All's well that ends well.

So it's here. well, almost! I have waited for this day to come during many forlorn afternoons when I hated doing my project work, or during those bouts of loneliness which every one of us has gone through here-the utmost pining to go back home, or may be during those stressful days before recruitment when you never actually knew what are the interviewers going to actually ask you, or plain and simple exam time and more importantly results when you almost always never knew what went wrong with your answers. That and this.

And now when it's here, almost, I feel sad. The bouts of nostalgia springs up now and then..and the fact that I probably attended the last class of my student life, at least for the near future on 21st is yet to sink in.....I am yet to reconcile with the fact that 1.5 months from now I am not going to return back here and do all that that we have been doing as a batch for the past nine semesters. The tenth one is the final one. wake up kid! No am not a kid anymore you see. No more college student tag. No more notes photocopying tension. No more NALSAR. 

No more Carpe Diem practices, no more blue skies, no more evening chai, no more intense hours of leg pulling sessions with Shreya and Paridhi, no more long extended gossip sessions, no more random cooking sessions with Papa, runjhun and all, no more long discussions about Dil, Dosti etc. with Runjhun, shreya, Paridhi, Richa, Tavishi, Joyee, Pami, no more trip taking on 'why you are looking hot', no more world cup cheers in the common room with deeps, raadhika, swetali, samiksha, atrey, sadhika. No more intellectualized gossip with Runjhun and dhruv. No more dancing our hearts out on DJ night. No more random link ups with Satshya, Amrita and even more random Happy Birthdays in the mess and the class. No more classes. No more catching up on left over sleep (:P) No more sprinting against the sprinklers on lane while going to the mess. No more Tresspassing on the lawn while saying it aloud to the guard "Bhaiya, 5th year mein hain hum". No more "mim mim" and pandey jokes. No more Sunday breakfasts, Tuesday vadas and sambhar or Wednesday Appam. No more Tuesday dinner noodles. No more 12'o clock birthdays in the hostel. No more series of Happy Birthday songs after the cake cutting. No more 9'o clock TV watching and discussing why we don't meet guys like Madhavan in real life. No more socialising in the library . No more fretting over deadlines. The actual ones beckon now. No more NALSAR.

It's the time to write about memories of these five years for the college brochure. It's the time to say good bye. The series of farewell parties which saw the ladies swinging from the traditional saris to beautiful dresses in a span of one day-The Faculty lunch, The Vice Chancellor's dinner, the lunch for the non teaching staff, the juniors, the hostel party, the official college (SBC) farewell and the party thrown next day by juniors at Spoil- all of them are over now. The guys dressed up for a change and we had so many pictures clicked with all...old rivalries, cold wars, bitching forgotten. We will treasure all these memories....and the batch t-shirt....the controversy around it was not required, but now I have something to remind me (not that I need to be reminded) that the batch of 2006-2011 lived! and how :)

Good bye NALSAR! You gave me probably the best five years of my life. From the days of a carefree little girl to a twenty three year old girl who thinks (and only she thinks) that she knows the way of the world....you opened up horizons and opportunities for me which I would have probably never got if I didn't decide to leave the comforts of home at seventeen. Thank you is too small a word I suppose :)

Nuggets and more.

1. Now that house hunting is over, at least temporarily, I am gearing up for the big shift from being a student to a working lady soon. Well, a few days are still left before I graduate and I am enjoying it to the hilt, but I am also super excited to start work soon. I am going to miss being a student....but I am sure I will enjoy being the responsible taxpayer too. May be change is the only constant in life.

2. The jealous glares do amaze me now and then, but doesn't matter anymore. Koi nahi, pay package aur brand value hazam honey mein thoda time to lagega hi :) :P More so when they asked for that all out war while shouting from the rooftops. But truly speaking, I am at peace with myself. And nothing makes me happier than that.

3. That reminds me. I love to stay happy. My friends often compliment me (at least I count it to be a compliment) as "being high on life". True. I really dont need to take refuge to alcoholic drinks or smoking for that  matter to get that high. I don't have nay issues with people who drink or smoke, but somehow I still prefer my glass of "coca cola on the rocks" :P in parties.

