The Visit to Xavier's- I

This post is dedicated to Chitrak, who made a very passionate and scary request for it.. ;-)

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So I finally paid a visit to my alma mater, i.e. Xavier [It sounds so weird to call it that, rather than my college, but well change is always weird in the beginning.]. I am here in Mumbai for my diwali vacation, and I had many reasons for going to Xavier's.

As I was entering the gates, I realised that I did not have an id, and the watchman would surely ask me for one. Thankfully, it was the lull time of afternoon during the vacations, so the guard was not too interested in checking who was an authentic student and who was not. But just to prove a point, I asked for the entry book, and entered my details. There you have to mention who you are going to meet, and I was stumped for a while. Should I write that I am here to meet Terry, or should I write that I am here to visit the Physics dept, or should I say that I am here to sit in the foyer and bird watch, or am I here to claim my refund from last year's fees, or am I here to buy a T-shirt or two. Finally, I realised that I am a Physics pass out, so with loyalty towards Lr 14, I filled the Physics dept as my official destination.

On entering through the door, my legs surprisingly took me to the Heras notice board, which I used to look at only during the Maritime course. By the time that I scanned the board, and found nothing of interest, I was struck by a thought; will I meet anyone who remembers me, or will I be able to see only strangers in the campus? I shouldn't have worried. As I entered the first Quad, I noticed a lot of familiar faces. Most of them belonged to people from the SSL, and so my eyes jumped towards the SSl Notice board (let me explain here that I was primarily here to meet Terry, to request him to let me attend the rural camp, and had chosen this day as the initiation meeting was to be held, which I meant to attend.) I saw that the time had already passed, so I could continue with my aimless wanderings in those memory-filled corridors.

I saw Arjun, who told me that he would be coming to camp, so I was slightly placated. As I left him, I saw Achintya sitting in the tunnel, with someone from his usual crowd. After the perfunctory greetings, we got to the real thing, the usual Physics talk: abusing the professors, and at the same time saying how lucky we are (should it be were?) to be in Xavier's. Talking to him brought back memories of our foyer chats; some things never change. He mentioned how Rajesh had been prowling Orkut, and had found a couple of communities (you know what I am talking about) which do not show the dept in good light. Those were not Rajesh's words. He used the phrase 'Pattwardhan fan site'. See, I do not have anything to worry about, I already have passed out of the dept, and so I can bitch about it openly, and betray all the inner workings to the world at large. However, for people like Achintya, who have to meet the concerned professors day in and day out, those things can pose a dilemma. I was so busy laughing, that I did not correctly hear his reply to Rajesh.

As we were conversing, he came to know that his Ithaka practice was cancelled for the day. So after cursing the Ithaca people, we got back to cursing the Physics dept. He even went to the extent of declaring that he would be majoring in Maths. Physist are prone to making hollow threats. Since there was no special reason to hang out in the tunnel, we proceeded to the foyer. As I saw that wonderful place, it brought back so many memories, some bad, but mostly good. As I tried looking here and there, trying to locate the various spots I had stood at (and the garbage cans too) I spotted Rohit. He has been doing MSc Physics at National college, but has been missing Xavier's (well, who hasn't been?). He was there to collect the refund, just like me. With a fellow lr 14 sufferer, I decided to pay a visit to the dept and entered the Junior Lab. I saw Rajesh chatting with some of the junior students, with Veda standing in the background, doling out her motherly advice. Both of them recognised me and were asking about my whereabouts. They were interested in the news about other students. Veda was quite interested in Rahul's whereabouts. On hearing that he was working in the Diamond Industry, like all of us, she too was surprised.