A Day at MICA
All my close friends somehow decided to get married in the month of Nov, along with my sister and a cousin. And luckily my ship allowed me to proceed on leave in the same month and attend all the weddings and associated functions. I have hardly attended any wedding of a close relative or a friend, in fact I was available only for a day for my own brother’s wedding so all these wedding rituals and fun has been a scintillating experience in itself for me. And nowadays every day I wake up I have to check for the calendar if there is anything on that particular day and on most of the days something or the other is there, and I have never done such kind of markings on a calendar but yes many things happen for the first time. So anyways all this has nothing to do with my blog post it was just for the fact that I was preoccupied with all such functions and I needed a break and MICA was that for me.
In this busy wedding schedule I randomly got a text from one of my closest friends, Ashu regarding his placement and the Farhan Akhtar concert and somehow I made up my mind that I had to be there. I had never been to Ahmedabad and I had never planned to visit it if it weren’t for Ashu, and a few more close friends. If you haven’t travelled miles just to meet a close friend then you must do it once, it will end up in a beautiful memory. Time and again I have travelled for miles just to meet some good friends and all such times are close to my heart. Visiting MICA was just to listen to his unheard Stories. And just for the introduction I must tell you that he is an amazing storyteller, he has this amazing gift of writing and narrating stories. These storytelling sessions started in Pune when I used to travel around 40 kms just to listen to his stories. And who would have known 40kms will increase to 400 and more but it has always been worth all the time and distance. So as soon as he called me up I checked my schedule and I was on the next flight towards Ahmedabad. I thought I will be listening to his new stories and will be having a good time but he had more to offer.
Knowingly or unknowingly, he made me feel all the stories that he was living over there, all the stories that were lived over there. It all started when he asked me to get down before the main gate of the College and came to pick me up on a bike. And it wasn’t normal for me at all, I live on board a ship and while I take my car inside my harbour I have to show my card at 3-4 different check posts and he just asked me to keep my luggage on the other side of the security guard and we just crashed inside leaving the guard shouting at us. I had started living a disciplined life but he got me back to the college. I was happy to be back in college, i had visited my own college in Manipal manier times after graduating but this time and this place felt something different. I still wasn’t sure about the little things that were about to happen to me on that day.
I sat down in his room and he shared his stories, about his placements and his life at his college, about the things that he had left behind and about the happy things, he informed me that Shubha di wasn’t there and I had planned to meet her so I was a bit sad but somehow it felt okay. We will meet someday soon in a better place. I felt really happy about his life in his college, which became happier and happier after every passing moment. He showed me his Wall of fame; believe it or not each and every wall of his college had a story to tell. For instance his own wall had so many associated stories of success and people. All the walls in hostels and around were full of graffiti and illustrations which all felt out of the world. He started one by one and I thought we will have a look at them one by one freely and so kind of skipped but they all made an impact. Each and every student had put extra efforts to decorate their own wall in their room as well and they said a lot about them if given a chance you can spend your day visiting every room and ask them about the story of their wall and maybe take pict
Onboard ship I kind of meet the same people on regular basis and every time I come back home meeting new people feels nice, which wasn’t the case earlier. So the best thing he did to me was that he introduced me to all his friends one by one and trust me the list was endless, I had never been introduced to so many people on the same day. I hardly remember their names as well, I just remember their beautiful smiles which were for two main reasons, one being the fact that I was his friend and they had high regards for him and the other being the fact that he introduced me with my profession, Navy. I always wanted him to pursue masters not for the degree but for the friends and the life that comes with the college. When first time he told me that he got into MICA and before that when he had told me about his interview I had this feeling that he was going to be in a happier place. I felt really happy for him when he finally managed to get through, though I wasn’t fond of the location but when I had visited him I changed my mind. I always advised him and wanted him to stay in touch with theatres, friends, extracurricular anything but studies and it gives me immense pleasure to say I feel happier when I looked at his life and all that he had achieved in form of friends and life over here. As I was roaming around the campus I realised each and every place was worth sitting for hours and have a good time.
Well, I am sorry that I am not good with names and don’t remember all of them since I am also human, but someday somehow I can assure him I will welcome any of his friends from MICA with same enthusiasm like he did. He was involved in a lot of stuff in his fest but he ensured that I don’t get bored without him so he introduced me to his beautiful friend Sanju who ensured as per his instructions that I am not to be left alone which really was a sweet gesture. I must have already told him that she had great respect and regard for him and he must cherish her forever. She took me to all the places and tagged along everywhere, she too showed me some walls and told me about the little things about the college. I had never entered a radio room and we enjoyed RJ wars, she also told me about the friends that were being mentioned on the radio. We sat down and attended this event at his fest and there also she told me little stories about that feminist teacher and her terror J Somehow it all felt so amazing that I am writing all about it, and unlike my other posts I may not be creatively engrossed in it or giving much thought to it but this is something that I don’t want to forget so I am just trying to recall all the stories and just writing them down for the future. She was literally there with me throughout the time and I really enjoyed my time with her. She shared stories of the people, trees, walls, and all that we came across. I found all the people of MICA to be beautiful and connected to each other in an amazing way, the best thing about that place was that it was very small and creatively designed; it felt as if everyone knew each other.
There was this girl Manshi who too was very welcoming who showed her room like a little girl and somehow I felt that I knew her from somewhere but I never got my answer. She had a beautiful wall and there was a guitar which was hanging on it and I couldn’t resist taking a picture over there. I don’t bond with people so easily but somehow her friendship felt kind of natural to me. He introduced me to people in a unique way, like he mentioned that “she was the anchor in white in our school farewell do you remember” and somehow I did as she was a friend’s a big big crush and we had started calling her snow white after that day? And somehow I too have little memory of some of them like Farheen the RJ, his creative Mallu partner, Sauvik the photographer, that girl with haircut similar to Sanju, Vyom who got punched by Sanju, Chhota vaali Aunty, that girl who walked all the way back to mess for chilli chicken, and so many others, that army boy.
All in all it was a wonderful experience, I could relive my college days with them, though my college life was a lot different, I had a very big campus and not everyone knew each other but I have always been in love with my college but this too was amazing especially because of the way it was designed and Ashu and Sanju. Farhan’s concert was just a cherry on the top of it. I am happy that MICA happened to Ashu and I am proud of the fact that he definitely has earned some good friends for life and amazing memories, and most of all he has not only lived his dreams but a few of mine as well. While I left Delhi I had updated my status as ‘when you can’t write a story, live one’. Each and every thing and every one ensured that I lived so many beautiful stories in one day. I am really thankful to each one of you at MICA esp Ashu and Sanju for a wonderful day.
Mukul
PS: I started it off as a letter for Ashu and somehow it is ending up as a blog post, so there may be places where you will feel that it has been specially written for him.