4. Have lately taken a lot of interest in learning Continental dishes. I have learnt quite a bit of Indian sabzi daal and stuff by now. Have to learn 'amish' (non vegetarian) cooking though. But I am trying to pick up Italian and stuff from my friends who are really good at it. And guess what? I suppose I can cook a proper Italian meal now for the people who matter :) Learnt how to make mouthwatering Pasta (the red sauce variety), Sauteed Mushrooms and the mashed potato with garlic and milk. They tasted nice. Considering I know how to make Pizzas already, the Italian thing is quite a deal now I suppose :D. What next? may be lasagna :) and obviously chitol macher muithya which I have been trying to learn for quite some time now. I love to cook. It's therapeutic.

5. Have been reading this book called "The red Carpet" by Lavanya Sankaran. Considering that bookstores do sell it within the same bracket of a few books titled "Anything for you ma'am", "Oh! shit, not again", "Ofcourse I love you, until I find some one better"- I was obviously apprehensive (am even more apprehensive of the people who consider themselves literary enthusiasts after reading the above mentioned books and go ga ga over them- nothing personal against anybody, you might find my "Sesher Kobita". "Uaccustomed Earth", "A suitable Boy", "Hamlet" or "Angels and Demons" boring too...but it's just a personal take). But coming back to the point that is...I like the book...and the author. She is good...very different from the cult that she is being promoted as a part of. She writes about Bangalore....I quite liked the place, the one single time I visited it....but the very bong Calcutta (and to some extent Sunu Da's GK II and it's proximity to CR Park neighbourhood) enthusiast me also found it a very endearing and honest effort. Some day I would love to do a similar anthology on "Calcutta". There might be thousands of them...because "ei shahor janey amar prothom sobkichu"...but it will be the stories I want to tell :)

6. It's the last two day weekend in college. The remaining will have working Saturdays....somehow, the five years, though they didn't just pass by like that, was quite a journey. A journey that made women out of girls. :)

Lush blue and ecstatic green.

Does the title sound a bit odd? Well! it is meant to be :) Or to put it this way- These are the predominant colours of my life right now. Blue, as you must have guessed, is the bleeding obsession of the nation as we gear up for another cricket World Cup final tomorrow. And needless to say, the common room atmosphere is electrifying...so is the ambiance near the giant screen while the India matches are on!

And green we are...definitely...not with envy...but ecstatically proud of the vibrant batch...the best of the placements and LLM application acceptances (Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, NYU- you name it- we have it :P)- the batch of 2006-2011 is all fireworks!! "Amra nobin/ Amra Chonchol" and if I may add "Amra sobuj" :P :D

And that green thing is kind of infectious since we won Carpe Diem 2011 (our very own Intra college fest) with whopping margin of 2200 points. Agreed final years are vella and stuff...but this victory was extra sweet with those numerous 'batch' moments emerging in the dance rehearsals, movie spoof planning and the finale night- glimpses of which have been captured to be part of our facebook albums and in our minds...forever....a deleted photo tag can't undo the emotions of hysterical laughing and trip taking right?

That reminds me...this journey is almost over..or rather the phase of life that we emphatically remember as 'student life' is coming to an end and though I cribbed and jostled through these five years to get over, am really feeling sad after these days...I am going to miss the randomness. The part of being the batch of 2011 (that I always will be). The feeling of random "le lena" sessions that could commence anytime....To think of it the giant cauldron called NALSAR did something good for all of us....all of us from varied backgrounds and different parts of the country..some form way beyond...a few whom I might never meet after these days get over as they will move back to their own countries :))

The batch photoshoot was as enlightening as these five years have been and thanks to Swetali we have candid shots through the 'other' camera (the official one being the one used for the university publication stuff). Lot sof newly discovered link ups, happy birthday (you have to be from NALSAR to know the enigma of a happy birthday) and sheer joy of being a batch. From the cold wars to back biting, bitching, friendships, moments and pride- we have seen it all....but when we go out, we go out as a happy batch. 

So, am happy wappy and waiting for my batch t shirt to arrive- with the motif of the legendary neem tree on it. NALSARite forever :))

Nostalgia reigns supreme for me nowadays :))

P.S.- Have been away from my blog for  long..was pretty caught up with Carpe Diem planning and practice, submissions, house hunting and a few more interesting stuff you see :))