Days of Romance-St.Xavier's College,Kolkata

Time and Tide waits for none.
It seems just the other day when I walked into my 1st year classroom at Xavier's College, Kolkata. I was timid in my school days and more importantly had very little acquaintance with the opposite sex. The idea of a college made me nervous and more so since I was about to join a department which took pride not only on the scholars it produced but also on the beauty that it ensured on campus :). Yup I am an alumnus of the department of Economics. However by the end of my first day most of my apprehensions subsided.
My experiences in Xavier's have instrumented many changes in me which has left me more confident and determined. This phase witnessed few of the significant events in my life which has initiated many changes in me. I felt like a student to life and the experiences that taught me so much. I have learnt greatly also from the long conversations (called adda in Kolkata) which I had with my batch mates, both on the subject of Economics and on perception of life. This makes me nostalgic of the famous green benches of my college. Almost every day after college hours we used to sit on those green benches surrounded by trees and discuss the past, present and the future. Those days were intellectually stimulating, sipping on a cup of tea and taking a long walk down the path which leads to the back gate of the college, I dreamt thought learnt.

It was during my days in Xavier's that I came across some of the writings of Shelley,Owen,Keaths,Robert Browning, Shaw and Wordsworth. I was greatly moved by their love for nature and the power to perceive and appreciate the beauties surrounding us. It’s fascinating to read the Ode to Skylark and Ode to the West Wind where Shelley tries to appreciate and learn from the qualities of a skylark and the revolutionary power in a West Wind. I thought about them during my long walks along the trees and sometimes beside the lush green playground that overlook the college. Like Shelley,Robert Browning was another poet whose writings moved me greatly. His philosophy that we live half our life on earth and the other half in heaven is core to most of his poems. He celebrates the murder of a mistress in hands of her lover by justifying that her lover wants to make this last moment of love an everlasting moment. In Last Ride Together, the lover will ask his mistress for a last ride before she departs from him. But little she knows that her lover wants to make this ride an everlasting ride and the fact that she dies makes him believe that even the Gods are approving of their love. Each time I read these poems I somehow sympathize with the lover even after his act of cruelty.
Those were the Days of Romance- Romance with Economics, with Poetry, with Nature, with Power and with a girl too. Romance with Power came when I stood for the general elections contesting for a post in the college union. I was already chosen a class representative during my 2nd yr and wanted to make it to the general body of students union. Surprisingly I won the election and had my first taste with power. Even though Students Union at Xavier's was non-political we had our own politics. Not to say it helped me even a bit to frame my political ideologies, but it was a challenging journey.
Today 3 years after graduating from College, I wish I had a time machine and go back to those days of bliss. I never understood the many people who used to tell me how much I would miss the college days, I guess I can understand their views now.

Proud to be a Xaverian