A Trip Down Memory Lane.

Recently I was at Mount Carmel College for campus recruitment. It was a post lunch half a day activity that I had completely forgotten about. When I got to work that day and the recruitment team coordinator called, I rushed through my work and started at 2pm.

The drive to the college took a good 45 minutes and was largely uneventful. When we got there, the day was just ending for the college and the girls were spilling out..sitting on the drive, heading home.

I became unabashedly nostalgic. I lived on Cunningham road and had attended class for 11th and 12th std in MCC.

Nothing much had changed at first glance. I caught snatches of conversation. "Most famous model in Europe..", "...lousy movie...", "...Classes...", "...missed lunch?..?", "..grab something...", "...I am going by auto, you?"... and so on. The drive was the same. The main office was still there. The home science building was still there... There were a fleet of "women's special" BMTC pushpak buses waiting to take the ladies home.

Then I looked closer and saw Fatima hall had been rebuilt. The main audi was demolished - apparently a huge auditorium with state of the art facilities, AC et al, will open. A new hall - 3 floor tall - called Jubilee hall had been built. The hostel was demolished. A new hostel building was being constructed in its place. I also heard that the home science department will be demolished and rebuilt.

Mobile phones are apparently banned on the campus. Carmelites have to adhere to a dress code now. The college is autonomous and is seeing a huge inflow of UGC grants that explains the construction frenzy.

I spoke to a teacher who was incharge of coordinating with us and she said UGC grants also meant that the teachers are earning much better now. At the same time, the annual scheme is replaced with a semester scheme and each department has to come up with extra credit courses. Teachers now have to teach upto 120 students at a time in popular courses, in addition to crafting these credit courses.

There are many new courses now - computer application related, travel management, business management and so on. The pressure is telling on the older lecturers quite a few of whom have opted for voluntary retirement with a decent pension under the UGC scheme.

The college was as clean as it was when I was studying there. The canteen is still there - serving the same burgers, pizzas and pastry puffs with diluted sauces. All departments have a noticeboard. Many chartpaper based posters adorn the walls - talking about successful young folks world over, about debit cards, about some business achievements, about some competitions, cultural festivals around the city. There was also a "radioactive campaign" on called "Toilet Bachao". :)

The new buildings are big and spaciously built. May be nostalgia, but I did think the spirit of the college was intact. The girls seemed the same - young, beautiful, full of hope and spirit.

I am so happy I visited college. I wish I can do that sometime again with my Mount Carmel gang - A, B, P and Y.