24th Nov 2018: Day 4, Campus: Sky, Insti, Music Nite
The day starts early – around 25 of us set out for a “guided tour”(!!) of campus with Sundy at 7 am. As if 7 am is not bad enough, Sundy, Arvind, and a couple of others have already returned from an early morning run! Someone – Balaji? tells me they’re going to attend a class today… Lin-Al? On a Saturday? Our batch seems to be keen on all kinds of good habits to make up for our sinful youth 😀
We walk past the boys’ bhawans grumbling about how the grills make everything look like prisons. Apparently these days, the students have a lot of valuables and the grills are needed to protect laptops and such. Huh. Whatever. But no one can deny they take away something much more valuable (to us :-P) – the innocence of the good old days. Damn grills.
We stop and take pics in front of the post office and UCO Bank. We all fondly remember the days of waiting at that UCO Bank to withdraw long awaited money from parents… gosh, we are dinosaurs! There were actually no ATMs back then – at least not in Pilani!
We wander down a lane where there’s a new boys’ bhawan named after Sir C. V. Raman. And the new library. Which I regret to say, I never saw the inside of. Others did. If I ever go back, it’s definitely on the list. I don’t really know exactly where we’re going – happy to just follow the guide. As always, I am making pics like there’s no tomorrow. Oh wait, there *is* no tomorrow here, we’re leaving tomorrow 😉
I go for an arty shot of a bunch of street dogs in a small clearing by the street. They watch benignly enough as I approach, but I cross an invisible line, and suddenly all hell breaks loose! The dogs start barking and snarling and advancing towards me threateningly. I hurriedly back off, as I hear Priya laughing at me in the background. She is so full of it: hasn’t she told me to stay away from strays?! Why do I have to run after dogs for God’s sake?!
After the dog incident, we go onto the insti buildings. In front of the Workshop, C Block, M Block, Audi. If one thing has improved on campus, it’s that brilliant below-the-skyline walkway connecting the Audi at one end and the temple at the other end. Who says everything was better in the good old days! This is definitely a genius piece of landscaping/architecture.
We wander into the Audi. I am happy to see it looking just the same as I remember it: cool and dark on the inside. The lovely artwork on the sides that I remember from our time is gone though, replaced with something else that doesn’t quite catch my eye. We will be back here tonight for music night! I find that I’m quite looking forward to it. I know Chinnu and the others have been practicing, and we’ve had a couple of sneak previews in the bus.
Then we walk past the S Block. At the entrance, there’s an Honours List. We peer at it trying to recognize our batch honours student names – but don’t think we find them in the end. That shall remain a mystery. Why did they eliminate our batch names from that list?! It’s a conspiracy!
Then Sky comes into view. All my love for this place is renewed yet again just looking at Sky. We walk on past the museum, back towards the temple, and past it. Along a wall of murals created by the Shishu Vihar children. Some of the paintings excellent, and the whole stretch of murals is very attractive. We touch the gates of MB and then head back towards the guest house. Past the temple again, admiring the view of the “underground” landscaped path to the insti from the other end, we walk back. In the interest of breakfast, we have to leave Connaught Place and Shiv-G for later. We’re told Shiv-G is cordoned off without access.
Next on the agenda is the T-Shirt photo-shoot with the official photographer in front of the insti. The whole batch is mobilised and herded to the front of the clock tower. As expected, there’s a lot of confusion and contradictory instructions, but eventually we manage to line up for a whole batch photo, as well as sub-groups by departments, wings, friends, just-like-thats, velas, what-nots.
After everyone has taken all possible combinations of photos, there’s a general call for all the girls to go to MB. The chowkidar graciously allows us to infiltrate the bhawan. Organically, we split into wingie groups and prowl the corridors of the old and new blocks, looking for our respective old wings, our old rooms, the common areas…
There are more new blocks now but we’re mainly interested in the “new” block that was new 25 years ago 🙂 It’s not possible to go to MB without remembering Meera Bannerji, which we do, not exactly fondly. The Supri of today introduces herself and chats with us for a while.
Coming back to the corridors and rooms, I find the 3-seater room that I shared with Mathangi and Gurjas Kaur. My backie was Sudha – our two rooms have been combined into one larger room, whose new purpose is not entirely clear – it is not used as a student room now. We shamelessly disturb the kids in “our” rooms – knock on doors, wake them up, make a lot of noise in the corridors, and in general make a nuisance of ourselves. Not very apologetic 😀
After doing the rounds in both blocks, we peek into the mess. It too has been expanded. What used to be the kitchen is now opened up to more seating area. We linger for a while, no one’s feeling like leaving yet. Vidhya poses for a pic with some kid’s bike as a prop. I don’t recall how the bikes were parked when we were there, but now, the grounds are full of many rows of bikes. After a last set of pics in front of the old block, reluctantly we leave MB.
