ACJ revisited
Vineeth, Neo and I headed past the light-house, the Marina swollen with enthusiasts braving the hot sun, slurping on ice-cream and raw mangoes. Once on Wallajah road, the familarity of Triplicane police station to the right and the row of fancy stores to the left has my heart jump in anticipation.I have rubbed rubber on this road a thousand times before, but this time it's different. Once inside the campus, we proceed diffident and docile to find Yolanda offering us a weak smile. Weak because I half expect her to spring out of her seat and start clapping her hands in obvious delight. We engage in polite conversation, she informs us quickly that none of the faculty are in today, it being Ganesha festival and all. She glances at the clock, she has twenty minutes before she can head back home. Understandable that.
I go over to the notice board, a new list of 87 names, names without faces and conversations attached to them. ACJ, feels like a home coming after a long journey and finding a stranger stretched on your favourite sofa and swapping channels. Enter the second floor loo, the pungent stench of phenol and fresh pee swamps my nose. Some things never change.
The library now, Neo, Vineeth and me head out in different directions, they want a look-in on their dissertations, I wander to the newspapers. "Hi, come here," two men in left-hand corner of the library beckon. "Are you an old student,"
"Yeah, I am,"
"Shhhhhhhh" I suddenly realise the library is deathly quiet and everybody is buried in their books. They then ask questions about my job, designation, salary, faculty, assignments, dissertation and the like. I answer nonchalantly, now since I am a bona fide journo and not some sales person who's had a quarter-life crisis with an ambition to be a journo. Yessir I even have a card and a pay check to prove it. I point to Neo and tell them," He's the one, has answers to all your questions, all the best,"
There's a crowd around Neo, he's a legend already, there are talks about not wanting to wash hands after they have shaken Neo's. A quick smoke at cancer corner ensues, we hear this story about how this girl and her buds got their wallets stolen in Pondi.
We head back with no tale to tell.