Bonded Forever!

“All good things must come to an end”…rightly said, isn’t it? It feels weird to think I won’t be going to college any more...the college to which I am greatly indebted. And I bluntly aver that I’m hating it! Can I have an extra one year with all my friends?...just one year more pleaseeee!!!! I wanted to thank my friends...and found this a perfect place to do so. As I sit to pen down my thoughts, a strange, deep feeling of nostalgia insinuates my heart along with a sudden fear of losing my friends, my so lovely, wonderful friends! I feel being carried away back to the memory lane, where I can picture all those loving memories and glorious, long hour spent in the company of my classmates, busmates, friends and teachers…wish I could chronicle each one of them, weave every incident on a paper, and you’d know why would I be missing my friends!
Phew!! How terribly fast the time flies! It seems it was but yesterday that I joined this college, started off the lectures with a new zeal and vigour, promising myself that I’d be the best engineer! (okay not the best…but a good one, yes!). And now it’s time to bid adieu. It is difficult to express how much am I going to miss my college life. I can’t give words to what I’d feel when someday I’ll think of these wonder years, with just one wish on my mind: Sarim, please invent a time travel machine so that I could travel all the way back to my college and my friends! ! ( I chose my friend ,Sarim, for this difficult job because I’m sure if there’s anybody who can do this…its him!) These four years have been the most hectic, yet surprisingly wonderful four years of life! Who wouldn’t want to have a life filled with fun, food and frolic! I’d always remember how we played silly pranks on each other, and how we perfected the art of persuading teachers not to take the tutorial classes and the lectures! When it came to mass bunks, no class could ever beat us! Proof?? We bunked our mid-semester lab exam and that too on the first year of our B.Tech career! And I clearly remember all my friends, including me, sitting proudly on the stairs of NANDGAON, with heads high, and dupattas fluttering in the air, exhibiting ourselve as winning warriors, after the bunk. What days! Another part of what I’ll be missing are the treats and the outings! We used to have all kinds of treats-the birthday treats, the achievement treats, and even those ‘faaltu..just yunhi” treats! It was fun!
It is not easy to bid adieu to a place and people you have been this close to during the most important years of your life. As I say goodbye, I thank everybody responsible to make me what I am today. I thank all my teachers, especially Saloni ma’am for her constant guidance, for she was the one I considered to be my elder sister, my all-time favourite! I’d never forget Maheshwari Sir for the way he used to smile, Geeta ma’am for her antaksharies and her so very good aim with chalks, Vandana ma’am for the perfect way she handled the class as a course co-ordinator and as a friend to all, Haseeb sir for his goodness, Amit sir for his graceful walk, neat dressing and his style of talking, Tiwari sir for his brains, Sandhya ma’am for the way she conducted the tutorial quizzes, Satyaveer sir for his so calm attitude and his way of speaking...i loved it! I’d always miss all those who taught me and even those who didn’t but are in a way responsible to mould me into a good engineer, and a good human.
I guess I need to grow my heart ten times its size to say bye to all my loving friends, the reasons behind all my fun, the people who made this journey so very easy and memorable. Thank you Sarim, my bestest buddy, for I dread even the thought of imagining college without you. A special thanks to a very special friend, Monish, for being by my side whenever I needed him. I never can express how thankful I am for his company, for cheering me up whenever I was low, and for being my pillar of support. A perfect example of a best friend, not only a friend to me but to all. If you ever are in need, just give him a call! Heyy, this rhymes!
