Farewell.

May 04, 2015

My Dear Friends,

It is the end of a beautiful journey.

These four years have passed by in a flash, with each year bringing us closer than ever before, strengthening the bonds of our friendship. Now that it has come to an end, I just want to thank you all for the memories. I would cherish them for life.

I already miss the lot of you- miss the times we spent together.

I'll miss the classroom- miss being in a place in which whatever direction I turn, there is a friend, a companion.

I'll miss the secretive chatter during all the boring lectures- miss cracking silly jokes and trying our hardest to stifle the laughter- miss playing hangman with Vishal- miss sitting next to Suhail and see him text his girlfriends the whole time.

I'll miss eating together- miss having at least four varieties of meals every single day- miss Varadha bhai and his three spoons.

I'll miss the frantic preparations for the Assessments and the Semesters- miss seeing Lokesh give a straight faced lie about how under-prepared he is for the test- miss seeing Ragavendar postpone every question to the last half hour.

I'll miss classroom Cricket- miss hitting the paper ball as hard as we could, not minding who or what stood in the way- miss getting out to Vineeth's deceptive slow balls- miss seeing Nanda constantly losing hold of the bat and sending it flying across the room- miss Srini's one handed sixes- miss playing under captain cool Lokesh's leadership- miss being on the opposing team as Vishal and tirelessly quarrelling with him at every given opportunity.

I'll miss playing cards together- miss seeing Nanda and Grooming become full holes- miss seeing Varadha blame the universe every time he loses- miss seeing Lokesh make stupid mistakes.

I'll miss the lab sessions- miss sitting alongside either Srini or Ragavendar and merrily spending my time in pointless chatter and gossip.

I'll miss Varadha's infamous void mode- miss being ignored by him for those few moments.

I'll miss making fun of Ramesh's voice- miss laughing my heart out at all the jokes that he unintentionally makes.

I'll miss picking on Lokesh- miss getting hit by him in return.

I'll miss Kid breaking up with me.

I'll miss the slow walks we did together down the Campus road- miss going out of breath climbing the steep slopes of Pachamalai. 

Ill miss all this and a lot more. It pains to have to leave all this behind, it pains to have to grow up. It'll take a lot of time and effort to fill the void that has now come up with the end of college. But we are lucky, we can still stay in touch. We can still spend time in pointless chatter and maybe meet up every once in a while.

As a finishing note, I would like to say just one thing- I love you, all of you and I'm grateful to you for all the beautiful memories you've given me.

Yours lovingly,

Sanjay Khan.

The most Beautiful!

Beauty has always been a matter of perspective. What appears beautiful to one, might not be quite the same to another. That is why the task of naming the most beautiful girl in our class has proven to be tedious at best. The previous posts about the same, were merely the opinions of two like-minded individuals and as you can extrapolate, those opinions don't hold much credibility to themselves. This time however, every guy from our batch, except a few obvious ones, took part in the selection and the results are as convincing as they can ever be.

To talk you through the voting procedure, every guy who was involved, was asked to send in a list of who he thought were the top 5 pretty girls in the class. The first place in an individual's list (the favourite), got a certain amount of points. The second place got the next highest amount and so on, with the fifth in the list scoring the least. The points were tallied and well enough, we have the results. A total of 18 girls were voted upon, meaning these girls were in at least one of the many lists we received. The listing that I'm now about to put forth is in no particular order, except of course the top 5.

Anitha and Kuralarasi: Coming from humble backgrounds, these two have attitudes that will inspire awe in you. Every girl is beautiful to the right pair of eyes and so are these two.

Jayanthi: She'd asked me not to use her name in this post but as you can see, I'm not listening to her. If a friend is someone with whom every conversation is spontaneous then it would be fair to say that Jayanthi is my first lady friend since I've grown up. She is the sweetest person I've ever met, she's kind and not to mention, adorable.

