College days a tradition Don't worry mom, I will be al right - That's exactly what I told my mom 29 years ago

o when my whole family came down to the road to say good bye & good luck to me on the wake of my maiden journey to the engineering college 600 kms away from home. The admission process was over and the classes were about to start from the coming Monday so I with a trunk full of odds and ends of my living hood , I set out for the college. Mom still holding my hand was giving me the last minute advises for that remote place. I went to grand ma and touched her feet. She told me 'be a king and win the world'. Father told me to take care of health and to continue my daily exercise without fail. At the turn of the lane my sisters waved hands and bid me good bye. My elder brother came to the station to see me off . With a heavy heart I boarded the train at station.

Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College was very infamous for ragging. The long curvature of the college building encompassing the office & the bank was very impressive in the eyes of a new comer. I had some fear in my mind when I entered the huge sprawling campus of the college but my dream was too big to get distracted by the fear of ragging. There were three big hostels situated on the picturesque background of the tea gardens. We were put up in two hostels, 3 in each room. Our journey started for the next four years so our friendship - Me , Asit & Kalu were in the last room no-7 of the front wing ground floor , PC Roy Hostel. The classes were from 9AM to 1PM and then after lunch break from 2PM to 5PM. The excessive ragging was not a very comfortable way of living in the hostels so next day we followed Bishu and after classes we silently disappeared to the station area to spend the evening before returning to the hostels. The hide and seek continued for a month and then the ragging ended and the actual beautiful hostel life started. In these four years we have countless memories of precious moments of our hostel life. Those were the moments when we laughed without any pretence and lived without any restrictions. Our pockets were empty but our eyes were bright & full of dreams. Today after 24 years when I look back I find those four years were the most beautiful days of our life when we lived the most happening moments of our life. Kuntal is in Civil engineering. Theory of Structure is a terror subject for all the Civil guys . Kuntal is no exception but after smoking one or two bidis or a full cigarettes no problem could stand in his way.

Therefore, for valid reasons before examination Civil guys would flock before Kuntal's room with cigarettes. Buddha is called lollipop baby because of his bulky fair body & baby face. Before examination he finds hanging & dismantling mosquito net is an unnecessary task so he stopped dismantling it. Seeing the status of Buddha's mosquito net one could easily guess the nearness of the examination. Imamul & Mridul were good football players. Local clubs used to hire them for their skills. On a rainy day when others will look out for shades & cup of tea with fried potato chips Imu & Mridul will get down to the football ground and practise football. In the muddy foot ball ground they would coax us to play with them but we would carefully avoid them for reasons obvious. Frustrated they would try to catch us and kick mud on us. In these four years we never had enough pocket money therefore, bad habits like smoking & drinking could never knock us down. However, some incidents are still very vivid and sometimes I find quite common now-a-days - drinks & Purusottam was a very noisy combination. After two pegs of cheap whisky from Bhutan , Puru would start talking in english. His grammar & pronunciation was always talk of the nights. 'Money Transaction' or 'MT' was a free money transfer facility of state bank of India, most of our families would use that to send money to us those days. It takes 15 days minimum time to reach 600 kilometres far. The postcard carrying MT information reaches us in 3 / 4 days . However, Kalu's money used to come in the form of Money Order , cheque or demand draft. He was an instant rich man whereas we have to wait for another 10 / 15 days before the money reaches our empty hands. Meanwhile we have to regular enquire at the bank whether the MT has reached or not. Unbelievable, today in the era of on line banking people rarely go to the bank for doing the bank related works. Krishna , a local boy was in mechanical. He used to come from Jalpaiguri town. He was always fascinated by tea gardens. Later he bought a full tea estate of his own. Some of our friends later visited his tea estate. During the first few weeks we always felt very homesick but later as we grew we started loving our college and it's life. That was the time when we used to write post cards to our homes. Some of our friends used to get a letter a day. Rana & Kalu were among them. Kalu was our postman. Everyday 15 minutes before lunch break he would bunk the last class to detour the post office before reaching hostel. He would collect all the letters for us. Some letters were very special for some guys. Kalu would come to the lobby and would roll call those guys in the top of his voice to let the whole hostel know that he has a letter from his lady lover that day. With all pain and pleasures four years have been passed one day and we came to the last day last moment of departure from our college. The small bus was ready to take us to the station. It was blowing horn impatiently as it has to make a number of trips to take us all there with bag and baggages but nobody was getting into the bus. All wanted to go by the last trip to stay little more time here. As the bus was about to take the last turn at the long curvature wall of the college I turned back to see her one last time. Unknowingly my eyes turned wet and I knew I'm not going to see her again for many many years and perhaps decades again. We have given her our four years and she has made our

whole life. From now on she will be a silent spectator. . . . . . Don't worry mom, I will be alright . I was stunned as my daughter is saying exactly the same words to my worrying wife while we are about to leave our daughter at her engineering college at Pune for the first time. It seems the history is being enacted again. That time it was me , the shy and meek boy from an unknown town and now my daughter is here only the time has turned 29 years in between. The same bright and dreaming eyes ready to conquer the world. Empty pockets but mind is full of aspirations. Now we are leaving the college campus. With wet eyes we are weaving our hands. The history is repeating. Today I understand how heavy heart my mom felt that day and the next 4 years and once we learn how to fly on our own wing in these 4 years we will fly away for ever ,the long walls of college campus will remain a silent spectator ever after. The tradition continues.. S. Bera Powai