As you enter the gate of my college

As you enter the gate of my college, you find a huge old fashioned building on your left: square rooms, unbarred windows running through the entire width of each, yellowing walls, threadbare, useless curtains (useless because no one ever draws them. In fact, they are mercilessly mauled into knots and squeezed between the window and its ever-open glass doors.) as you reach the end of this building, a mini-entrance marked by steel bars will welcome you to the main campus. Four or five steps, and you’ll see this beautiful ancient huge tree that you’ll instantly fall in love with. You’ll later learn that indeed you are not the first one smitten by it. Generations of XLers have lived their life about the tree, have dedicated their imagination and creativity to it, have lovingly named it Bodhi Tree,and have named the college band after it too.

This Bodhi Tree stands at cross roads: you can now take a turn to your left or right, or continue moving straight. We’ll move straight.

To your right shall be a blue building with a strange blue color which will stand out even after you have looked at it for almost 15months. You’ll know immediately that it hads to be a building of importance. And within a few days, you’ll be walking inside its dark, narrow, unlit, old-fashioned alleys to meet the Dean, give quizzes and exams, attend endless, meaningless, useless PPTs, submit assignments, negotiate for marks, and of course, the biggest of all, Summers and Placements.

But we are walking on the path outside, on the left side of which will lie your favourite spot of XLRI: JLT. It shall be green, fresh, inviting, beautiful and romantic. This is what will make one of the top B-Schhols of india a true blue (or green) college, with childish desires and youthful hearts.

At the end of JLT, you’ll take small left turn, and immediately, a small right turn. And you’ll be floored by how the campus looks more and more beautiful with each additional step. There shall be greenery everywhere. Hedges, trees, shrubs and manicured lawns will simply take your breath away. And they’ll comtinue to do so forever. They’ll forever compel you to walk this road dozens of times a day, slowly, everytime savouring its breathless beauty.

As you walk further on, and begin to wonder that you’ve entered an enchanted college from a medieval fantasy book, you see this strange building. It’ll be four stories high. It’ll be gray in colour. It’s top floor wall will be made of black tinted glass. You’ll gather your thoughts for a second, and wonder why the building looks strange? Aren’t all building today like that? And then you’ll remember. It looks strange because a “today’s normal building” has no place in the enchanted college from a medieval fantasy book that you are currentky strolling in.

As the days pass by, you’ll come in terms with one thing: that you’ll never come in terms with the sheer natural beauty of this place. It’ll strike you everytime as new, compel you to look at it for the second time, to wish the moment would just linger on forever. It shall be the same with this building. You’ll be striken with its strangeness, or rather, strange out-of-place-ness everytime you pass by it. One reason for that, of course, would be its enticing spiral staircase fenced by black iron rodson both sides, making it look like a multi-spiral, a mysterious object tugging your attention.

One fine evening (evenings in this place seldom turn into night. It’ll be evening till about 1 or 2 am, and then suddenly it’ll be morning!), when you’ll have finally delivered the deliverable of your running term, and when all your best buddies would’ve left for the sweet comfort of home, and when you’ll finally have time to sleep, you’ll decide to climb those spiral stairs. As you’ll reach the terrace, you’ll wonder why you don’t do it more often. As you land on the terrace, you’ll scold yourself for not doing this often. And as you leave several minutes later, you’ll resolve to do it more often.

Everything about that terrace would be wonderful. The clouds in the reach of your fingers. The gray smoke or Tata Motors made orange by the orange lights of Tata Motors. The black chimneys looking innocent and lonely. The twinkling stars. The vast expanse. The bird-view of entire city. The bird-view of your college. The soft, cool, refreshing, rejuvenating breeze. The belief that you can fly. The belief that I can fly.

I may have suffered some of the lowest moments of my life in this place. But it has taught me to accept myself, to love myself, to fight for myself, and to never say die. I can fly. Yes, I can fly.