Various facets of life: IITG-class of-2000

I always viewed Clint as a different kind of guy. He would often seem to be with the usual crowd (Vinit, Sandeep, Ajay, Pankaj...), but somehow he seemed to be mentally aloof from all of them. You know what I mean, like bodily there, but lost somewhere else. If among the usual crowd I had to pick one person, who would understand Clint best, I would without hesitation pick Pankaj. Though, I never got close to either, I had this impression that there was some understanding somewhere...
The usual crowd usually hung out together, be it Dhaba, loafing around the hostel, near the Paan ki Dukan, or the campus site.
Those days, I used to be pretty stuck up. Still growing up and getting accustomed to what outside world was like, I used to think Putcha (bond) and Raghu (Heera) were the biggest showoffs of all. Well, I was not totally wrong :) Though, since then I have come to realize that being like heera requires certain strength of will to stand up to ridicule, and yeah of course of a *lot* of confidence (even though you might be greeted with a Jhadoo (broom) from a Kaamwali (maid) :D)
There were some people who were totally rowdy. Come to think of it now, they probably had the most fun while there. By the finaly year, the rowdy crowd had turned majorly piyakkad...
Then there were bunch of us *self-proclaimed-intellectuals*; except Naidu of course, whom we all proclaimed to be an intellectual. To this day, I maintain that I still have to meet someone more intelligent than Naidu. Maybe it is all the respect I have for his cool, "will take care of it when it comes" behavior and "one night cursory look at notes and then cracking Sajith's exam", but it remains there.
First time we went to the campus site, it was a fun time. We had to coax the faculty, the Director and pull quite a few strings before we could pay our first visit. It was a time of elatement and disappointment. Seeing the natural beauty and open atomosphere, we were happy. Alas, the only thing in the name of construction going on there were a couple of land ploughers, flattening the uneven land.
Mealtime in hostel was a very busy affair. Remember the thatched roofs? Remember the lunch on the platform on bamboo poles, standing over a pond. There was much competition for Roti. And of course, the Omelette...
Projects, presentations and exams were busy times. Deba used to be in high-demand. I never cease to be amazed at the capability at which Deba could read, understand and assimilate stuff in an extremely short duration. Of course, this benefit was available to all who cared to attend his last-minute salvation tutoring. Coming out of the exam though, except for a few fanatics (ahem, one name starts with Jh****), everyone used to feel like "Bhaad me jaye, khatam hua, chutti hui".
We saw the campus from just a mere site, to when the tina-tapara came up and finally when diro ka bangla kame up...Let the posterity know, we were there, we were the pioneers of iitg.
Waiting for the bus was a strictly non-deterministic job. Sometimes the bus would be early, sometimes it would be late. Sometimes we made the driver wait till so late that he would just go nuts and threaten to leave with whatever students he had. But the second bus never left the hostel 15 minutes before the class (it was more than 30 hrs drive from the hostel to the class).

Then, when the tina-tapara came up, it was hard luck if you missed the bus. You had to take a local bus (read: stuff match-sticks in a match-box), get down at PaanBazaar and catch a ferry to the other side. Some of the ferries were of dubious floatability, but what the heck... You only live twice!

When the classes were not there in the North-Guwahati campus (or when we did not feel like attending classes; a condition prevalent after lunch), we sat outside the classrooms, found a shady corner, had a little gup-shup (chit-chat) or just dozed.
Then there were various facets of life at hostel, college, roaming around, or becoming the bakra (like Meel!). It was fun time. It was actually zootime. There were people who would try to intellectualize (participate in dramas, go visit places) and then there were people who would go crazy watching cricket and the neighbor would come out with a gun...People would do daarubaazi all night, or just plain get rowdy.