“Hey get out!!” I literary begged ….”I got the passes”. She peeked out, shampoo dripping of her face. And I brandished two passes in my hands. She almost hugged killed me. Five minutes later all dressed up we were haggling with an ‘autowalla’. Going to north campus meant late nights and since it was that day of the year. We were sure to get late and get into trouble with the warden. But who cared…
College fests were one most awaited thing in the university. A well deserved break after assignments submissions, tests, projects and sprinting after the deadlines. When the crowd go crazy and a good performer makes them go crazier…
CROSSROADS: if you’ve spent three years of your life in Delhi university or are acquainted with any of them then this very word will bring back to you all the … waiting in queues…Buttering the SRCC friends…. ARRANGE the passes…getting crushed in the crowd…singing you heart out… days.
55 minutes later we were standing in front of the main gate of Shri Ram College of Commerce and this huge poster of ‘Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’ furled outside. And so did almost a thousand people waiting.
“Kill me” I groaned
“Let’s try the hostel gate” but another hundred already had this idea. I clearly remember we cried ourselves hoarse shouting “SHERA!! SHERA!! Bhai let us in… see we have the passes” The hostel guard… we faced his atrocities… as he charged against us and pulled a few of the walls…But there is no way you can stop a college crowd especially if they’ve come for the STAR NIGHT…
Few more minutes and we…as in the crowd brought down the hostel gate. As we ran toward the college ground, the guards and policemen came running after us. And after those crucial 5 minutes we realised that we were blessed to have escaped without any bloody souvenirs of the evening.
That evening I stood in the first row… in front of the bike displayed to the extreme right of the stage in case any of you remember… and for three hours we were mesmerized by the trio. We danced along… hummed along and when loy played the song ‘kal ho na ho’ on his keyboard we just closed our eyes and then it dawned on me that after a year I will be gone but this very moment will come back to me. The high point of my sanguine youth I don’t know why but this very thought made me and countless other cheerfully sad…
That night when I came back we were ready to be shouted at by the warden but she just asked “where”… “Crossroads” we stuttered and I saw a faint smile cross her face… as she herself was a Delhi university graduate… and she dismissed us
Few months later I met the Vice president of SRCC through a friend and the first thing I said was last year’s Crossroads was the best I ever attended and the glint that I saw in his eyes told the story of the hard work that went into it…
With few months to go for my farewell it just dawns on me that the last three years were actually the best days of my life. Nothing compared to 17 years prior to them. I have grown in these three years and the zest and zeal of those FEST days are my most treasured memories that I stole with my friends from the otherwise disciplined Delhi university days…
Dimple Negi
Delhi University
'Campus Writing' 