That was a Saturday in the pooja holidays of 2005. Almost everybody in my hostel has gone home for the pooja holidays. Only some of us stayed back. Pooja holidays during my childhood is coming to my mind. In my native we used to keep our books for pooja. All studies and skilled works are suspended before starting of pooja till the end. Those were the days of happiness. No studies. Only play. Keep books for pooja and forget about it. Even people were there who don't like to take back the books cos they don't want to study.
In the hostel we had an internet connection shared by our batch mates and it was the only time pass i had there. Browsing, checking mails, chatting with my regular friends. Gradually i got bored with doing only these. So i went out to public chat rooms in search of time pass. Of course girls were the target. After almost a day of chitchats i got one. She was from Kannur. A Muslim girl named Rizwana. She was not like the typical Muslim girls i used to see in Calicut. She was very smart, seemed intelligent and had great knowledge about worldly matters. Gradually we became good friends so as to share some things between us.
I came to know that she was studying in IIT Madras for B.Tech CS, same educational year as me and was of the same age. She was at her home for pooja holidays. We talked a lot about so many things. I was very glad to know that she was already engaged. Bull Shit, why all girls i meet are already engaged or committed??? She told me that she was returning to Chennai only on next Sunday. One week after pooja holidays. Next Sunday??? Ah!!! Next Sunday even I was going to Madras. My brother had an interview to some post in a factory in outskirts of Madras and the interview was in some hotel in Madras. So we thought why not have a family trip to Madras. So booked ticket to Madras in Mangalore-Chennai mail. Mangalore Chennai mail!!! She exclaimed. That was the train she had booked tickets too. What the hell??? Same date. Same train. She asked my reservation compartment. I dont know. My father did the reservation and the ticket was with him. I asked hers. She told it was S4. I investigated and found out later that our status of reservation was RAC. When i told her she thought like i was fooling her telling this. Its a good idea right. RAC means you are traveling in the train and you need not tell a correct location/compartment.
Her engagement was with a young Mechanical Engineer working in AbuDhabi. And their Nikah will happen immediately after her studies get over. It seems he will be going back after Nikah without taking her with him. She wants to have a professional career rather than being a house wife and i was surprised to hear that the guy was supportive to this. Something very rare to hear in Malabar at that time. They will start their post marriage life only after the formal marriage function which will be there three years after the Nikah. She was already placed with three companies and she can choose among them. Very sweet for ear right. Starting of the third year of B.Tech she had three companies in hand and we people in GEC didn't even see the face of a single company. Little bit of inferiority complex shed over my mind. Still she was not showing any indifference towards me like she was from IIT and im from a local college, or she was placed in three companies and im still jobless. She was well behaved and very friendly. Towards the end of the holidays we parted hoping we will meet in the train.
To be continued....
In the hostel we had an internet connection shared by our batch mates and it was the only time pass i had there. Browsing, checking mails, chatting with my regular friends. Gradually i got bored with doing only these. So i went out to public chat rooms in search of time pass. Of course girls were the target. After almost a day of chitchats i got one. She was from Kannur. A Muslim girl named Rizwana. She was not like the typical Muslim girls i used to see in Calicut. She was very smart, seemed intelligent and had great knowledge about worldly matters. Gradually we became good friends so as to share some things between us.
I came to know that she was studying in IIT Madras for B.Tech CS, same educational year as me and was of the same age. She was at her home for pooja holidays. We talked a lot about so many things. I was very glad to know that she was already engaged. Bull Shit, why all girls i meet are already engaged or committed??? She told me that she was returning to Chennai only on next Sunday. One week after pooja holidays. Next Sunday??? Ah!!! Next Sunday even I was going to Madras. My brother had an interview to some post in a factory in outskirts of Madras and the interview was in some hotel in Madras. So we thought why not have a family trip to Madras. So booked ticket to Madras in Mangalore-Chennai mail. Mangalore Chennai mail!!! She exclaimed. That was the train she had booked tickets too. What the hell??? Same date. Same train. She asked my reservation compartment. I dont know. My father did the reservation and the ticket was with him. I asked hers. She told it was S4. I investigated and found out later that our status of reservation was RAC. When i told her she thought like i was fooling her telling this. Its a good idea right. RAC means you are traveling in the train and you need not tell a correct location/compartment.
Her engagement was with a young Mechanical Engineer working in AbuDhabi. And their Nikah will happen immediately after her studies get over. It seems he will be going back after Nikah without taking her with him. She wants to have a professional career rather than being a house wife and i was surprised to hear that the guy was supportive to this. Something very rare to hear in Malabar at that time. They will start their post marriage life only after the formal marriage function which will be there three years after the Nikah. She was already placed with three companies and she can choose among them. Very sweet for ear right. Starting of the third year of B.Tech she had three companies in hand and we people in GEC didn't even see the face of a single company. Little bit of inferiority complex shed over my mind. Still she was not showing any indifference towards me like she was from IIT and im from a local college, or she was placed in three companies and im still jobless. She was well behaved and very friendly. Towards the end of the holidays we parted hoping we will meet in the train.
To be continued....
Cool article rajeev remembered college days,
ReplyDeletewaiting for the part II ....
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