Vidhya, Priya and I walk to the insti, and do a more in-depth exploration of all the corridors in the insti blocks. Vijayalakshmi joins us. I even sneak a picture of a real class in progress – that’s as near as I am getting to a class! We talk about how we never haunted these corridors when we ought to have. Still, it’s good to see it all looking so familiar. The wooden desks, chairs, the massive iron doors of the classes, the grey stone floors on the corridors. Vidhya has some official organizing work with a student, so we wait with her until that’s done at the circle outside the M Block.
Then the three of us walk back to Sky. Pappu has opened shop for a brief while, despite it being his son’s wedding. Ashish is helping out inside the little shop, making shikanjis for everyone that’s around. There is also a box of wedding sweets doing the rounds. Ruchika, Bindu, Sheetal, Shreya are here too. We sit for a while on the stone benches and steps near Pappu’s shop, absorbing the atmosphere of Sky. It feels like it has gotten under my skin and the years passing by won’t erase that feeling 🙂
What time is it anyway? The whole group there decides it is lunch time! I have lost track. I suppose it’s been enough hours since breakfast, so lunch seems a reasonable proposition. We take a cycle rickshaw to Connaught. There are two schools of longing – one for fried maggi, the other for daal roti. I am in the daal roti camp. We order a large number of fried maggis for the whole group, and an equally large number of rotis and daal. It takes a while to arrive while we sit around on the modas in the sun. Not able to explain the feeling of peace and yet restlessness, but there it is. The daal roti tastes oh, so good!
Cut to the evening – I am trying to get my pics from the camera SD card transferred to some laptop. Hearing that KD has a card reader, and is willing to try transferring the pics, I arrange a rendezvous with him. Turns out that we must walk to the new Audi where he has to wait for some official event. The next 30 minutes pass most pleasantly, as KD entertains me with stories from his life. Funny how chance encounters happen due to the strangest of reasons – in this case, thanks to my SD card and photos!
And so it is that I unwittingly get caught in the official event of the trip: sleep inducing talks by various persons of eminence, all with the message that BITS needs our sponsorship. We are also told that they have built a new database! Collective gasp at this leap over technological frontiers! After enduring the talks for over an hour, I decide to leave. I find Ruchi outside – she’s on her way back from the rehearsals for music nite. Outside this new Audi, they’ve setup snacks for this event – which I had missed when entering because KD and I came in way earlier than the event. Not that I’m hungry but it’s too tempting: we can’t leave paneer pakodas untasted. We eat some, take chai in plastic cups, and head back to the guest house.
At the QT, camp fires are already lit. We join a group for a bit, but then I wander off to get ready and get dinner. Which is another rich buffet with way too many options. But now I am getting tired of all the food options – except for the desserts – which it seems I shall never get tired of :-/
I bring along my bottle of Laphroaig to the Audi. How decadent that we can walk in with bottles of booze without having to sneak them in!!! Priya is cursing me that we don’t have any old monk, and she doesn’t like the taste of smoked whiskey. We find seats near the front, put our stuff there, but once the singing starts, no way I can just sit there.
The performances are superb: Sathya, Sudipa, Chinnu, Sri Vidya, Ruchi, Vidhya… and the guys, of whom I only know Babu’s name for sure – Ruchi’s duet-partner is Prakash I am told. I scramble around now and find that the first song is by Mohit – “Phoolon ke rang se”. Unfortunately, I don’t have the whole set of songs in my head – but do remember Vidhya and Babu’s “Mukkala” and Ruchi and Prakash’s “Rim-jhim rim-jhim”. The overload of video and photo coverage of this night should correctly jog our memories with the exact details.
I realize I’ve been waiting to hear Chinnu’s singing again. Her voice is strong and beautiful – just as I remember it. She does 17 numbers, besides organizing the rehearsals and putting the evening together! Hats off, girl!
The thing I find most striking is that, in spite of the overload of talent each singer has, they are all so unassuming, spontaneous and natural – as if to say this is all in a day’s work! Every song is beautiful – I stand at the foot of the stage, at the edge of the space that has become the “dance floor” making pics. Intermittently, I set my camera down and dance in that crowd.
Needless to say, Babutta is of course dancing – I share a dance with him as with a few others – I don’t remember who, but somebody very gallantly says “Thank you for that dance” at the end of one of the numbers. Much time passes, but towards the end of the show, when I go back to my seat, I find that the Laphroaig is nearly done. I bring the last of it to the dance floor and share a drink with Ketan. By now the kids have claimed the stage and are singing numbers that don’t resonate with me. No matter, it’s still fine to dance to! Chinnu is still on stage – she seems to be having a blast bonding with the students, singing still. More time passes on the dance floor.
Eventually I look for Priya to head back, but apparently, I left it too late to find her – she has left. When I do get back to the guest house, escorted by the chivalrous Ketan, there seems to be some minor drama going on there. We may all be dinosaurs, but boy! do we still know how to draw out an evening – no half measures! We can take it in our stride, sure! What’s a few more vodka shots, bring it on! I finally go to bed at around 4 am.
