Galle ki chai & Seniors
You all must have given farewell to your seniors may it be in school, college, office or wherever… so you all are well familiar with farewell event. If not you will someday, in future. In my NIT, we gave farewell to our just immediate seniors in the year 2011, we gifted them all a coffee mug with their group photo on it. In addition to that we had also kept a simple plain glass in it, which was the same as in which we used to drink ‘galle ki chai’ (Tea stall outside our campus). In the bus, one of my seniors said immediately after unpacking his gift, “yeh glass poori college life define karta hai, this is the best gift, we could never think of getting in a farewell, college ke shuru se college ke khatam tak iss glass se sab kuch defined hai!”
Well my immediate reaction to that was sentiya gaye hain baap log.. But on second thoughts that was really well said. Uss galle ki chai ne kitne hi relations banaye hain, bigade hain aur pata nahin kya kya chhoti-badi planning banti-bikharti dekhi hai. 4 rupees normal chai, 6 rupees special masale wali chai. oh. Raat bhar night out maarke subah 5 baje chai. Chamunda khatam hone ke baad college mein ghusne se pehle ek chai. Exam khatam hote hi ek chai. Suttebaazon ke liye Regular/mild/lights/ultra ke sath chai. I really appreciated those NIT girls who were DAILY visitors of galla. They had that bold spirit, true engineer like attitude in my opinion. Not those who would once in a while join the herd. Aaj chai ke paise tum doge – chai treat. Bhaiya aaj chhutta nahi hai, kal paise le lena. That tea was even used for bribing the watchmen at the gate for us to leave college premises in odd hours (2AM, 3AM). Study break lena hai so chai pine chalo. I still remember my final year, starting my bike, taking a triple ride, just to go from hostel to galla (hardly 400 m) for what??? – Masala chai. All in all that one glass of tea was everything and played a very important role which gets unnoticed. How can I forget my “interaction” with seniors and juniors over that glass of tea. Bird watching while drinking tea (believe me, NIT-Surat is situated in the best location for this, ha ha)!
The joy of that beverage in that particular place and in that cheap vessel was unmatched and out of this world. That bliss is absent in the Rs. 150 Tea of Gateway Hotel; Absent in today’s tea where I get it 4 times a day for free. 5 rupees was just exact, right and the best. If I were to break one of those glasses, each piece would have a different story to tell you of what all it has witnessed over the years. Well people, please take time out of your busy-competitive lives and just try to spark that spirit again with your new surroundings. Definitely a wave of rejuvenation shall run through you. For those still in the process of completion of their Bachelors, don’t miss out and make everyday count.
Finding Friends in NIT and later – My journey
When I had entered my NIT I was having a pre-notion in my mind that college mein sabse bachke rehna hai. Friends will be very ruthless, diplomatic and selfish totally opposite from school. (I hope I am not the only one to think that in that stage :P) So initially I was reserved. One fine evening after my workshop a guy came to me and asked: “Oye tu kahan se hai?” I said, “Anand se hun, Anandalaya school. Kyun kya hua?” He said, “Oh achha, chal abhi valentine cinema bulaya hai hume”.
I refused initially and further asked him kyun/kaun/kab etc. But that guy somehow convinced me to come with him. Even I was like it’s been so many days I haven’t roamed around the area so let’s go. A bit puzzled and nervous, I agreed. That time, I was unaware that he was given a task to bring 5 guys to his lords and I was one of them. When we reached there I was taught certain rules and regulations called “FUNDE” which in my first visit I found to be quite impressive. Actually they are really good if you know the philosophy behind it. If you are able to observe the change in you after you apply them to your life you will surely value them and pass on to your next gen willingly. Anyways, one of the things I was asked to do, was to know each of my batch-mate properly and he must know me. Whenever our lords would be talking to us we haad to keep in mind one thing always: “Batchie ki nahin kaatni, khudka bhale hi kat jaye!”
Now…Knowing someone forcefully was not my style. And I had a tough time due to that. But today if I look back it was one of the best things that happened to me and the 13-14 of us who by the final year came so close that few of us had reached the degree of blind trust on each other. Usually in my batch people belonged to one regional group but had their close friends in some other. But it so happened with us that we were in the same regional group and we became best friends as well. It was like double reinforcement. Our synchronization our teamwork was smooth. Yes we had big clashes within ourselves too but they used to just vanish with time. God we were so less egoist!!! I can’t believe that but I was, we all were.
You all have your gang in college. I too had one. It had all flavours: Mischevious, jugaadu, sentimental, buzz buzz guy, a guy famous for his butts, English mein blah blah wala, flirty conveners, Automobile geeks, intelligent pointer getter, political minds and cry babies too. I was the furious, impulsive yet very very caring one in my group. Our level of understanding was by far way ahead of anyone in my college I think. We believed that even if we do not have high reaches and contacts we can start from scratch and reach up the clean way. We threw everything whatever we had at our disposal; Just using the powers which were in our control and not being dependent on others. And look what happened… That was the reason why one of the guys could bring Toyota as sponsor in one of the fests. That was the reason we could make into HAL, Bangalore for training with no solid backing and we could do internships at IIM-A. All we presented to them was just our genuine heart and the determination to make big out of things. Unusual to sound true but it does happen! I had never imagined even in my dreams, that I would find, not one, not two, but 12-13 close friends. This was a boon I got and they all too.
I learned the true meaning of acceptance, consideration. We accepted each other with our good and bad both. I learned the meaning of being humble and without ego. How many times does this happen you tell me. You all too have those kinds of people. Just look around!
Friendship: At every stage of your life you have friend(s). School, College, Workplace, even your spouse and its siblings are your friends. Generally it has been seen that the friendships whose origins have been from school are strongest. Then comes the friendship from college, at number 2. After that other than your life partner other friendships do not have as strong foundations as earlier ones have.
It is said that in life it is very difficult to get a true best friend and you are very lucky if you get even one such friend in your lifetime. With God’s grace I have been blessed with nice friends at every stage so far. If you got true friends in your life you should be the happiest man in the world and never crib for girlfriend(s)/boyfriend(s). They (gf/bf) are nothing in terms of blessing in comparison to true friend. Well, experience has taught me this. People if you have any such friend never lose them. Just pick up the phone; call him/her and say how much you love them and revive your treasure – the time you have spent together. Life will be so blissful.
1 FEET BELOW HEAD 
What others say…