Epilogue

Two months ago.

It's been a while, I know.

Summer's creeping up on Trichy. I can tell by the way when, inevitably, I feel too lazy to get out of my room in the afternoons. And I'm totally, completely an afternoon person- it is the time of the day when I'm at my sharpest, most enthu best. You know, when you feel like doing something. Another sign's the way my jeans feel sticky after a bit of cycling around the campus. And when you can quite literally smell the heat in the air. A faint smell, admittedly, but it is there.

There's nothing to do here in college. Wait, that's not quite right, there are programs to complete, equations to derive, project reports to write, newsletters to edit, blogs to update and quants papers to correct for the nanhe munhe bacche. The difference, I think, lies in the fact that this semester (unfortunately) we actually have the time to do all of the above. Therefore, as is obvious, nothing gets done simply because our arses aren't on fire.

Sometimes I think the only thing I've learnt in four years of engineering is how to deal with the pressure of deadlines.


Well, we're almost done. I'm going to miss these days like crazy; however, strangely enough, I'm looking forward to working. Most of my friends, thankfully, have got postings in Bangalore. At least some things will endure.


Present Day.

Well, we’re done. Yup, that’s right, stand up and clap for the man here, who’s just done with his Bachelor of Technology. Except that he’s not sure he’ll appreciate applause; naaah, not for this, no. Hell, he shakes his head in wonder, it just isn’t sinking in. Pause. Resume head-shaking. When will it, then, he wonders? When he wakes up on one morning too many to find that he doesn’t have to knock his neighbour’s door down for toothpaste? When, once too often, the tea he drinks with breakfast actually serves its intended function of waking him up?

How did it end? In a mockery of a final comprehensive viva wherein we took photographs while writing the preliminary written exam. In a final photo and video session which included a tour of the entire department. Yes, even the bathrooms. Desperate, we were, to take everything back with us. Except we left behind table fans, bags, notebooks, pencils, movies, songs, the LAN, the hostel terrace, oh the hostel terrace.

The last act, however, was staged in a railway station that we never conceived would see such emotion on display. Pregnant silences that at once left everything and nothing unsaid; long, heartfelt hugs with neither party willing to let go; promises to meet again, to keep in touch, of third degree homicide should either party visit the other’s city and leave unmet; tears- open and discreet; but above all, it ended in emptiness- a hollow feeling that bespoke the realization that a way of life had just been laid to rest, and that this chapter had finally come to a close.

P.S. It's been a while, I know. :)