Revathi: She is the type that is hesitant at first, but if you give her your time, she would repay you with the most beautiful friendship that you could ever get.

Sangavi: She is probably the most exciting of all the girls in our class and is also the most fun to hang out with. Her demeanour is one that will alleviate you off all your worries in the blink an eye.

Prashanti: I was a bit appalled when I found out that not many had voted on her. I guess it's just because her sense of humour over-shadows her beauty and as a whole, people fail to recognize the latter. But I am not one of those people. Prashanti is one of my top 5 and she appears beautiful to me every single day. She also has a heart as pure as anyone you'll ever meet.

Aishwarya: Not every guy might classify her as beautiful, but what truly matters is that she scored one top favourite. I believe it's the most that any girl could ask for.

Priyadharshini: No matter how much she achieves or how great a height she reaches, you'll always find her feet firmly rooted to the ground. Friendship, to her, is of much greater value than any personal milestone. 

Pooja: I see two girls in class having the most pleasing smiles I've ever seen and Pooja is one of them. If I hadn't taken a liking for ebony girls before the start of college, I would sure do now and it'll all be because of her. She looks pretty but when dressed in traditional attire, she looks totally out-of-this-world!

Rupashree: If there ever was an epitome of innocence, it would be her. You would hardly see her speak a word, yet her grace is all but sufficient to gain her a lot of admirers. What astounds me is how far up the ratings she's gotten despite the fact that two of her guy-friends hadn't take part in the voting.

Kavitha: She has the gift of good looks and also a gift for speech. No one is as good as her at making new friends. Her speech is one that's so bewitching that you would hardly notice time fly when you talk to her. And also, her fashion sense is to die for.

Sivaranjani: She is just an ordinary girl but that is only until she starts dancing. The way she gracefully flaunts her curves will leaving you mesmerized and forever wanting for more. 

Swetha: Getting to be her friend is no easy task, but if you somehow manage to make it to her inner circle, you are a lucky person. Because you'll then experience love and affection enough to compensate for a lifetime of misery. If you already have her for a friend, you hardly have anything to worry about, because she'll constantly watch your back, making sure no harm ever reaches you.

The names above are all honourable mentions. They are beautiful, but not nearly as much as the girls in the top 5. The top 5 are the ones that make us proud of being a part of this batch.

Angeline: Time and time again you come across girls who look pretty but very rarely do you come across someone like her who so easily makes you want to fall in love. Her beauty is not just one that will please your eye but it is also one that will straight out eat your heart. No wonder she sports the most crushes out of all the girls in our class. Spend a day's time admiring her and in the next you'll be neck deep in love.

Pavithra: I'd mentioned earlier that there are two girls in class having the most scintillating smiles I've ever seen and in case if you were still hung up on who the other one is...it is her. If I were ever to choose the best between the two, I would mindlessly pick Pavithra, because I believe her smile is her most alluring prospect and it ensnares the heart of anyone who has ever been blessed with the sight of it. I've had her smile at me a couple of times and it had left me in a trance. If you are ever having a bad day, her smile is what you would want to see.

Jyothsna:

"At the start, nobody, except one particular individual, had given you any real attention. But all that changed when you showed up dressed flawlessly in a green saree on women's day. To say the least, you made our jaws drop. We couldn't help but marvel at the sight of you. Your beauty was so immaculate that it would certainly have brought any man to his knees. The elegant curls of your hair, those deep black eyes, that ever so pretty face, that gorgeous smile twisting the corners of your lips- everything screamed perfection. If anything, you looked like the Goddess of beauty herself and you so easily managed to sway all our hearts. I voted on you as my favourite, not only because of your celestial beauty, but also because you were kind enough to take a picture standing beside Him. You don't know how ecstatic it made him feel and I'm grateful to you for that."