And of course, thanks to all my fair ladies! Beena, Sonali, Neha Kardam, Nidhi, Neha Singh…thank you all for the wonderful friendship we shared. I love you girls! I really owe a lot to Beena, for I fail to figure out what would I have had done in the quizzes without her help! She was our news reporter, our message girl! Queries regarding any quiz date or syllabus, or anything on the college notice board, ask her! She even was responsible for the stationery department…providing us with pens almost every day! Sonali, another of my dearest friend, will always remain a darling to me! Slightly hot tempered, she is the one always ready to help, striking a perfect balance between maturity and childhood. Speaking of her, I picturise a fun loving girl, always ready for outings and adventures! I really admire her for her courage and her deterministic ways. I’ll remember her always as a true friend, someone I’d like to count upon whenever in need. Talking of Neha Kardam, she is a lady in herself, exuberating all forms of emotions...all in excess! Her face speaks! I never can forget the way her face moulds up every time to give the perfect set of expressions you can ever see! She is an epitome of an innocent girl trying her level best to grow up! If ever you are upset and you need to pour your heart without bothering you’d be thought of being wrong, go to her. Trust her, she wouldn’t leak out your secrets, and neither would think anything ill about you. Thank you Neha for being a wonderful listener. I also give a big thank you note to Nidhi, another of my pretty ladies! She has been a strong girl throughout, ummm… a little emotional, but yes, the one good thing about her is, she takes criticism from friends in a positive manner. I adore her for that! Songs from ‘Akon’ would always remind me of you, Nidhi. I also can never forget you Neha Singh, for I’ve never seen a girl as carefree as you! And your temper, Gosh!! I can bet not even the boiler’s temperature in those NTPC power generation plants could beat or even match yours when you are angry! Thank you girls for handling a difficult girl as me, and always pampering me like a baby! Thank you for forgiving and ignoring my mistakes. You girls rock!! I’ll miss you for I know I never can get such friends ever
I’ll mention another two of my friends, Ankita and Disha, who have been a pillar of support for me. I’ll remember Ankita as a perfect lady, with a caring heart, a girl who would readily give away her shawl to a needy, for old woman on a merciless, cold night, and brave the harsh and chilly winds herself. She describes the character of a determined, young girl, set out to find her niche in this world, or to make one if she needs so. She inspires me in a variety of ways to be strong for myself. I admire her spotless, clean ways, and her beautiful mind. You would fall in love with her handwriting if you happen to see it, each word out of her pen is so beautifully framed, so wonderfully spaced, that even a printer, I bet, would strive to achieve such perfection. She is one of your kind, a true friend and a true person. Disha, on the other hand, is opposite poles to Ankita if you compare their ways! She is a bomb blast!!Our bodyguard to be exact! A bombastic personality, she loves to be around people, to shout and enjoy! She pretty well knows how to have fun and how to twist things her way! In short, she is a cheerful, yet don’t-mess-with-me kind of a girl!! When she’s near you, you’d better put on the best of your behaviour, for if you try to annoy her, you must know how to pray well! She is a dear friend, always ready to fight for us! Now that all the three of us are going to work for TCS together, we’ve decided to give Disha an extra job, to fight for extra food in the mess, and to be our voice when we need to quarrel to have our way! I’ve also seen the softer side of her... adoring the lovely puppies on the college field or crying like a baby when upset.

Thank you Gaurav, for being a true friend when I needed one, for your comments during lectures that made the boring lectures endurable, and also for being my lab partner most of the time, Naveen, for your joyous ways, Apurva, for being a cheerful and lively guy,a good friend and a caring brother, Poorva, for countless reasons, Nitishree, for your co-operative and understanding ways, Munmun and Aditya, for your ‘once upon a time’ friendships, Mansi, knowing you is a reason enough to be thankful, and you are good in your own ways, Neha Prakash, for being a caring friend. Thanks to my entire class, for they were my family in college. Himanshu, I can never forget your hair, Rachit sir, your business magazines, Prateek sir, your writing, Anshul sir, your casual attitude, Haider, your ways, Avinash, I can never forget calling you Bapu, Alok, for the entertainment during quizzes, Aditya Singh, for being a good human, and thanks to all the others in my class. I extent a warm thank you to all those who have not been mentioned, but are my dear friends from other streams, Ankita, Disha, Achla, Sandeep, Asad, Rajput, Sumit, Rishabh, Shahnawaz and all others , and thank you all my juniors, Saba, Amir, Shivangi, Nidhi, and the whole gang, my busmates...Ritu, Kuldeep, Aishwarya, Gaurav, Ved, Ashwini,everybody! And a BIG thanks to the Grobotics Club and all its members, Sarim, Shashwat, Syed, Meera, and all the others for some way or the other, I enjoyed knowing about all the happenings of the club!
I’ll miss you all. But here’s telling that we are bonded forever…sealed with the glue of friendship! The four years that I’ve spent here, as a student and as a friend, no matter how distant they become in memory, shall forever be safe, forever authentic. I might not meet you all, but I have preserved the fond memories of you people in the attics, refrigerators, and pickle bottles of my mind and heart, the best place to keep them safe! As I end this note, the one line that lingers in my mind and I want to share with you is from Daphne Du Maurier ( from the book, ‘Rebecca’),
“If only there could be an invention that bottled up memories, and it never got stale and never got broken, and when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked and it would be like living the moment all over again….”
Thank you and good luck all of you for a wonderful, bright future!
Take care. :)