Nammuru…mysooru - 5

ಎತ್ತಿಲ್ಲದ್ ಬಂಡಿಗಳೂವಿ, ಎಣ್ಣಿಲ್ಲಧ ದೀಪಗಳೂವಿ ತುಂಬಿದ್ ಮೈಸೂರಿಗ್ ಬಂದೆ
ದೊಡ್ಡ್ ಚೌಕಾದ್ ಮುಂದೆ ದೊಡ್ಡ್ ಗಡಿಯಾರದ್ ಹಿಂದೆ 'ಫಟ್' ಅಂದಿದ್ ಬುತ್ತಿನ್ ತಿಂತಿದ್ದೆ...
-- ಕೋಳಿಕೆ ರಂಗ, ಟಿ. ಪಿ. ಕೈಲಾಸಂ
May 03 2005…..I packed my bags & landed in mysore. I guess till then I had not realized what is home sickness. I don’t remember being emotional when I left shimoga… But I guess I was when my dad left a day after. May 05 2008 was my first day @ GTTC. New faces to meet, new friends to make & new place to adjust. Within a week I knew how much I am missing my home, my parents, my sisters & brother… & my friends. I started realizing that this "away from home" saga is not going to be short. I guess I went really quite for sometime, which was unusual for my uncles & auties. But they knew what I was going thru.
Collage was fine… but evenings were getting miserable. Had no friends near home & spending time in evenings was really hard. All my cousins were just kids & they were no match for me..! I always used to remember Manu, Guru, Ramu, Suma, Venu… & others. For the first time in years, I started writing letters..!! Started visiting libraries in weekends & developed this reading habbit. Sunday morning got reserved for chamundi hills walk…(which I am missing now..!) By staying away from home, of course I missed my home, but I learnt lot of lessons..! As Calvin's dad says (in Calvin & Hobbs comics) "it builds character"..! I cannot deny that.
Collage was different story altogether. Strict timings & that too in shifts, more shop work than theory, no canteen breaks when we want, no bunking classes etc. But I cannot complain about this. I knew all about this before joining & I would say I was kind of enjoying it…! Arun, Gowda, Sunil, Mohanbabu, Joshi, Prasad, Saju & many more were 'added' friends now. And of course, Suma was in mysore for her postal training. We used to meet weekly once atleast.
It took 2 months for me to get a vacation & go back to shimoga. I went to visit friends @ Sahyadri collage, had kashaya & vada @ collage canteen & also attended nataraj's sir's physics class with Manu & Guru…! :) It was easy to catch all friends @ collage itself. So whenever I used to visit shimoga, I used to go to Sahyadri… to have fun..!