Ah! Gone are the days where a shishya would sit under an oak tree under the tutelage of his guru to gain oodles and oodles of gyan… Open areas used as educative classrooms, floor space serving as seats and later devouring ‘mummy ka kana’ under the blue skies… Yes, that’s true! A school that started under a tree… And many more sprung up… A college that started under a tree… And many more mushroomed… Trees of enlightenment!
Today’s classrooms, college students and canteens are a different sight altogether. Colleges are no longer just benches, brains and books… Much more noted are the neo trends… from fashion fads to hi-tech tablets, college students of today have a rollicking time during the three years of their graduation.
Consider yourself extremely lucky and truly blessed if you have more than half the number of enrolled students in your class. The strict 75% attendance rule controls those students who might harbour notorious ideas of bunking to what they feel are ‘eye drooping and yawning lectures.’ Class time is spent hanging around in college corridors or having a cuppa in canteen or relaxing in some nook or college corner where chances of being caught are slim.
Yes! Nowadays, students are mathematical geeks although they may specialize in Political Science or English literature. The young geniuses try to calculate the number of days they can take ‘chutti’ as long as the 75% rule is met; their worst fears being laid to rest…
Day of submissions! List of excuses pour out… A puppy eyed look and an apparently sad face to match the “I just couldn’t complete my assignments.
Classmates catch up in college cafeteria over a plate of yummy vegetable cutlets or hot samosas. Notes exchange eager hands — notes which they had missed on a self-declared ‘chutti.’ Several of such intentional ‘chuttis!’ The love tale begins after this very important mutual exchange! The student couple is then often sighted in the college garden or for classes together. Wow! A simple ‘chutti’ led to the rise in student attendance ratio. Irony!
Indeed, love can be really funny! Smitten more with love than true interest for the subject… Back-benches being an ideal spot, the love-birds think that they have escaped the prying eyes of the professor. Alas! Thirty-nine pair of amused eyes staring at them. The professor repeats the question….Ah! Caught in the limelight!
Baffled and embarrassed, they meet the stern gaze of the professor as one of them replies “We don’t know” — a couple for sure even before they mouth “I do.”
Classes, college students and canteens… An interesting potpourri of notes and queries, mog, masti and mouza…
