Hi reader!! I guess it is a pretty weird topic to post about;You might be wondering I am going to talk about farewell;No I am not this is what I feel how significant or insignificant receiving a farewell can be and how different feelings develop for an institution that has been your alma mater!.I couldn't decide so I leave it upto you to decide for yourself.
Just a few weeks ago a friend of mine and me were talking about farewell,I said it is a wonderful word,she retorted as farewell being painful. Ok agreed it is a painful word,but spare a moment and think about it,you will realize its beauty. The pain makes a farewell all the more worthy,beautiful,emotional and for that separation from friends which at some point or the other is inevitable, is a worthy price to pay cos friends do separate physically but they never take away those memories created with them,those always remain with us!
She said then she didn't want to be nostalgic at that time,I agreed and we stopped discussing but I was already drowning in thoughts,what could I do?I decided then to write about it!
And here I sit with all but two instances- one where I consider myself lucky and the other well I sometimes still try to find out what and where did it go wrong....
Thoughts,flashbacks,memories,cries,laughter,quarrels,patch ups all these words suddenly surface in my mind when I think of farewell.I am sure even you would have started tracking back on your memory lanes...There must be something special about a farewell! how else could such feelings,emotions,attachments be associated with it.
I was one of those guys lucky enough to receive a farewell & it wasn't until the end of that day that I realized what was all this about,I mean personally I attended my first farewell at 10th std but it all came to me,those tides and waves of thoughts that afternoon!Yes I remember around 5 pm in the evening as I was reaching home,all I had was tears rolling down my eyes...
Back then some seven years ago when I was in my schooling I had hopes,dreams of making it to the college,scoring well at my boards & all sorts of things my then schoolish mind could think of that time.While at home I was happy with the thought that one day I would go to a college far from home to study.
Honestly I had never imagined then,what would life be like after crossing the school gates or should I say I never thought about it!whatever;Life at school was monotonic in the truest sense of the word yet was so interesting and amusing,the same uniforms,the same friends,the same pranks all was so predictable and predetermined and if I had ever stuck to a timetable on my own it must have been my school timetable :) because spending time in those classrooms,grounds or at large in that campus,time was lost indeed every time I entered the gates with my friends.And then the fact that one day you have to go out of it, away for higher studies was something my one part which called for duty understood but what about my other part, a part of me that till today is still in my school?That afternoon sometime during the later end of February,my this other part had taken complete charge of my entire being.
True I did finish school,entered college,finished college and entered graduation where I made more friends and special ones too a handful of whom I can proudly call my buddies,but none came quite close to the level of understanding with those that I had as my childhood friends both verbal and nonverbal!I guess it must be the same with each one of you too.
I wont go in detail as to what had happened during our farewell,that would spoil the speciality of the memories each of us has about their farewell...
Seven years!! enough time to detach oneself from a memory isn't it,that's what I had thought that someday I will not keep myself close to my school,but few days back when I had to go to a place where once my old school was,I realized I was cornered and terribly wrong!! Just one look in and around that building and all memories almost came back to me,the small assembly space when our school started with a mere 50 odd students,the classrooms where I had been naughty like hell,the principal's chamber where I was made to write numerous pages to improve my handwriting (You must Thank God I have typed and not handwritten this post for you to read!),the playground which was witness to many of my merry times and many more such trivial incidents;trivial I say as it may mean to some of you,but not to me I would rather say recollections of such special incidents which strongly convinced me in a moment that neither me nor Saint Joseph's can break away from each other...
Well,I guess I wrote a lot about school but my grad college isn't far behind to be left out!We were the first batch of our college REC! and this time I am not so proud to call ourselves thus because we didn't receive what was due for us.That first year is a different story to tell. But the memories of my first visit are worth mentioning,it was monsoon peak time when I first went to see the college and it took us near an hour to find out where actually REC was and what more, when I saw REC for the first time,there it stood like a barren monument in the middle of isolation;Isolation because there was knee deep water surrounding it,a canal and a weak temporary bridge that had to be crossed to get to our college without a proper connecting road and only stones placed down from the bridge to the college in walkable distance and almost no civilization or means of communication as far as one could see;We returned after seeing it!I didn't know who to tell,as must be the case of all my friends who might have seen the college in that state!
