Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Katta and cutting chai...


Katta- this word is a part of every Puneite’s life. ‘Kattyashivay college mhanje sugandhashivay phool.’ (A college without a Katta is like a flower without scent). Okay, for those who do not know what this Katta is let me define it for you. Katta is a place in a college where collegians chill out, chat, tease each other, bitch about professors and fellow students, get ‘ideas’ for their projects, line-maro on a girl or a guy and do other such ‘productive’ things. The frequency of a student spending time on this Katta could differ from student to student. Some people are padeek on the Katta the whole day and some find an hour or so for it. Time on the Katta is best enjoyed with friends having a good sense of humour, lots of bekaar time and loads of faltoo topics to debate on.

Pune is also known as the ‘Oxford of the East’ (a very clichéd phrase) and you can spot dozens of the species called ‘college students’ hanging around their colleges. A Katta could be a non-college one also i.e. not in the college but somewhere near the college. It is a meeting spot of chuddy-buddies, lovers, enemies (to remove khunnas- tapori style) and also a place where the cutting chai is best enjoyed. Anna’s cutting chai, to be specific. The ‘Anna’ is found everywhere- in colleges, office canteens and in Udipi hotels and I have met many such Annas in my life. And the common dialogue with the Anna, “Anna chai do’, ‘Anna wada garam chahiye’ and ‘Anna paisa kal doonga’.

Katta (The word Katta is repeated too many times and also to make it sound cool, I am referring to it as ‘K’ from now on) sees the rise (!) of many talents. Singers wail here, dancers dance, poets churn out poetry and artists decorate their very own K. The singers get listeners here, dancers get audience and the poets get recognition. Poor K has to bear it all! The K makes a great venue for debaters and ‘orators’ to debate and discuss hot topics and also for the ‘intellectual’ types to hold their intelli-seminars. K essentially should have some kind of a tree around it, so that the K-padeeks can enjoy some cool breeze and if it is a fruiting tree (such as peru or chikoo), eat some fruits when hungry.

My tryst with the Katta is of seven long years- from 11th Std to final year of my post-graduation, I have basked in the glory of the K. I was a very studious (a phenomenon misunderstood by many, looking at my glasses) person and therefore had only an hour or so to spend on the K everyday. In Modern College, where I did my 11th to BSc study, the K was sometimes my classroom and sometimes the corridors, as it was a small college. I had a great bunch of friends so the place didn’t matter. But while in Ranade Institute, where I studied journalism, I had a two hour break between my foreign language lecture and my journalism lecture, so my frequency on the K increased. Also, if our journo lectures were cancelled (which happened most of the times) we would be padeek on the K and do stupid stuff like cracking PJs and harass serious members of the group when studying. My ‘Japanese’ group and I enjoyed some really beautiful moments of fun, timepass and actual work related talks on this K, which had a Christmas tree look-alike tree.

Thank you K, for being the best part of my college life and giving me such wonderful memories and I am sure that many others also thank K for their college memories.

3 comments:

हिनाकौसर खान said...

k mastach ahe kharach kattayashiway college mhnje ashkya...saglya gamatijamati, ruswe fugwe, bhandanasathi..katta hawach...

djoiiii said...

Hey..u forgot to mention one very very important thing we all did in the Ranade K...crack pj's

After all the rise of some of the truly great pj artists, you being the foremost...happened here!

I too have great memories of K....meeting u-know-who, trying to drag patti there, devouring tiffins esp the ones that came from homes, feeding the dogs etc...

Sighhhhh...I miss college...

Vishakha said...

hmm...how can i forget cracking PJs.. i have added it! check out the new improved K... :)