“Santa Claus is coming
tonight!” I sang along with my dear idiot box.
Christmas traditionally paints a picture of snow, presents
under the tree, joyous carolling and merriment. Sure, I’d like to see Santa
squeeze his belly down my non-existent chimney but since the wishful thinking
ends there, all I’m left with is my television set and movies centred round
Christmas. I had spent all my school years like this; we were off for the
entire month of December. Since colleges did not offer such generous vacations,
I couldn’t imagine how the next four Decembers would be.
Dec 2008 – Semester 1 in CEG was drawing to an end and the exam
irritation was mounting to its peak. Following which was a meagre two-week
break. Sigh! What came to respite was the company I found. The students of the L
batch were quite close-knit compared to the other first year batches. People
conjured up several expansions for the abbreviation ‘L’. They, however, chose
to call themselves the ‘Gallery Gang’. The college authorities locked up the small
gallery soon after, but that is a different story altogether! As the semester
passed, this gang invited people from all batches with open arms and we became
one big army called the Canteen Gang (yes, we couldn’t think of a better name).
A certain friend even miswrote my name in her New Year’s card, but it was all
in the game. The festivities had begun with new friendships. Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the
way!
Dec 2009 – This year had seen highs and lows. The Canteen
Gang that once hung out in huge numbers was barely seen anymore. A gradual
split had occurred and most of us remained oblivious to it. Cupid’s arrows were
missing in aim, for a few. Since we had spent two semesters with our respective
departments, a lot of other gangs were formed. This New Year does not bring
forth too many memories, so I’ll take the liberty to assume it was relatively
uneventful. Silent Night!
Dec 2010 – This year was far from monotonous! The famous
“Christ Mom & Christ Child” game was gaining popularity all around. Perhaps
you, like the rest of the college, called it ‘chris mom chris child’ too. Ah,
the pain endured by my sensitive ears! MS Word unbearably squiggles red lines
under it as well. Anyway, my class played it with a twist - a secretive type of
‘Truth or Dare’. The mystery element of who got whom had the entire class
excited as our fellow classmates had to perform tasks assigned by their
respective Christ Moms. Hilarious month indeed - friends making a fool out of
themselves in public and the male folk voluntarily referring to themselves as
‘moms’. Jingle bells, Santa smells,
Rudolph ran away! J
Dec 2011 – This year brings in mixed emotions. And it is
completely unrelated to the babble involving the Mayan Calendar and the world’s
end. I have full faith in Marty McFly, he travels to 2015 in the “Back to the
Future” series! This year will only see one semester in CEG. The semester where
everybody would have full attendance because nobody would want to let go. A
couple of friends joked about how the world should end after we procure our
degrees, but they would rather the end of the world now. Neither are being
senti nor are we mental, but the fact of the day is that nobody likes change.
December 2012 will not involve memories with CEG unless I
face some unforeseen wrath by the professors of my department, but it will
nurture the start of new memories. As HBO and Star Movies churn out the same
movies each year, I can confidently mute my television and prolifically recite
the dialogues of a certain Arnold Schwarzenegger movie where he dons the attire
of a superhero that his son idolises, feeling relieved that some things would
never change.
“Happy New Year to all,
and to all good night!”. Now, where did I keep that remote?
