Christmas and holidays remind me of the time back in primary school when year after year we had an exhibition where all of us displayed our projects ranging from decked-up Christmas trees to elaborately decorated cribs. From an entire picture made from colored rice to a big painted canvas. Some of my friends took a topic up and made an informative presentation on chart paper and some just took the shortcut of getting what their elder siblings displayed in the same exhibition in the past years.
The story of an outcast
Growing up, being the single girl child, I was an introverted shy kid with literally no friends in the neighborhood and not many relatives/cousins in a 600 km radius. My school and my house shared the same wall and almost every day I would be home for hot lunch during the lunch break!
From a very young age, I felt like I didn’t belong where I was. The entire school outcasted me and my classmates didn’t make my life any easier. The sort of projects that I did for these exhibitions was just the right amount of fuel that was needed for encouraging people of this behavior. I am not sure which fueled which; if my out-of-the-box projects led to me being unpopular at school or if my being an outcast gave me enough time to concentrate on what mattered. That might be one question that I would like to leave unanswered.
My projects ranged from a buzz wire loop game which had a loop that one had to take from one end of a string to another and if the string and loop touched, the circuit makes a buzz noise which means you lose the game to a whole working kinetoscope showing why following traffic rules and maintaining a lane was at most important. Most of my classmates thought I was weird and hardly understood my project. The teachers on the other hand had issues with my parents being assertive due to which they sidelined me most times. I used to get the last stand for the exhibition and by the time people reached my stall, they would be dead tired constantly smiling at the other projects. Nevertheless, my stall would be the most engaging and people would leave with the biggest smile and the most satisfied inner child.
I changed about 8 schools in 16 years (I swear I was not kicked out of any school 😛 ) and that gave me hardly any time to be a part of a “gang” but I sure have created long-lasting relationships in spite of the short span at each school.
For the first time in History
The first time I ever felt belonged was when I joined Christ University for my bachelor’s degree. I could write a whole blog on how Christ accidentally happened to me. With all the rants that are constant in a Christ University student’s life of how a girl can’t wear leggings and must wear a dupatta, how a guy can’t enter the campus without a tie and only with a shoe; how a 1-minute delay results in the doors shutting and even an 84.89% attendance means about 2864294860979701101794 (exaggerated 😛 ) library hours to make up for the 0.11%. Amongst the strict system supported by the teachers, HODs, Deans and even the security personnel, amidst all the million assignments, never-ending exams, juggling between the tons of opportunities and the billion beautiful souls that I came across, I am cent percent sure that I became the person that I am today!
Here are some of the pictures from those good old days!
Christ University and Christmas Celebration is a match made in heaven!
Christ University is beautiful but during Christmas it is B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L! I have my best memories at Christ University during the weeks around Christmas when the entire campus is lit and bliss is in the air!
Even after these many years, year after year, I have the ritual to visit the beautiful campus to revisit the good old days! I abide by this religiously and ensure I drag around some of my other non-Christ-University “gangs” too to see this beauty!
I started writing this blog during my Christmas visit to Christ University sitting at my favorite spot and I couldn’t go past the first few sentences. There was an overflow of thoughts and it took me a while to encompass it all and give it a presentable shape.
Better late than never, now that I have penned it down and though Christmas is long bygone, would love to know from you what your profound memories of Christmas are or much better, what is the profound childhood memory that you think could have had a great influence on the person you are today?