Holiday Season

“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?