27C

Four years of going on that bus and what amazing days they were. Waking up at 6:30AM, a mad rush to use the bath before everybody else, throw on a cotton churidhar, a quick appraisal in the mirror - hey it was co-educational after all, hassle with amma to get the lunch box packed and I was off. A 15 minute walk to the main road to catch a bus to vadapalani, possibly meet a friend there and decide we were running late and jump into an auto. Get off at the 100 feet road, where the four roads met - very symbolic ain't it? And the place was already filling up with familiar faces - some rearing to go and some couldn't care less. 
How many days I would have stood at that corner, chatting away to glory, panicking about this, that and the other. By 8:00AM in the morning the sun would be beating down with such vengeance sometimes we would be bathed in sweat but did we care about suncream? Never.
And then suddenly it would appear in all its green splendour, often filled to bursting. I often wondered why some boys felt that the foot board was their birthright and refused to move even when space was available. Did the sadistic driver ever stop in front off us? Of course not, that would just make things too easy for us, the standing rule being always drive past and stop 10 metres away. We would somehow bolt, shove, push and grab onto anything we could to make it into that haven. Consider yourself one in a million if you manged to find a seat.One ticket to 'vengaya patti' was it? - somebody correct me if I am wrong.
Possibly the only route in the whole wide world where the bus would be half filled with screaming, boisterous vegetable vendors/pilgrims and the other half by us supposedly more civilized college students.They hated the sight of us and we them I guess. They were always complaining about the size of our bags while the fact that their huge baskets laden with heaving market ware actually occupied coveted floor space, was always conveniently ignored. That was the unique beauty of our college, located in the middle of literally nowhere, sandwiched between a bustling vegetable market at one end and a temple at the other end. 'Pottal kaadu' to be precise.
It was nothing short of a miracle that we managed to reach everyday on time but did we have a choice? No, the only bus that went from TNager, thro vadapalani and straight past our college, Oh pioneering 27C, you were the only one!
For some reason your brain shuts out all those sleepless nights of studying, numerous practical records to complete, the craziness of each lecturer to endure, paving new roads to the Xerox shops and countless exams. Instead I seem to remember only the best about those hot summer days, laughing without a care, giggling over who likes who, making senseless jokes in the lab when none of the experiments ever seemed to do what they were meant to do.
Only the ringing sounds of our laughter and those amusing journeys on that notorious 27C are forever alive in my memory.


This one's for you ICE batch of 1998.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-SVBlZRbWk&NR=1