The rain ridden path makes its way slightly swirling up the hill towards the second gate of the college.In those days I would stand here looking at the long gravel road and sighing at the thought of walking all that way up to the college and then would absent mindedly waddle towards the entrance with the bag slung across the shoulder and the files clutched close, a time you wish you had a boy friend who could actually drop you off at that gate, could save me all the walking. Sometimes you get lucky when you hear a friend call your name from behind and the road disappears as you chit chat your way up with the big trees shading you from the unruly sun who seem to hate you with all the grudge it seems to pour on us on such a nice morning..By the time I rach the gate I would have already gone through the thoughts about that no good seminar I would have the second hour that day, the plans for killing that girl I hate the most , thoughts about skipping the class and watching basket ball and even compose a short peom and the main thing is that I would be panting and sighing again because I am one of those lucky persons who now have to go up some twelve steps then make it to the fourth floor (the top most floor) to get to my class........ So I start waddling again........

Memories rush back when you see the corridor, the place I love second most around here.... In those lazy evenings, when the lab is over,pretty much everyone would be gone...sometimes it would be just three of us... I love to walk through the corridor especially when its raining, my duppatta flying around and the rain drops sweeping in and the silence all around except for the clatter of raindrops......... I can still hear the stories we used to say...the voices echoing in this corridor....those little secrets we shared and the jokes we had...silly things and big ones alike......

As I walk through the college , I see everything, the canteen ...the basket ball court and the Department of English... and here it is the place I love most here.... the place I miss the most here..... hailed by everyone I had always heard about this place...Panchaara mukku...but it wasnt until I came here that I fell in love with it..... may be this is the one place in the college which knows all the secrets of all the people who have ever walked these roads......all the love stories,all the cospiracies,all the friendships....if someone asked think about the stories this tree would have to say...broken promises, of lies, of faith of everything....It was a big tree with its branches spread far and a parapet under it..... you could sit under there and your legs wont touch the floor.... Around that place there were lot of trees that meant it was always cool there..... and the gravel road still continued before us..... It was a pleasure to be there with the sun completely defeated by the trees, the wind playing with my hair and me wondering whether he would pass by and when he did, I wondered whether he would say anything, and when he did ,i would simply blush and smile to myself but act uninterested.... I wonder why I was like that....every day I would walk through the college wishing I would meet him but when I actually did and when he comes near me, I ignore him, I smile and say nothing...i wish I could but I could not..... may be he knew it too for he never stopped looking at me and talking to me and I never stopped shying away until that day when I myself could feel the beat of my heart as I gently whispered my "yes"

I remember the lazy afternoons, the days I would come in late, the boring classes and book crickets, the elections and parties, the strikes and the labs , the canteen's boring orange cold drink which I still havent figured out..... the friday masses which I never attended, the basket ball matches and the victories, the gossips and secrets and the auditorium that nurtured the dancer in me, the eloquent me and the creative me.....the teachers, the seniors, the ragging,the crushes, the flirting the fun that never ended.....That college was a dream... a dream that I was lucky enough to live.... I would never forget a day spent there...not today not tomorrow not ever.............