"College days" instantly reminds one of holding your partner's hand in public, announcing to your gang you are 'seeing someone'; enthusiastically rooting for your college in inter-college festivals, dressing up for traditional day, hanging out with buddies in the canteen, last minute cramming for exams, giving proxy attendances for friends, getting named on the dreaded blacklist, ogling at the college 'item', begging parental permission for overnight picnics and being perennially short of money.

May be not each of these, but I've had a fair share of memories to my credit.

My bio data had reached my college much before I entered this 'look-alike of a college building' (my batchmates will know what I mean!) on Sept 16th, 1997. Everyone seemed to know things bout me that even I didn't know.

For two reasons (the first that I was a 'Josephite' and the second still unknown to me!), I was secretly christened 'Miss. Attitude'. Together with my other two allies (Prachi Soni and Shweta Gulati), I formed what they still call the 'Trimurty'. (A 'trio' - for the benefit of the less-fluent's in hindi!)

We three used to always stick together; never sit with any group; get up together and leave the class when Ms. 'Used-to-say-"that's mean"-when-she-meant-"that means"!' was doing what SHE believed was 'teaching'; blatantly refuse to write 'sessionals' for our seniors (a sacred ragging tradition); wear nail paint, perfume, earrings and high heels even during the ragging period; refused to 'walk in a file' (again as a part of ragging!); never come to college in the assigned bus (this is not an exaggeration....trust me..but we came to know that a transit bus for our college exists for which we had been paying the fees also, only in the second semester...that's coz by the time we used to reach college, we had already missed two three classes and so we assumed that everyone comes on their own and since we used to leave much much before the normal college ending hours, we never saw them leave either!) but instead ride on our kinetic-honda; and giggle while in 'third-button-code' [a practice for first years' in engineering colleges where you're supposed to stare at your third button..maybe not literally..but it implies looking 90 degrees down ..and not in your craziest sense also, dare to look up at the senior..so giggling was seriously considered a crime!]
No wonder my batchmates believed we're too out of the league and decided to boycott us!

During this quarantine phase of our college days, there existed two kinds of people. One who didn't talk to us, say 'hi' to us, pretended not to have noticed us and the other - Saket.

Yeah. Saket happens to be the first person to have broken the trend. Inspite of everyone suggesting him not to invite 'us-three' to his b'day, he still did. And to everyone and more of his surprise, I showed up with a bouquet and a card. 23rd oct, we became friends.

He stood by us like a rock giving us all the benefits of his well established stature in college. I can't think of any other person who would've been willing to invite trouble just to stand by what he believed was right, but him.

In second semester, I met Raman Nigam. He takes the credit for being the only guy in my life who made me his sister. I don't know if it had something to do with the fact that he's Saket's best friend, but any way, I was happy to have a bro, who spoilt me left, right and center. If it wasn't for Raman and his ATM, many of those lunches and dinners at most expensive restaurants in Bhopal wouldn't have taken place.

This pair of best friends are alike in more ways than one could fathom. They like going by their impulse rather than by their mind. I remember Raman calling me one morning and asking me to get ready in 10 minutes coz we were leaving for Indore. (A city bout 200 kms from Bhopal) What for? Good question. Coz I love the food at ShriMaya hotel in Indore. We came back the very evening.

From among the teachers of my college, I recollect many, but would like to remember only two. - Mrs. Prema (first sem) and Ms. Ekta(third sem) . Both, as to my knowledge have left the college. All the other teachers I either didn't know or didn't care enough to know.

In second year, two people triggered my enthusiasm for studying. One, this Mr. someone from our college who commented that it must've taken a great deal of cash for us to get into the college and two, Ms. Ekta, who said to me after my viva that it's few of 'us' students that she expects good result from. I joined Subodh Sir's class for Electronics and Khare Sir's (Well, don't ask for which subject..there are many. Again, my batch mates will know what I'm talking bout ;)) because of which I came to know Juhi. We clicked together almost instantly because of our obsession with dancing, window shopping and habit of studying only in the prep leave. My first interaction with her came as she, after an hour long tug-of-war managed to persuade me to dance with her on stage for the 'welcome party' (which was the next day!!! Talk about short notice!). After that, there was no college function for which we didn't perform together. Being a Libra, she also shares with me this syndrome of using different color pens while writing notes in class. We sat side by side and used to have a bunch of green, blue, red and black pens between us. It was funny for others coz most of the times while the proff had reached half way on that subject, we were still writing the heading neatly, underlining it and then reviewing it if it is 180 degrees straight!

Another guy who I came to know through Khare sir's classes and who was the 'dependable entertainer' of our class was - Manish Sant. He and the others left no chance of pulling my leg every day after Khare Sir's class, and sometimes even during the class by gesturing, giggling or hooting! (Remember the 'mohabbatein leaf' that manish brought to college with a message written on it...? Duh!)

This year also marked the beginning of my friendship with Alankar Sharma. With him it was my fascination for learning and using new words, reading and discussing 'Archie' characters and spontaneity among many other things that we shared.

In the beginning of third year, I decided to come to US to pursue my masters in computer science and once again in my life, I knew everything about making it to US, except the 'how' part.

When I joined Achalesh Sir's class for GRE, I was the only 'girl' in a class of about 25-30 of my would-be-engineer bathmates. I knew none of them. Again Raman ran to my rescue and joined the class.

This class was the first, and perhaps the only class in my life, for which I used wait the entire day and I wouldn't miss it, come rain or storm. I learnt far more than I had intended to and had more fun than I expected to. One other good thing that this class did to me was - I became friends with Rakshit Ghura.

In third year I also met Mr. 'I-won't-talk-to-you-coz-my-friend-doesn't'. I hated him. Though less than how much he hated me. This guy Ashish Mishra, as I discovered two years' silence and a week's interaction later, was more than just girls, basketball and movies. And there was no looking back, once we became friends. He is the kind of friend who came all the way to Allahabad when I had to take my GRE test, just for my moral support. And who was standing outside with my favorite flowers and a bunch of balloons in his hand ready to celebrate my score, when I came out after taking the test. I'm so glad to have shared this most wonderfully consistent relation of my life with a guy like him!

Fourth year of my BE was very hectic, naturally. Final year courses, so many 'last-year' parties and then admission (for MS) formalities. In college I used to hang out with this wonderful group - Ashish, Kishore (an extremely chivalrous guy with a charming smile and pleasing manners), Renuka (the topper of our class with no airs whatsoever. Always ready to help others. People still remember her for her peculiar style of placing the flick of her hair behind her ear every time before starting to speak something important), Jyoti (a lady with a very strong personality and an attitude to match that! Also a voracious reader and a devotee of Sydney Sheldon - just like me!), Deeba (a bundle of energy! And a food lover - again, just like me!), Juhi (the best dancer I've ever known! Plus a great great friend!), Priyank (another very polite and shy person with a deadly smile!).

These four years, I suppose have been the most happening years of my life. I've met so many people, I've made so many friends and I've learnt so much. There have been many people from rkdf other than those mentioned above, who I remember to have interacted with, but for most of them, I don't have the slightest clue where they are and what they're doing.

In case you've been my batchmate (any branch, year 2001) in undergrad and wanna stay in touch with the rest of us, then go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apnarkdf2001 and join this yahoo group or contact manish ([email protected]) and get invited to join the group.

And if you need a link to your website posted on mine, just drop me a line at [email protected] with your website address and I'll be glad to provide a link to it. :)

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