टर्रम-टू

I picked up a piece of papaya from my breakfast plate, but my hand got stopped in half way.

“In those days, it was like a dream to be here” I said, looking at the ceiling of the grand dining hall.

“Hmm… now your dream came true, but there are no friends around…” my colleague responded to my feelings.

I was living the dream called, ‘Hotel Kanha Shyam’.

Yes, I was on an official trip to Allahabad for two days and was very excited as we were about to start for TeliarGanj from Civil Lines.

There were lot many obstructions on the way from NOIDA to the Main Gate of the college. The worst being the cancellation of our Delhi-Allahabad direct flight after one hour of its scheduled departure time (obviously, only Maharaja Airlines can do this). We somehow managed to get 4 seats in a SpiceJet flight to Varanasi and reached Allahabad by surface transport from there.

I was not feeling comfortable in travelling in an all-window-closed AC Innova on the roads of Allahabad. I felt like jumping off the car and catching a Vikram at Bank Road crossing. I needed to read through the wall to confirm if we are at right place when Government security force stopped us at newly constructed gate of the college campus named ‘Ganga’ at Teliarganj.

After we started our official work at Graphics Hall, I got a chance to re-visit many of those memorable things which none of the MNNITians can ever forget.

“We don’t have much time, make sure you come back in half an hour” my colleague advised me as I grabbed my camera and took along Prashant, a final year student, with me.

I wanted to live each moment of those four years once again, but I had only half an hour!

To start with, I rushed towards the main lobby on the ground floor. Big pictures of inaugural ceremony (by Pt. Nehru and Shastri Ji) have been replaced with smaller once now. There is a completely new building in front of the main building (the place where we used to line up after our evening classes for first 15 days of first year). “This is new admin block” Prashant told me.

I moved towards left. “Where is PanditJi ki canteen? It used to be here only, right?”

“Yes, but they removed it during the construction of admin building”. The other college canteen has been occupied by BikanerWala.

Design centre… Seminar Hall (venue of Historical Kavya Sandhya)… computer centre (created my first e-mail id here) … lecture hall complex… management block… gymkhana… I thought of a lecture in GS rooms after 5 minutes and started walking very fast. Prashant was almost running to match the speed. With all my thanks to Prashant for this wonderful journey, let the pictures tell rest of the story…

Allahabad Trip at Facebook

"यार मुझे गुड़गाँव जाना है। जाऊं, कुछ पंगा तो नहीं होगा?"
"पंगा? तुमने समझ क्या रखा है। बाहर वो कोई दंगाई या आतंकवादी थोड़े ही हैं, हम तुम लोग ही तो हैं!"
"नहीं वो कहीं मैट्रो वेट्रो ना बंद करा दें"
"क्या बात कर रहे हो भाई। यहाँ लोग दिल्ली में जाने कहाँ-कहाँ से [रामलीला] मैदान की फ्री बस और ऑटो सर्विसतक दे रहे हैं। उल्टा वहां तो ज्यादा से ज्यादा लोगों की जरूरत है। मैट्रो रुकने का तो सवाल ही नहीं उठता!"

"गांधी फिर से जी उठे जागा देश महान,

शान्ति अहिंसा की ताकत का फिर से मिला प्रमाण।"

मुझे याद पड़ता है कि कॉलेज के तृतीय वर्ष में वार्षिक सांस्कृतिक महोत्सव के दौरान एक वाद-विवाद प्रतियोगिता में विषय दिया गया था- 'क्या गांधी जिन्दा हैं?' बहुत ही आशावादी स्वभाव का होने के बावजूद मैंने विषय के विपक्षमें बोलने का निर्णय लिया। वर्त्तमान समय में गाँधी के सत्य-अहिंसा के सिद्धांतों की प्रासंगिकता सिद्ध करने केलिए विषय का पक्ष लेने वालों को तब काफी मेहनत करनी पड़ी थी। लेकिन अन्ना की अहिंसक क्रांति ने आज न केवल इस विषय के पक्ष में एक ठोस प्रमाण रखा है बल्कि इस वाद-विवाद को ही पूर्णतः एक तरफ़ा बना दिया है।

अन्ना की आंधी की जयजयकार!

-- मनीष छाबड़ा

(यदि लेख में लगा रेखाचित्र किसी की भावनाएँ आहत करता हो तो क्षमा करें। )