I came to Manipal,

I saw Manipal,

I fell in love with Manipal.

I never came here for the sake of earning name, fame and money. My approach towards life is a bit different… I always plan out well in advance what I want to do, but end up doing what my heart says in an instant. Yes, I live in a ‘fool’s paradise’. And I love it.

Manipal was supposed to happen last year itself. But as it turned out, life had something different in store for me. I dropped the idea of becoming a communication student at the last moment and jumped the bandwagon with my friends and scampered off to the nearest engineering college I felt was far enough from my home. I hated home.

Engineering was not my cup of tea. I knew it long back. Still what propelled me towards wanting to be a computer engineer, still is a mystery to many including me.

After bunking loads of technical data and my dad’s hard earned cash, I decided that it was high time; I start acting like a normal human being and do something which was possible for people of my type.

I had never been to Manipal before. Our ‘Indian Railway’ tickets got washed away (became worthless) with some well-timed, unanticipated rains in Northern India. We flew to Mangalore via Chennai from Kolkata one Sunday morning.

I was happy. My first impression of Manipal was wonderful. It gave me the chance of making my first trip on an aero plane…

It was already pouring cats and dogs when I reached Manipal. The room assigned to me was super! It gave me the impression of being free. At last.

In a couple of days, I was joined by my room-mate and a couple of other friends and we struck off pretty well with each other. Things started moving at a fast pace after college started. I came in contact with some very snobbish, rude, ruthless and depressed personalities. Not that I was not expecting anything of this sort, but that it started making me rather uneasy so early, made me ponder over the authenticity of people joining a communication college and not wanting to interact with each other.

Manipal Institute of Communication (lovingly called MIC) was a cool place to study. The common room, the library, the classrooms… everything seemed rather friendly. Still we had no seenyurs… as of that time, and were pretty high on our testosterones. Enigma, Blue Waters & Sky Lounge happened sooner than it should have been. Malpe beach started to be an everyday hangout.

Suddenly, one day, the calm city of Manipal (as we were all used to its tranquility), burst out with activities. The seniors had returned. Manipal suddenly changed for all of us. Formal dresses, eyes locked on the third button, zero and one degree haircuts, we emerged from our rooms and made a quite queue towards college. Things changed in a couple of days and we became more unperturbed.

Still, the people from our batch were very indifferent, to what they should have been, giving the fact that we were 20 odd guys and around 60 girls… Frankly, a few girls started giving us inferiority complex in a few days. I mean, how you can not notice people at a hand’s distance when they wish you with all the strength of their vocal cords… most of us are still clueless of the special stuff girls are made up of. Guys were no less. Most of us were rather high and mighty. And as usual, I took up the task of bringing some of them down to earth. I was successful in a few odd cases.

Manipal was a dream. And I am living it now hoping it to be happily ever after stuff. Sometimes, a silent prayer goes up from this atheist… God, please help me. I don’t want to screw up this time. I am just hoping to become somebody (believe me, I already am). And as Aristotle had said… hope is a waking dream.

All Smiles & Three Cheers For Manipal!!!