Malgudi Days

Living in a single room mansion, eating in a Iyer mess, rushing to the main bus stand, running behind the Nagapattinam meter gauge train, getting a seat to sit for the 45 minutes journey, walking towards the college gate, dreaming inside the class rooms, typing "Hello World" programs, chatting with the class mates, long walk to the Parotta shops or mess for the afternoon lunch, sighting the college girls, tucked out shirt with a slipper and a long size unruled notebook with a Reynolds pen, do not forgetting to take a pocket comb, waiting for the last hour bell, going back to station and having fun at the station, speaking\singing\sleeping while coming back from college, getting down from the running train, requesting for a lift from railway station to main bus stop, walking happily with no worries but with big dreams on the roads towards the mansion, sneaking inside peoples mind each time when someone pass by, having a 2rs tea with butter biscuits, collecting notes and taking Xerox copies of unknown authors just to accumulate in the shelf, eating dinner at a fast food center, calling home from a STD booth for hours, enjoying the night in the terrace with mansion friends, playing carom board with the mansion manager, sleeping with a alarm aside for the routine tasks...Gosh. It was a wonderful life which I miss and feel could never get back. This was my post graduation period at an engineering college near Tanjore.

These Malgudi days of mine came back to me in a flash after several years when I got bunch of emails from my class mates which was a surprise. I never had a single contact with any of my Tangore guys. It’s like everybody rushing to complete what they want and in this race everybody forgot the touch with each other. We were the toughest guys for our lectures and we were given the bad treatment from everybody in the college. But now most of us stood up to a decent level and the cycle changes. The lectures started passing their resumes to us :-) We had good time with each other at the same time bad patches. There were clashes and misunderstandings with each other which now look silly. But that is a phase change and it happens to everybody. Everybody is busy with their professional work and most have got married and might be a having a child. But still a small email made a difference and it brought back the memories. I truly wish that everybody one day have to come together to relish those old Malgudi days!