The ‘Fenced Freedom’..

Discretionary Disclaimer:

All the persons, characters, places, events, facts & figures depicted & compiled in this article are based on real life incidences experienced.

Any resemblance to any of such persons, characters, places, events, facts & figures whether living or fictional has to be purely coincidental!..

Going by the disclaimer, to begin directly with the preface of this articulate creation; some time back, had read somewhere in management that ‘there is a place for everything & likewise everything has to have a place’; to add to it, there’s also a name for each such place; be it by characteristic appearance, rituals & traditions followed, direction & time wise, geographical density, climatic conditions etc.

At this very ‘place’, taking an exuberant chance to explore & describe about one such ‘place’; for most of the others, it could be ‘a place far away from home’; for others even a ‘Second Home’; while for some others it could be just a ‘place’ in a 3 storeyed building. The official name of this building (where the story takes ‘place’) is ‘Rajgadh’ (राजगढ); & it also has couple of cousins named ‘Pratapgadh’ (प्रतापगढ) & ‘Savitri’ (सावित्री). To complete the family structure; they too have more than a couple of educational building  in the nearby vicinity & also couple of distant niece buildings wherein the whole of the food stuffs preparation & serving takes ‘place’; again officially named as ‘Amrapali’ (आम्रपाली) & ‘Annapurna’ (अन्नपूर्णा).

So getting back to ‘Rajgadh’; a ‘place’ equipped with more than couple of dozen rooms, water coolers, guest rooms, TV room etc. It was 6^th August, a year back; when I had stepped into this ‘place’; to explore & enrich more of a ‘three lettered word’. At the very first instincts; it was a ‘place’ where, in the initial days, neither there were any acquaintances nor strangers as well. It was merely just like sailing by the waves in the same cruise ship (here sailing by a boat would have been smaller in size, appearance, budget etc; so conveniently sailing by the cruise ship equipped with all splendid luxuries).

I could sense being all alone & independent by all means; while the action packed activities in the ‘three lettered word’; were ensuring to run behind time to meet up with scheduled lectures, sessions, seminars, assignments & projects etc. The weekends were occupied with visits & trips to marketplace, ins & outs of the city to discover the uniqueness & essence in adventurous ways; Sunday was mostly reserved with delicious menu in ‘Amrapali’ & Sunday evenings were to hunt for reasonably unlimited treats & menu & experimenting foodstuffs in different corners of the city.

It’s not that other rooms in ‘Rajgadh’were not shining out or in the lead; yet the two extreme rooms in the long stretched corridors; had similar golden soils ; room no. 228 nicknamed as ‘krishnakunj’ (कृष्णकुंज), room no. 215 nicknamed as ‘matoshri’ (मातोश्री ) & room no. 209. The characters in this rooms were of distinguished personas; a wannabe rockstar who hummed songs all day long; a cricket maniac, an aspiring writer, a football fanatic, an army man, a would-be business tycoon, a wannabe dancer & choreographer, an amateur photographer etc. So having listed down most of the lucrative professions; it’s indeed fortunate & even destined to get along with versatile personas.

By this time, within just couple of months; I became used to be with groups & adapting to such ‘place’; where I learnt it had a fence & a freedom too. A ‘fence’ not in terms of physical barriers to connect to the outside world; but the lines & limits which were meant as never to be crossed by any means & ‘freedom’ to develop & explore self.

The late night or early morning treats would be cheesy maggi, buttery bun n induction tea, bread toast with any sauce or chutney & many such weird yet tempting foodstuffs. The messy foodstuffs at ‘Amrapali’; bakery & cafeteria; seemed to be tempting restricted for the menu only; otherwise battling for bit extra & scrapping the menu at times would serve the purpose most of the times to fill the tummies.

Most of the times; some had to struggle & battle for catching up with mobile network & frequencies & most importantly wifi connections & also experimenting to unblock the settings for social networking sites etc. Untimely wandering the long stretched corridors & also the late evening music therapy at rajpath to glance at the stars; were beyond descriptions to revolve thoughts around on anything & everything.

The exam fever was yet another tension filled occasion; which turned most of the rooms in to libraries; late night studies & last night hassle preparations, camping at golden soiled rooms; searching for cornered corridors for the sake of studies & pin drop silence. At odd times; some professors would literally hunt for students, for the sake of forcing to attend the lectures & some couple of times to attempt for the preliminary & internal exams.

Some others surpassed the knack to manage for dress codes & attires to suite for special functions; by hunting those more than couple of dozen rooms. At times, the touch resistant shocks & untimely beeps from water cooler would give bizarre signals & also solar water heaters boiling beyond 90 degrees would literally burnout the buckets & consume ample time to cool down the temperature.

The so called haunted stories, screaming in the fullest volume in the dark when lights were flicked of, bizarre birthday celebrations at the very stroke of midnight, fights for filling bottles from water coolers at end of corridors, 21 point game at the basketball court, organizing auction bidding events, adventurous nigh outs & nightlife, crowding the TV room during cricket matches, watching series of movies, chasing the glimpses of the canteen gal & knocking the doors for no reasons were such other pranks & activities to be rejoiced in this very ‘place’; in pretext of bending the rules & instructions. The scene of death of a device was inspired from couple of incidents which took ‘place’ in the same ‘place’.

Also the fireworks & crackers busted without any occasions or festive celebrations, especially at untimely frequencies & intervals were blasting the sound sleep (of security guards & others as well). Unusually this ‘place’ was witnessing & experiencing colorless holi & pollution & sound proof diwali; so needless to think about other festive occasions filled in most of the calendar dates throughout the year.

Having thought over the title of this article for a while; simply scrapped the titles like ‘rowdy rajgadh’; ‘once upon a time in rajgadh’; ‘rajgadh blues’ & ‘gangs of rajgadh’ for some unknown reasons.

By far now, dozen full of months passed by; having cherished for less than a year or so; some rooms are turning into flats. Just like an amateur bird is kicked off from the nest; so as to struggle & also survive against the odds in best possible manner. Stepping by again in less than a couple of month’s time….in the same ‘place’….a ‘place’ where there is a ‘fence’ & ‘freedom’ too; or rather a ‘place’ having a ‘fenced freedom’!!..

~Thank You~