A Few Miles Down Memory Lane

I haven’t posted in a while. I was a li’l too busy at work. And then, I got some time. But I didn’t know what to post about. So I’ve been going through many more blogs on the net. A lot of them had shared their memories and experiences with the netizens and reading them took me down my own memory lane, by a few miles at least. And I wondered. Did I have fun? Did I miss a lot in life? People talk about their college lives with so much excitement, that sometimes I feel bad that I never got to live that life.

Yup! I never experienced the “college-life” as we all know it. ‘Cause after the school days, I ended up in an institute where the word “fun” (as you and I know it) topped the DO-NOT list. When most of my old friends were enjoying the newfound fun in college life, I spent 3 years getting up at 5:30 in the morning and rushing to catch the bus at 6:40am, so that I reach my college by 7:30am, and change into the blue working dress and be in the “section” (oh, we didn’t have classrooms ‘cause we were “precision engineers” in the making, and so it was purely practical…surrounded by dozens of machineries and scores of tools and tones of raw and finished materials!) by 7:48am. It was followed by a hectic day, slogging our asses off, literally. The lessons weren’t in books and it was never something to be done sitting down comfortably. It was really physical and tiring. Hard labor, you could say. The day ended at 5:38pm (Yeah! That’s no exaggeration. Our working hours used to be from 7:48am-5:38pm), and then it’s time to run to the rest room and freshen up and rush to catch the next bus home. Reaching home at 7:30pm, tired and sleepy but no choice, it’s time to take a shower, have something to eat and sit with the assignments. Finish it off by 1am, taking enough care to do it right and neat, ‘cause any crap work, we would end up with a complete re-do command, and o’course that’s on top of the next days load of assignments.

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So you see, college life for me was different. The fun for us there was the tiring works. We used to crib a lot those days, but believe me, after the graduation, we had trouble sitting idle. All of us were looking for jobs that would keep us busy the whole day. But that doesn’t mean we were just working and did nothing else in the college. We had our yearly Xmas celebrations, which used to be the biggest show in that part of the world; we had village camps, tours, cultural nights, sports and games. We had our 45 days of “implant training” when we were sent to a production unit of our college, some 500KM away. And the guy in charge of us was younger to us and so we had our share of fun, which was in fact a huge share. Umm, I think we did have it after all, in the right dosage maybe.

After the third year, we were sent to different companies to work or rather get our “industrial training”. I ended up in a new-to-me city in another state. Coimbatore. The company I got into was sad. It was a horrible place to be. We (that’s two of us) used to do our work from 8:30am to 5pm, but that was a lot for us though (compared to our college that is) ‘cause of the nature of the work. But luckily we were our own bosses there, and in fact boss to a few others too. But life used to be boring, our only entertainment used to be a movie every weekend, or going and staying with our friends who were in the other parts of the same city. Budget was limited, which explains why life was boring, I guess. We had to fight with our manager every month to get our pay, which, after a quick lesson in “how to swear in English”, he used to give us in installments, with a smile. With that li’l cash we used to have our li’l share of fun.

The company was a component supplier for many engineering biggies and the production department used to be “up and running” through the day and night. Our department was to design and manufacture new tools and moulds and also to make sure the production runs smooth. So, more often than not, we used to get “emergency calls” from the production department in the middle of the nights. This became too much to take and we had to do something about it. And, we did too. We used to lock the door from outside and get back in through the back door… and the “emergency calls” used to fall on deaf years. We used to wake up, irritated, but then the knocking stops when they see the door is “locked” and we go back to sleep with a naughty smile. We used to go out every evening just to kill time and walk around and get back to the room after dinner. Sometime we went for late night movies and got back by 2 or 3AM, walking some 5-6KM across the city. Our gates used to be locked and the watchman used to be on his rounds with a Great Dane assisting him. We used to wait for them to go round the corner before jumping the huge wall and sneaking into out room. The watchman seeing us was ok with us, and we never worried about the local police station which was just a stones throw away either. But the dog! Man, he was huge!! The scariest creature I’ve ever confronted.

Then one fine day…communal riots broke out. Bomb blasts killed many later on. We were there through it all. But it never affected our lives in any other way than just multiplying our boredom. The cinemas were closed. No movies for many weeks. Our only entertainment was shut down. Finally, a couple of weeks later, one cinema opened up and was showing Air Force One, the dumb movie starring Harrison Ford. But the public were not ready to go enjoy their lives after the serial blasts, and to add to their scare was a van loaded with explosives which was still ticking. The explosive experts were trying to defuse it. Well, that was in another part of the city. So we went for the movie. I still remember how we entered the hall and saw ourselves being a part of just a handful of the “daring” ones. We watched the movie expecting a bomb to go off under our seat anytime! We actually risked our lives for a dumb movie that showed the heroic tactics of an American President!! Was it worth it? I don’t know. But it was fun.

I had some good habits back then too. Because our fun was limited, we had more time to ourselves in that one year. So I spent the time reading a lot of magazines, novels, classics and even tech manuals. I even read a book that taught me how to fly a helicopter! I just had to get my hands on a machine to try it practically. Oh well, ok, but I could have tried it at least. And then I used to write a lot of letters. I was in touch with a lot of my old friends that way. I also kept a diary, which I used to fill in everyday…in detail. Apart from all that, I learned how to manage my budget. With the measly amount I got every month (trainees, u see), I used to buy a music cassette and a big book to read every month, buy every magazine I need, travel home once a month, watch at least one movie every week and still have enough for the daily chores.

We hated the life back then, and used to count the days, waiting for the training period to get over. However today, so many years later, when I look back, it makes me smile! And I have to admit that it never occurred to me back then that our sufferings would be pleasant memories someday!!

Life. It’s funny sometimes.