Symbification

Dear reader,

Let me warn you... This is gonna be a VERY long post.. i had it saved on my laptop since the 2nd of October, but i haven't been able to post it till now, the 2nd of November.. Gees, i'm hoping having the internet on my laptop NOW doesn't lemme slow down easily... Plz leave any comments if u think something needs a change.. I'm a little rusty... Welcome back to my world!

It’s been more than two whole months since I last wrote here (properly) and now, I’m FINALLY doing this from my very own Laptop!!! It’s FINALLY HERE!!! And of course, before it reached, a LOT had happened here...

Life has been Symbi-fied and these two months already seem like 2 years that have passed by. So much has happened in such little time – it’s astonishing! I tried writing down what I’d want to blog in a notebook and then try typing it off in a cyber cafe but the pace of things here was too much to let that become a possibilty... so basically, the things I would have jotted down in excruciating detail will now just be lines instead of chapters as most of them have become ‘just another day’s and would just seem repetitive and boring, unlike how they felt in reality... This way, they’ll help me live with my new found laziness and help you get to know this place better, faster.

I’m kind of lost and I just don’t know where to begin... so much has happened and so much more has already changed around here, I don’t know if it makes sense to tell you certain stories... but anyhow, I’ll get you started with my first official day in college, I mean, that was one of the main reasons I had to start blogging in the first place!

17^th July 2008 (The Journey Begins):

I walked into the college for our orientation session. The day before, I had set the stuff in my room, most of it at least, and gotten to really speak to my room-mate and former school-mate Joash, who funny enough, I had never really known or spoken to in school! Anyway, when we reached the reception area of Symbiosis Institute of Design (SID), we were asked to head to the auditorium where the faculty would welcome us... Meanwhile, at the desk, Jo bumped into a friend from back home, Sneha. These two were in the same tuition classes back in Delhi and they said they’re hellos and exchanged phone numbers. After the session, which had its own shares of boredom and fun, we went down to the mess area for lunch after which both our mom’s left us in our new room and left. I was finally set out in the world, alone, without the constant watch of my parents. Jo and I caught up, being from the same school helped a lot because we understood most of our jokes and had a lot to talk about too. While we were talking, Jo got a call from Sneha. She asked the two of us if we would want to join her and a few other friends of hers – Tanvi, Shrishti, Priyata and Vasundhara – from her hostel at Shisha (a hang out spot here, serves hookah and drinks and all that, great ambience) and since we didn’t have anything to do, and wanted to meet new people and make new friends, we agreed to tag along... I’ve got to be honest, both of us, were slightly apprehensive and thought that there was something fishy and even considered not going. It felt a little weird the way things were at the time but being Columbans, we decided to go anyway. And it was indeed a good decision that we took. Even though we ended up each spending 200 bucks on our very first days, after all the lectures our parents gave us about spending wisely, it didn’t really pinch. All 7 of us agreed we had a great time and knew we made good friends. Despite all that fun, we all being hostellers, did have deadlines to follow. So we caught rickshaws (which are so much more expensive than those back home!!!) and headed back to our respective hostels, JUST in time and JUST before the guards shut the gates! WHAT A FIRST DAY!!! We all hoped this journey wouldn’t slow down and every day could be this awesome... Once we were back, Jo and I just sat up and talked in general, got to know each other better and dozed off looking forward to the next day...

As the days went on, the fun just multiplied and life seemed to get better and bigger by the minute... I had a good bunch of friends with whom I’d regularly storm the Cafe Coffee Day a couple hundred metres from the college premises and every other day, if not EVERY day, we would figure out something or the other to do. Everything was so new, the places and people... there was so much in store for us to explore... it felt like an endless ride of magnifying fun and joy! Every one of us felt a tight bond being formed and loved every minute of life here... Whether it was sitting on the couches at CCD not ordering anything for hours or our first visit to High Spirits (and by god was that memorable!!!) or the first time we played football here and killed ourselves... I remember us limping around like wounded soldiers after some huge war – pretty funny sight! All of these moments... hanging out after college hours at Faaso’s (this tiny roll store just outside college) or eating Smoked Chicken and Cheese rolls with “Meow” (inside joke : The owner couldn’t pronounce MAYO too well... :P) at Wrap-a-Round or even loitering around aimlessly and ending up at the college campus – whether at the Slabs outside the Gym/Audi or the Amphitheatre or the Canteen... It was the kind of stuff we had started looking forward to after a long day of college.

