Moods of the ConvoHall

The ConvoHall has always mesmerized me...

The very first time I entered it was for the MTech intro and orientation programme...where the very sense of "being there" was awesome.

The next time I remember going there for an HSS exam...huge rows and rows of students writing away merrily (merrily because it was non-tension non-graded (pass/fail) course :-) ) while the fan ad the digital clock ticked away (merrily) :-)

Little did I know that the "merriment" was short-lived (Okay, not exactly "short-lived" - two years to be precise :P - because the next time I saw the ConvoHall, it was in a totally different mood!

Damn serious, damn competitive, damn demanding - December 2010 - Placement season.
I have to agree though that it also became our virtual/pseudo/alternate home...with us spending all our time eating,drinking ,and even sleeping there.

Cut to 18 Jan 2011, almost a month and a half later.
Event : Annual InSync Dance Fest.

When I saw ConvoHall today, boy! Was it different!!
I couldn't even recognize that this was the serious place where we gave the innumerable placement tests at various ungodly hours ranging any time from 5.00 AM to 1.00 AM. This was the very place where we took turns sitting at different rows/blocks so that even if we didn't manage to clear the test, at least we could boast of having viewed the stage from all angles :P (And the no of tests ensured that every one had a fair chance to sit at almost each and every block and row of their choice :P)
This was the very place where we had cribbed about the seats being too far from the desks and how writing in such a scenario was difficult, let alone solving a test paper. And now the same people were dying to grab the same seats!
The same place where the mosquitoes that once troubled us, were no longer an issue
(I remember a friend, during placement tests, saying that you should sit in relatively crowded row so as to minimize the probability of mosquito bites :P)
The place where the ticking of the clock that was SO vital a month back, was nowhere to be heard amidst the cries of "Sheila ki Jawani" and "Get out of your Mind" (All right, there's no ticking - it's a digital clock, but I so wanted to use the phrase for "effect" ):P

The difference in the mood, the people, the lights, the energy was so vast that when the audience burst into applause at the Lavani dance "Mala Jau Dya na Ghari", I could not help but laugh at the irony of how aptly this song captured our sentiments just a month and a half back, at the very same venue and almost the same time as well! All of us were yearning to go back and saying "Ata vajle ki bara" (literally!) after the series of continuous back to back tests that ran long until after midnight.
(For the non-Marathi junta, "Mala Jau Dya na Ghari...Ata vajle ki bara" is a popular Marathi film song meaning "Let me go home...it's past midnight now" )

Seriously, I have never before experienced such extreme and opposite emotions and elements in a single place within such a short period of time !!!


With this also came the realization that in a few months (hopefully) I'll be here once again, albeit for a totally different reason. This time too the emotions will run high, it'll once again be a-once-in-a-lifetime feeling - the Convocation! :-)

I guess every one identifies with the ConvoHall, the one place that is capable of rendering a plethora of emotions - over-awing orientation sessions, inspiring lectures from the very best minds, tensed placement tests, enthu Dance Fests and of course - the ultimate and very solemn - Convocation.

A heartfelt salute to the one place that always makes my heart thump and gives me goosebumps!