Reasons over Sunset

Indulge in harmless daydreaming.

I have joined an engineering college that I never wanted to. I felt I belonged to another place. This crowd was not what I prepared for. This language was not what I craved for. These personality clashes was not what I had asked for. This was not my kind of life. Agreed that this was the same college people from other parts of the state long to join. Somehow born and brought up in the city, I couldn’t get to terms with this stark reality so fast. But slowly things began to change.

First a few facts about the place I’m studying in. My college is situated some 15 km from where I live. So I take a college bus, which makes it to the institute in around 40 minutes. The students here are more or less, a mass crowd. Barring a 10%, the remaining are rather inactive and sluggish at whatever they do. Their only aim in life seems to be just pass time by bunking classes and going home. Starting a decent conversation with them itself seems to be a major achievement these days. However, after mugging for around 10 hours a day and dreaming about engineering for almost all my teenage years, I couldn’t complain any longer. Besides there is that 10% who still make life worthwhile. And there is also that sunset.

During winter evenings the sun sets early in my city. At around 5:15-5:30 p.m, my college bus has to make its way over a fly-over that was constructed recently. It is around 800 meters long and reaches a height of around 50 feet above the ground. So for a few kilometers around, the flyover is the highest point one can get on a vehicle. There is also a certain section of road where we get a beautiful view of the ruins of ancient monuments lying at the outskirts of the city amidst hillocks and rocks. Those monuments that have weathered every egoistic man that has fought for them all these thousands of years. Towering structures of black rocks in the horizon eclipsed by structures of cement and concrete. Billboards and posters that look at you while you look at vast expanse of green parks where children play in the evenings. Tall trees seem to bend over and call you but cannot be understood. Lazy clouds that are getting their beds ready for the night. And the sunset in midst of all this throwing its last rays over a bunch of noisy students in a moving bus.

I make it a point that whenever we pass through this place I am at the entrance of the bus. I stay foot-boarded at the door and watch this scene pass by. And for those few seconds every day, I stop and think of all those around me. How many of these wait for this scenery and admire life? In this bus, there are so many philosophies of man flying around. One has to submit a project the next day. The other is talking to a girl of his dreams. One is ecstatic about his performance at an exam. The other is sleeping. Some are joking about the day’s events. Some are singing songs. Some are listening. One of them is standing at the door and watching. I have my hand out open to the space that blocks my flight. The air shouts into my ears but I remain oblivious. I am watching the sun setting at a distance. I am watching the people in the bus. I watch all of them and cannot stop smiling. These are my people. This is my college.