Another day in CET!!!

Memories are sometimes cherishing…Sometimes depressing....and sometimes placid...But they are episodes in an individual that haunts once in a while...CET is the place that has given me a pot pourri of all sorts of memoirs…A place where amorous casanovas share space with scholarly bookworms and braveheart brawlers….An altar of intellectuals where the scholars carry anything from Thermodynamics texts, Election manifestos, Mills and boon’s to soft porn novels…..A steaming brouhaha of political affiliations swearing by all color in the vibgyor..It’s the place to be……..

I had my share of fun at this temple of engineers...The day usual begins at nine thirty in the morning when along with a friend of mine we begin our race to reach college in a vintage Bajaj chetak ,which struggles hard to help reach these poor soul in time..In fact our classes must have already begun in full swing at nine in the morning...The eager students in us wouldn’t like to miss any thing(read attendance) and we reach class ten minutes before the next hour..Creating excuses is an art mastered by every cetian and it aint any difficult for us either... The precious first hour attendance gives us the luxury of skipping the next hour and the attention shift to the tea stall located outside the campus...The Sallap tea stall is where the blue blooded political big shots contemplate forthcoming strategies, where sapped up kids come for a smoke and a fake Nescafe coffee or guys who have an allergy for anything related to education discuss anything under the sun. The place is bustling with guys who read the morning papers or watched T.V and armed with the new found info debates occur sans any decorum that can put our parliament to shame...The second hour is generally spend eaves dropping and at times engaged in the chatter that is an omni present feature of the tea stall…...Other times when the number of people skipping classes rise enormously ,the whole junta occupies the pristine acacia woodland inside the campus or nearby mexx corner(close to the ladies hostel) and then its mass bullying of some hapless soul who had the audacity to walk through our line of sight. Although it’s quite sadist mentality to harass anyone for no reason, its usually restricted to harmless small talk...Most of the time victims feel quite gallant inside for being the center of attraction among the faceless hooligans. Being outside the classroom can get boring at times and getting back inside classroom for the last hour before lunch doesn’t need much of cajoling...Guys find it hard to concentrate at the gibberish coming from the lecturer’s mouth and resort to sketching anything on their only notebook or vent out artistic creation on the desks and others find no better reason to take a short nap..


Afternoon the college is in full swing...The canteen is packed up.Nowehere else you can have a sumptuous meal for eight bucks....Guys ask for more chapattis than they paid for and it not uncommon to see someone stealing one or two. There is plenty of time for the next hour and the gang moves over to sallap tea stall to take stock of whatever happened through the day. Another pack of cigarettes another round of coffee... Some move over to nearby lodges to spend the rest of the day. “Brothers” lodge accommodate many of our classmates and the rooms are stocked with playing cards, cigarettes, booze, pirated movies and many find this potent combination too hard to resist.The card games are played with fervour...Passions rise high at times...There is always a bee of onlookers who give “expert” opinions to the players...Someone in the room plays the latest music or any item number video. Another chap might be having a good sleep to compensate for the heavy hangover he had after having “Contessa rum” (cheapest one in town)...Once the game starts the clock freezes...Time is never an issue and it goes on until all are tired. Few who are disinterested just go back to classes .They are volunteers who will provide the much vaunted “proxy attendance” for the rest of the gang. The proxy experts had perfected the art over the semester and they do it with military precision leaving nothing for the lecturer to doubt. Rarely, when the number become disproportionate the game plan goes awry. Still these proxy callers are a highly respected elite gang.

Traditionally at least one hour is off in a day .Either the lecturer had to pay his electricity bills and gone out or some relative of his who had come home at the wrong time or he might have had some important “logistics” issues to deal with. During this time, the intellectuals visit the library to expand there know-how on engineering concepts. The Romeos use the golden opportunity for another round of “sugar beating”...And the proxy volunteers return to the lodges to inform the others about the glad news. But the card players nonchalantly continued what they did...Its 4 and time to return to the college...

Its time when the ladies return to their hostels. When the day scholars catch their bus. It’s time when the crowd is out...Some people who had gone for the matinee reach and began blabbering about the movie. Few are interested in hearing the story and their eyes are fixed to catch glimpse of any damsel moving through the hustle and bustle. The casanovas just prance among the crowd. The tough guys “oversee” all that’s happening and looks out for trouble from rivals.

Soon it’s quite. All the college buses have left and others leave to the confinement of their hostel rooms.......Few Romeos and Juliet’s continue roaming the woods in front of the college...And then a few like us still sit in front of “Sallap” looking forward to another day. Another day to bum around...Another day with all the time in the world.......