Slice of Life - Reunion with college mates

Slice of Life – Reunion with college mates

Coimbatore Institute of Technology (CIT) is one of the well-known engineering colleges in Coimbatore, founded in 1946 (a 70 year old institution in 2016). Apart from engineering disciplines, it had a B.Sc (Applied Sciences) course which had majors in Math, Physics and Chemistry with Basic engineering grounding. I was part of the 1984-87 batch with 27 students in the class (22 boys and 5 girls). I was a hostler alongwith 6 hostel mates in the batch. I am in touch with 16 of them, and in the process of finding the whereabouts of the remaining friends.   

Our friends today have made it big in their academics and career and settled down across India and in various countries across the globe.

One of my classmates, now residing in LA, USA, came for a holiday to Coimbatore in Dec’15. He wished to have a get together with our classmates and to visit our college after 28 years and meet our professors. 

I was the organizer of the get together by default. I continue to have contacts with many of my college mates and school mates. I like to maintain such contact, as I always felt that the friendship which originated at school or college remains pure with no expectations from each other.

The reunion was planned in Coimbatore on 19^th and 20^th of December 2015. 8 college mates were able to make it for this reunion. Out of the 4 college mates settled in Chennai, only one made it. Chennai was devastated by heavy rains and unprecedented floods, the heaviest in 100 years and turned Chennai into huge water mass. Nature is always powerful and when we play with nature, the resultant destruction of life and property becomes so overwhelming. Mankind has to learn from such experiences.

One of the college mates, Sripriya, based in Coimbatore, continues to maintain contact with the college and with our teachers. She took the responsibility of contacting and requesting our professors to visit the college for our get together.

Three of our mates, went to buy gifts to be given to our professors. During our shopping, Sripriya mentioned about Tushar, another of our classmates who is based in Coimbatore and that she had met him four years ago. We wanted to contact him and ask him to make it to the get together. Sripriya had the contacts.

When she called the mobile number of Tushar, there was no response.

Then she called the land line, and after many rings, there was a reply – “Who is speaking?”

“Sir, my name is Sripriya. Can I speak to Tushar?”

“You cannot speak to Tushar” was the reply at the other end.

“Sir, I am Tushar’s classmate at CIT in B.Sc (App.Sc). Few of our classmates are planning for a get together today and wanted to invite Tushar to attend the get together.”

“You cannot meet or speak to Tushar. He passed away couple of years back” came the reply.

Sripriya was shocked and unable to know how to react !!

“Sir, Sorry to know about it. I will give the phone to my friend”

Sripriya conveyed the sad and shocking news to us standing beside her. I felt sad and just wondered how life can be so cruel and uncertain.

“Sir, this is Senthil, classmate of Tushar. Can you please tell me what happened?”

“Senthil, I am Tushar’s father. He had a massive heart attack and passed away couple of years ago”.

All three of us were dumb struck with shock and there was absolute silence. We all had various thoughts going through our minds and not one was able to proceed with any conversation.

The silence was broken by the sales guy in the shop and asking us what gift we would like to see and our budget. We came back to reality and the present, not knowing what to talk but all of us had thoughts about Tushar.

We bought the gifts and planned to be in the College in the evening.

When we entered the College campus, my first thoughts was that the basic campus structure or the atmosphere had not changed in these 28 years. Only few new buildings had come up.

The security guys came to us at the car park area and enquired about us. We informed we were alumni of the college and planned a get together with our Professors who had taught us 28 years ago.

The watchman was in a flow mentioning about the strict controls which exist today and each student entering the campus after 9.00 p.m was questioned on the reasons for such delay…. I recollected the number of night shows we had gone those days and no one was there to question us.

The watchman continued, “Those days were golden days for students. But today, due to various security reasons and that the students attitude towards life has changed, we have to be strict about student’s movement and hence such restriction on timings”. 

Student life will be bland without freedom. 

We entered the main entrance, which was the same as before, in full grandeur, the high ceiling and a large staircase leading to first floor from both the sides, as seen in palaces and big bungalows in movies.

We met seven of our professors, who were kind to accept our invite and made it to the college to meet us. My first impression was on how age catches up with everyone. Professors who were young and energetic in their middle age were looking aged, with shrinking skin and thin frames, but their eyes still glowed with radiance.

My guess was that all of them would be now in their mid-70’s, long retired and completed all their family responsibilities. They were still associated with the college in some capacity or other, maybe all teachers are that way, continue to teach till their end of life.

We visited few of the labs, in which we had conducted experiments and done our examinations those days. The labs and the classrooms were fresh in memory, even after almost three decades.

We settled down in one of the classroom, pulled chairs together and started a very memorable and animated conversation with our professors. It was a great feeling and re-living those college days, each of us, narrating many anecdotes and also listening to the professors who have seen us raw and young and were happy to know that each of us had gone a long way, successful in our professional careers.

“We have had good teachers, which helped us in studying well and also progressing in our career”, I commented, to which the erstwhile Mathematics HOD responded, “You are right to some extent. But the difference is that students during your times were all from a normal background, wanted to study well, respected your teachers and worked diligently. But today, the students are very demanding by nature and work around to get their marks by any means. Respect to teachers has consistently reduced over the years”.

I was a bit perplexed by these comments. But such experienced teachers who have taught for more than four decades would be right in their analysis.

I walked around the campus with my friends, discussing the comments. It was strange to think about life going in a circle, ‘as students, we were strong but with a thin frame and the professors, in their middle age, were stout and now the same professors were lean in structure, and all of us had put on weight’. Life is indeed a circle !!

After we said good bye to our professors, and profusely thanked them for making it to the college to meet all of us, our discussions went back to the shocking news about Tushar and his sudden demise. Each of us had some incident or joke to remember with Tushar. He was very silent in the class and lived in his own world. But was always a team man, accompanying friends to the canteen and also to the hostel with other friends.

Sripriya recounted her meeting with Tushar in a restaurant, where he first acted as if he did not recognize her, but then spoke very briefly.

She continued, “How life is so uncertain? Few years back I had met him and now he is gone. In such uncertain times, why don’t we have a get-together once a year to know our well-being or atleast have a video conference call/ skype call to just say hello to each other and enquiring that all is well”.

A good suggestion, which all of us felt that we will do it positively.

-       Venkatesh