English Literature – Memoir ☆ दस्तावेज़ # 38 ☆ 50 Years Later: A Walk Down My College’s Memory Lane  ☆ Shri Hemant Tarey ☆ 

Last week, I was at my home town, Ratlam in connection with Mahalaxmi Pujan.

It so happened that on the way to Ratlam, while talking to my wife, about my childhoid, School, & College days in Ratlam, it suddenly occurred to me that I passed out with my M.Sc. degree from Ratlam college in 1975 and today we are in 2025. Hollyshit, that means it translates to 50 years when I attended the Ratlam college last. With this new found thought, I resolved to myself that I am going to visit my college by stealing few hours out of my short stay at Ratlam. I was thrilled at the idea that I would be seeing for myself as to how the college building looks like after 50 years of my last day in the college.

My younger brother, who also graduated from the very same college, accompanied me on my sojourn to the College and no sooner we stepped into the College campus, memories started to unfold, one after another. On my right was Two wheeler stand where good number of Scooters, Motor cycles etc were lined up as contrast to those good old days, when right at the same spot we used to park our Cycles. This area those days was designated as Cycle stand (as opposed to Two Wheeler Stand) for the simple reason that the area used to be cramped with cycles only those days 😁.

We walked few steps further and soon we were walking along the college main building. With an intent to savour beauty of my college as I glanced at the building I was saddened to see many- many flex posters pasted on the walls, all of which read “ABANDONED”. I almost fainted to see these posters, as I had never imagined that my eyes would meet any such writing on the college walls which would make me almost cry. I continued walking with my brother towards Science Block which used to house Deptt of Physics and Chemistry in our days of yore. I was really praying and saying to myself that I am not going to see any more such ugly posters on the walls of Science Block of the college. My heart was pouncing as we reached the block, my frightened eyes scanning the walls of the science block and hopping that eyes don’t meet the poster which I hated most to look at. I was lucky, though the walls of the Science Block showed signs of wear and tear and having suffered vagaries of weather, fortunately, there were no ugly posters which I had seen few minutes ago on the walls of the Arts and Commerce Block of the College. I entered the Departmed of Chemistry which hosted my two years of M Sc. i.e. 1974- 75 and 1975-76. While strolling the alley ways of the Department, I relived two years of my M.Sc., my days with classmates, the Professors, the Laboratory, the girls 😜 and visits to Samosa shop of Sahu. We also took a stroll of the Department of Physics where we met 2- 3 faculty and HOD of Physics. All of them welcomed us and were surprised to see a student of the Department of Chemistry who passed out in 1975. When we talked about the frightening and ugly “ABONDENED” Posters on the walls of the Arts and Commerece wing of the college, they could feel the emotions we were passing through and consoled us by saying that just 800 meters away new building for Arts and Commerce faculty has since been erected and from this academic session itself, this building will start housing classes for Arts and Commerce students.

After taking tour of the Alma mater and reliving the nostalgia to the hilt, we left the premises and started our journey back home.

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© Hemant Tarey

मो.  8989792935

≈ Editor – Shri Hemant Bawankar/Editor (English) – Captain Pravin Raghuvanshi, NM ≈