Transient Reflections-Part 2

In Mathematics, every set contains multiple subsets each of which reserves the right to claim exclusivity in its own way. Similarly, certain places don’t just remain places, they become landmarks, capturing the deepest essence of various elements within them.

Enter Jadavpur University through gate number three and on the immediate left you have a stretch of greenery the natural beauty of which contrasts nicely with the oversized red and white building just beside. Only a sweet little pond separates the two.

Prima facie, there is nothing conspicuous about this innocent stretch of green right beside our classroom hall. Forlorn benches are surrounded by dense bushes that dot the sides. As the day progresses, the ‘Green Zone’ as we lovingly call it, takes on a special role. Legend has that this is one of those places where people, who are struck by Cupid’s fabled arrow, flock. The tall trees, the dense bushes and the ever-so-sweet pond combine to provide a paradise where budding young men and women embark on their romantic ventures, both adventures and misadventures. Mother Nature serves to extract their worries onto herself so that her children may graduate in the field of romance. Add some chirping of birds to the idyllic setting, the spectre of soft sunlight pouring down on the cover of green, the clasping of hands and the utterance of the three magic words, and you will have successfully scripted the beginning of yet another Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. While the building on one side of the pond establishes the professional lives of the students of Jadavpur University, the beauty on the other side of it takes care of their personal lives.

The Green Zone is not alone in its mission to unite human souls and in fact has a significant number of colleagues. Many a Raj-Simran love story has commenced within campus and went on to last a lifetime. Many others may not have lasted the setting of the Sun. Cupid has had a symbiotic relation with us. Romance is an inherent part of Jadavpur University. It always has been.

Perhaps, the only place which can throw down the gauntlet to Green Zone, in terms of appeal to couples and would-be couples is the famous ‘jheel paar’.

Stories abound about this place. During working hours, the place is utilized by lovers and friends alike for a quick chat. It is also the place where the Dunhills and the Camels absolve themselves of gender bias. Frequented though it might be during day, the dying light and subsequent nightfall allows it to come out of its cocoon. Silhouetted figures roam here even after dusk. Curious voyeurs peek in while passing by. We have seen boys and girls sitting with hands clasped intimately. We have witnessed women sleeping on the laps of their partners. We have seen love. The hybridisation of romance with the element of unknown lends an eerie romanticism to the jheel paar of night. The stale waters of a still jheel, overgrown with thick weeds which might have entangled many unmindful swimmers in the past, have borne silent witness to countless fresh blossoms of love across ages . The place is in many ways a pointer to the representative lakes of South Kolkata all of which are breeding grounds for love.

What about those who are looking for love, but are yet to be struck by the arrow of Cupid? Do they not deserve a separate space? Or those, who perhaps, never mustered the courage to propose their ‘yours truly’? Jadavpur University, with years of experience, has reserved two special places for them. Milon da’s canteen is to Arts as the staff canteen is to Engineering. The staff canteen, overlooking the union room, is always buzzing with activity, which peaks in the afternoon, during our recess. The place is thronged by various kinds of people, from wannabe Romeos on the hunt for their perfect match, to genuinely hungry people gobbling an egg roll or dipping delicious momos into the mouth-watering and tongue-wavering chutni accompanying them. Many, holding a steel plate on one hand and a half eaten kachuri, folded with aloor-dam on another, ogle to and fro, with flirtatious eyeballs seeking, often in vain, to spot their senorita. Those who are recovering from a recent separation also come, perhaps to bury their memories and drown their sorrow in the fumes of hot coffee or cola, and embark on yet another romantic adventure.

There is another category, the mechanical engineers, who roam aimlessly in the places mentioned, often with a bleeding heart, especially upon seeing couples apparently smitten in love, the reason being an overtly skewed gender ratio in most of the mechanical batches.  To put it simply, they don’t have any girls in their batch. Though it is true that there is an acute shortage of the other gender within the ‘testosterone-charged, oestrogen starved’ campus, nowhere is the situation as dire as the Mechanical Engineering department. Staff canteen, a common meeting ground for all faculties, often gives them a shot at redemption. But, with too many courters and too few girls to court, I don’t think they, apart from the odd guy who almost always manages to sweep girls off their feet, stand much of a chance.

The Curious Case of Gate Number 4

In many ways, Gate Number 4 and Milan Da’s Canteen situated a few blocks away, is the Mount Abu of Jadavpur University. Just as one feels completely cut-off from the murderous desert temperatures of Rajasthan while visiting Mt. Abu in the summer months, similarly a steady walk from Gate Number 1 to Gate Number 4 brings about a distinct transformation in multiple ways. From round-necked tees you come to pyjama-panjabi, from well-combed hair you reach a live beauty parlour. The Arts faculty canteen would be better renamed ‘Smoke Canteen’ such is the rate of cigarette consumption here. You can barely resist the urge to cough incessantly. It is in this area of the campus that you get to witness all the visuals that you do not expect to witness. But it is probably this very place which has resulted in the innumerable Engineering Boy weds Arts Girl for which our dear University is famous. In many ways, the mystery surrounding Gate Number 4 remains unsolved. It will, perhaps, continue to remain so.

In early October, barely after a month I had joined Jadavpur University as a first year ETCE student, one of my new classmates sent me an app request on Facebook. It was of Crushbits, an online app where they entice you with readymade love percentages and you just have to enter names of three people you are fond of. If you fall into the trap, the requester gains knowledge about your ‘crushes’. So this friend of mine requested me to use this app, his chat box shouting out innocence but I politely turned down his offer explaining to him that someone else had sent me the same request four years back and attempts to trick me would definitely meet failure. This small piece of conversation holds significance. Most who come here are almost invariably, geeky nerds, having spent the last two (or three) years solving ‘intricate’ PCM problems (like those which used to have two Albino monkeys climbing four massless, frictionless pulleys without falling down even once) instead of harbouring romantic endeavours. But the brisk transformation of many upon entry into college is something quite outstanding. Now we know that love, and especially unrequited love, can do wonders to nerds.

A story springs to mind. Theirs was a simple love story. Neither was it a Chetan Bhagat flopmaster  blockbuster nor was it as intense as a Vikram Sarabhai-Kamla Chowdhry affair that would give rise to a new institute. An aspiring Mathematician and a future Professor in English joined the University in the same academic year. But their common link was not JU. They had played a common sport for a decade before their entrance into the University. The girl had possessed a liking towards the boy since 2005. Their relationship officially commenced in 2013. Their relationship officially ended in 2014. In this one year, they had even planned how to name their kids. Even as we thought that they were destined to undertake the seven-circle ritual together, everything came to an abrupt halt on New Year eve when the girl’s mother came to know about the relationship and forced her daughter to break all forms of contact with her Prince Charming. The girl played the obedient daughter, swearing on the boy that she had never loved him. We know for a fact that the love is still alive and hope it resurfaces some day, somewhere even if in a completely different context. 

Love can do wonders.

(Jointly written by Soumik Ghosh and Chandrashis Mazumdar, 1^st year ETCE students of Jadavpur University)