If one were to ask me who was my friend at REC NIT Calicut hostels ..there weren't many. I was friendly with Raghuvaran in the first year and we had to split because he was from Electronics branch. I never really had any cronies for that matter as every singl student of my class was from a disparate social background and some time or period of social learning and unlearning was the order of the day and it took some time..days for some people..months for other ..and years for people like me.
During the early years I used to watch Prem Kumar play cricket in the field and he used to be in my class and that was all..but we teamed up to handle an electrical machines paper through joint study and the study was a huge success and both of us did well at the exams.And incidentally this was the last exam I wrote at REC. We used to study at the first floor room in the D hostel and take occasional breaks for tea but very rigorously going through the course work. He used to use the word "full jolly" once in a while as we went through studying the problems and portions.Prem joined the Indian Navy later.
Why do I remember Prem Kumar after so long. That evening was a moon-lit night and the lights in the hostels had gone off resulting from a power-cut..and from the D hostel I went to the E hostel to bid good bye to Antony Susairaj ..the last official night or evening of mine at REC Calicut..I met another friend Vinod Shetty on the way and came to bid good-bye to Prem..and it was somewhere a touching affair as I found him very emotional..I asked him Prem what happenned? and he said We may never meet again and I could feel how emotional one could become under such circumstances. I could not fully apprehend his conduct that evening bt years later when i looked back on that evening felt sorely I did not respond to the situation on that day with requisite emotion or feeling or sentiment as one might call it. The face of Prem haunted me for several years thereafter and thanks to the Internet I can meet him any time now and reciprocate the emotion he showed that evening.
The process of Education and its challenges at times lead to such affairs and emotional issues and bonding and only some people like us who battled situations in a combined fashion can comprehend fully well the profundity surrounding such issues and had it not been for such hours spent together we would not have got the better of situations and challenges we were plunged into that were truly uphill but with the support and aid and emotion of some well meaning and largely honest people like Prem we not only went uphill and stood at the pinnacle but also got a view of the world from there that was largely wholesome and dear.
