Despite living in a fairly small town, as you get older and pinned down to an unrelentingly unchanging everyday routine due to work and family obligations, it's rare that you get an opportunity to travel back in time and visit old haunts. This week I jumped at the chance to go back to my old college. I haven't gone back for over 20 years though I'd heard there were plenty of changes. Thursday was the perfect opportunity. It wasn't going to be some yawningly formal do that would've kept me rooted in one spot all day but a total fun outing - my college volleyball team was playing a rival team in a fiercely contested, very noisy final. The first two games went our way after which I slipped away for a walkabout...
Once upon a time, there used to be an empty field here, behind which was an old sprawling corrugated-roofed building which housed the college hall, classrooms, library and the students' recreation room. Now there are all these separate concrete buildings and volleyball and basketball courts.
This used to be the Science building where, as the junior-most class we were regularly shunted around these classrooms with elevated back benches. I don't for a minute suppose the tables and benches are the ones we'd used long ago but the scenario looked eerily the same..
In my time, there had been just a large wooden gate at the main entrance which I can't recall ever seeing closed...
The administrative building is new and freshly painted but at least it still stands in the same place it had always stood..
And peeping in through the empty English dept. room, I was pleasantly surprised to see a sketched portrait of my old English teacher who had died shortly after I passed out. We had always adored John Ruata because apart from being a good teacher, he was young and with it. He'd once even been persuaded to get up onstage with a guitar for a song at some function. But he'd also once embarrassed me in class. In a small Honours class of some 8 or 9 students, I'd been fighting heavy eyelids and had nodded off for a minute when he remarked something along the lines of the air down in the campus valley not being quite what it should be but that didn't excuse anyone from sleeping in his class! Rest in peace, U John, amid all the echoes of happy times...
nice post. made me think of my old college which i haven't seen since i graduated all those years ago though memories remain of classrooms, the canteen, the pan dukan, the trees, the gates, the playground, hostels. i wonder if i'll recognise any of the once familiar buildings and sights if i go back now. i'm curious about one thing though - isn't your old college in aizawl? if so, how come it took you 20 years to go back :)
ReplyDeleteEkhai hei chu lung a va ti leng ve! Keipawh kum 2 zet chu Science Block ah hian ka lo vakvai ve alawm. More than the place I miss my old friends,I wonder what they are doing now. I don't keep in touch with any of them, but you sure brought back some good memories.
ReplyDeleteHey Z, really nice post. Reminded me of my time in college. Actually not much happened in my college those days unless you were in the hostel but post graduate institution.......that was something else. Unlike my undergrad years I had a lot of fun and learnt a lot and made a lot of friends in my post grad years. It was like school in many ways where the atmosphere was electric and teachers and students got along very well and everyone was friendly to everyone else. Well almost! I guess that is why I have not gone back to my college since graduating but to the Management Faculty, many times.
ReplyDeleteVisiting my alma mater (Madras Christian College) is always such a bittersweet experience for me. For one thing, it feels so nice to be back where I spent the best years of my life, and for another, it feels so bad to know that I'll probably never get to live those years again.
ReplyDeleteLast time I went, I found that my favourite tree had been chopped down to make space for the canteen extension. Didn't like it one bit, nossir!
Glad to hear you guys enjoyed this and made you relive your own happy memories.
ReplyDeletePlats, no real reasons. I guess the fact that it's right here in town made me take it for granted that I'd get back some day. Had it been in another state or country I might've made specific plans to revisit much earlier than this. But then that's how life works...you take things that are within easy reach so much more for granted than things which are harder to get.
Ka lung a leng ti ve ringawt ila, he college ang em em a ka nunhlui min hriat chhuah tir tam hi a vang em atin ni. Hman ni lawk ah he college ah hian BA(HIST) zir turin admission ka ti kha ania, kum a vei a, ka chhuahsan hun a lo thleng a...ti hian college ka chhuahsan atangin kum tam lutuk lo chu a vei ve leh ta reng mai.
