Monkey And Me - I

Well, most of us have gone through our "waiting period" to get into some god-damn college. All those blissful hours of uselessness, those afternoons spent peacefully slumbering aware of the fact that we are good for nothing and won't get admission anywhere, cherishing our nocturnal existence and pretending to be rockstars while we are the only "unemployed" memebers of the family, getting to know the ceiling of our rooms like the back of our hand, having all the time in the world and still working hard to do nothing, lying sprawled on the bed in all our conscious moments, being comforted by the fact that the next day was going to be exactly like today...nothing to do, nothing to care about...gosh! That was the best time of my life! I wish I could bring it back...

But like all good things in the world, that happy period had to end too. To everybody's surprise, and I mean to entirely everybody's surprise (read: happy shock), I got into a college! (Yes! Can you believe it? Nor can I!)

If you are one of those people who think college is all about fun, masti, freedom, independence, carelessness, adventure, madness, anarchy, fun exploring trips, spontaneity and gaeity, then my college is not the place to go to. My shiksha ka mandir (accompanied with the gesture of a sweep of my hand in a semicircle above my head) is a place devoid of any abovementioned possibilities in the normal sense. It is located in a very busy area of Old Delhi where the traffic sense is so bad you can get squished to pulp anyday, anytime. It's a thrilling experience! I myself have had the fortunate chance to just escape from being crushed between a DTC and a Tata Safari once; two more occasions too but I can't recall the vehicles involved. And not many days untill I do get crushed, given how careless I am and one has to cross the intersection without traffic lights to get the photocopy done. Yay, adrenaline! (I wonder if boyfriends can be called widowers :p Haha! Oh well, that's the sort of humour I've been reduced to.) Since the crowd is what should be typical of Old Delhi, it's not a very good idea to venture into the local markets (they mostly sell autoparts anyway). Feeling hungry, want a quickie? Worry not, Makhanlal Halwai comes to the rescue! There is nothing of interest where you can go and hang out, the only relief being the somewhat well-equipped metro station a small walk away.

So that was the area around the campus. Now I'll tell you what an incredible campus my shiksha ka mandir has. As has already been mentioned, the xerox shop within the campus remains forever closed. Before you judge too soon, let me tell you that this is done intentionally so that students can get a first hand experience of relying on their instincts and learning to survive. Not to mention the adventure, ofcourse. Apart from the closed xerox shop, the world-class facilities present on-campus, as proudly stated on the site, include a fine basket-ball court (which is used as a parking lot), tennis court (sorry, I haven't been able to locate it yet, but the search goes on), badminton court (my peers play on clay, where clay means kichad...and yes, the excessive rains have made the court appear black), gymnasium (again, invisible), library housing 18,000 books (hah! it seems so tiny), cool cafeteria ( kidding, for some mysterious reason it was filled with smoke the two times I've been there), et cetera, et cetera.

Though the main feature is the huge, sprawling, lush, evergreen, wonderful, terriffic, awesome, yudli-yudli-yoo ground, bang in the middle, surrounded by buildings on all sides. Trust me when I say its heavenly. The first time I lay my eyes on it, all I thought was that the administration had taken the words "green" campus too literally. I mean, the grass literally flourished :p You could play hide-and-seek in it, or receive guerilla training! Or go explore its exponentially high biodiversity! Anything new you desire, the taller-than-everyone grass is sure to offer you :') Except...you can't sit there, and crossing it is a tad bit difficult sometimes... :p And yes, a small group of boys also displays chivalry by trying to play soccer there. Alas, they neither offer me the chance to watch a decent game nor the oppurtunity to have a new crush. Well, you can't have the best of everything I guess :p

Jannat :) But...there was a shady character in that delightful place. I was being stalked, let's refer to him as monkey.

( -to be continued)