The Penguin Lunch

If the play got postponed by two weeks, the penguin lunch followed the same fate and got postponed by a week. But today it HAPPENED! And here's an overview of the most fun lunch ever.

The tallest penguin informs everyone to be at the reception at one o clock. But, one of the penguins sits at the canteen and socialises while we wait! "What does she think of herself", says the tall one! Within a few minutes all four penguins congregate and leave for their battle ground. Venue changed to meet conveniences that cannot be disclosed publically. Theatre gods bless us as we see one our play comrade going in an ac car towards Casa Picolla- our battle ground! We get a lift to our destination.

Enter battle ground- we seat ourselves near a pillar. The tallest penguin and the penguin with wacky ideas sit together on one side and the youngest and the worried one (i dislike the incriminating title given but for convenience of comprehension sake I'm left with no choice) on the other.

The menu card arrives- we rip it open. Since it was my first visit to this place it took me some time to find the names of the dishes the connoisseurs were throwing around. While doing so we swerve away from the intention and start blabbering about other equally important issues of life. D eyes around to see familiar faces.

The waiter comes and listens to our incomprehensible chorus of names of dishes. We give up on his inability to understand us and ask him to come later.

D- "Can I have some water please?"- she looks around with eager eyes.

T laughs out loud at the very thought that she'll get high on chocolate. D adds cheese as another stimulant. C and I look at each other in dismay! Are we the only sane ones in this world?

Well, we finally decide on what we want and order the menu while T keeps going he he he eh. Now it begins to worry us all. :S Can the thought of marble cake drive someone so mad? Meanwhile, we figure out we're not having enough fun- hence, we start singing Captain Planet followed by the Powerpuff Girl's title track. The neighbouring table had a little girl sitting completely shell shocked at the madness of a bunch of college-going girls who are expected to maintain a certain decorum in public places.

(D- Can I have some water please?)

T explains to the mother that its a post-play production team lunch. Its self-explanatory now, isn't it? :)

The lunch arrives- hog hog hog hog hog. Yum Yum Yum Yum.

(D- Can I have some water please?)

T couldn't hold it now. She had had enough of a wait for the dessert. Pounce! The marble cake arrives and is finished within minutes. For my sake, the chocolate syrup came separately. Not like it helped cause it was accidentally kept next to T who for a moment thought it was H2O!

Stomachs full, sitting like balloons- D- Lets run on the Beach!

T,C,M- What????

It took a while to convince D that a run on the beach at 2:30 in the afternoon was certainly not a penguiny thing to do. Then came the Penguin Snap- which took us longer than eating food cause we had to face problems like-

1. Where can we click it?

2. OOhhh this shop is so pretty! (C- Concentrate on snap location, will you!)

3. Can we trust this watchman with the camera?

4. Is he drunk?

5. Who will click the snap?

6. Not the stairs!

7. How do we all fit in?

8. Fine, the stairs, but do we sit or stand?

Result- We stand randomly in between the passage, say cheese and C clicks a snap- it comes out beautifully. :)

This was probably the most random lunch possible, but then aren't all the penguins random in their own sweet ways? An afternoon i shall cherish for life.

Joyee.

P.S- other things that happened at the lunch that couldn't be incorporated:

1. My obsession with cleaning the table

2. T licking chocolate from everywhere possible

3. D- Salt comes from a spicy place

Pepper comes from a salty place (her remarkable comments while analysing the salt and pepper dispensers)

P.S 2- i think i'm becoming senile- i forgot to mention the yummy garlic bread, T spoke to the mother after the lunch and not before and T clicked the historic snap.

