A Diary Entry

The day has come when I have started longing for college. I long for those moments. Today, I got one of my last few shots at it. It’s literally a countdown now. Collected the admit card today, will write five exams over the next month. Five days. One week after the last exam, a lot of us are ‘joining’ another place. Felt weird talking about that today. Vidur has always been “I-don’t-know-what-I-am-doing-next” in the past three years. And really, he does not know even an hour before a movie timing whether he is going for it or not. And today he was telling me how he is going to be trading in commodities in the world market. Jay was talking about how he’s gonna have a tough time travelling in the city heat without any conveyance provided by his ‘employers’. Felt like a grown-up. And the first day of college has just passed by, hasn’t it?

“Oh, you’re talking about that guy from DPS Noida? What’s his name again?”

It’s been three years.

So, two friends’ birthdays fall in the coming week and there HAD to be fun. There was a surprise planned. Loads of surprise presents with a significant memory attached to each, surprise cakes, surprise entries by friends who weren’t supposed to be around....and a lot of FUN. Lots of genuine, warm, big hugs. Lot of happy smiley faces. Loads of laughter – laughter that must have made that not-nice Chinese restaurant people wonder who these maniacs are and will they ever order or not! There were the birthday songs, there were the routine jokes, there were Neha Steps. And the film was rolling. There I realised that I love being behind the camera just as much as being in front of it. And it is not easy coming in front once you take hold of the camera unless you go – “main bhiiiii” which is what I had to do today. And then too, it was just my profile for a tiny 5-second thing. Damn! But I have voice. All over the videos! :D

It turned out to be even more special for the birthday boy and the birthday girl who could not stop grinning. Even after everybody left for home. I guess those smiles are worth the sunburn that others got over the past few days looking for presents. Kudos to V and Ami for roaming the streets of Kamala Nagar the way they did!

Oh, one of the compliments that I can never get enough of is about the weight that I have lost. It’s always an incredible feeling when somebody notices and tells you the same. And when someone goes – “no really, you have lost lots and lots of weight”, even if it is not true, it feels awesome. You won’t know what I am talking about if you haven’t experienced it but you can share my joy if you wish to. :P

But then you come back home, switch the TV on and see prime time CNN IBN showing a story where the Sindhi panchayat in Bhopal has banned girls from using cellphones, wearing scarves and riding two-wheelers because one Sindhi girl married a Muslim man, and are left speechless for a moment and then on an abusing spree for the next fifteen minutes. Following that you see their viewer feedback poll divided at almost 50% each for a YES and NO to the question – is this moral policing?. And then you really do not know what to think. Half the nation! You could curse a Bajrang Dal or an RSS but half the people of the country? Ok, half the respondents but even then isn’t it shocking enough? It saddens me.

I come back to my room. The PC is still on. I had watched Snippets - a documentary on college by two girls of the other economics section of my batch - a while back. That probably was the motivation for the opening paragraph of this entry. Again, you might not understand the impact that it had if you have not seen it but it is as if the moments and thoughts of the last three years have been put together in those twenty minutes. It’s an incredible piece of work!

There is stuff to write about one of my obsessions but I am thinking I’ll give it another post. Till then, bbye!
:-)