Then there was the orientation day;Well a new college meant no ragging those days and I got to see many new and old faces,some luckily from my hometown,others who happened to be my branch mates later on but the same expression of excitement mixed with intimidation of asking people where did they belong to and many such silly questions as conversation starters that are asked to first time strangers of course and then and there we bonded and became friends.
If I go on writing I am afraid this will take a long time to end! Some of you might be thinking by now as why am I writing about how my first day at college was,is this an essay?No dear this isn't an essay,it never was meant to be one,but writing this sure has a purpose why! which is to be blunt and rude, we the first batch that the management of REC so much boasts about calling and patting us still as proud RECIANS have been denied the most coveted memory in one's studying career that is to say a farewell!!
There are many things I heard about why we weren't seen off by our college,there was this senior junior cold war a reason,even friends of our batch had a split within ourselves too. But whatever be the reason it doesn't matter now! does it?What is once gone is gone.Still at times when this thought enters my mind that after seeing a college,being a part of it since the time when any of the constructions apart from the four class rooms and a few offices weren't even nearing completion,did we not have a right to an if not pompous and expensive but at least a decent and formal farewell from the college.
I am not blaming anyone,I know I can't,I know I don't have to because if I see it from the other side,it was good we didn't get a farewell from REC,who the hell needs one when almost all of us are there at facebook and as the catchline goes"Stay Connected" with facebook. We indeed have opened up a virtual REC at the online world and have really stayed connected at facebook! although not exactly as during college days but nevertheless to a lesser extent and we surely enjoy our online encounters!
P.S.Maybe I never will have the feeling of closeness with REC as I have for my school,maybe if only we would have received a farewell,things thoughts and feelings for REC would have been otherwise sweet and strong! Maybe our immediate juniors don't have to go away with the same fate as us! maybe this was all the resentment I had to bring out from within myself to be in peace! Maybe.....
Just a few weeks ago a friend of mine and me were talking about farewell,I said it is a wonderful word,she retorted as farewell being painful. Ok agreed it is a painful word,but spare a moment and think about it,you will realize its beauty. The pain makes a farewell all the more worthy,beautiful,emotional and for that separation from friends which at some point or the other is inevitable, is a worthy price to pay cos friends do separate physically but they never take away those memories created with them,those always remain with us!
She said then she didn't want to be nostalgic at that time,I agreed and we stopped discussing but I was already drowning in thoughts,what could I do?I decided then to write about it!
And here I sit with all but two instances- one where I consider myself lucky and the other well I sometimes still try to find out what and where did it go wrong....
Thoughts,flashbacks,memories,cries,laughter,quarrels,patch ups all these words suddenly surface in my mind when I think of farewell.I am sure even you would have started tracking back on your memory lanes...There must be something special about a farewell! how else could such feelings,emotions,attachments be associated with it.
I was one of those guys lucky enough to receive a farewell & it wasn't until the end of that day that I realized what was all this about,I mean personally I attended my first farewell at 10th std but it all came to me,those tides and waves of thoughts that afternoon!Yes I remember around 5 pm in the evening as I was reaching home,all I had was tears rolling down my eyes...
Back then some seven years ago when I was in my schooling I had hopes,dreams of making it to the college,scoring well at my boards & all sorts of things my then schoolish mind could think of that time.While at home I was happy with the thought that one day I would go to a college far from home to study.
Honestly I had never imagined then,what would life be like after crossing the school gates or should I say I never thought about it!whatever;Life at school was monotonic in the truest sense of the word yet was so interesting and amusing,the same uniforms,the same friends,the same pranks all was so predictable and predetermined and if I had ever stuck to a timetable on my own it must have been my school timetable :) because spending time in those classrooms,grounds or at large in that campus,time was lost indeed every time I entered the gates with my friends.And then the fact that one day you have to go out of it, away for higher studies was something my one part which called for duty understood but what about my other part, a part of me that till today is still in my school?That afternoon sometime during the later end of February,my this other part had taken complete charge of my entire being.
