The Place Where I Belong...

Far away from the maddening city crowd, atop the pretty hills in Lavale, sits the Mecca of media studies, our college- Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication (SIMC). The first look at the long winding mountain roads that lead you to the picture perfect campus, will take your breath away.

"Student ya Visitor?”, the guard will ask you at the toll post at the college entry. Once you are inside the campus take a deep breath (No wait! Given the recent swine flu attack in Pune, taking a long deep breath does not seem like a good idea anymore I guess. In any case you would see people wearing face masks here and there, which will scare the shit out of you, atleast it does to me.) and look around. The first reaction is bound to be “Wow” and you would gape for two minutes flat. Ok hang on hang on! As a writer I’m not supposed to generalize, but let’s just ‘assume’ that most people would react in the same manner. Pardon me for my audacity and overconfidence.

You will be greeted by the huge acad block with the name “Symbiosis International University” shining on top. The innumerable flight of stairs that leads one inside the academic campus will amaze and stun you. But students like me who are ALWAYS late for their first lecture, sure HATE those stairs!

I somehow manage to run managing my ID Card, backpack, laptop and dupatta- all at the same time, and a half-eaten sandwich in hand (Ya, I don’t even get the time sit in the mess and finish my breakfast most days *sigh* ). Covering those stairs then seems like an Herculean task. 

The campus consists of three premier colleges- SIMC, SIBM and SITM, but again am biased towards my Alma Mater so I would stick to umm.. SIMC only. Once you enter our college you will have many places to visit- AV studio, Comp lab, The “well equipped” classrooms (err..), Photo Lab, Editing Studio, Production Room, the Auditorium, Convention Centre, so on and so forth.

OK now quickly come out of the college because you won’t be able to use your cellular phone or grab a bite inside the acad block(ya ya you heard me right. We DO live in a Jail.) Once out of jail (college, whatever..), head straight for the Canteen. Now that is a fun place to be in, ideal place to analyze Consumer Behavior (Damn! Being a Commerce [read: Marketing] student DOES make you act like a nerd sometimes.)

You will always find a long que near the cash counter with people waiting eagerly for ther coupons and elbowing each other to go first.

“Kya Bhaiya chhutta nahi hai.”

“Hey can you just take an oatmeal/vada pav/ maggi for me? I’m paying you later!”

“Damn am friggin hungry. Hurry up Dude.”

-are the common statements you would get to hear while standing in the que impatiently. Once you get the precious coupon in your hand (more like a winning lottery ticket being waved proudly), you give it to the counter to get your desired product (Damn! I mean FOOD. Hard being a marketing student I tell you. Your vision gets extremely restricted.)

As you tap the food counter impatiently doing “Tch- Tch”, you will get to see couples all over each other feeding each other maggi and cold drink. In this scenario what I resort to is shout aloud “Laukkad! Laukkad!” every two minutes (“Laukkad” meaning “Fast” is one of the few Mararthi words that I have picked up, and there is a general (mis)conception that if you ask for the food in Marathi, you will get it a tad bit faster!). Well, no comments there...

Now, with the food in your hand you march happily hunting for a table. The best pick in the canteen definitely would be ‘Chicken Fried Rice’ and ‘Chicken Noodles’. Priced at an affordable rate of 50 bucks per bowl it can easily feed two people and still some amount would be left. Most afternoons, poor souls like us who are deprived of the pleasure of gorging on non-vegetarian delicacies in the mess, ditch the mess food and settle for a bowl of chicken fried rice and a pepsi can instead. *Burp*

Canteen is the best place to relax between classes, catch up with the latest gossips, and if a certain A is seen with a certain B in all the breaks after classes, immediately jump onto the conclusion that they are going around! And of course canteen is the best place to go and grab a bite when you have missed/skipped/ bunked/ forgot to have your breakfast/lunch. One of my personal favourites in the canteen is the chicken roll. It is yum with lots of cheese and mayonnaise on top, priced at Rs 25 and filling. It is not being available for the last few days though, don’t know why, but I WANT IT BACK! Hmph. And how can I forget my all time favourite MAGGI MAGGI MAGGI *baas do minute* (in case of our canteen it’s never ‘ baas do minute’ though. Minimum of fifteen minutes would have to be spent before you get the steaming bowl in your hand.) But EAST OR WEST MAGGI IS THE BEST. Slurp! Slurp!

By now it is already evening (in Pune, evening is anyway till 8pm) and you feel like taking a walk and then relax a bit. Walk straight towards the amphitheatre- my favourite place in the campus. Wind will sweep you off your feet (literally), breathtaking view of the mountains all around and the city below will make you happy and gay(!).

But one should generally visit the amphi at night, after dinner. Many days I just sit there at the topmost stair and keep staring at the half-lit city below. Awesome view, breeze and the very fact that you are away from the hustle-bustle of the students- will make you philosophical (and sad too, sometimes). I can just spend hours sitting there till the darwaan actually comes and says,

“ Madam abhi hostel janeka time ho gaya hai.”

If it is 11.30pm I quickly do a mental calculation and find out that I still have time to go to the ‘hotspot’ i,e our ‘Coffee Shop’ at the ‘Shopping Complex’, near the mess. The Shopping Complex remains abuzz with Symbians till late at night and the most popular hangouts ‘Delhi Chaat Shop’ and the ‘Coffee Shop’ remains jampacked! I sit cozily by the railings nursing a hot chocolate in hand and tighten the hood of my jacket. As I start sipping and observing the people around me, I realize that it is damn cold! I tighten my jacket further..

You will find all sorts of people here at this time. From people who sits at the first bench in class and shoots up their hand at every question the prof asks, to people who come running at the last minute and pants like a dog sitting at the last bench. You will also find couples coochie-cooing in the dark corners and nerds typing at lightening speed in their laptops. You will see some girls in spaghettis too and wonder what they are made up of. 

Realizing that my hot chocolate is over I get up and head either for the ‘Frog Pond’or the stairs beside the chaat shop to steal a few smokes. A few puffs and I feel better. I stretch my arms, yawn and look for my friends. I see them having hot soup and chocolate shake. As always, we start laughing like fools, do random chitchat and whine some more about our sad, boring lives. It’s not until the darwaans start whistling like maniacs (a signal that our freedom is over), that we start walking back towards the hostel. 

However, the day doesn’t end here. My roomie and I have a TOTALLY opposite biological cycle. As she crashes on to her bed max by 12 am-my night just begins! I do random stuff and somerimes really sit back and wonder was I a bat in my last birth or

not (or an owl maybe, whatever). Chatting, exchanging movies in IP messenger, listening to music, yapping over the phone, finishing last minute assignments, watching ‘FRIENDS’ or some other good movie, Orkut, Face Book, checking mails, replying to them, studying for next days test- the options are endless, and my Mac Book provides me all the content which manages to keep me well awake till wee hours of the morning. Lots of yawn and extreme lethargy finally makes me hit the bed in the morning.

As my alarm starts ringing at 8 am next day I conveniently switch it off, cursing under my breath. Out of the corner of my half-closed eyes I see my room mate awake and fresh, sipping tea and working on her laptop. I sigh and go to sleep again. At 9:15 am I spring up realizing college is at 10! As I get ready and run towards the college- the half eaten sandwich, the flight of stairs, the classes, the canteen, the coffee shop and everything else, the whole cycle of the day repeats again…