Anyone who is used to taking a vehicle to cover the shortest of distances will find the HCU campus quite a challenge. I was told to expect a massive campus in the middle of nowhere, but nothing had prepared me for 3,500 acres of blazing hot scrub jungle, over 30 kms away from familiar territory. My most vivid memories of campus are that of long walks to get to any place- the library, the hostel, the shopping complex, the ATM, the auditorium, the post office.
A famous joke on campus goes something like this: a fresher asks his senior as to how he should get to the main gate to exit the campus. The senior gives him a sad smile and says that he's been looking for the same gate for the last 10 years.:) I know in my head that it's not an original story but I want to believe that the joke originated on the campus I grew to love. Trust me, after two years of trying to deal with long walks in the hot sun, idealistic ideas too naive to survive reality, and making do with 'imported' soaps and shampoos at the lone marwari shop, you get quite comfortable in this odd setup. 'Reality' in the big bad world, 30 kms away, begins to look rather illusory. The rather romantic, sleepy set up takes over like a drug. For some the drug sustained, others like me snapped out of it a little too early perhaps, finding our way to the main gate.
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yes the drugged effect of HCU life took over all of us. Good to see that you still retain it :-) Yes HCU is unreal, as unreal as the world outside where a disturbing cacophony prevails with people trying to prove that their respective views of life are all real. In the decentred universe, nothing is REAL and likewise, nothing is UNREAL. So the big bad world is as unreal as our 2 years on campus. But we still loved it. Real or Unreal whatever it was. maybe it was a happy culmination of all of our respective ideas of reality.
ReplyDeleteha ha that's a dose of the GOGS in room numbers 40 and 41 all over again. I miss being in class. keep the blog rolling.
jeez, you English lit. students are slow. how will you "find" inspiration to write if you cant find the main gate to your campus?
ReplyDeletejokes apart, you seemed to have had it good. some of the colleges I see are right in the middle of the city.....
Finding your way to the main gate doesnt mean you exist out of it..
ReplyDeletethis blog is proof!
keep it rolling..as the great gogs says!
HCU is ..n always will be my special place..n memories of that place will fill me with such warmth..i dont think anyother place has been so dear to me!..its also because i foubd great friends there..
thanks to you all!
> he's been looking for the same gate for the
ReplyDelete> last 10 years
back in the 1980s i thought the men's hostel was equally labyrinthine. (it's now ladies hostel 1, isn't it - 17°27'7.94"N 78°20'7.40"E for the google-earth/google-maps enabled.)
i distinctly remember in the mid-80s running into a haggard young man in one of the numerous corridors in that hostel, who begged me to show him the way out.
but he may have been a philosophy department student.... :-)