Medhuna:

"During the earlier semesters, at times when the lectures got boring, Nanda and I had taken to this habit of sitting back and admiring you. It seemed then to be the best possible way of making it through the classes. Though it is a thing of the past now, the fact still remains that you're a treat to the eye. Though you're not the usual kind of pretty- the type that would make a passerby sneak a second glance at you- your beauty is one that slowly, but steadily, grows on an individual. And now since it's been three years, you've gained a lot of admirers. You were the top favourite on five lists, the most by any girl. I guess it'd be safe to say that you have entranced many an individual, but I've not quite been able to put a finger on what it is that one thing about you that attracts them. Some are attracted to your voice, some to your attitude, and the others find you attractive just because you are so pleasing to look at."

So that sums up the prettiest girls in our class- the ones that made life in college so much more tolerable. The truth in fact is that this list is actually in order, starting from the bottom and reaching the top. But it's time now to separate the girls from the lady- from the undisputed Queen.

"The reason I first noticed you is because you reminded me of the girl I first fell in love with. You no longer hold that resemblance. You've changed and I dare say in a good way. Your beauty and finesse has evidently transcended far beyond what it had been three years ago. Every girl has her day -a day in which she is inarguably ravishing- but these days flee and the ones that were as radiant as the Sun, soon appear mundane. But you are the one exception. You radiance is so overwhelming that it sets you alight day in and day out. There has not been a single day in which you've appeared anything less than spectacular. Hardly a few girls have had me mesmerized at the mere sight of them and you are one amongst it. You also make it highly impossible to look way. It's not just I that feels this way. In fact, you were in the list of top 5 of almost every guy in the class and the points that you've scored have put you far out of reach of every other girl. No one could even come close to you, no one could touch you. Which makes it rather easy for me to say this to you, Monisha. You are, you were and you will always be (remembered as) the most beautiful girl of the 2011 batch of ECE - R".

Queensland!

Sanjay:

I was livid first thing in the morning when I rang up Ramesh and found out that he was still asleep. I urged him to get a move on and get dressed up. We both had taken it upon ourselves to bring the 5 kilo Birthday cake to Queensland. We couldn't afford to mess it up.

Ever since I was a kid, the thought of going to Queensland or any amusement park for that matter, would give me a spring in my step, but oddly enough, that feeling was absent today. I began to wonder if the day was going to be any fun, if at all.

An hour and a half later, I phone called Ramesh yet again to find out that he still hadn't set off. I was growing more and more restless.

He rang me up at about half past eight to let me know that he was finally on his way. I fetched my scooter to go pick him up as he awaited me at a bus-stop. It didn't take me long to catch sight of him. The sheen of his fully shaven head was unmistakable. We both then set course to Guindy where the Cake shop is at. We were already behind schedule.

The cake was supposed to be delivered at nine, but it was delayed by an hour and a half. I kept cursing and swearing the whole time. But once the cake was with us, it was a mad dash to the amusement park. As we were on our way, our phones kept buzzing with one call after another, but we ignored them all. We both had our hands full.

Nanda:

I went to bed early the previous night, not wanting to oversleep on the all-important day. The moment I woke up, my feet tingled with excitement. I hurriedly check the time, but it was only two in the morning. I was too fidgety to go back to sleep, so I took a walk around my house trying to wear down my excitement. I was finally able to fall asleep again at half past two.

I sprang to consciousness again at five and in the next forty five minutes, I was all packed up and ready for the trip. I rang up Arun, Varadha and Kishore, but no one picked up.

I whiled away the next half an hour just sitting around the house until there was a honk at the front gate. It was Varadha. I waved to him, but still he kept honking. I shouted out to him, yet he kept honking. Turns out he just mistook his horn for a brake (How does that even happen?).

We reached college at six forty and the girls were sharp on time, greeting us at six fifty. We sent them on their way to the bus-stop and Varadha and I awaited the boys. The wait lasted for half an hour and then they were with us, at last. And just as we were about to set off, Dappa realized that he'd misplaced his cell phone. He went in search of it and returned almost an hour later. I was mighty pissed.