True I did finish school,entered college,finished college and entered graduation where I made more friends and special ones too a handful of whom I can proudly call my buddies,but none came quite close to the level of understanding with those that I had as my childhood friends both verbal and nonverbal!I guess it must be the same with each one of you too.
I wont go in detail as to what had happened during our farewell,that would spoil the speciality of the memories each of us has about their farewell...
Seven years!! enough time to detach oneself from a memory isn't it,that's what I had thought that someday I will not keep myself close to my school,but few days back when I had to go to a place where once my old school was,I realized I was cornered and terribly wrong!! Just one look in and around that building and all memories almost came back to me,the small assembly space when our school started with a mere 50 odd students,the classrooms where I had been naughty like hell,the principal's chamber where I was made to write numerous pages to improve my handwriting (You must Thank God I have typed and not handwritten this post for you to read!),the playground which was witness to many of my merry times and many more such trivial incidents;trivial I say as it may mean to some of you,but not to me I would rather say recollections of such special incidents which strongly convinced me in a moment that neither me nor Saint Joseph's can break away from each other...
Well,I guess I wrote a lot about school but my grad college isn't far behind to be left out!We were the first batch of our college REC! and this time I am not so proud to call ourselves thus because we didn't receive what was due for us.That first year is a different story to tell. But the memories of my first visit are worth mentioning,it was monsoon peak time when I first went to see the college and it took us near an hour to find out where actually REC was and what more, when I saw REC for the first time,there it stood like a barren monument in the middle of isolation;Isolation because there was knee deep water surrounding it,a canal and a weak temporary bridge that had to be crossed to get to our college without a proper connecting road and only stones placed down from the bridge to the college in walkable distance and almost no civilization or means of communication as far as one could see;We returned after seeing it!I didn't know who to tell,as must be the case of all my friends who might have seen the college in that state!
Then there was the orientation day;Well a new college meant no ragging those days and I got to see many new and old faces,some luckily from my hometown,others who happened to be my branch mates later on but the same expression of excitement mixed with intimidation of asking people where did they belong to and many such silly questions as conversation starters that are asked to first time strangers of course and then and there we bonded and became friends.
If I go on writing I am afraid this will take a long time to end! Some of you might be thinking by now as why am I writing about how my first day at college was,is this an essay?No dear this isn't an essay,it never was meant to be one,but writing this sure has a purpose why! which is to be blunt and rude, we the first batch that the management of REC so much boasts about calling and patting us still as proud RECIANS have been denied the most coveted memory in one's studying career that is to say a farewell!!
There are many things I heard about why we weren't seen off by our college,there was this senior junior cold war a reason,even friends of our batch had a split within ourselves too. But whatever be the reason it doesn't matter now! does it?What is once gone is gone.Still at times when this thought enters my mind that after seeing a college,being a part of it since the time when any of the constructions apart from the four class rooms and a few offices weren't even nearing completion,did we not have a right to an if not pompous and expensive but at least a decent and formal farewell from the college.
I am not blaming anyone,I know I can't,I know I don't have to because if I see it from the other side,it was good we didn't get a farewell from REC,who the hell needs one when almost all of us are there at facebook and as the catchline goes"Stay Connected" with facebook. We indeed have opened up a virtual REC at the online world and have really stayed connected at facebook! although not exactly as during college days but nevertheless to a lesser extent and we surely enjoy our online encounters!
P.S.Maybe I never will have the feeling of closeness with REC as I have for my school,maybe if only we would have received a farewell,things thoughts and feelings for REC would have been otherwise sweet and strong! Maybe our immediate juniors don't have to go away with the same fate as us! maybe this was all the resentment I had to bring out from within myself to be in peace! Maybe.....
