To The Gems Of My Life: Vishal, Nitin. Arun, Jyoti, Anuja, Ruchi, Neha, Sneha and Pawan (don’t need to write his name here because he has been there for as long as my poor memory takes me): the only good things that came out of my otherwise forget-worthy stay at SSGMCE.
I do not know why I write this because I do not want to believe that I am missing the one place that I had thought I would not ever miss. It is more than that I guess. It’s more about what that place gave me that I want to mention today. Apart from the gems (only the above mentioned people can understand this part), I think what that college gave me was the education of my life. People called SSGMCE a college but I had always preferred to call it “PLANET SHEGAON”. It was a living organism, with a host of beings. Now I know I am a mean mean person but I cannot make myself to call them humans, at least not educated and thinking ones. They were more like animals (now that would make Maneka Gandhi flip in her sleep and all animals take an offense) so let us just call them beings for now.
They taught me what the caste divide was (at least they tried, but the fact that I could not learn was my doing and my doing only). They taught me that one could not trust everyone and also that there was no test of trust other than the test of time itself. They taught me that people used other people till and when they needed and that friendship for some (unlike me and what I had seen) was just a zero sum game. They taught me that the best defence was silence and that silence was the hardest argument to refute.
Enough about those beings. This aint bout them but this is about the people I love and the people that I got during my stay at that college. Somehow the memories that I mentioned above are all hazy. All I remember are the late night snacks at the canteen, the mango shake, lassi and aam panha, the poha and the tea with parle G, the bakar before the exams, the trying to cheat at the exams and failing at it, the studying at the library(which meant everything but studying.), the movies at Akola, the rallying around akola on the bike, the masti at Krishna, the masti at Rasika, the masti at the temple while waiting for darshan, the studying and teaching sessions before the exam, the panic attack before results. the masti afterwards at pune, the coffee at Durga, the paratha at Chaitanya, the late night walks and coffee again, the fashion street shopping………
Typical masti of colleges and I had my share too but it would not have been possible without the awesome friends that I have. I was the saanp (read snake: for some screwed up reason) but still I am glad I was lucky enough for them to make me their friend.
This is for you guys: Vishal, Nitin. Arun, Jyoti, Anuja, Ruchi and Pawan : who are still there with me, and for Neha and Sneha who chose to move on but nonetheless would always be dear to me and very near to my heart. Love you all always and miss you forever…….
