CHANGE

I reached the Surat railway station from my home by the early morning train as I have been doing on a few weekends of the last four years. I get out of the railway station, and am swarmed by a group of auto drivers, a normal sight, them trying to poach you for the maximum amount of money they can. The firs autowaala came to me “Sir kidhar jaana hain? Kribhco, L&T, Reliance?”

I was left baffled by the question. Usually, they used to guess it right, all these three years, they used to guess it correctly, SVR, they used to say (a “colloquial” term for the SVNIT, Surat). What happened, how were they considering me as a professional at these companies instead of the student at “aapdu svr”?

My clothes didn't tell it for sure..... a pair of faded jeans and a t shirt are definitely not what the executives roam around in.
Have the four years of college life done it to me finally?

Do I no more look like a student?
Have I lost the so called innocence?
The four years of college life, showed me many things.
Many firsts, many lasts, many lessons learned, a lot taken from the past four years.

The first slap on your face during the ragging period, the first slap given during the ragging period, the first puff of smoke (and I swear my last), the first sip of alcohol in the dying days of these four years. It’s all changed a lot.

An introvert, who never really had any friends, who never really spoke out, who was shy of girls, by the time he completed the 12th grade, was totally different now!

Now he was almost an extrovert, though still the introvert's hidden somewhere deep within. Now he speaks out and lashes out at each and every small thing.
Girls! Now, they are after him!! No don’t get me that ways…

They are after him, because he abuses them left right and center, accuse the girls!

There have been stray cases, I don’t deny.
Well, respect is ought to be earned, that doesn’t come by virtue of just being of the sex you are of, argue I; I don’t abuse all of them, always, do I?
i give immense respect to the ones, whom i feel, deserve it, be it a girl, a guy, a professor or even a beggar.

One more change that i notice in myself is that, I no more can act nice, either I am nice, or I am not!
Some things change for good, some for bad; I dunno how to classify the above!

So have many things!
But does it really show to outsiders?
Even a rank outsider like an autorickshaw vaala can even recognize it!

Life has changed and so has my perspective towards it.