Nostalgia

I dedicate this post to all the people who touched my life at IIM-Lucknow and are an integral part of my life now.

I came back from a visit to campus. And just as I had expected it the two days on campus turned out to be memorable ones. Though Sahara Airlines turned a spoil sport, stealing a night from us, we managed to have the fun.

We landed on campus at around 12 on 20th and from thereon it was a party all the way. Hitting the nescafe straight we started our usual timepass there. It seemed that time had stood still. Just yesterday we were here, we all felt. Nothing had changed much, except for Guptaji graduating from a cigarette vendor to a juice vendor as well. Change for the good.
As I had expected it turned out, more than Manfest it was a pgp20 alumni meet. Meeting so many batchmates obviously was a treat. Soon enough like our true masti style we were travelling in a transport vehicle to go to Cellars (our fav eating joint in the City). The open air ride was too much to enjoy. However Cellars itself was a bit of a let down with food quality having gone down. But what hasn't changed is the 20% discount that you can avail as IIM-L students (even if you carry an ID card that expired 9 months back).

Soon we were back on campus, in anticipation of Indian Ocean who were supposed to perform at pro-nite and the party that we intended to have on our own. Manfest let us down by not having a party on saturday on a silly pretext of participation on Sunday so we had to manage on our own. Bull Shit. Pgp21 is just hopeless when it comes to partying. I just hope pgp22s are better. Anyways, the evening turned out to be great. First, courtsey Indian Ocean. They were as usual brilliant. This being my third concert of theirs, it just seemed as good as ever. Rahul, Sushmit and Amit were mind-blowing. The whole crowd enjoyed it but it ended too soon at 11. It was followed by ThemClones who disappointed in comparison to their reputation. The rendition of Roadhouse Blues and Yellow was too bad to even think. Thankfully we made ourselves scarce and headed for our party at Titanic. Soon we were in the groove, besides the bonfire enjoying ourselves to the hilt. Once in a mood we sang songs, chatted non-sense, reminisced about the old days, bitched about the profs and well, simply enjoyed. Even before we realised it was 4 when I headed back, thanks to my ill health and then everyone crashed at around 5.

To enjoy the morning sun I was soon up (sooner then others) and back to my Yapping at Nescafe while eating Maggi. That used to be our usual routine. After everyone woke up we whiled away the time at Fauji dhaba idling in the sun and shifting our chairs along with sun travelling in the sky. Towards the evening I ended up judging an event for Prism (the marketing cell of which I was a part and to which I owe a lot of my learning apart from some very good friends). It was funny to be on the other side of the table. Thankfully the decision making wasn't tough. And prismiites have indeed done a good job with PRiSMag and Drishtant (marketing journal). Kudos people. Keep it up.
Before we realised it was time to head back but as usual not without a bit of a drama when instead of a Van an Indica turned up as cab. 6 of us ended up travelling in Indica. The journey back in flight was more silent. Maybe we all just wanted to absorb the brief moments of joy we had had. Missing the campus is indeed nothing strange and yet it is special in every possible way that it can be. Missing friends is even more so.

It just reminded me of my very first days on campus when I used to debate with a few close friends of mine who weren't liking IIM-L for various reasons. I was sure I was going to miss it after two years and they differed. But times have changed and they do miss it as much as I do. I'm not scoring a point here. All i'm trying to highlight is the special place that IIM-Lucknow is. For what it is and for what friends we became there. Each person taught something, learned something and ended up missing quite a few things. That's the beauty of it. And I hope IIM-L preserves it.

Ever hopeful... Campus my lovely campus ..