Thank you..

Huh! what a month it has been!
So many feelings!

Happiness, encouragement, dullness, sadness, boredom, frustration, tears, anger, dejection, rejection, encouragement, turmoil, acceptance, sarcasm, distrust, misuse, more tears, disheartening, hope, love, pleasure, high, lethargy, attachment, detatchment, craze, fun, enjoyment, memories, repentance, stress, pressure....

Yesterday, as I sat down and went through project presentation and changed the extensions and mailed it to my project-mates, I just remembered how long it had been since we all friends had a good time together. Time took away with it a lot of things.

I still remember how all the professors in the department had come to our 3rd sem class and introduced themselves and wished us luck and gave some mini lectures on behaviour and attendance. Three years have passed since. That was the time when we were making friends in the new crowd, creating a identiy.Those classes with full strength in third semester, when the benches were not suffecient and peon had to arrange for extra chairs - nope, they dont exist now- all have been replaced by dusty ones.. Mass-bunk was a new term! Bunking a senior professors class was offence! When I come to think of it now, I think fun lied there, then. I miss the times when we waited in the corridors for the next professor to come; when bunking meant once in a while and break meant : go and come back to class! not just go, get lost!

I liked standing in cafe and drinking coffee in light mood with my friends; the times when we just ate and at the end one or two people ended up paying for all;  those golden little trips of ours - which were decided on a fly- vtu, Vyjnath,tank and even Shiroda; the times when a person came late to college and forced everybody who came later to bunk the class; the times when one person just mentioned movie name and all end up in theatre instead of a lecture!; those stupid gossips; those visits to Cafe Ajanta for neer dosa and toast; the morning walks and laughs; the carefree chatter and a little jokes turned most of us rolling on floor, laughing; the times sitting in front of the dot matrix printer and taking printouts for all; the lunches in Hotel Panchamrut; sitting in Entrepreneurship and Management class and dying to impress that lecturer; cribbing about Prof.Madi and complaining and fighting with him; when we decided if we should go to class depending on the crowd in juice centre and cafe; ten people crammed into a table of four in canteen for breakfast; when the person who got tea never got a sip; when we fought for a glass of banana shake; when one gave a hundred rupee note for a thirty-rupee-per-head bill and got only ten bucks back!; the frustrated lab sessions; the silly but funny gossip..
I miss grabbing and fight for a single bite of Vasu's tiffin (of which she never got a bit!); poo's narration of "Nid-dhant" incidents ; Peets' - Mithun PJ's; the smile that Vinay and Shirish's little blunders and jokes brought; Shrawan's stories and charm; shweth's silent smiles and angers :)... I miss those damn days filled with laughter; those stupid days when there was no big reason to laugh; no big reason to meet; no reason to celbrate; no reason to go out and drink a cup of tea..

I never thought all those little things had made so much difference to my life and how I see my class, my people in college... These empty classes, canteen and cafe; no laughter; creases of worries on every forehead! All I hear is "has your implementation started?", "your seminar is selected??!", "my guide's angry".. " who's your examiner?" .. "whats your seminar topic?"... frustrate me.. get me craving to see a genuine smile on a face...

To the list of my feelings, here I add: Nostalgia..

And I dedicate this post to ALL the people who are the reason for so many memories and smiles: Peets, Vassu, Poo, Shweth, Mith, Shrawan, Vinay, Shirish, Prati, Pratima, Iesh, Anu, Shwetha and Shwetha H... To those people who have no idea they'll live in my memory: KKT sir, Rodd sir, Math Sir, Madi sir, Anjana(Go-mata!), Sabde sir, Gudi sir, Seema ma'm, AHK and Upparmani sir, Rajesh Joshi sir,  and on goes this list. And to all those little "fun weekends ;)" that happened in this city!

Thanks to all you guys, who made my stay in this city golden;  for the soo much love; you got me smiling when I was low even without asking; you made me feel at home; you have made life here fun; thanks so much .. for making  a mark in my life; for leaving me those platinum moments of happiness..

Well, yeah.. I will move on but you have already made the differece :)

50/-

'Ahh... Its 9:30! why the hell dint i get some change!', I muttered under my breath, frustrated.

I had been standing in front of this building, where I was supposed to attend a job interview in a short while, for fifteen minutes stopping every passerby asking for change of a 500 rupees note, to pay the auto rickshaw driver.

'OK! A bad luck morning!', thought I, owing to the fact that I had missed the bus even after bieng at the bus stop five minutes early! (the bus had managed to turn up earlier than usual) and a auto-ride in the heavy morning traffic and then, this annoyance.. and I was pretty sure that I was going to be late to the interview... 'I'm asking this one last somebody for change', I decided,looking at the guy who was coming, 'or I am sending this guy back with the 500..'.

“Excuse me..”, I called out.

“yes?”, said the guy, turning his black, radiant eyes towards me.

“I need a help.. Er... do you have change for 500 bucks?..”

He took out his shiny, brown, leather wallet and searched thorougly (ah, with the number of partitions and parts the wallet had, it definitely took searching!) and said “ sorry! I dont think I've....”

'damn it' I thought.. and said aloud “oh, its alrite...anyway, thanks!” and took out my note with a lot of pain and turned towards the driver.

I realized that the guy was still standing there. Wondering, what might have gone wrong, I turned to say something.. But the guy asked “ er.. you gotta pay the guy? How much do you need?!”

I was surprised, intrigued, relieved, all at the same time. “ 50 bucks!”, words came out of mouth even before I realized what the question meant!

“ Oh, cool.. I have change, I'll pay for you now, you can pay me back later...”...

'what! Well.. err... what do I do... he's a stranger, mmm.. no, i shouldnt be taking.. but 500? mm.. and he looks decent.. and ...' I was thinking.. and this guy probably read me..

He said again ,“Take it, fine by me!”. I was skeptical..

“Mm... May I have your visiting card please?” He was digging his wallet again.

I, now noticed the blue jeans, black (wrinkleless) shirt, the semi formal brown shoes, a red swiss knife hanging by the right pocket of jeans and you just couldnt miss the air of confidence, the swift, smart movements and a sudden feeling of relief..

I was almost lost for a second! He held his card out and as I took the card and was about to say something, he was talking again, “ its okay... gimme later.” said he, and thrust a fifty note into my hand .

I dint know how to thank him.. 'Thank god I met this guy!', I thought!

“Thanks so much!!”, I said with a sigh of relief and a big smile and turned to the driver to pay the money and once done, “I dont know how....” .. Damn! He was going! I called... “hey! Excuse me! the money! Pay back! Wait... I am ... what ... shit! No!” but yes, he was gone! He had not waited ; not until I paid for the auto; not to hear out my thanks; not even for the money!At the least, He hadn't even asked my NAME, for god's sake!!!

How could he trust me (nope, its not just 50 bucks! Nobody had offered me that till then!) ?! How was I just convinced that I should let somebody pay for me!?!!! How do I pay him back? What ..... i rushed into the interview hall with all these questions in my head...

Well...

Now, a week later, I smile, remembering the overpowering charm of his.. and looking at the appointment letter I recieved a while ago and the visiting card, I wonder, how should I pay back a favour thats more than just 50 bucks? 

PS: this is an incident that happened with a friend of mine. I am just portraying the other side.

PPS: The post I promised for valentine's day is still pending, I know :( Somehow, the mood is not right. But, it'll come!

PPPS: Please suggest a good title for this post.. I am so bad at it!