A diploma, a farewell and some tears

10 years ago Shaili Desai 5

So, this March, I finally left Ahmedabad (although not for good, I hope) because my education is over. I got my post-graduate diploma in Management!

Officially, I know everything now! 😛

Diplomas, all worth something in Crores.
Photo Credits: Hirak Kapasi

I stayed back for some days after the Convocation, hoping to spend some days in solitary confinement, enjoying my own company in my own room, one last time before I bid farewell. Not.

The trouble started when one by one, others started to leave. It hadn’t really sunk in that the two best (till now, that is) years of my Life were over. I guess I had taken it for granted that I would keep coming back to the place which seemed more like Home, the place which has taught me so much, both in and out of the classroom. And then I realized. Even if I kept visiting time and again, the probability of all the people with whom I spent the last two years being at the same place at the same time was almost nil. And we would never meet like this again. That’s when the tears started. *sniff*

It has been a helluva time. I don’t think there is anything that I would not miss (except some people, yes 😛 ) but then, I ought to be thankful to them because they taught me important lessons too (See, how nice I am!).

But most of all, I will miss my room. It was my own space and I did not share it with anybody so no fussy room-mate telling you to clean up (That does NOT mean that I keep a dirty room, of course, I swear! 😛 ) or telling you to keep the volume down (although that also means that there’s nobody to wake you up and you miss classes or important interviews, for which I have been eternally grateful to all my room mates in the past).

My room has heard Elvis crooning ‘Are you lonesome tonight’ softly (I like other music too but Elvis is KING, please do not even try to argue with me), spontaneous parties, assignment discussions, debates on Mathew Sir’s classes and his teachings, discussions about books and movies and music and sometimes marketing, visits by dogs, cats and pigeons, frantic cries of help (when the matching accessory could not be found), shouts from downstairs to turn up the volume (of the music), song requests, minor acts of rebellion and what not.  It also has been privy to the latest gossip, the latest ‘scandal’ to set afoot on the campus and bears the burden of knowing secrets that no or few people know about. But more importantly, it has heard joyous bouts of laughter, felt the pain of people in their weakest moments, and has heard that invisible noise that strengthening of bonds make. How do you say bid farewell to all of that?

Truly, my own.

Like I told someone before, I think I’ve left a small part of my heart there. The next inhabitant may better take care of that precious space!

As I left the campus in Babubhai’s auto rickshaw, I remembered the time when I first came with all my bags to start my first year here. I felt like laughing and said that over used, clichéd line in my heart, “Time and tide wait for none”! In my heart, there was some trepidation because after all, the future was so uncertain. The feeling of having finally grown up seemed to wash over me. At the same time, there was gratitude, to the place for giving me so many memories. For shaping me in a lot of ways and changing my thought processes.

The next time, some ignorant busybody in a train asks me whether I graduated from the Indian Institute of Management when I tell them I was in Ahmedabad, I shall proudly tell them, ‘No, Uncle, I graduated from Mudra Institute of Communications and I am damn glad I did!’