6:22

As the number suggests, this post is totally dedicated to the time where I had the best days of my lives. Killing the rules of English, I would rephrase it as the BESTEST days of my life. No prizes for guesses I’m talking about the college days of my life. It was after 2 long years I headed for my morning 6:22am local from Bhayandar. My dad was off to Mangalore for around 15 days. Due to dad’s knee problems, I had the task of being the “boodhapey ka chaa-deeh” for my dad. (Hope my dad does not read this, bahut swabhimani hai). It was 19th January, 2010 a Tuesday when I could relive the same moments, the same feelings come back to me like a bullet to the chest.

I remembered the chaos every morning as my sister and I had head strong clashes getting ready to catch the local. Whether it was for tea, breakfast, change for the rickshaw we fought it all. Now, it was just me and my dad getting ready. No clashes, no fights, no tease laughters. Man, how I miss those days! It was 6:00am in the morning as dad and I headed for the rick to the station. Usually during the flashback days, I used to be pretty reluctant to be awake as half my journey to the station was with closed eyes, but this time around I was enjoying every moment of the dark morning. Reliving it, truly reliving it.

We reached the station and looking like ghar ka raamu(no regrets) I headed to the platform where the 6:22am local halts. As I stood with my dad I saw students running for the train, some on the phone, some with their books, and some with big bags. I got into the usual compartment of my reliving days. There was no Stefan, no Sanjhot, no Elton or Chandresh. There wasn’t any Anil jumping into the train and speaking about how he kicked some Uncle’s ass as he got into the train. There was no Elton yelling at Anil’s comment- “Tera Baap”. There was no Lawzza waiting at Bandra. It was a moment where I realized things had changed. The whole scene was different; there were all new faces. I was missing my laughter sessions every morning. I was missing my college days. As the train came to Andheri, I helped my dad again to the airport with the bags. After a quick father-son handshake and good wishes, dad was off for Mangalore. I was alone as I headed back home. As I got into the train, I felt I had really relived my college days. Alone thou it was a journey I would never forget. The journey of 6:22.

Disclaimer: Sorry guys for stealing your copyrighted photographs.