Where life ceases to exist.....
No, I am not talking about a far-off planet in some obscure galaxy considered unfit for human survival, as the heading may suggest to some; I am talking about a place where I have been residing for the past 20 years (which is almost my whole life span as of now), a place which is in the very heart of the capital city of India, I am talking about the Maulana Azad Medical College campus.
I have chosen the heading of this post as "Where life ceases to exist....." primarily because of two reasons - one, because I can't think of more catchy words to put in, and two, because the phrase aptly describes what I feel about the place.
Life @ MAMC campus has been morose and dull for me, to say the least. I have been here for these long years because my mom was HOD, Anaesthesiology at MAMC. Now that she has superannuated and I have been selected in IIM-L, we are moving! Where? We still have no idea, but that's besides the point.
The MAMC campus saw me grow from a 2 year old toddler to a 22 year old god-knows-what! Throughout these 20 years, I had no idea who or what my neighbours were (the exceptions in this case are very few, so i would be mentioning them a little later) . There are 48 doctors' families residing in the campus and I am pretty sure I don't even know 75% of them. Giving it an after-thought, heavens forbid, shall there be a big robbery or murder attempt in the campus, the affected parties won't know whom to call for help and by the time they would think of something or someone, the damage would be done.
I never saw any get-togethers, and whenever any such meetings were planned, they were cancelled due to lack to adequate number of interested participants. When they did materialize, they bored me to death cos all I got to do was either do small talk with aunties ("bas aunty bariya hoon, 12th mein hoon") or be a spectator to uninspired "cultural" performances. The only thing that provided any solace was "free food".
There were numerous instances when I wanted to play cricket or for that matter, any other sport. But there were two impediments - one was the company of "friends", the second was the more disturbing of the two - uncles and aunties (or more appropriately "meddlesome ass*****") who were just fond of asking us to go play elsewhere.
Moving on to the company I got, well, for nearly 19 years now, I have been spending most of my free time with a guy called Akshay - a DU dude as we call him, not that our calling him that really makes him one. His obsession with me has now reached insane levels, so much so that, I, at times feel that he is a part n parcel of my family! I don't mean to offend him, I have nothing against him, it's just that he is immature and his talks inane, and I feel the need and want to raise the level of my conversations. The two others - "doctors" by profession - Sonal and Kshitij, didn't help much either.
Recently, we have started paying regular post-dinner visits to the Nescafe cafe in the campus. Strangely, the guy at the counter seems to agree with my view of life at the campus. So, it's not just some of the residents who share my opinion.
As I embark on a new journey in the coming few months, I look back and think about my life @ MAMC. The positives I got were the freedom from pollution, electricity cuts and water problems, and of course, the luxury of staying in a huge bungalow spanning almost 800 sq. mtrs. The negatives, well......... don't wanna start cribbing again.
I have chosen the heading of this post as "Where life ceases to exist....." primarily because of two reasons - one, because I can't think of more catchy words to put in, and two, because the phrase aptly describes what I feel about the place.
Life @ MAMC campus has been morose and dull for me, to say the least. I have been here for these long years because my mom was HOD, Anaesthesiology at MAMC. Now that she has superannuated and I have been selected in IIM-L, we are moving! Where? We still have no idea, but that's besides the point.
The MAMC campus saw me grow from a 2 year old toddler to a 22 year old god-knows-what! Throughout these 20 years, I had no idea who or what my neighbours were (the exceptions in this case are very few, so i would be mentioning them a little later) . There are 48 doctors' families residing in the campus and I am pretty sure I don't even know 75% of them. Giving it an after-thought, heavens forbid, shall there be a big robbery or murder attempt in the campus, the affected parties won't know whom to call for help and by the time they would think of something or someone, the damage would be done.
I never saw any get-togethers, and whenever any such meetings were planned, they were cancelled due to lack to adequate number of interested participants. When they did materialize, they bored me to death cos all I got to do was either do small talk with aunties ("bas aunty bariya hoon, 12th mein hoon") or be a spectator to uninspired "cultural" performances. The only thing that provided any solace was "free food".
There were numerous instances when I wanted to play cricket or for that matter, any other sport. But there were two impediments - one was the company of "friends", the second was the more disturbing of the two - uncles and aunties (or more appropriately "meddlesome ass*****") who were just fond of asking us to go play elsewhere.
Moving on to the company I got, well, for nearly 19 years now, I have been spending most of my free time with a guy called Akshay - a DU dude as we call him, not that our calling him that really makes him one. His obsession with me has now reached insane levels, so much so that, I, at times feel that he is a part n parcel of my family! I don't mean to offend him, I have nothing against him, it's just that he is immature and his talks inane, and I feel the need and want to raise the level of my conversations. The two others - "doctors" by profession - Sonal and Kshitij, didn't help much either.
Recently, we have started paying regular post-dinner visits to the Nescafe cafe in the campus. Strangely, the guy at the counter seems to agree with my view of life at the campus. So, it's not just some of the residents who share my opinion.
As I embark on a new journey in the coming few months, I look back and think about my life @ MAMC. The positives I got were the freedom from pollution, electricity cuts and water problems, and of course, the luxury of staying in a huge bungalow spanning almost 800 sq. mtrs. The negatives, well......... don't wanna start cribbing again.
posted by Abhinav Dua at
4:15 PM
1 Comments:
well written boy, and i quite agree, although i wasnt here as long as u were..but to mention me and kakar as being the ones who raised the intellectual level around here doesnt say much for any of us, least of all akshay!!(just picture me slapping both hands on my head ala gopikishen. intellectual?yeah, baby!)
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