1997... 55 youngsters land in an obscure village called Shela to have an adventure.. A place which till now they had never heard of, forget being able to place it on the map. Driving through the village roads, to an isolated campus which would hopefully turn them all into communication professionals..
2007... 5 of us from that original bunch decided to venture down that path again to re-establish our fading memories of the campus and it's magic.
Getting lost trying to find the exit to the campus, not because we had forgotten the route but because it had transformed into a totally alien place. New roads where none existed earlier.
Finally the campus and thakurjee came into view.. Thank God!!! Because soon we realised that it wasn't just the surrounding areas which had changed. Students at the reception had none of the effervescence with which the previous alumni had been greeted. Coldly greeted with commands that we fill in the alumni registration form and cough up the dough.
KGK proved to be the only humane face on the campus on the first day as he insisted on showing us the incessant concretisation of the campus. Refusing his caring offer of staying at the international hostel we opted to "slum" it out at Amaltas.
Definetely vocal about our opinion on the way things had changed, soon we were going to be labelled as persona non grata on our campus. The Diro definitely decided to spell it out to who ever cared to attend his opening ceremony that the alumni was not a time for socialising but rather a "time for introspection" and the people who had issues with the changes better hold themselves in check.
Well we were upset, so we were vocal.. How could the whole campus be non smokin? How could the director be doing spot checks under the guise of evening walks to catch the offenders? How could the management be focused on creating a bunch of employees who are only interested in their paychecks? The sameness of all the students on campus put us in a tizzy!! It didn't seem different from a Delhi college campus, a fashion statement in the making. Maybe The Diro has banned improper attire on campus!! Well i guess being jealous of their huge paychecks was the last thing on our minds.. :)
We could accept the modernisation, we didn't actually enjoy all the aspects of the semi rural existence that we endured during our two years. But the basic makeup of the students could not have undergone such a fundamental change!!
Two and a half days of constant discussion on how MICA has changed, started to grate on our nerves. But every time we put it aside to dwell on other interesting things and just enjoy ourselves, we were jerked back into it.
The icing on the cake was the alumni dinner. After having being told that booze would be served for the dinner (a first by MICA standards!! we were already carrying ours), we were also informed that due to this the dinner was offsite at Pleasure Club.. the shadiest of places in the vicinity!! Since the only option for dinner was to trudge till that place we braved it, only to run away in less than 30 minutes.
Imagine a bunch of school children, okay pre-schoolers at the neighbouring playground. And now just replace all those kids on the swings and carousels with twenty year olds!! Well that was the exact scene which awaited us. Braving our way through this we decided to check out the "Bar". Trying to repeat the exact sentiments " Is this a MICA party, or had we stumbled into a party thrown by a tutorial?!!!"
Sped away, as fast as we could to the still familiar campus.
The dance party back on campus was not half bad.. i have to give them that..
Should the alumni be an annual event? Given the fact that most of the senior batch was off and away at Diu or back home for the long wknd, didn't seem that they were too keen on meeting any of their seniors.
I could keep on writing but then it would too much of a crib. This was my second alumni.. and my last..
2007... 5 of us from that original bunch decided to venture down that path again to re-establish our fading memories of the campus and it's magic.
Getting lost trying to find the exit to the campus, not because we had forgotten the route but because it had transformed into a totally alien place. New roads where none existed earlier.
Finally the campus and thakurjee came into view.. Thank God!!! Because soon we realised that it wasn't just the surrounding areas which had changed. Students at the reception had none of the effervescence with which the previous alumni had been greeted. Coldly greeted with commands that we fill in the alumni registration form and cough up the dough.
KGK proved to be the only humane face on the campus on the first day as he insisted on showing us the incessant concretisation of the campus. Refusing his caring offer of staying at the international hostel we opted to "slum" it out at Amaltas.
Definetely vocal about our opinion on the way things had changed, soon we were going to be labelled as persona non grata on our campus. The Diro definitely decided to spell it out to who ever cared to attend his opening ceremony that the alumni was not a time for socialising but rather a "time for introspection" and the people who had issues with the changes better hold themselves in check.
Well we were upset, so we were vocal.. How could the whole campus be non smokin? How could the director be doing spot checks under the guise of evening walks to catch the offenders? How could the management be focused on creating a bunch of employees who are only interested in their paychecks? The sameness of all the students on campus put us in a tizzy!! It didn't seem different from a Delhi college campus, a fashion statement in the making. Maybe The Diro has banned improper attire on campus!! Well i guess being jealous of their huge paychecks was the last thing on our minds.. :)
We could accept the modernisation, we didn't actually enjoy all the aspects of the semi rural existence that we endured during our two years. But the basic makeup of the students could not have undergone such a fundamental change!!
Two and a half days of constant discussion on how MICA has changed, started to grate on our nerves. But every time we put it aside to dwell on other interesting things and just enjoy ourselves, we were jerked back into it.
The icing on the cake was the alumni dinner. After having being told that booze would be served for the dinner (a first by MICA standards!! we were already carrying ours), we were also informed that due to this the dinner was offsite at Pleasure Club.. the shadiest of places in the vicinity!! Since the only option for dinner was to trudge till that place we braved it, only to run away in less than 30 minutes.
Imagine a bunch of school children, okay pre-schoolers at the neighbouring playground. And now just replace all those kids on the swings and carousels with twenty year olds!! Well that was the exact scene which awaited us. Braving our way through this we decided to check out the "Bar". Trying to repeat the exact sentiments " Is this a MICA party, or had we stumbled into a party thrown by a tutorial?!!!"
Sped away, as fast as we could to the still familiar campus.
The dance party back on campus was not half bad.. i have to give them that..
Should the alumni be an annual event? Given the fact that most of the senior batch was off and away at Diu or back home for the long wknd, didn't seem that they were too keen on meeting any of their seniors.
I could keep on writing but then it would too much of a crib. This was my second alumni.. and my last..
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