EPHEMERAL ODYSSEY

[I'm the only girl studying mechanical engg. in UIET, Panjab University, with 36 odd guys.]

I postponed writing this article for 10 days and today when I picked my pen, I felt it coming my way..

Oh yes I have to accept it now,

The end is coming, the end of my UIET days…

It pinched softly; it’ll take some time to sink in. The fear of losing it all, the days gone by, trying hard to hold this quick sand.

It was a hot day; I slept till late noon when a sudden phone call made me attend counseling. It was like I had gone to take a stroll, unprepared, all on my own. My name was called, shocked, puzzled; I went with friends and was the last one to walk out with a seat.

Ah! It was dramatic.

Now, I was a mekanchi, had never portrayed myself holding a hammer and bending “THE stubborn” iron rod. Still when asked the reason for opting, during PDP, I boasted, “Well, I loved playing with nuts and bolts since my childhood..!” God that terrible answer landed me in many a PDP sessions, making me act a la SRK to ball dancing with a girl, from endless intros in Hindi to remembering all the names.

Then came the “F-day”, everyone dressed in their best. The curiosity, the eagerness, the fear, the excitement, every wannabe jumbled with side-liners and their self-imposed right to suggest the last minute do’s & don’ts. I was random, left alone, but happiness found me hysterically. I hardly knew this senior who managed to get “Dahi & Cheeni” for my luck.

I was touched.

Before I could transit, the cupid suddenly appeared in every nook & corner, hot shots getting hooked and their long kept love blossoming. Goonj was a necessary evil and the mekanchi me with the elite few who could only cha-cha to the beats of Punjabi-flu.

The freshman year ended and EEE departed from our combined class. For the first time I missed my gossip care takers, only BOYS sitting all around. I hardly knew any. All I could hear was “B!@#$%^, M!#$%^&, ....!”. I guess my feminity was too less to leash them to their civility. I had no idea of bunks or the shift of classes or the syllabi and people would say, “Guys must be dying to help you yaar.”

The 2^nd year made me so carefree that sleep was my only delight. My heroic act of sleeping on the front bench was marveled by fellow mekanchis. By fall I managed to earn a few good friends. Meanwhile our college got transformed into a construction site taking away our dear stairs. It was that time of college life when MBA, GRE, GMAT were on the roll and Bull’s, Career assignments would rule the roost. Everybody had their own cobwebs, all trying hard to survive and succeed.

Final year brought me back to the same “F-day” stage, compeering the event, nervous contenders coming up to me for last minute suggestions. Even my class-movie outing was a late bloomer; the only movie I watched at this time, with 5 guys was unfortunately 5-starred “DEV-D”. All this followed by a stint with eve-teasing while driving directionless, shouting “I love you” & “Will you marry me?” at every girl that passed and “Hongshu pongshu Shushu” to a chink (no offence). The same boys now turned MEN who finally evolved enough to see me as their classmate.

Today there is no specific reason to lament. Nostalgia has turned all the vices into virtues. There is no denial but acceptance of the fact that I’m going to miss all the attention I got, being recognized as ‘the only girl’, will surely miss my class fellows even those I never talked to and on top of it I will miss this pestering routine I had these 4 years, my being a part of UIET.

UIET may witness millions of such stories but for me UIET will always remain a beautiful chunk of my life from where I emerged more strong, more mature and of course more monsieur.

There will be many endings and new beginnings will come my way but all this while,

“I will miss being Ms. Mekanchi”

["Mekanchi" - a student of mechanical engineering.

"PDP" - personality development program precisely ragging.

"F-day" - fresher's day.

"SRK" - Shah Rukh Khan

"B!@#$%^, M!#$%^&" - hindi abuses]