Why do we have to grow up?

Last night, I was going through my old college albums- and flashes of memories came to my mind. The college katta, picnics, the so-called study tours, the sleepovers… and unknowingly, tears rolled down my eyes. I so miss those days! Sometimes, I wonder why do we have to grow up? Can’t we remain school kids or teenagers? The only fear in our mind at that age was about exams and project. We didn’t have to face the ‘real big bad world’.

When travelling by trains, I see these small kids going to their native places with their uncles, aunties or grandmas, grandpas and I relive the moments when my granddad would pick up my brother and me from Pune and we would travel in an ASIAD bus to Mumbai. We would irritate people near us by making funny noises, arguing with each other. The bicycle rides, eating kulfi, ice creams and golas, and going sightseeing with grandparents…I miss it all.

From those memories I suddenly moved on to my college days- the three golden years of bachelors’ college. I did my BSc from Modern College in Pune and just loved the three years I spent there. I would go ala Bryan Adams and say, ‘Those were the best days of my life!’ The boring and interesting college lectures….in the boring ones we would usually doze off or play tic tac toe type games. We at Modern College would pass our time in the breaks by eating the dabbas we would get from home. Sitting near the college corridors, checking out some cute guys (there were hardly any in my college), completing journals…I miss it all.

College trips, actually study tours was one of the annual events we would look forward to. Wearing the best attire in our wardrobes we all would reach before time at college only on these special occasions. Our favourite activities while travelling- playing antakshari or even dancing on the tunes of ‘Kajra re’! Going to study tours with no intention of studying was a common feature of us Modernites.

Another annual event that we would look forward to was our annual gathering. The practice routine for dance performances and plays would start a month in advance but the ‘actual’ practice would start only a week in advance. Couples would make the most of this leisure time to spend time together. Ours was the only college in which we had individual gatherings for each class! And the best class performance would be awarded. The whole classroom would come decked up in traditional attire as we would have one of the ‘days’ on this special occasion.

I so miss my college and my friends….the sleepovers, the treks we took together….all the fun seems to be ruined in this worthless ‘job’ era. I wish I had a time machine which would take me half a dozen years back to relive those moments again….