I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello. and so the story goes. 5 yrs of magic, mush, mania and Monnet. I didn't learn the art, but i learnt to admire it. And last night they said goodbye to me.
They bid me farewell(a rather tearful one). Its not east to say goodbye to 5 Yrs of your grad university. Its changed me... a whole lot. Friends, field trips, parties, the numerous drinking binges, the dancing and sometimes just shaking drunk bodies.... I'll miss it all.
I walk in at 4:30 PM to see the state of the annual day at my college and see the hype, sound, light and music overwhelming me. An hour later... One lovely woman walks up to the microphone and gives a speech that can make Ozymandias cry. Then the small gesture of calling us all on stage and letting balloons go. The music gets louder, the beats resounding as 50+ students acquire a small area of 15 by 20 feet to shake a leg, scream and emote rather wildly. A most beautiful 'wild'. A whole lotta tears, followed by hugging and a few of us, including myself, being thrown 10 Ft into the air in all rush of adrenalin. All this madness was acceptable. Emotionally overwhelming. The music that a few months back shook the nation with its attraction to the young and restless, was now a theme for us. We felt with it("Paatshaala" from the movie Rang De Basanthi). In a few moments, we have all of us back in the audience. Some still under the hangover of the last one hour. And some of us deciding to work on some real hangover. Out we go, the closest bar we can find welcoms us with open arms( each holding a bottle in its grasp) we mix our drinks into a few cola bottles and go back to the college with our elixir in our hands. Right to the back of the amphitheatre, where the celebrations are running.
In a flash, the news of our holdings have reached a few ears and the back of the amphitheatre seems to get a little filled up. We drink and dance wildly into the night. All peace being broken by a few lawkeepers who walk into our little space and ask us to shut shop. Now we get back to nostalgia(sounds rather odd) and the shutters go clicking away as everyone wants to carry back a piece of 5 Yrs in a memory card smaller than 5 Sq cms. It actually works. A picture tells the story of a lifetime. A few hours into the night, we all decide to jam up at one persons place for the night. Clearly we haven't had enough, and there is this visible craving for more. In small groups of 2s and 3s we land up at one designated spot to spend the rest of our night in merryment. It goes as planned and we have once again a few drunk souls shaking legs, singing wildly and exhibiting the homo sapien nature. In all this, somehow every beautiful moment in my life, I connect to one person. My thoughts go wild thinking of her, and wishing she was there with me. Now almost 2 AM, i sit there listening to a few Slow dance numbers as i watch love in bloom. The opposite sexes atrract and move to the dance floor. I sit back on the diwan, thinking of her. Missing her.
The night goes in to day as we enjoy in drunken revelry laughing, crying, comforting each other. Its around 5 AM when i decide to settle my head onto a pillow for the night. I wake up this morning at 8:30 AM to go back home. A big day in my life, zipped past me leaving me with that 5 Sq cm card with memories etched on it. Soon to be erased from the card and put permanently on my computer.
It reminds me not to say goodbye!!!

You say goodbye, and I say hello!!!