Of course, one can’t deny that SID is no ordinary college... We hardly have the clichéd systems most colleges around the country follow... Just the comparison between the Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies (SCMS) or Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, which are in the same CAMPUS as SID is so immense, one might not think we study in college at all. It’s a different tradition that we design students can follow and we do so gladly.

We don’t have uniforms. We don’t have to stay glued to our seats in our classrooms. Our classrooms aren’t stepped. We don’t have benches and tables. We have chairs and inclined boards. We don’t need to stay in class once we get our attendance (we have quite a bit of freedom when it comes to working in college during college hours – really, all they want of us is to submit our work, and good work, on time). We don’t have lectures. We don’t have any course books. WE DONT HAVE TESTS! Our teachers explain our daily tasks and head back to the faculty room, where we are free to go ask them any questions we want to, any time during college! We don’t have to WRITE stuff, we have to DRAW, COLOR and PLAY AROUND!!! Most classes we have are like extra-curricular for most others. And most of all, we have the FREEDOM to have FUN! ITS A VERY DIFFERENT CULTURE THAN MOST PEOPLE ARE USED TO (plus the guys to girls ratio is 1:2 or more. You think I would mind?)

For us, college isn’t too much of a burden, in fact, it hardly ever is. It’s fun and it’s something a lot, if not all or most of us look forward to each day. And there’s almost always something to do in or around college every now and then. The classes remind me of the happy times or junior and middle school when I used to carry stationery to the art room and feast on colour. All this is so exciting and so much fun it’s hard to get over it! It’s how I used to imagine my time-table to be like back in school, the only difference is that list also had a few P.T. periods in it. But it’s the next best I could ask for, so I’m not complaining.

Now, I wrote all of the above the day before so i have some catching up to do. Pardon the abruptness if it arises...

Anyway, so my point thus far was how much different our college is from most others around and how we had a totally different culture in this place. There was this amazing connection we people had – Jo was like a long lost friend, a complete stranger, so to say, but so familiar. Being from the same school, even though we never knew each other back then, had a lot of up’s! There was so much we had to talk about and there was so much we said that no other soul but one of a Columban would understand! Mehr (who we met on our second day of college), was from Carmel Convent and both our schools have quite a history together. In fact, we didn’t remember until later that both Jo and I had met Mehr during our class 10 social! Sneha... i don’t know what it was that we had, but we just clicked! A couple of days of talking made us feel as if we knew each other since forever! Tanvi (pronounced T-aaaaaaaaaaaa-nvi) became the butt of most jokes in just a weeks time and it was hard to spend time in a group without her. She added that fun element in the group. Vasundhara left college after a few days. Shrishti and Priyata were always friends but we weren’t too close probably because we still spent most of our days apart and our timings were different (them being from SIMC). And around this time, more and more people kept adding to the group – Antariksh (or Antarix/Anthrax/Anti etc etc), Madhav (6’4 tall – one of the reasons we bonded well... it was and is more fun to crack tall-short jokes in a twosome!), Littil (yes, that is his real name – and just like Malayalam, it can be spelt backwards. And he has a huge bush of hair on his head – kinda like the guy from Wolfmother) was a hit too and Saurabh (our very own fl-ABS – the ‘fl’ is silent) was the guy cracking all the jokes. The seniors John and Ehrli were popular amongst the group too. Later additions were Keegan and Brendon and the group still gets bigger... So basically, there are a lot of varied elements in the group that add their own to make every moment fun and special and in general, awesome!

Anyway, this is how things started out here... that was 2 months back. A lot more has happened and there’s a lot more to write. But I’m tired. This was a long post so probably you are too. I’ll write back soon, i promise. Next time around, ill tell you the story of our Freshers party.

Till then,

\m/.rock.in.peace.\m/