Vivid images of that day still flash through my mind. It is one of those moments of life that one doesn’t forget so easily. It’s a moment that stopped me from scoffing others when they got reminiscent of their first days. I used to find it extremely silly how people get so attached to memories of their first days at school, college, work, whatever. Surely, in the following months and years that they spent at the place there would be much more precious memories to cherish? Then why the undue importance given to the first day?!
But it is now that I understand that the best thing about the first day is the newness. You know nothing about the place, the people, the culture. Like a puppy just opening its eyes you sniff the air tentatively… looking for familiar smells or tempting smells at least. You are brimming with hope for a superlative experience and are anxious to fit right in immediately. You want to make a mark and you want a fond mark left on you. Ah! It’s a feeling that beats all else. It is the one moment of pure innocent emotion that you feel in your whole span in the place. For once you ‘fit right in’, nothing seems nice enough, nothing excites you enough and everything around is just a bother! Your friends of that first day become the banes of your life and you don’t feel that hopeful about the situation any more!
Which is why I remember my first day at RAIT so well. Every step I took that day is etched well in my mind. After all the harrowing admission processes I was relieved to have secured a place in RAIT. And I did hear a lot about the college before I entered. So that just added to my trepidation! Though I admit, a lot of what I heard, sounded really good… but that just made me anxious as to whether it’s good enough for me?! Hehehe… you know how it feels! Just plain anxious about the future… after all, I was about to spend four whole years here! And I was hoping for the best and fearing the worst! Oh! The one piece of loose talk that really got me excited was the ragging phenomenon! I was actually looking forward to getting ragged!! Yeah, my parents thought I was mad too… So when I came to college the first time as an inmate for the orientation, my eyes, I’m sure, darted around here and there like a jumpy squirrel’s and I began to size up the situation. Hmmm… it didn’t look bad but yeah, not as good as I heard. Well, maybe, the best was yet to be seen. Obviously a couple of hours in the college wouldn’t show me everything, would it? And then I saw my seniors prowling the corridors and hid a smile! Maybe, now the action would begin….
Alas, that wasn’t to be. I had to wait for college to start before I was to be given that particular pleasure! And start it did. With quite a bang! I entered my classroom, habitually late, and could literally feel a couple of dozen pairs of eyes on me. Felt quite grand, I must admit. It was assurance that everyone out there was equally excited about the start of a, ahem, four whole years. Soon I got talking with a couple of people around me and began to find my friends. Interspersed between these highly absorbing duties of mine, lectures were being conducted and students were being periodically abducted! But the abduction seemed to have stuck only to the boys so far. Almost all the girls in the class with me didn’t seem particularly excited by the concept of ragging. Scared and shot on nerves would describe their emotion best. And there I was acting all big and ‘bindaas’ telling them to chill and relax because it can’t be that bad. We lasted till the break unharmed. And just as I was giving another sermon on staying calm to my classmates I hear a voice, ‘ hey you two, come with us’. Aha! My turn at last! The girl I was picked with, was terrified by the call! And I was jumping around like an excited young boy about to go watch his first ball game live! Well, I haven’t exactly ever learnt to keep my mouth shut so I was happily ‘chatting’ with my seniors, actually throwing a few questions their way while my classmate looked on in anxiety! Well, the ordeal lasted about an hour and I must admit the sight of this huge whole bunch of seniors sitting together did unnerve me a bit so I resorted to my favorite escape route- laughter! Though that didn’t go down well with them and they kept asking me to do forfeits for laughing in front of my seniors, eventually they had to give up! My laugh outlasted all their stupid dares! I thoroughly enjoyed myself and found myself a couple of more friends in the seniors! Truly, getting ragged proved to be the best ice-breaker ever! My poor classmate’s nerves couldn’t take the action that first time but then on she began to enjoy the small encounters herself! After all, it DOES add that whole new extra spice to college life, doesn’t it? Well, life after that lunch break was quite monotonous for the rest of the day but I had gathered enough gossip for my friends back home! And that was my first day at college… Quite eventful no doubt and absolute fun!! I definitely do look back at it with a lot of affection and kinda wish that day would come back in my life! Life in college after that day has been quite a roller coaster with amazingly funny moments coupled with some extremely heartening and some downright disgusting moment. All in all, my anxiety on the first day achieved little purpose as I have settled comfortably into a culture that has the best recipes of life- happiness, sadness, anger, and every other emotion rolled into one. But nothing could, can, and ever will beat the thrill of my first day in college!
