m not sure whether this place would give me as good memories as it gave me earlier. Or maybe two years is too short a time to re create the magic which happened in four years. Maybe these two years will just pass slogging hard and strengthening my bond with Pilani as a place and remembering what a beautiful platform it was for a Journey to begin. A sense of nostalgia always crept in whenever you think about this place, so I always associated nostalgia with a longing for a place, but now being here, I guess it’s not always a longing for the place, it’s a longing for the people in that very place, a longing for the past- as it was, as you would always want it to be. For me, it’s a perennial nostalgia now and I love to be associated with it. So three cheers for all the Good times we have spent, the tough times we’ve seen, moments we have laughed and the inseparable Memories that we have created@ 333031.