Memories from the golden years of my life (3)

So finally, I had entered The Indian Institute of management, Lucknow. We asked the guard at the entrance, the way to student affairs office where I was supposed to report. He directed us to take a left turn and go straight till we see a sign board and then take a left turn. As went ahead, the way was a scenic beauty in itself. It was surrounded by bougainvilla trees on both sides and looked majestic in a mix of pink, purple and green colours. Little did I know at that time, this would be the way for many of those cherished walks with one of my dearest friends ....

We also passed Chanakya and Patanjali on the way - the guest houses. While Patanjali made a great first impression, Chanakya looked like its poorer cousin. Since no board turned up to guide us, we took the first left turn that was available and the auto halted in front of hostel 5. We asked the guard posted in front of hostel for student affairs office and he replied that we ought to take the next left turn. Strange are the ways of life ... the auto had automatically bought me to the hostel ... which was going to be my home for the next 21 months :-)

Well the auto took a recourse and we moved back to the main road and took the next left turn. We stopped the auto in front of hostel 1. I already knew that this was the girls hostel from my interactions on yahoo group and at the freshers meet. In front of it was the mess. The mess was simply huge. A great hall with a dome in the center. We unloaded the luggage from the auto and sent him off after paying him. I went to enquire about the student affairs office which was in hostel 1. The concerned person (Mr. Saxena) had not turned in yet and we were told to wait. So, we sat down on the stairs of the hostel 1. At this moment, I would like to point out that this has a special significance for me for I started my journey at L with this and ended with this too. More on this in later blogs ....

Forgot to mention. We had been asked by the seniors to come up dressed in formal wear including a tie as otherwise Mr. Saxena would be very angry! Though i had a feeling that this was just a part of pulling our leg, I was not really sure. Nonetheless I had changed into a formal shirt and trouser in train itself though did not wear a tie. I had just kept it handy in case required. And as I had presumed, this was just a part of prank the seniors played on us :-)

The guard in front of the mess asked us to have breakfast in the mess. But I did not actually felt like having anything and so we just dropped the idea. I also met a couple of people. Aman Gupta, who introduced himself from IIT Delhi, Tarun Maheshwari who was from Agra, Shaktie Prakash and his friend Tarun. I also saw Prerna Kapoor going out from the hostel towards the mess and coming back in some time. Of course much had already been spoken about her. More on this later ....

Finally, Mr. Saxena arrived. He asked each one of us to submit to him the letter confirming our admission and instructed us to take out a chit from a large glass box that was kept on his table. Tarun drew the chit out and he was alloted hostel 3. While waiting for Mr. Saxena, we had introduced ourselves to each other. I too drew out the chit. It read 514. I was not very happy as I had been informed (again through yahoo group on which i had spammed incessantly) that hostels 1-8 were old and were called slums and hostels 9-12 were new and were called the city. This meant that I was going to live in the slums. I tried asking Mr. Saxena if this could be changed. Bad as already I am at such things, I didn't have high expectations from him either.

Anyways, informed this to papa and we moved towards hostel 5. Finally we reached there. The room was on first floor. There were 10 rooms on each floor and two bathrooms. Most of the rooms looked unocuppied. The rooms were not locked. I pushed the door open for 514. Some of the golden memories of my life were going to be formed here ....