This article has been submitted by Nipasha Mahanta for the CLATGyan Blog Post Writing Competition. If you think it’s a good read, ‘Like’ the article on Facebook (the button is at the bottom of this piece) or post a comment using the ‘Comments’ section below.
It strikes 8o’clock and you are reminded that you are starving. An exhausted money bag kills your uneconomical greed to order food and you are forced to carry that shining plate of yours to the mess. But then there is your friend walking by your side, wearing the same expression and it is her (his) company and the gossips you are going to share which make you enjoy a meal devoid of the flavours of home. There is something magical in the hours after dinner. The otherwise picturesque green campus of NUJS gets veiled in an enthralling sheet of darkness. The glimmering street lights, the glittery fairy lights peeping out of colourful curtains of the Girl’s Hostel and the mysterious punchy drumbeats from the Boy’s hostel fill the air with youthful exotica. The clatter of the utensils in the Mess gets drowned in the laughter shared over a joke or two with these unbound, seamless friendships which have blossomed and are going to stay for a lifetime.
There is a certain sense of peace in taking a stroll around the campus. The stories which are carved in the different corners defeat the otherwise controversial paucity of area upon which NUJS has come up. There you see a heap of clothes stacked outside the hostel and the young maiden scourging through it. Maybe this is how she will realize her buried and forgotten dreams. A few steps forward and you hear a concoction of different languages being whispered over the phone. The tone dipped in something homelike, the echo of replying to mom’s frantic calls of whether the tummy is happily filled with food or not, dad’s inquiry about the next test, sister’s account of her new crush and brother’s elaboration of the new Star Wars edition suddenly sink your heart and you miss home dearly. At that very moment when a sudden tear is about to run down your cheek, a friend taps your back and says something utterly hilarious and the blues which were about to weigh you down enchant your life even more. There is something electrifying in gazing at the night sky over NUJS. It is as if they hide the portals to undiscovered romances and freedom from all troubles. As you walk ahead, waves of music from the guitar strings played to some famous melody bring a beautiful and unexplainable smile across your face. There is something passionately illusionary about the veil of night. The spell of cupid becomes hard to evade when you see couples share the silent twinkling gaze, the shy walks hand-in-hand, the warmth and the love makes you feel hopeful and happy. There is something adventurous about this undefined blackness. It is through this that you get a glimpse of the one who makes your heart skip. The night dances between you two and bounds you in an invisible string. It hides the blush upon the much awaited sight of the one and sweeps the despair upon the disappearance of that magic. There is something inspiring about the fall of night when you see diligent brains flocking to the library, tenting there to make a mark; sacrificing everything to attain their ambition. There is something childish about fall of night in NUJS when you stream to the nearby-shop and greedily lick on a candy bar to fill a certain void inside you.
After all, it is not about just walking around the campus at night. It is much more than that. It is about living stories; stories which will be jotted down beautifully in your memory, giving you food to ponder upon, cry and laugh out of happiness, when these walks will be reduced to nothingness, when NUJS will become only a memory in the past.
– Nipasha Mahanta
Year III, WBNUJS, Kolkata.