ReplyDeleteNgatinge Sc block sira waiting shed/seat "Savawmbawm" te kha thla i lak loh, chuan a la awm nge ka hre tawh lova, basket ball/volley ball court sira common room bula Bill Tree te kha?..aduhi ang deuh hian PUC ka chhuahsan a tang in thiante nen hian kan in be chhunzawm ta mang lova, rin lohna deuh deuh ah te kan in hmu leh nawlh nawlh a...a then missionary, athenin pasal an nei a, athen pro.pastor, a then drievr , a then nuipui ru tih vel kan ni ta nawk mai..mahse college life kha alo nuam ber mai:)
So lunglenthlak. Good shots. I knew John Ruata, such a nice, cool chap. And pleasantly humorous. I was real shocked to get news of his death.
ReplyDeleteazassk, mahni a fang kual kha ka ni bawk a thil thar dangdai deuh min hrilh hre tu an awm lo a, Savawm bawm leh Bill Tree te pawh chu ka lo hmuh hmaih a nih dawn chu. Pawi hle mai.
ReplyDeletemesjay, I'm so glad there's someone else here who remembers U John. He was such a great loss.
O khai khi chu ka hmuh hnu a ang hle mai :). PUC kal tawh te hi a hmun hian an lung a ti leng thei hle mai. Kei chu Aizawl college ah ka kal daih thung a, nuam ve tak chu a ni.
ReplyDeleteHehe vana, i ron thleng har ka lo ti reng a. Nia PUC hi chu lung a kuai ve tawk ani. Kan vanglai leh hlimlaini par ang an chuai te an tih ang zel khan.... :D Aizawl Coll i luh lai chu College Week bawnra thin lai kha nimaw? :P
ReplyDelete@j ka coment let lo thei lo hei chu, poilo mai aw.. Kan college kal ve lai chuan mi tam tak chuan AIZAWL COLLEGE VANGLAI tiin a hming an vuah hial!. Arts (day & night shift) leh Science a awm kawplai kha a nia, pui tak a ni. College week kha a nuam, picnic te nen. Tun thleng hian college thlang a kuhva dawr te nghak ho khan ka hmingin min la ko thei bawk! hahaha
ReplyDeleteit may sound a little stupid but i've always wondered what it's like to study in mizoram...be in a classroom with your fellow tribe. in fact, when i was still a foolish teenager i used to pester my mum to put me in st.paul's 'cause i'd hear so many stories from my cousins about how much fun they had in school, et cetera. she'd, of course, lecture me about how they settled in delhi just so my brother and i could have a better education and learn to mingle with other indian people. haha, kinda funny when i think about it now.
ReplyDeleteNah it makes plenty of sense, anna, you just want to know what it's like on the other side - perfectly natural human behaviour. I used to study in schools outside Mz too but attended college here, and I think the best thing abt it now is that you very often get to meet old acquaintances all over the place, sometimes in the most unexpected places and that's really wonderful. And growing up and sharing daily life experiences with your own people feels just so amazingly good. Of course, it's also great growing up in a very cosmopolitan atmosphere as well, so both have their pros and cons.
ReplyDeletevana, nia in luh hunlai vel kha thian thenkhat te hian an la sawi nasa thin alom. In week hman nasat thin dan te, nuam in tih hlom thin zia te. Haha in lo che ngap thei thin hle niang :D
ReplyDeleteAnna, really makes not much of a difference where you study as long as you have an open mind after you finish your formal education! It depends on how you turn out in the end. Whether you have a well integrated personality that can transcend narrow minded parochialism and so on. In the end if you have somehow contributed to society/tribe/country/world it is ok.
ReplyDeleteOur school used to have a motto, "Non Scholae Sed Vitae Discimus" which in Latin means, "(We study) Not for school but for life". I suppose that in many ways is what school and formal education should be all about: to prepare you for life's trials and tribulations.
you know i always loved ur posts, but never (not always have) had the patience to either read it verbatim or post a comment...
ReplyDeletei'm doing so so you kno i was here.. and u read my post which i posted today... so we get to writing the book i've been planning in my head.. (you get lotsa v.v.goods for correcting my spelling !)
... ALL IN GOOD FAITH!
Ok, will get around to reading your long overdue new post sometime. But if there's one thing that pisses me off no end, it's spy blog readers and bloggers who pester you to read their new posts. Very tsk tsk habit that, methinks.
ReplyDelete