BITSians’ Day is back, and back are those hazy memories which do not get place in our chitchats whenever I meet my BITSian friend(s) because many more prominent memories take up the lions share and surprisingly push back these long gone memories back, even further.
Few days ago, I was just remembering the days when I left BITS and suddenly remembered having a BITS trunk which can truly be called Yaadon Ka Pitaara. I do not even remember it being mentioned in my memory talks with fellow BITSians and neither do I recall if I ever thought of it when I lay back and thought about BITS days. How strange can life be. Eh?
So, this BITS trunk was something we bought in Pilani at the end of our 1st year and lovingly wrote our IDs on it (पूरे wing ने एक marker खरीदा था!). Then we stuffed all our stuff in it, packed it and transported it to the allotted bhawan for next year, where all the individual trunks were kept in the common room one over other until the entire room was full of trunks. This was too simple but hard part always comes later.
When we returned from home for the next semester, we had to get back our trunks from these common rooms and god-forbid, if your trunk was in the lowest corner-most part of the room, then you could get hold of your trunk only 2-3 days later when all other trunk owners had taken away theirs. Oh, how fun it was, to roam around like a bird which didn’t care a pebble in the world. There was a small economy going around these trunks. Purchasing of trunks, transportation of trunks from shops to hostels, transportation from hostels to hostels, picking up of heavy trunks from hostels and finally selling it or dispatching it to our homes. This small piece of aluminum created so many opportunities for local people which just makes me smile. (Of course, back then we thought that localites looted us, but now I realize that it was an yearly fete for them to earn few extra bucks)
I remember my 4th year when I reached Pilani late in the night and common room was already shut down at 8pm. I didn’t have my trunk and it was January. So essentially, my mattress, rajai, etc was all in the common room and I only had my room and a bag-pack, I got from home to survive the night. My wingy offered to share his room, but me being the care-free bird rejected the offer and told him that I’ll ‘manage’ the cold.
Oh boy! how wrong was I? I’ll never forget the night when I slept on the wooden bed with thinnest mattress (bedsheets, I mean) and me wearing my jacket, socks, shoes and shivering all night because that goddamn window won’t shut properly and you know how lethal desert cold is. But I somehow managed to grab 2-3 hours of sleep and rushed to the mess at 7:30am exact to satiate my hungry stomach and soothe my cold throat with hot tea. It was the best breakfast I had in Pilani. Learnt a lesson that day (or night, technically). Pay heed to your friends’ advice and sympathize with people who do not have even basic means to survive. Now I always imagine how hard must it be for homeless people to survive harsh weather conditions.
I also got my BITS trunk back in the morning and had one hell of a psenti-sem. I dispatched the trunk with all my belongings in it to my home but never did see it again, as it was given away to someone in need by my Maa. I asked her about it yesterday and she remembered giving it away. I was kind of furious because remembering it after 7 years and realizing that it’s not here anymore, kind of shattered me a bit. How tightly do we hold on to our memories, isn’t it? We emotional fools 🙂
By the way, while writing this down, I also remember that how this trunk became an extra chair when the whole wing settled in one room for some lachcha sessions. Damn, I’ve to stop writing. The memories are washing over me once again. Let me get drenched, while all of us enjoy this BITSians’ Day 2017!
Pratik Maheshwari 