Our first encounter with the ‘THING’ was right in the first
Sem itself during a particular English lecture when ‘IT’ was compared to a
plane. Yes, people, This Is It. This was the revolutionary means of war which
would later break friendships, cause bloodshed and wreak havoc.
This is PAPERBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One of the memories that, I'm sure, every single one of us
will carry with them is of the EPIC paper ball fights in our class. With
teachers, without teachers, during lectures or otherwise, it just doesn’t seem
to matter to us. Believe it or not, every living soul in the class, at one
point or the other, was involved in it. Some brave offending, some defend, some
hermit-like back benchers take to watching, some poor little souls (usually on
the aisle side) get caught in the cross fires (not mentioning that much like myself,
some have aiming capabilities worse than a 3 month-old), some bold warmongers
who’d target the bald pate of a very specific teacher and then the whole class
would scream “LOVISH NE KIYA!!”.
Alliances were formed, ammunition was collected (which usually
came from the neighbor’s notebook because why use our own when we have the
sweet little oblivious neighbor) , guns were loaded, and Sparta-like
bloodthirstiness was in the air. But among all of this, there was a feeling of
kinship among us. How we’d unite against the teacher in not listening, how as
one paper ball was flung around the room there was a mutual understanding among
eighty-four students that the war has been waged. This was the point of
no-return when rows would stock up on ammo, sometimes hitting each other with
it( just to check the quality of ammo of-course).
In a class of 84 people it is not possible that groups not
be formed, every class has that. But what every class doesn’t have is that when
all these groups are together, we are as ONE. Groups, then don’t matter,
everybody hangs out with everyone and has fun. My reaction when I entered the
class and its numerous introductions in every lecture was that “bah, I'm stuck
here for another year.” but now? The year has gone so fast, just yesterday we
had our class party, and our field trips, and our constant lamenting about
extra classes, our boo-ing the teacher when she over stayed her lecture by a
minute, our united standing up to teachers picking on particular students.
Now I'm not very good at mushy good-byes, and misty eyed
promises of meeting up in later future, but here I am openly wishing that I
hope in the coming years, when we walk past each other we nod with a mad glint
in the eye of so many ‘insider’ jokes. Thank you all, for giving me the perfect
first year, I made some very VERY good friends here and I shall remember every
single one of you(yes I, now, know everybody’s name finally!!!). I love you all and may you have the brightest
future there is. All the best.