At half past eight, we all boarded the bus together and in an hour we were at Poonamalle. Suresh suggested a place for us to eat our breakfast together but then he ditched us ( us: the girls, Ragavendhar and I) and went ahead with the other hostellers to eat at a different hotel (Not that I don't appreciate being left behind with the ladies). We ordered plenty of food and ate until we had our fill. The bill gave me a mini heart attack. It was at Rs. 1650, but it didn't seem all that bad once we decided to split it amongst us.

It was only a short ride to Queensland from where we were already at. Once we'd reached there and obtained our entry tickets, the only thing we had left to do was wait for the cake to arrive.

Sanjay:

The scooter ride took us half an hour, but Ramesh and I were at Queensland, at last. We held the cake high above our heads and pushed our way through the massive hoard that blocked the entrance. By this time, Nanda, Suhail and Ragavendhar had joined us. Once we were through, we opened up the box and I saw the cake for the first time. It was a massive black forest and etched on it was birthday wishes for Kid, BP, Bhai, Tyre, Dappa, Asmitha, Ishwarya, Hemaladevi and Yuvashree. We carried the cake to a small podium and each of the nine Birthday babies were given a plastic knife. The Birthday song commenced and within the next five minutes, the cake was all gone, devoured.

The presents we'd bought for Vishal, Varadha and Arun were distributed and I went with the Hostelers as they got dressed into something more casual.

Our day at Queensland had begun.

The first ride we headed to was the Octopus. As it was a weekend, there was a large crowd, as was expected, in front of every ride. I chickened out, since the last time I took the ride I nearly puked my guts off. The others were brave, however. Kid and I watched from the side rails, as most of my classmates took on the ride in pairs. Once the swirling began, a shrill cry of excitement filled the air. As I scanned the scene, my gaze locked on to Lokesh as his face turned purple and his head dropped to a side. I was certain that he was going to thrown up (but he didn't). Arivu took on the ride all alone and yet was thoroughly enjoying himself. I was disappointed when the ride ended and nobody puked.

It was only Vishal, Suhail, Ragavendhar and I that headed to the next spaceship ride. The others skipped forward to Alphen Blitz. Ragavendhar was petrified of the ride and our words only served to worsen his condition.

"Intha ride la nee setha naanga porupilla".

I paired up with Vishal and when our spaceship was up and running, he gave me zero control over it. He held the lever back and it stayed that way for the rest of the ride. He is an even bigger scaredy cat than I am. I was at least free to steer the ship as I desired and so I turned it around to face Suhail and Ragavendhar, who were right behind us. I gave out a good laugh when I saw Suhail attempting his best to make Ragav sick to his stomach.

We four then moved to Alphen Blitz and joined our classmates who were lined-up in front of it. It was here that I noticed Prashanti walking like the dead. The Octopus had taken its toll on her. I was glad.

Ragavendhar sat beside me on this ride and Toufeeq and Akash were to my front. Ragav was worried. I figured that'd be his case for the rest of the day. Toufeeq grabbed his Smartphone and started recording us. The coaster started to roll and it was deceptively fast. Ragav held his head down as the train sped below and around it's loopy metal tracks. It then came to a halt at an Eighty degree angle and Ragav leaned his weight onto me. I hardly felt him. I, however, gave out a silent prayer to the pity soul that got paired up with Lokesh ( It was Nanda!). Toufeeq was slipping out of his seat a bit, but he had a firm hold over his cell phone and the video kept recording. Everyone was glad when the pause ended.

Next up was The Ship. I've ridden on it twice before and at both times it turned my stomach inside out. But I was coaxed into riding it again. This time however, I was fairly confident that I'd make it through. As we were in the queue, Vishal kept taking pictures of himself with his present- a Cricket bat, signed with all our names. Varadha and Arun had gotten Sunglasses.

