"They're on in 20 minutes!"
I put down the phone and burned rubber to Koramangala. When I pulled into the parking lot in Christ I could already hear music pounding out from somewhere.
Maya came running out of the milling crowd of students yelling in my ear, "Come on! They haven't started yet." She grabbed my hand and we ran into a quadrangle with 3-storey classroom blocks all around and a makeshift stage up front from where the sound was emanating. There was a seat for me in the front row with Maya's friends, where we insensitively made fun of the PUC boys who were playing.
Rahul's band was playing that afternoon in the Western Electric competition of the Christ College fest. They took the stage. Our brother Rahul played lead guitar. In his "lucky" camouflage pants. They started tuning up, relaxed and laughing unlike the earlier bands. It was just before Christmas and Rahul broke out a Santa hat before they burst into a rendition of Deep Purple's Highway Star, the song that "made them famous" in all the city college competitions. Rahul grinned at us and we went wild with pride during his guitar solo.
Satisfied in the knowledge that they'd bagged first prize, we joined the slow, light-hearted exodus of kids drifting out into the other quad. This one was a big lawn--the pride of Christ--under a huge, white, billowing canopy. As you watched it soared impossibly upward and came plummeting down at you in the breeze. Kids were sitting on the grass, sprawling, lying down. Chilling.
Thermal and a Quarter, Christ's flagship alumni band, were tuning up on the (much more respectable) stage. Their sound check was taking forever but strains of a funky, bluesy sound were escaping from it.
I put down the phone and burned rubber to Koramangala. When I pulled into the parking lot in Christ I could already hear music pounding out from somewhere.
Maya came running out of the milling crowd of students yelling in my ear, "Come on! They haven't started yet." She grabbed my hand and we ran into a quadrangle with 3-storey classroom blocks all around and a makeshift stage up front from where the sound was emanating. There was a seat for me in the front row with Maya's friends, where we insensitively made fun of the PUC boys who were playing.
Rahul's band was playing that afternoon in the Western Electric competition of the Christ College fest. They took the stage. Our brother Rahul played lead guitar. In his "lucky" camouflage pants. They started tuning up, relaxed and laughing unlike the earlier bands. It was just before Christmas and Rahul broke out a Santa hat before they burst into a rendition of Deep Purple's Highway Star, the song that "made them famous" in all the city college competitions. Rahul grinned at us and we went wild with pride during his guitar solo.
Satisfied in the knowledge that they'd bagged first prize, we joined the slow, light-hearted exodus of kids drifting out into the other quad. This one was a big lawn--the pride of Christ--under a huge, white, billowing canopy. As you watched it soared impossibly upward and came plummeting down at you in the breeze. Kids were sitting on the grass, sprawling, lying down. Chilling.
Thermal and a Quarter, Christ's flagship alumni band, were tuning up on the (much more respectable) stage. Their sound check was taking forever but strains of a funky, bluesy sound were escaping from it.
When it was over, Maya and I, hidden in the crowd, made our way out. The secret treehouse was apparently so secret that even her best friends didn't know about it. We passed by some classroom blocks and down a long, tarred drive. We stopped and looked up at the sky because it was fading slowly to pink and a long double line of brilliant white jet exhaust was slowly streaking across it to the west.
Soon we were walking by a fence and down on our left was a small, presumably man-made, lake. It looked green and cool and it was surrounded by rocks and foliage and it had stork statues and tiny islands in the middle. Maya said nothing.
Soon we were walking by a fence and down on our left was a small, presumably man-made, lake. It looked green and cool and it was surrounded by rocks and foliage and it had stork statues and tiny islands in the middle. Maya said nothing.
We burst through the fence off the road and there was a low, spreading fig tree with a stone embankment around it and a ladder against it.
We climbed up to the secret treehouse. It was incredibly neat, well-made, unpainted wood, big enough for at least three people to sit in. There was even a stool for one. Someone had rigged a Christmas star around the bare bulb that hung from the pointed wooden roof. The western sun shone through the gaps in the slats making sun stripes on the opposite wall and on us as we sat looking down at the lake.
We ducked out of view, just in case, whenever one of the "lay brothers" from the Dharmaram College friary came wandering out. They clearly knew about the treehouse. (What's a treehouse when you're in on the secrets of the Universe?) In fact, it belonged to them and was unpublicized because they didn't want students coming out here to get stoned. We sat a while on the low stone wall by the lake where the tall reeds grew out of it.
Later, we were sitting in the stands bordering the not-so-secret football ground, eating pop corn in front of the canteen with the last of the students in the dying light before the guards started blowing whistles and throwing everyone out.
"Wow, I never thought I'd say it but I wish I was back in college. And a real college, not the tight-ass joint I went to."
"But you had good times in college..." Maya suggested.
"Sure, but no thanks to the college. All the good times I had were in violation of the college."
"Yeah, I'm actually sorry it's over this year."
It was dark now and they had lit a huge fire behind us with all the garbage from the canteen.
We climbed up to the secret treehouse. It was incredibly neat, well-made, unpainted wood, big enough for at least three people to sit in. There was even a stool for one. Someone had rigged a Christmas star around the bare bulb that hung from the pointed wooden roof. The western sun shone through the gaps in the slats making sun stripes on the opposite wall and on us as we sat looking down at the lake.
We ducked out of view, just in case, whenever one of the "lay brothers" from the Dharmaram College friary came wandering out. They clearly knew about the treehouse. (What's a treehouse when you're in on the secrets of the Universe?) In fact, it belonged to them and was unpublicized because they didn't want students coming out here to get stoned. We sat a while on the low stone wall by the lake where the tall reeds grew out of it.
Later, we were sitting in the stands bordering the not-so-secret football ground, eating pop corn in front of the canteen with the last of the students in the dying light before the guards started blowing whistles and throwing everyone out.
"Wow, I never thought I'd say it but I wish I was back in college. And a real college, not the tight-ass joint I went to."
"But you had good times in college..." Maya suggested.
"Sure, but no thanks to the college. All the good times I had were in violation of the college."
"Yeah, I'm actually sorry it's over this year."
It was dark now and they had lit a huge fire behind us with all the garbage from the canteen.
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