Every day I walked from Bus stop to the Business School and from the Class rooms to the Library, on a pathway laden with fallen yellow flowers from trees in full bloom. Morning sunrays struggled to enter the thick foliage, afternoon heat dissipated in the soothing breeze from the thick vegetation all around, making us doze off almost.
At recess, girls and boys of our class invariably met under the “Greenwood Tree”, someone would bring coffee, someone would buy samosas and someone would steal from the plate. The Professor routinely cast his chiding glare on the decadent students of Management; he was worried we would not get jobs in a stagnant economy. But his hopes would revive witnessing our business grabbing skills at hand. He would not lecture on International Marketing or on Consumer Behavior but let us dig in making short pitches while walking up the verandah or on the stroll towards Canteen.
At a distance, the clock tower at the Physics Department, guarded by the statue of the first Nobel Laureate in Physics, an alumnus of College affiliated to the University- showed the exact time. No one needed to check the clock, because the University Bus arrived with mathematical precision announcing the time when the next batch of girls from the Ladies Hostel would all clamber out. Heads would turn to study the latest fashion walk on display. MBAs would of course, have to know the consumer behavior. The Professor understood our keen interest in observing trends in ladies apparel.
The class rooms were never air-conditioned, fans attached to high ceiling hardly whirred. The wafting fresh air from the sea coast needed no stirring. It cooled the class rooms full of hot discussions- Elections, Games Theory or Peter F Drucker. More than Phillip Kotler, Drucker was the favorite of the Professors. They told if the foundation was strong, the power of knowledge would remain intact for ever. It’s nearly 30 years since I left the University. I could flick through the pages in my mind book like it was yesterday.
The aqua marine blue waters of the sea, the salubrious and whispering woods never made any other City looked so beautiful. It was lush green to make every visitor from other places go green with envy.
The visuals never left my memory. The lessons never let me down in my career cruise or knowledge quest. My University was the most alluring one; I would not have traded those times for any Ivy League term. Yes, it’s past tense. It was beautiful, till one day the weather God decided he too should teach us a lesson or two – of what Destiny is all about. He blew away with horrible savagery, to fell almost every tree in the sprawling South Campus.