We all have a corner on the campus where we love hanging out. It’s where we unwind in free periods, during breaks or after class. It’s where we gather around over cha and samosa to discuss the semester, exchange notes on our crushes or just be by ourselves. It’s a spot we have missed terribly ever since our campuses have been shut because of the pandemic. Here’s looking at some of our go-to spots on campuses.
Lady Brabourne College
‘We live as we dream… alone’, but reality often leaves crevices of escape. Before all cords of attachments were severed, the girl found a corner to breathe freely, to taste the myriad sensations of nature. The broken rays of sunshine or the dancing splashes of rain, peeping through the deplorable small window, cemented much of her void. Between the long hours with Milton or Lawrence, her mind had often marched to cross the threshold of her college gate, but her paradise halted her. If her mornings gave slight nausea, her soul longed for that piece of truth, which soothed her with the intoxicating smell of debris of her lost innocence.
Alone in the dim reality, she had webbed stories, laid bare her fears to the sudden gust of wind and often relived her buried dreams. It was the only witness to the tears I had drunk, of the silent battles fought with my demons and of the truths often garnished with dark decorations. Today, sized up by the four walls, I feel its absence and long for that part of my being, which could smile and soar happily in the diaphanous folds of my utopia.
-- Sushmita Bhattacharjee, third year, UG, English, Lady Brabourne College
Maulana Azad College
College life is when we start getting the perks of adulthood. A college campus offers us a variety of places to relax or work and exposes us to diverse cultures. My favourite hangout spots on the Maulana Azad College campus are its corridors and balconies. Whether it is an adda after bunking classes, making plans to go out, or singing with fellow classmates and seniors, these spots are our constant companions.
We sit there and talk about everything under the sun, pull each other’s leg and also play antakshari. The soothing views of the entire campus make our adda even more enjoyable, and time flies by while we gossip over cups of coffee. The place gets filled with the mouth-watering aroma of our favourite delicacies as the canteen is nearby. The proximity to the canteen also makes it opportune for a quick getaway, if there emerges a chance of being caught by a professor for bunking classes. I’ve been missing every bit of it since the lockdown started.
--- Saswata Banerjee, second year, BCom (Hons.), Maulana Azad Colleg
The Bhawanipur Education Society College
Amid the calm of online classes, there is a general agreement that we all miss the chaotic canteen conversations. Today, from events to classes, everything is online and no matter how much we enjoy the ease of being at home, we do miss our daily chit-chats at our favourite spot in college.
From the green benches of St. Xavier’s College to the turf at iLead, all college-goers have their go-to place to hang out. For me, it was the Dean’s office. I know it might seem like an unlikely hangout spot, but here in The Bhawanipur Education Society College, it indeed is possible. We have grown up here, from childishly pleading with our professor to pass the budget for cultural events to waiting for hours to get our work done. It has prepared us immensely for the practical world that awaits us. This office is home to those non-negotiable memories, the idealistic innovations and the endless conversations with our professors, which turned out to be lessons of a lifetime.
I miss every minute spent there, and if I had a chance to trade the world to get those days back, I would do it in the blink of an eye.
-- Bansari Hindocha, third year, UG, Journalism and Mass Communication, The Bhawanipur Education Society College
Jadavpur University
As soon as I came across this topic, I felt a rush of contradictions. My immediate impulse was to express the lingering ache of missing the Jadavpur University campus, a feeling that was immediately thwarted by the realisation that missing the campus as a fresher who hasn’t even attended physical classes might come off as unrealistic.
Nonetheless, I feel that missing something doesn’t always correspond to technicalities but to the intensity of the attachment. I miss the nurtured moments in my mindscape. I miss sitting on the roof of World View and writing poems, sneaking out of class and hanging out with my friends at the OAT, and standing on the roof of Aurobinda Bhawan and observing the protests from a self-reflexive bird’s-eye perspective. I miss hovering around canteens and marching in rallies. I miss gaping at the graffiti on the walls. For me, missing the campus is layered with the helpless bitterness of missing out -- missing out on the fresh start, missing out on time.
-- Astyartha Das, first year, UG, English, Jadavpur University
Presidency University
The same old road got drunk one day and refused to go home. Humming a little tune, it capered right into the heart of a forget-me-not-blue sky and took me with it. Such blue I never knew existed. From where I stood, I could see the tramline crawling alongside pavements crammed with hundreds of thousands of books and indolent tea vendors. I could spot the tail of Central (Chittaranjan) Avenue disappearing round the corner. I could hear the traffic as it meandered across Indian Coffee House, Basanta Cabin, Paramount and Putiram.
If Calcutta was listening, she must have heard me catch a breath. Lying on our backs, we used to read Keats as the blue overhead changed into purple. It has been nine months since I visited my campus (Presidency University), nine months since I have tottered along the city’s bylanes, drunk on poetry.
-- Ankita Sen, third year, UG, English, Presidency University
Amidst the hustle and bustle of a busy College Street stands almost alone, the white Victorian building --- the erstwhile Presidency College, now known as Presidency University. Once the hub of Bengal Renaissance, Presidency College always had the reputation of nurturing prem, politics aar porashona (love, politics and academic excellence). And what’s better to define the culture of the three Ps than the Prangon of our college campus?
The Prangon is an open courtyard in the heart of the university premises and my favourite hangout spot. From my first selfies to jam sessions, protest gatherings to graffiti, John Denver to sunsets, the Prangon has seen it all. Other than being just a courtyard of concrete, the Prangon provides a space for a wide scope of interaction among students who come from very different backgrounds. What I missed the most during the lockdown was sitting in a corner and silently observing Prangon remain the melting pot of cultures within the campus, fostering debates and discussions that have gone into the making of the institution’s tagline – ‘Excellence Since 1817’.
-- Tiasha Roy, first year, PG, History, Presidency University