Yet another List

a random list of things/ people/events i'll miss in no particular order:

1. watchman (ID card!)
2. chai
3. sujata ma'am's class
4. GRAM
5. Penguins
6. luv-shmuv
7. samosa
8. sociological theory
9. library
10. twelve angry men
11. deepwoods
12. hunchback of notredam
13. nimbu pani ice lolly
14. canteen tree
15. and then there were none
16. dragon
17. dept
18. social psychology+general psychology
19. 29C
20. BaBaOH
21. paratha kurma
22. magjof
23. common room (even the filth)
24. Sr. Hilda+Leela akka+team
25. F-2-1
26. social thought
27. black chart paper
28. things-to-do lists
29. 0-1
30. shirdi
31. xeroxs
32. aquilae
33. 0-1 stage lights
34. cassatta
35. the green house
36. second year classroom
37. the green patch behind B block
38. OATs
39. inter years
40. veg noodles

41. switch-blade knife

42. red+green+yellow cellophane sheets 

43. ten little indian dolls

Sarees+Ice-Creams+Tree+Lamps

The much awaited valedictory finally happened last evening! A swarm of women in colourful (some blinding) sarees were slurping down the free cornetto provided. To my dismay, it was chocolate. :( After the binge, was the glorious tree planting ceremony. G and I walked excitedly towards the CC Block only to find a dreadful pit dug up in the middle of the lawn+ the puniest leafless sapling possible. We figured that the planting must have been over and proceeded back to the swarm to find recognizable people to click happy pictures with. Alas, CR came and shooed us away! We go back to the lawn to find, not one but four pits dug! One for arts, one for science, one for commerce and one for the PGs. G and I parted ways in despair. It was amusing to see so many new faces on the day of the Valedictory! Anyway, we had work to do- i.e. PLANT the sapling with our LOVE and CARE and mud and water. Task completed. G is lost! This was when I embarrassed all by screaming Moooooo and Gaya! (Like a 70s hero calling out to his heroine!)

After the nostalgic reunion- we returned to the bright blue chairs. The management had to annoy us- “sit behind your dept heads, please.” “Nahin!!!!!” (in chorus)

Three years in this college have made me bold in many ways to take devious steps with no regret whatsoever. “Dept? What dept?” ha ha ha my wish comes true. I finally sat with the people I have shared my entire college life with. J

A random teacher came and passed the valedictory programme schedule and tiny brass lamps with a small candle on it. (the candle colours- neon green, mirinda orange and a green manga green)

Point to be noted- on lifting the candle we found that it was a wax covered candle. What was it covering?- well, a ball of mud. I wonder if it was from the pits that were dug up.

Hymns are sung and Sr. H delivers the longest ever prayer. It wasn’t unbearable but unbelievably long. P was at her best. Highlight of the talks- Sneha, the only one who spoke honestly. During the rest of the speeches, the GRAM group craved for water and juice and pointed at planes while nuts like me waved at them.

The oath was a little strange. While A refused to speak a line from it, I blindly repeated every word of it. Hmmm, I think I’m becoming more neurotic!

The lighting of the lamps was the best part of the evening. All the heads of the depts had to light the lamps of their students. While the sun set, leaving behind a warm darkness, we held our lamps high and sang the college song and the national anthem. Both have never sounded more beautiful. We then left to the grotto to leave our lamps near the statue of Mother Mary.

The valedictory was over.

But did we stop with that? No! Now, was family photo clicking time. While we randomly asked people to click photos of tens and twenties of us, we still couldn’t believe that we’d spent three years with each other.

Someone had told me that the valedictory was always sentimental and that it would make me weep. Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn’t shed a tear. The evening left me with a feeling of contentment as I knew I was going to go forward in life with some great friends and experiences.

To my Penguins!

"Why do you need a play?", they said.
"Its such a waste of time.", they said.
"Either the play or the fund-raiser.", they said.
We smiled and proceeded.

"Why do you need a director?", they said.
"Hall? Why?", they said.
"Do it on campus.", they said.
We smiled and proceeded.

"No whores! No prostitutes!", they said.
"You're a bunch of stubborn donkeys.", they said.
"You and your blessed play.", they said.
We smiled and proceeded.

"We can't have it in the open.", they said.
"People will jump over the wall and create nuisance.", they said.
"Mosquitoes will bite.", they said.
We smiled and proceeded.

"It can't happen over four days!", they said.
"The lights are stuck.", they said.
"You have to arrange the room yourselves.", they said.
We smiled and proceeded.

"Congratulations!", they said.
"We extended our full support.", they said.
"We knew you'd do it well.", they said.
We smiled. For now, we didn't have to proceed.

BaBaOH prevailed.
:)