Every now and then, flashes of memories come to me, inducing in me a curious state of daydream. It seems just the other day that I had jumped with euphoric joy having qualified in the merit list of NUJS. I was in the midst of my ISC Board Exams, with my most dreaded subject scheduled for the next day - Chemistry. The feeling of a dream come true is unparalled. I also knew that I had saved myself a lot of worries by cracking the first ever entrance test that I wrote. I thought that the rest of my Boards would go for a toss, but thankfully my grades were good.
Those few months after my class XII Boards were pure joy. Leisurely happiness, mixed with eager anticipation for the new life kept me quite busy. I still remember the first day - 31st May 2004. I came for the Orientation Programme with my parents, where I was too busy looking around and hence didn't pay much attention to thethen Vice-Chancellor Prof B S Chimni warning us about the heavy workload to be encountered from from day one. I was allotted room 103 in the hostel, the first of a number of such rooms made home by me. After settling me comfortably in my room, my parents returned and for the first time, I spent the night away from them.
Those first few weeks of law school were terrible. I had absolutely no idea of what was happening around me in and outside class. Law per se was till then absolutely foreign to me, having prepared almost zilch for the entrance test. So it was scary seeing those guys in class rattling off all answers, having gone through coaching from LST etc. They all seemed very confident and knowledgable about the courses and I felt that I was extremely dim-witted!
A subject which I particularly struggled with was Economics. The two semesters packed in a whole lot of fundamentals within limited class hours. Coming from a science background and having no aptitude for it, god only knows how I managed to pass.
I still remember how shocked I was to hear the teacher talk of homosexuality, romance, gay rights and what not, openly in class. Slowly, my conservative perspective changed and I stopped being shocked at the frankness of law school.
Ah! how can I forget that sad incident of having to cut my long hair short. Since the time I stopped being a complete tomboy with cropped hair, I have always worn my hair at least mid-back length. It was the most favourite of myself. The Salt Lake water of NUJS hostel wreaked havoc with it and I started losing my precious possession in no time. I got it cut shoulder length and since then I have never tried growing it any longer. Reason? Well, it so turned out that it suited me! So much for those initial pangs of loss!
And then there were those "positive interaction" sessions with seniors in hostel. It's never called ragging in NUJS; and rightly so. They were fun and great ways to know our seniors. Though I myself can't forget the fact that I was asked to sing Kokhon tomar asbe telephone infront of everybody. Surprisingly, all of them endured it very bravely :-)
As I write this now, I remember how I asked a teacher which year she belonged to! She must have been extremely pleased to know that at her age, she looked like a student!
My first semester result was a blow. I didn't expect very high marks, considering my various distractions, but when people around me generally got much more, I felt a little sad.
The first year also gave me some great friends. It's strange how I interacted with most of my batchmates but struck a chord with only a few. Even fewer of them remained my friends for the rest of the five years of my stay in college and I will always treasure them.
The best part of my first year was thefact that we completed the first set of all five batches in NUJS. It feels great to be a part of both the start and the continuation and the end of an era.
At the end of this post, I just feel I relived the whole of 2004-2005 in a span of 20 minutes.
