ALMA MATER

The moment Mr Kumar drove inside his alma mater, he could feel his pulses taking an extra beat. He could still smell the enthusiasm that had always been in the airs of this three decade old Engineering College. While driving through the institute area, Mr Kumar noted that the old buildings have been re-shaped and re-designed with extra floors. He could see a separate large new building, entirely dedicated to Computer Science, a stream of study which was not there when he was around. He noticed that almost all students were commuting inside campus in their own bikes, while some of them even carried a squash or tennis racket in their bags. Mr Kumar thought engineering studies nowadays do not seem that tough as it used to be in their time, and now the young generation put much value and time also on extra curricular activities.

It took a little time for Rajiv to complete the registration formalities, which Mr Kumar found oppurtunate to sneak into the nearby empty lecture theatre. The lecture room still gave the same menacing and dreadful look, thought Mr Kumar. The blackboard and the furniture seemed the same old; however the lighting and the paints definitely looked recent. The blackboard in that lecture theatre was fully scribbled with crazy equations which made Mr Kumar think that though there are notable changes in the institute; the professors perhaps remain the same, and still continue to inundate hapless students with hopeless equations and also letting the stuff remain on the blackboard for the next lecture professor to clean. From the time of inception of the institute, almost all professors not only had a lot of egoistic professional rivalry among them, but also took special pride in showing off their extensive knowledge in whatever way they can. Letting their lecture stuff remain on the blackboard for the other professor to clean grudgingly, was only a manifestation to that effect.

Mr Kumar’s train of thoughts are interrupted by the loud call of Rajiv “where are you Dad, I have been looking for u for so much time and here you are inside a lonely classroom". Instantly it brought to Mr Kumar’s memory Rajiv’s first day at the nursery school where a frightened little Rajiv had tried to hide in an empty classroom to avoid going to his own class. Time flies, thought Mr Kumar, really fast. It seemed like yesterday, he had carried Rajiv to join nursery school, and here he is going to join college for his graduation. Rajiv told that he was through with his admission formalities, and it is time they go to join hostel. Mr Kumar told that it’s better to have something to eat in the institute before going there. Mr Kumar was sure enough how the mess food would be, so wanted to give his son one last treat before he was to go through the tribulation of the mess food.

On entering the institute cafeteria, Mr Kumar felt that although there seems much change in the institute but the cafeteria seems the same, perhaps with only an addition of a cold drink dispenser. They take a table in the centre under a fan and Rajiv could not help but notice the girl sitting on the next table. Accompanying the girl is a man with long beards who Rajiv finds is staring abstractly at his father for quite some time. All of a sudden with a jump, the bearded man come to their table and says "Excuse me, but if I am not wrong u must be kabootar". Mr Kumar was amazed while Rajiv almost fell from his chair trying to hide his laugh. It was so many years somebody has called him by the nickname he earned himself in his own college days. "How are you dear friend, humne to tumko pehchhan liya" the bearded man uttered. No matter how hard Mr Kumar tried but he could not decipher the face behind that long beard. However Mr Kumar was quick to get that he is someone close while he was in college and responded with "haan yaar, its been so long time, how are you". The bearded man responded saying that "it’s about 20 years, you never once tried to contact your college room mate". A dazed Mr Kumar immediately gave a big tight hug to the person saying "I missed u so very much Vikas, where the hell had you been for all these years". Rajeev was closely observing the scene and was taken aback at his father's gesture. He tried to recollect as to when being the last time his father had given him such a big hug. He couldn’t remember any.