Blink and you've missed it...

Disclaimer: If it is possible, read it with the music. Or if, unhappily, the music is choppy, pause it and don't worry about it.
Otherwise, the music just adds to it.


"Where's C-Hall?"
"C block? This says E block and F block...and D block. There's no C block."
"The registration is in C-Hall, man."
"I know. B is that way, so it must be...there-"
"First day and we're lost."
We walk towards the huge wooden doors off the main Thapar lobby, when I see her, and she's beautiful.
"Look! God I wish she's in my class!"
This really cute girl, she's with her family, looking at the board we were a second ago, probably looking for C-hall.
"Wish she's in my class."
We're all in the same class.
Friends to this day...somewhat.

*Blink*

Two months later, it's the night before my first birthday in college. 

I was out, that night, but I enter my room, there's a cake on my bed, with candles, and the room is a brilliant shimmering orange.
Suddenly out of the bathroom, burst out five of the best friends I've made in college by then.
It is the single best birthday I have ever had. That night, and the day after it.

*Blink*

Aranya '08.
The most enjoyable of all the fests in four years.
Jal. That amazing band.
Aadat. Screaming.

*Blink*

We've bought a friend a backpack for a birthday gift.
Fifteen people have chipped in for a back pack. Well, the girls have also made him a poster. Well, the girls always liked him. He's quite the amazing dancer.
That's why we've decided to fill his newly bought backpack with...condoms before we gave it to him. Well, honestly, I wasn't really consulted. I'm sure I would have protested. Maybe.

*Blink*

We go to the canal.
We take eight medium pizzas with us.
We see a dead body floating in the current. We panic. Fuck the pizzas, really.
We run away. (We ate the pizzas a few kilometres away.)

*Blink*

We bunk a Bhatia math class.
We try to make a student movie. (A student spoof movie really, never panned out.)
I almost fail math that semester.
I don't know how to tell my parents.
I pass by half a mark.

*Blink*

Branches separate, and friends separate, most of us.
We miss certain people.
You try to maintain ample contact.
At times, you succeed.

*Blink*

You begin noticing girls you never noticed.

They got cute over the summer.
Your female friends are suddenly attractive, now that you're in different branches.

*Blink*

Third year?
Lots of romantic gestures, you know?
Things you thought you'd do that would melt a girl's heart, and she'd be fucking forced to ask you out...you know? And not the other way around?
Lots of romantic fucking gestures.
And I ask out a girl. "We're just friends," she says, of course.
"Yes."
We're friends.

*Blink*

Internships, staggered by branches.
Friends leave for six months at a time. It's hard.
But you know, maybe the administration staggered them because they knew they needed to prepare you for how hard it was going to be a year from then...when you left for good.
Anyway, internships.
You make new friends, because friends are suddenly scarce.
Sometimes you make friends very late. And sometimes you make the very best of friends very late.

*Blink*

Suddenly, when you realize that nothing is forever, you grow up.
People come back, people leave. Friends make girlfriends. Friends make boyfriends. You realize that it's the end. You make promises.
The end is near. You ignore it for a while, but it catches up with you eventually. You bargain with time. You plead with time.

*Blink*

Placements. Interviews. Jobs.

*Blink*

You say you will spend a lot of time together. But you have a lot of friends.

*Blink*

Time runs past so quickly.
There is never enough time.

*Blink*

You go away.

It ends.

*Blink*

Four months pass. Convocation. Friends. Reunions.
Parties. Alcohol. Robes.
...
Regrets.
...
Degrees.

*Blink*