I couldn't express this experience in rhyme as it has taken too many breaks, but I have tried to put in best way with this text. My adventures of "H-503 Madhuram Greens" ;) :) Here it goes : -
It was
the first time when I had to leave my home and when you have such loving joint
family where you are the first person to ever go out of the town for job, then
it becomes quite difficult to say bye. My mom said see off to me at station
with tears in her eyes as if she was sending her only daughter to new home after marriage. However, the New Year night passed away in train
and in chilly weather I reached the destination Madhuram Greens, Gandhinagar
which was the reporting location for TCS trainees to join ILP on 2nd January. The biggest and very cherishing coincidence
was that I was getting my first job of life on my birthday :) :). In order to
have funny and easy life at that new place, we friends had already decided that
we will stay in same flats. Initially there weren’t enough empty flats so we
were give place temporarily in that part of building where both boys and girls
had flats, L block. Our excitement of living with girls in same building didn’t
last much and with some sweet memories we were shifted to H block of the building,
flat no. 503 and there, I actually started my hostel life.
Most of
my time was consumed in talking to my family, they all inferred if I was
feeling good or not, if I missed them too much but with such bunch of friends I
found that place no different from home, except of the insipid food. Our
building was actually in a village Sargasan and market was away from it, there
were only few shops which had limited products, that’s why we used to purchase
stuff, have lunch/dinner in Infocity area. We were 8 boys from our Computer
Science B batch of college in H block living in two flats, but we placed in
different LGs (learning groups) so except of few, all had separate study
batches and therefore all used to share their experience of classes etc coming
to each other’s flats. How much fun we had, can be imagined with the fact that
once we celebrated a small Diwali in our flat (Me, Prasun, Prasoon, Rahul,
Saurabh, Santosh, Satish and Vipin) :P. When we realized that smoke of our
sparklers was going out and sound of lift indicating that guard might be coming
up, immediately everyone threw the lights out and rushed to the beds to sleep,
but afterwards we found that it was not the guard but just another guy of some
other flat :P LOL. The masti kept on going with similar small incidents but the
real Panchayat of H -503 actually started when groups decided to plan for
outings.
Diu was
an ideal destination to spend weekend and we were a mixed group of 12 people
from different classes going with some common friends. Vital decisions of how
to go, where to stay, and how much time should be given to what activity were
always taken with rigorous discussion :P. But what to express in words, the
trip went so great that it brought all the travelers really close. Aditya(CR of
my class ;) ) & Amrut (class mate of both Prasun, Prasoon) became the
regular visitors after this trip to flat (yes it was indeed a flat in that hostel). Daily news of class, credits &
debits pending on the Diu trip, photographs etc made a pile of debatable
topics. After completion of our shifts we used to have dinner together at one
of the Bhojanalayas in Infocity Market and then used to come in auto rickshaw
singing songs so loud that the horn of vehicle seemed useless. Then after changing
into comfortable nightwear everyone used to assemble and start with some new
topic. Aditya and Amrut’s visits were like fixture of long running tournament.
They used to say:
“Aisa
lagta hai jaise yahan aaye bina to neend hi nahi aayegi”
And in course of days same was our case, it felt incomplete without that one
last visit by them.
Mornings,
evenings all had friendly gossips. Rahul had a weird way of watching movies by
keeping laptop on his chest in a sleep position and then his laugh which was nothing
less than convulsions made everyone look into his room leaving any work which
they were doing.
Talks,
trips, tests all were part of this course of ILP and we all shared it together.
Next trip to Mt. Abu & Mehsana also resulted very well but the people weren’t
the same. Few left and few including our old known ones (Shashank, Sourav) came
in. And after any trip out of station or in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar itself we used to have a separate session of doing "Hisaab" almost every time LOL :P. Funny ways of handling accounts where one's debt was to be paid by other guy because the former one is already in debt with the latter :P LOL. Although we all had become professionals after coming in job but weren't wealthy enough to spend more than limit. It might not look that good but doing that all paper work was itself an enjoyable task ;). For any new event which happened it was decided that it's new Masala Version will be discussed tonight in 503 saying "Ye mudda aaj raat 503 mein uthaya jaayega"
(Especially my decision of skipping the 2nd Diu trip to purchase Saree for my mother)
Counting from Rahul's way of picking up 3 rotis at the same time :P to my comment over pinkish shirt which at last backfired on me leading to my nickname, every story was very funny. Watching movies together on Prasun's PC and dancing on loud volume of 4 speakers will always be remembered. (Especially Rahul's dance :P). And that incident where we had an unwanted meeting with Police late night was again too thrilling, not good but still thrilling. I experienced that when some people away from home get together in this sort of environment then there bonding between them gets stronger. Because they do not have anyone else to talk to, share gossips and spend time. No relatives, just the new fellow mates of their professional life which has started. ILP truly resulted as paid holidays by TCS where we shared some great moments.
As time has passed and everyone has moved to different locations even the 18 months old memories cause nostalgia. The value of happy moments keep on increasing as they get old. Ahmedabad to Mumbai and now Mumbai to Surathkal things have changed a lot but what remains same is the desire to somehow bring back those days which we lived in that locality of Gandhinagar.
PS : This post has taken immensely long time to come, I am sorry to all those who waited for long time. It is not a poem like other posts and I know I might not have met the expectations, for any segment which I have missed or any event do mention that in comment and I think in a positive way that maybe now we will plan for a Goa trip even bigger than that of Diu ;) Pardon the length as u had to read a lot :P