Vishal hadn't the nerve to ride the ship, so he agreed to do the video recording. We planned the ride in such a way that it was only us occupying the whole boat. Lokesh was now at my side. The ride began and our screeches filled the air again. To my surprise, I began enjoying it. Once the boat reached full swing, Lokesh squealed "Machan, ennala mudila da". He was purple again. I urged him to shout, but that didn't seem to work.

Once the ride was done, we hurried to have a drink of Pepsi to calm our guts. We then headed to the Dashing cars. I was with Loki again and he agreed to let me drive. Nanda went with Vishal and Ramesh with Suhail. Once we were on, it was total chaos. I steered my car as far away from the others as possible and then drove in to ram everyone. I had my eyes set mainly on Vishal and Nanda. We had a good couple of collisions with them. It was good fun.

After Dashing car, it was time for the dreaded Centrox. I don't know what had gotten in to me, for I decided to ride it. Never have I ever ridden it before. And as I expected, I threw up as soon as the ride ended. We were given free Pepsi as part of the ride, which was good and also, getting too see the automatic seat belts struggling to lock into place against Lokesh's massive tummy was hilarious.

Ragavendhar:

I waited in line for the Roller coaster alongside everyone else. I looked at it from a distance going up and down and sideways along it rails and as I did, my intestines knot up in the pit of my stomach. I was going to have Varadha Bhai for company, which was not bad. Once we were on it, the Roller coaster picked up pace, moving upwards to a height that brought the horizon within my sight. The knot in my stomach tightened. Varadha started muttering a countdown from three and before he could hit zero, the raft plummeted. For a moment there, I didn't feel the seat that I was on. The raft rose up to height again, forcing me against the back as it went, and the thrill ensued as we were taken through many other steep dips and crazy turns. There were also a lot of unexpected halts that almost jerked me out of my seat. I've never ever felt so alive, not even when journeying on an aircraft. It was my first ever ride in a roller coaster and it felt exhilarating. When the ride ended, I felt different. I was scared before, but now I was teeming with confidence. It truly was a ride of a lifetime.

Sanjay:

I spent my time throwing up as the others went on to the roller coaster. Riding it was going to be the most daring act that Ragavendhar was ever to commit. But astonishingly, he held up quite well. 

We then waited for the others to group up before we headed for lunch. I saw Sivaranjani lying on someone's lap. It turned out that she was nauseous (or maybe she just secretly missed Srini). Being an expert on nausea myself, I gave her a few tips to overcome it.

Lunch was ordinary. We'd already drained our wallets on soft drinks and so we hardly had anything left to buy food with. The hostelers were at an even dire situation. In came Varadha to the rescue. He bought lunch for all the starving hostelers. He is now revered as a God!

Once lunch was dealt with, it was finally time for water amusements. We hurried to the Himalayan water ride, but it was way too crowded. We decided to head to the swimming pool instead. Lokesh and Varadha decided to stay behind. It was their loss, because our time at the swimming pool turned out to be spectacular.

Varadha:

The Himalayan water ride is a main attraction of Queensland and I was eager to try it. There was this all too predictable crowd in front of it and it was hardly thinning. A lot of my classmates got disheartened and decided to leave to the swimming pool. It was only Lokesh and I ( amongst the boys) that decided to stay behind.

We were getting bored soon, so we headed to look for company. We found Arun and Satish standing in queue for the Go-kart. Lokesh went on to join them, but I was uninterested. As a result, I was left to guard their bags. After having a good time, they came back to me. We agreed to head to the swimming pool to join the other boys, but by then there were also a few girls with us and they wanted to check out the Himalayan water ride. We came to decision and agreed to head to where the girls wanted. Luckily for us, the crowd had thinned and we made it to the front soon. There were a few fourth graders ahead of us, but since they had no teacher to accompany them, we were called forward.

