Nescafe : The Unsolved mystery

After a fairly long time I was back at my favorite place in my college, the reading room. Don't mistake me for a nerd, but thats the place I have spent most of my time in my P.G college. The magic of this place along with studies is meeting classmates, gossips, chats, watching beautiful girls, debating world issues, criticizing the administration, and yes last but not the least "The Nescafe".

Now the Nescafe is a chain of outlets which serve coffee and Nestle items across India. In my college it had two out lets, near boys and girls hostel respectively. No prizes for guessing which was the more crowded one. Apart from the hot spot for night outing it was also a place where there were informal gathering, birthdays were celebrated and above all you met people, who were never seen in class. Though the mandatory criterion for attending exam is a 75 % attendance in class barely 50% students satisfy it, but when it comes to nescafe, a majority can boast of greater than 100% (taking into account multiple visits in a day). The place was a heaven for couples who could spend hours, holding hands, oblivious of the surroundings, lost in each others eyes.

On the last day of my 1st year, as we were leaving for our summer internship, my group was unanimous over the thing which they would miss the most in Holidays (Nescafe). But suddenly one fine day, the shop was shut, they had packed their bags and left the campus, leaving the student hangout committee in a lurch. Now the only place left is an IRCTC canteen which provides food till 1:00 a.m. Yes after that if you feel hungry only water can help you. The place is an absolute hell with food prices defeating rising Indian inflation and quality as dismal as that of chinese goods. The long queues at the token counter gives an impression that some freebies are being distributed. Couples do not prefer it as it faces one of the most notorious boys hostel. The waiting time reminds you of average litigation period of cases pending in Indian courts. All in all a pathetic place to eat, sit or chat.

On the reasons why the counter was removed from the college there are several conspiracy theories doing rounds in the campus. If I post all of them, they can definitely would make it to the unsolved mysteries of the world. Though none of these appear cogent enough, still they all have their own USPs. The theories also reflect the background of the students in terms of their department. Lets have a look at some of these.

A student from chemical engineering department suggested that Nescafe was caught adding a chemical "spoil brain acid" to its coffee to lower the intelligence of the geniuses bred here. This was a plot by the CIA under the anti immigration policies of OBAMA. Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) exposed this scandal and the counter was shut.
The civil engineering students claimed that high FSI claimed by nescafe for renewing their contract was responsible for this.
The management students (considered outcast and misfit in this institute) as usual decided to crack this case. They first formed a 10 member team to study the possible cause of this incident. Then for the next 5 days they structured the hierarchy and appointed a coordinator, 2 junior coordinators, 3 analysts and 5 data collectors. This was followed by a 15 day deliberation of the research methodology to be used for it. This was followed by a series of meetings at locations like TGIF, Barista and 38 FM lounge for discussing the data gathered. The progress of the case very well imitated the growth of manufacturing companies in recessionary times. This was followed by the coordinator firing 3 data collectors. Every meeting had just a single agends, "discuss the time and place for the next meeting". Finally with the deadline for the project nearing, they all sat on google, and copied all data related to closure of any outlet in an educational institution. The report was compiled and submitted to the institute after 120 days. The report had everything except the reason for the closure of "NESCAFE".

Nostalgia

I m really gonna miss these days

I am gonna miss my college days

This song by 'Gaurav Dagaonkar' is a one which comes too close to the spirit of nostalgia and could have been composed only by someone who really was missing his college life from the bottom of his heart. I heard this song in the farewell function of our class where this was used as background music to a very beautiful video of our college life. Only then did I realise that yes it was finally coming to an end and would never get back these days. The journey which had started four years back on a rainy Sunday morning is now over. The engineering course is divided into eight half yearly semester, and each of them had a different flavor and aroma which is still fresh in my thoughts. The classes, the teachers , the assignments and last but not the least some great buddies, all of them are very difficult to forget.

These four years were characterized by learning in a new environment, loads of fun, chit-chats,time pass and yes some studies. When I joined the course I was not knowing what is Computer Engineering, and I still have no clue in this regard. But this does not mean that I have not learnt any thing in college. I have learnt how to remain awake till 6:00 a.m in the morning just watching movies and playing games, I am now an expert in finishing a 400 page book in a single night, I know how to attempt a paper of 100 marks even though I am not knowing a single question, I can play with deadlines, I know how to manage myself with the money which my father used to send me (by cutting all expenditure related to studies) and much more. Well sure I have changed. I read somewhere yesterday that the one thing constant in life is change and I am in no mood to defy that.

College life was not only about studies (in fact it involved anything but studies) but many other activities. My attendance used to range between 55-65 % in class but at 'NOW and THEN' (a cafe in the back side of campus) it was little less than 100%. Even though many of my teachers refused to recognize me but there was no chai-wala in the campus who was not knowing me. The discussions on the table ranged from international issues line 'war in Afghanistan' and 9/11 to personal issues like how to secure placements with such low aggregate percentage. The other very important agenda of our meeting used to be strategy making for survival to criticizing the system. For each of our problems we used to blame people or organizations. The targets of our blame game ranged from American president Bush to the roadside cigarette wala (for not providing cigarette on 'udhar'). This blame game was the best past time we had (of course other than sitting on net). This was the scene of the life outside class.

Coming to the classes part. A general engineering class resembles a movie hall because the back benches are more in demand then the front ones. In a movie hall we have to pay more to get the rows at the back (like gold , silver etc.), similarly in class you had to pay the price of coming early to the class to bag a back bench. Late comers were forced to sit on the front benches (because the last ones were already occupied) and sitting there they were left with no option but study. Also sleeping on the front benches was difficult than it was on the last ones. But I am an exception to this rule. I hold the record or sitting on the front bench and falling asleep. The incident goes like this, a teacher who considered me a good student was taking class and I was sitting on the first bench. She had kept her text book on my table and was teaching. In the mean while I put my head down on that book and fell asleep. When that page was finished she tried to raise my hand from the page but it had become heavy as I was having a nice nap. Suddenly she pushed me and I woke up highly embarrassed. Well what better can you expect caught by your teacher sleeping in the front. Coming back to engineering classes, the other very important aspect is 'never be on time : it might harm your reputation' . People seldom came to class on time. In fact some time students were so late that professor used to ask them 'beta are u late for this class or early for the next one?'. Still the student next day would unabashedly used to ask may I come in 55 Min's. late.

So this was how these days passed. Although discussing all that happened would generate more text than 7 volume of Harry potter novel. But all said and done college days were the best of my life.