Things We leave Behind- Salad Days

Things we leave Behind- Salad Days

As I sat before my laptop several visuals from the past  flashed before my mind’s eye as I harked back to my college days …these, then are a few of my favorite “salad days”….which I revisited…

     The day I started Medical school, stars in my eyes, looking forward to living a seemingly unattainable dream…

All of us – small stars or even suns in our own small worlds – were now forming a constellation. A constellation that would last a lifetime, though we were unaware of that , then. 

The struggle on the first day with wearing sarees (an Indian attire which was a dress code on the campus) with most of us wearing it for the first time… tentative looks into the mirror and towards each other for assurance…looks repeated in classrooms and labs,  as we battled the new words and meanings.

 

      The clinics and the classes… as we saw each new symptom and sign we learnt, they found an echo in us and ours,  as cadavers gave way to patients, teaching us the secrets of illnesses and cures.

    The hallways of the college, the wards and the classrooms, the scarred desks, the proxy attendances, the back benchers and the front benchers, the heavy books, the tests and exams and vivas and results.

   The first brush with failures, something that most of us in our young lives, till then had never encountered, making us realise that success should never be taken for granted. 

 

    Friends, ever ready for innocent fun, be it shopping, movies, seeing off someone or a treat for scoring a distinction – any reason was good enough for a trip to ” town”, mostly in  creaky crowded buses, which none  of us seemed to even notice. 

The evening trips to the local College Canteen, Indian Coffee House….  dressed in starched n freshly ironed sarees… ending in an unacknowledged but unmistakable race to catch a seat facing the door- my best friend was the best at this.

 The heartbreaks and heartaches… sometimes  lending a shoulder… sometimes looking for one…

 Taking to the streets to make our voices heard…leaving our fears and apprehensions behind.

The slogans we shouted, the placards we held, the police we braved – all with a passion that only youth can bring.  

All for justice for a grievously wronged student, ready to face the wrath of the powers that be.

 The undulating campus dotted with spots and names that make sense only to the CMCites ..The Horizon, The Fisheries,  The Coffee house, The Golden Dragon, The Clock tower,  The Library…the list goes on  and on.

 The trips back home made in the earliest train out of town in happy little groups .. none of us had ever heard of reservations or  even sleeper coaches .. as the wooden slats of the unreserved coach served as the most comfortable seats to chat the night away … as minds met and forged  friendships  that  remain with me to this day… as  animated discussions on any topic under the sun let the night run away –  we even wished on some occasions that the train get late.. but it never did!!

The late night life-changing discussions … the sharing of  thoughts words and views shared  seamlessly as we connected and reconnected over cups of stale tea and coffee…

Friends… some “just friends” .. some “good friends”….. some “best friends”…

The college Youth Festivals.. the Inter Medicos… the plays and dances …the Sports days and friendly Cricket matches.. the film Festivals .. the new age “high thinkers” on the campus…

Friendships that lasted sometimes for a season …sometimes for a lifetime… but always for a reason they touched our souls.. and we were never the same again ….somewhere in each of us they live on.. as we do in them….

The smiles and tears, the stolen glances and shy smiles…the hookups and the break ups.

 Memories….. words tumbling out……but let me stop… they are but memories …from  another  time… another day…..Our Salad Days……

Most of the wonderful bunch of starry eyed kids from the Silver Jubilee batch are now celebrating Golden jubilees of their own existence. 

 So it is that we look forward to reunions

Look forward to revisiting these Salad Days

Salads  that look so appetizing… so wholesome…. so nutritious…

Salads that are manna for the soul…

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