Six of us were made to sit on an over sized inflatable and we were pushed into a series of caves that sprinkled cool water on us. The ride bumped against the rocks and curves, and we were yanked forward and back. The swimming pool soon came into sight and I could see the boys having fun. I did a shout out to Nanda, but then realized he couldn't see us even if he wanted to. The ride was over before we knew it. It wasn't all that thrilling but it sure was fun. Once we were done, we went in search for our buddies at the pool

Sanjay:

We decided to enter the pool through the slides, so Suhail and I procured a couple of swim mats and hurried to the top of it. The fast paced descent and then the cool dip into the water felt refreshing. We then climbed a floor higher to find Nanda and Grooming standing in line for an even bigger slide. The line was long and so was our wait. We gradually moved closer, but the closer we got, the lamer the ride appeared. I started regretting coming up there. Our turn finally arrived and Suhail and I mounted the inflatable (Nanda and Ragav had gone ahead). We were pushed into a curvy tube and the first words that both of us yelled out were, "Mavane! semmaya irke!".

Once we reached the bottom, we unmounted and headed for the far side of the pool where all our friends were gathered. They had made balls out of t-shirts and were hurling it at each other. It had been Suresh's idea. I joined them and it was the greatest fun I'd had in a long time. At first, we were just hurling the ball around at random but later we formed teams. One team went shirtless and I was one amongst it, so were Ramesh, Madhu, Venkat, Suresh, Gnana, Akash, Dinesh and Arivu. The opposition had Vishal, Nanda, Suhail, Kishore, Karthi, Naveen, Gautham and Ragavendhar. A fierce battle ensued and there was no mercy. There was an intense rivalry going on between Gnana and Naveen and also between Gautham and Madhu. Our team was clearly at a disadvantage being shirtless. The hits we took burnt a lot more. But no one was targeted more frequently than Ramesh. His bald head just begged to be hit. Kid and Gnana started going at each other like wild boars. The battle was so intense that Gnana ended up kicking Vishal in the nut sack! (accidentally!). A lot of other hostellers were targeting Kid too. There was this one moment when I and Ramesh cornered Vishal from the opposition. Ramesh was sizing him up and I pleaded with him to pass me the ball. But he was adamant, he wanted to do it himself. He took aim at Vishal but before he could shoot, the second ball that was in play came crashing into the side of his head like a wet blob of freshly dumped cow dung. Vishal and I broke into a laugh that took us a good five minutes to subdue. The laughing nearly choked us. Ramesh was so disoriented by the throw that he forgot all about Vishal. 

The battle continued on and no one seemed to grow tired. Arivu stood himself at the centre of the whole thing hoping to get a hold of the ball a lot more, but all he ended up with was more bruises. Gnana packed so much force into each of his throws that the look of it scared me. Instead of ducking or dodging, Akash just started catching everything that was thrown at him, he was pretty good at it too. When threatened, all Dinesh did was to dive under water and hold his breath for half a minute by which time his attacker would lose interest in him.

After the game, we stood under the pool's waterfall for a while. I body slammed Ramesh into the water a few times as I was requested. We then tried to built a human pyramid, but we were shunned by the life guards and so we proceeded to form a tight circle with our arms over each other's shoulders and we started yelling in unison as we spun. We may all have had our differences, but at that very moment, we felt as one, we felt inseparable. There was this brief moment when I remembered that all of this would be over in a couple of months. The mere thought of it hurt so much.

It was then time to leave the pool and we had to drag our heavy feet out of it. It was depressing. We got dried and dressed, had tea and snacks that Suhail brought us and then started our slow walk back to the entrance. The sky had grown dark. Suhail got an instant crush on some girl he saw at the pool side and kept nagging us all about how divine she looked.

We decided to take a group Photograph to serve as a reminder of the wonderful day we'd had.
As the day drew to a close, everyone felt a bit heavier, weighed down by emotions. It was a marvelous day, we all had a spectacular time, but in the end all of it was just going to be something that we will all dearly miss, something that we can never have again.

It was one of the best days of my life.