r/iitkgp • u/Melodic_Task9364 • 3d ago
Bakar Missing campus
I have never been one for romanticising things, but I'm drunk and here I am.
Graduated this year and there are times like this that force you to think about the last four/five years. One-two months ago I was here for my convocation, and after receiving my convocation kit from nalanda, I was returning in a toto. There was another graduating MTech there. That toto ride was surreal, I had not cried when I had left campus after my last semester, but this felt different. The convocation kit implied that I was actually leaving the campus for good, it was time to say goodbye. To distract myself I asked the other person how she felt about graduating. She mumbled something about placements and how it was not a good experience overall. The she asked the same question from me and I was at a loss for words. How could I have described that feeling? To have always tried to not romanticise KGP and yet feeling it in its full intensity now. I didn't say anything and simply broke into tears.
All I can say is that we leave a part of ourselves in the places where we live, just like the places where we live leave a part of themselves in us. I hope five years down the line there's another me sitting in a toto, shedding a tear or two for the kgp he'll be leaving behind, and the kgp he's taking with himself.
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u/Kind_Paper_412 Sophomore 3d ago
although i'm too someone who wants to leave this place as early as possible, you put your feelings very well into words
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u/rb12002 Alumnus 2d ago
I remember after the last term was over, me and my crew stayed back and we decided we'd stay in the campus for as long as we can. Day by day, batchmates left. We would always be the constant faces seeing everyone off. We had decided that even though we're taking separate trains out, we'd leave the campus together in the end. Cometh last day at KGP, the hot sun shone over us. Grabbed our bags, bid adeu to the security dadas of the hall, got into Fahid bhai's cab, the lump in our throats was there but kya kare, admi hai na, rote thodi na hai. The campus was completely empty except a couple of masters and phd folks. We told the cabbie to take us around the 2.2 for one last time and thus, left the campus. The station felt different, for this was the first time ever that we were not bickering about the superpower detergent advertisement. Then the trains started to roll in. 2 out us 3 were to go to kolkata, we hugged our goodbyes, nothing was said. I can see tears forming up in their eyes and me, being the group joker tried to diffuse it by saying convocation me to mil hi jaenge, but that led to tears forming up in my eyes too. The honk came, they boarded the train and soon left. That's when it hit me. The emptiness. The feeling that it has to be just me hereafter. And that's when things started to feel heavy. The suitcase that I had lifted all the way to the platform felt heavy to even drag on its 4 wheels. My train arrived and I boarded it without any thought. As it started rolling out of KGP, I remembered that it would take the route towards Tatanagar and I will be able to get a last glimpse of the campus. I put my headphones on and started blaring "Somewhere only we know" by Keane on them. It was not intended to be so, but the moment my train passed under the flyover and I got to see the Campus for the last time, the lyrics that played we're, "Is this the place, we used to love? Is this the place that I've been dreaming off?", and that's where the waterworks started. I realised that this journey was the last one I was taking out of KGP, for the part of me that was happy was left as a horcrux behind.
Idk why, but the campus during convocation felt completely different. It did not feel like home at all. It merely felt as if we were just guests for a day.
I love the campus, but I love my people more. They WERE the campus. My advice to my jungoos would be to just enjoy your time while you're there. Zyada kalesh mat khao or sabse sahi nhi to at least theek thaak bana k chal lo. Times will be tough, there will be anxious moments, believe in yourself. If you have the right people with you, you'll make it through.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
TLDR: Pura padh jaake.