Lasting impressions

My wing at IITB - The Outlaws. The name painted on the wall and the Name-room no.s on left are no longer there.
L-to-R: Me, Dasa, Jha saab, Mamu, Rizvi & Saras

This year it'll be four years since I graduated from IIT Bombay. Time flies. I realized this when I visited the campus back, couple of days back when I was visiting Mumbai to board the flight to London. It was great to have old friends, Nandu & DRS, with me. Torrents of memories rushed back, overwhelming me. Things have changed there, but not much, thankfully.

Bikes are obviously banned inside the campus now and I'm sure people aren't missing them much. I spent my entire 4 years without a bike (I once bought an old bicycle from an auction, but I used that very sparsly during her brief stay of about 2 months in my company) and if anything, it makes you enjoy the long walks. My department's (Comp. Sc & Engg.) old building is now abandoned, due to bad design. It was definitely "different", it boasted of design such that no two walls in the entire building were parallel. I'm sure not what exactly was the problem, but even during our times it had developed couple of cracks. Anyway, the department has now moved to the soulless KReSIT building. They have improved the tennis court; new ones look very sleek and posh, quite an improvement over the old ones. I saw some new shops in the Gulmohar building too.

What made me most happy was the visit to my old room. Hostel 9, room 224. I spent about two and a half years in that room. And it hadn't changed much.

H9-224. Home.
The murals are still preserved by the current resident

The hostel was almost the same too, barring the mess which was Hafeez-Contractor-ized after renovation; but I'm sure even Hafeez can't do much about the "mess" they serve in there! There was a swanky billboard outside the hostel, welcoming people to "Hostel Nine - Pluto." Neat.

Coming back to room, I gathered my guts and knocked the door. The room now belongs to a PhD candidate; I was shocked when he commented - "Oh! So you came to check out the old room. May be the old graffiti." And there it was! My wall. THE wall. Amazing sight! During my days in the room, I had made couple of figures on the wall. I was totally touched watching them still there. The same Popeye & Flintstone smiling back. The present resident told me that he loved them there and made sure that when they paint the walls they don't paint over them. Thank you my friend! Though they painted over the wing's name (Outlaws), but atleast the room still has my impressions.