The last drag

For the past week I was in Manipal. Had gone over there to submit my final semester's project work. I don't really know what I expected when I boarded the bus in Bangalore. Was just relieved and happy that I'd be getting away from work for a while and meet people with whom I have had some special times. There is a stark difference between my school and college friends. If I had to bring it down to one point, it would be that with college people the conversations mainly happen in Hindi whereas with school friends it's usually English which holds sway. The funny thing is that it just feels better that ways. Anyhow, I find it particularly interesting that even though I have even lived with college people and never really done so with school friends, there is just a different connection I have with the people I meet from school. Guess this is where childhood, innocence, age and maturity come into the picture.

I reached Manipal early in the morning on Saturday. The room I entered was packed with people. People who had come from various parts of India. Come to submit their final semester's project work. But actually they were in Manipal for one last drag from this oh so exciting place.

This week in Manipal was supposed to be special. Special because it was going to be the last time when so many people from my batch were going to be together. It may happen again much later this year when the convocation will be held. But somehow I don't really see that happening. Simple reason being that we won't be required to come down that time. People that I meet unabashedly proclaim their love for Manipal, how unforgettable an experience college has been here and how much they'll miss the friends and times that this place has given them but I'd like to see how many of them come down to Manipal for their convocation when they won't be required by college to do so and would be coming purely for sentimental reasons. Would be interesting to see who all turn up then.

Anyhow, all that is for later. (I really should stop digressing no. But then writing wouldn't be nearly as interesting.) There were lots of people who had come down to Manipal this week. Obviously there was no chance of different groups staying together, whether in the college blocks or in a lodge. So there were groups scattered all over Manipal in different accommodations. They did meet at the various watering holes that Manipal is replete with! Over drinks and cigarettes, many hugs were exchanged, conversations struck, notes compared and promises made of staying in touch even after Manipal. Nice, fake and beautiful. The way Manipal is.

The first few days that I was there, I had to do a lot of scrambling around in order to get my project report in the prescribed format. I just don't get it. You do a project somewhere outside college. When you come for your submission, the one thing which is obsessed about the most is the format of your report. Whether the lines have been indented properly or not, whether undeserving people have been thanked, whether font sizes have been followed or not. Such crap!! Anyways, I gritted my teeth and came through it. That and the project submission. I enjoy preparing presentations. Like to make the slides crisp and relevant. I found myself quite unashamedly procrastinating when it came my project's presentation. It was the last drag. I think I can be excused. Don't you?

I had gone over to Manipal a couple of months back. I hadn't really roamed around the campus then. Was busy catching up with friends then. And there wasn't that feeling of inevitable departure then. This time, I decided to walk around the campus. Trudge along the straight and long road which has no trees lining it. Alone. With my old and worn bag slung across one shoulder. Walk all the way from college to tenth block. Pass the blocks which lie by the side of the road, the small eatery and the basketball court (which is actually used for basketball), the messes where I have had so many meals, the tennis courts (gosh, I wish I had played more!) and reach the block where one gets solitude in a single room. Tenth block felt different this time. It seemed as if I had left it eons back! The corridors seemed weirdly wide and the rooms inhospitable. Guess staying there was an experience of which I had had my fill and more.

Walking around campus felt weirdly good. My mind is infested with memories of this bare campus. Bare campus with its turns, retreats with thatched roofs strewn by the wayside, stores which sell items of daily use and dark alleys. When I looked around at the boys and girls who were walking beside me I felt that right now they were living in a safe and secluded world. Away from the rigours, idiosyncrasies and tensions of the real world. I too have enjoyed my fill of this life. Enjoyed and wasted it too! Can it be enjoyed without being wasted? Rhetorical questions do have a weird kind of empty truth oozing from them, is it not?

Manipal has a long road which pierces it into two. There is a steep slope to it which levels out. It's about three km long and its ends mark the beginning and end of this town. I enjoy walking along this road, when the weather's nice that is. There's hardly ever a semblance of traffic on this road. No swanky cars here. Far from it! Old fashioned Indian cars, various kinds of two wheelers and pedestrians parade this road. And the thing which struck me this time was the lack of sound which emanates from this road! There is strange kind of buzz which one hears. Apart from that? Nothing really. The atmosphere is peaceful and serene all right. Dull and listless too. Ideal for aimless wanderings during college years. More of it? No, thanks.

Coming to the people now. As I said, various groups were staying in Manipal this week. At different places. There was an occasion when a friend of mine called a lot of people for a dinner. People from various groups came. They still sat in pockets though. And it wasn't much fun. I did have fun when I bumped into a couple of people. One of whom I know well and the other was an acquaintance. We chatted for a couple of hours by the side of the road, under a tree. I think I made a new friend then. Manipal does have a certain charm to it. A charm that I feel intermittently when I'm over there. When I sit in front of a roadside watering hole on ground which has ants running all over it, take a swig of some beer, make some simple conversation, wonder what a career really is, enjoy the cool evening weather and gaze at the peaceful road going down the hill.

There were a couple of unforgettable conversations which I had this time in Manipal. Two with school friends who did college in Manipal and another with a person whom I had got to know quite well while in Manipal. As I have said earlier, relationships fascinate me! (And not just 'relationships'. When a 'relationship' ends, does a relationship end?) Anyhow, relationships do change a lot over time. And some of them don't need to be sustained as such. They just need a connection.

There are some college friends with whom I have spent a lot of time while in Manipal. Stayed with them in the same room or adjoining ones, gone on trips to places around Manipal, had some exquisite conversations while inebriated and generally spent a lot of time as we grew younger together. A group of us would always get up, form a huddle and sing "Wish you were here" whenever it played at a particular joint that we'd frequent a lot. On the last night, we didn't. A guy was missing but I don't think that was a reason as such. We just didn't feel like it. You know why? Because college had come to an end. Because it felt like first year again with everyone unattached and staying as we used to in 101 (my hostel room in first year where at any point in time there were in excess of five people in a room meant for two, with at least three people sleeping there at night!)

Because we wanted to enjoy this last drag of Manipal. Savour it. Roll it in our mouths, run it over our tongues and smack our lips. Doesn't quite sound like a last drag does it?