freedom....
its been around 14 days since I arrived and I have not and I have not gone out of the campus once ! I just got in touch with an old friend a few days back and it reminded me of our days in the boarding. How we would crave to get out of the campus - even at the risk of dire consequences - even expulsion !
I remeber wednesdays - the day the canteen was closed - and how we would walk down to the canteen hoping that perhaps there was an outbreak of temporary amnesia and the canteen would open ( it did happen once ! ). And how we would stare longlnly at "bishtis" - a small shop outside the college gate that was "out of bounds ! ". Of course the staring was not without pupose (we werent exactly day dreaming idiots ! ). On some days when you were extremely lucky and the guard was not looking (or perhaps had pity on you ! ) you could signal to the person there and he would send a worker. The worker would take your order and money and quietly slip out of the gate and get you your food (which was usually either a bum/bread omlette or a bun/bread cutlet - for obvious reasons of being quick to make and easy to carry away from the "danger area ! "). And though it might not be the best quality stuff - when you came after a thoroughly tiring football match and the canteen was closed few things you eat can ever come close to the taste of that bun omlette ( not to mention the exhiliration of having beaten the system and gotten it ).
I also remember waiting for holidays to start. Since a lot of students went home on 3, 4 days holidays it left a considerably lesser number of students in school, and we could also get to wear "home clothes" (non uniform clothes ! which was a thrill someone who has never gone to a boarding school can never experience ! ). The holidays also generally brought with them better food, since food needed to be cooked for considerably lesser number of people ( soggy slices were replaced by toasts !!!! ). But it was only usually the case since that fateful night, even on a holiday we got exceptionally unpalatable dinner. And driven in part by hunger and in part by rebellion against the so called "food" we decided to bunk (sneak out of campus) to a shop about a 500 meters downhill if you go straight (the route we would not (read could not) take) and two kilometres if we went through the jungle (the one we would take ;) ). Of course we were well aware of the risk involved ....but the "Bumper" (noodles with crumbs of buttterd toast and an omlette thrown in on top) and a chilled pepsi at 10:00 pm was too good to resist. If only we had known ......
I remeber wednesdays - the day the canteen was closed - and how we would walk down to the canteen hoping that perhaps there was an outbreak of temporary amnesia and the canteen would open ( it did happen once ! ). And how we would stare longlnly at "bishtis" - a small shop outside the college gate that was "out of bounds ! ". Of course the staring was not without pupose (we werent exactly day dreaming idiots ! ). On some days when you were extremely lucky and the guard was not looking (or perhaps had pity on you ! ) you could signal to the person there and he would send a worker. The worker would take your order and money and quietly slip out of the gate and get you your food (which was usually either a bum/bread omlette or a bun/bread cutlet - for obvious reasons of being quick to make and easy to carry away from the "danger area ! "). And though it might not be the best quality stuff - when you came after a thoroughly tiring football match and the canteen was closed few things you eat can ever come close to the taste of that bun omlette ( not to mention the exhiliration of having beaten the system and gotten it ).
I also remember waiting for holidays to start. Since a lot of students went home on 3, 4 days holidays it left a considerably lesser number of students in school, and we could also get to wear "home clothes" (non uniform clothes ! which was a thrill someone who has never gone to a boarding school can never experience ! ). The holidays also generally brought with them better food, since food needed to be cooked for considerably lesser number of people ( soggy slices were replaced by toasts !!!! ). But it was only usually the case since that fateful night, even on a holiday we got exceptionally unpalatable dinner. And driven in part by hunger and in part by rebellion against the so called "food" we decided to bunk (sneak out of campus) to a shop about a 500 meters downhill if you go straight (the route we would not (read could not) take) and two kilometres if we went through the jungle (the one we would take ;) ). Of course we were well aware of the risk involved ....but the "Bumper" (noodles with crumbs of buttterd toast and an omlette thrown in on top) and a chilled pepsi at 10:00 pm was too good to resist. If only we had known ......
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