It’s full one-year since I first stepped into the quadrangle
and walked into the sunny corridors of St.Xavier’s college. Completing the
first anniversary of calling myself a Xaverian means a whole lot of things.
Some part of the institution, its feel, a part of its history has come to live
within me and a part of me has come to belong to it forever.
Things that have changed are too many to enlist. But most importantly, my perspective has changed about so many things… especially people
and corners of college.
So here we go on a virtual trip to Xavier’s. No camera, No
photograph. You have to read and see it through the eyes of your mind.
Greetings:You enter the college and the first thing that greets you is the “No smoking” signboard hung on the trunk of a tree just beside the college gate. However, I am completely clueless as to why, even after having such a prominent display of the board, hung right near the staircase is this sad plea: “Respect the No Smoking sign…”?!!
Confusion-Confusion:The most confusing place in the whole college building is the college office with its I-have-not-counted-how-many counters… and the desks of the Vice Principal, Deans of arts and science. Confusing- because each time
we are supposed to get some task done in there, we kind of feel so lost… despite the helpful souls who sit behind the counters.
Don’t know why though and yes, the three most wanted people in the office are highly unpredictable with their arrivals and departures into the office…
High hopes:The notice board of the college is where all the hopes of students rest. The eyes of those innocent creatures browse through the board, anxiously in search of the chits that would give them the blissful notification of the cancellation of some class:idea: … but alas! More often than not, people are disappointed.
The most inviting place:In
summer and monsoon- the reading room! No… not that people have this extra urge to study during these seasons... just that the reading room is one of the few rooms that are air conditioned.
Autumn- People are more engrossed preparing for Durga puja … so basically the shopping malls next to college- Westside/ Pantaloons/ Nik Nish are more inviting than the campus.
Winter and spring: The college grounds and Maidan/ Victoria grounds….
And all through the year the only evergreen hotspot that was… was the Green benches. However they have been broken down now for some “development work”… and we miss it more than anything else!
Tring-tring:Cellphones are Not allowed to be used in the college building. But then, during boring lectures students often slip under the bench and start messaging and giving missed calls. A few professors however are a little more liberal. Even if the cell rings loud in their class, they prefer to pretend they haven’t heard. But then, we students love it when the cellphone of
any professor rings while he/she is teaching. The professors apologise but we love it… every distraction is like…WOW!!
Love blooms:
A co-ed college it is. The rest as they say- is history. The best and the most popular love stories- or rather love-gossips, are the ones between professor and his/her students. The grapevine never falls short of such
tales. And if there ain’t many spicy things to be happy about readily available- any student can himself/herself volunteer to have a crush on …
Studies:Umm… now this is the tricky part really! I know many such individuals who do not even know the rules of the college library or have never entered the reading room, people who are regular to college campus but strangely do not have 75% attendance in class…
This is one section in which our college lacks homogeneity. Oh yes… but the balance is restored, when everyone- just about everyone feels the same about marks… as in “yeh dil maange more!!”
One year past… two to go. May be there’s more to learn about life in SXC… lot to learn apart from the prescribed syllabus for the remaining
four semesters…
Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:34 am
