Ah...what a fantastic journey it was. A journey made memorable by the sheer memories it evoked and by the place we went to! Karthik and I took a long pending trip back to our college, BITS, Pilani and came back, refreshed, and younger by a few years!! We relived all the places we'd been togethter, that held memories for him, his hostel rooms, right from the first to the last year, the radi wallas, ratan ji, munna and so on, on whose endless sam chats and shikanji he and his wingies lived, who actually remebered his room number after all the 10 years that has passed in between, to all the places that held a lot of memory for me...the mime club, I had been the coordinator of which in my psenti year, met all the kids, took them for a sky treat and saw their run through (the mime and dance club performances are held during the cultural night, Mithali for Apogee, the academic fest), Institute Canteen, visited c'not place, had Chimpu's M & B and sharma's Gulab Jamun ...ah.... it was a true dream come true for us. We walked for the entire two days that we were there...woke up in the morning, took in the crisp fresh air and then set out with a bag and caps to explore our much beloved huuuugggeee campus. Its become even more sprawling now, with the latest lecture theatre complex and the beautifully done central library. The very first night, we reached Pilani at 11.30 P.M and all the journey blues, the ride in the haryana roadways bus with the conductor smoking his beedi into my face and the hour long wait in Bhiwani to catch the connecting bus to Pilani, just slipped away from us. We were the kids we were 10 years ago...washed our face and walked hand in hand through the rain to the night canteen (ANC). Just sat and observed the new kids on the block...and all illusions and delusions fell away. Hah..do I still crave to be the person I was in college, free, easy going, no responsibilities and having oodles of fun? Not anymore. In more ways than one, the trip back to BITS helped me clear a few cobwebs and remove a few ghosts. I cherished the saraswathi temple, a particular tree beside a particular hostel, certain spots in the insti, the canteen, some rooms and so on..held them sacred and always wistully thought of them and had a longing to always rewind the clock, but this visit helped me to see that I am extremely happy to be the person I am now, so very different from the girl who roamed this beautiful campus 10 years ago, yet, it is that very same person I was who enabled me to take in all the challenges these years have thrown in and grow from it, earning the self respect and the love and respect of my husband. Every dear place I visited, I talked to the girl I was, saw her in my mind, that ever smiling face, saw my friends and dear ones and wow.........it was an experiance like no other. I laid so many ghosts to rest this one trip that now I feel I can just move on with like without looking back, it is like wiping the slate clean so that I can create many many more treasurable memories together with my family.
I have deviated from the travelogue, but hell, I wouldn't want to bore you with it all...many are extremely personal, like the visit to the mime club practice, sky treat, talks with the raddi wallas, the pahadi trip, visit to Guru and Gsu's house and finally the extremely tiring Jaipur trip........
By the end of it, we were thirsting for our kids and quenched ourselves back in Chennai!!!!!
Utop Pahadi .. the Hanuman temple...the real reason for us being back in BITS. I wanted to be back here after I married, and finally made it after three kids!
Need I say anything?? I have always felt the clock tower lawns to be the most beautiful place in the campus...
