ON THE WAY BACK...

On a bright Wednesday morning after the Physics class got over, I was quietly resting in the class when my classmate, Abhay( name changed for obvious reasons) gave a thunderous punch on my back and asked me to get up. He wanted me to suggest a place to go and kill this free time. 

Without much thought I suggested Botanical garden as it was close and tickets cost a mere ten rupees. So in the next 5 minutes all my dizziness went away. As we crossed the gate of Botanical Garden, suddenly we saw our atmosphere change from concrete buildings to lush green trees.

We were walking through the streets surrounded by big deciduous trees and I loved the smell of the atmosphere immensely. We then reached where the iconic banyan tree stood.  It was literally huge. The magnificent banyan appeared to rule the kingdom of trees with its huge area and size. 

After relishing the splendid view for quite some time, we decide to go back as our next class was to start in just 20 minutes. 

Suddenly we found ourselves in dilemma as in front of us were three roads. All looked exactly the same. Huge trees. Small benches. Couples enjoying on them.

Without giving much of a thought we chose one of the roads thinking that all roads must lead to the Botanical Garden exit gate. So we walked and walked,sometimes looking around, sometimes feeling shaken, as we went on our quest for the return path. The road seemed quite different from the path we had used while entering but still we continued. 

Then, we saw the gate out of the garden.

"At last",we heaved a sigh of relief. But to our utter surprise, as we stepped out of the garden, we realized that we had reached a place completely unknown to us.

Lord, we had come out through the gate at the other end! And we didn't want to get into the maze of Botanical Garden again. We switched on the google maps to find our way out and found that we had to cover 5 kilometres in 15 minutes to attend the next class.

Suddenly, we found ourselves walking fast , almost running along the streets. 

"Bhaiya, how far is the IIEST gate?" we asked a tea-stall owner.

His jaws dropped. "IIEST! That's very far! Take a rickshaw brother!"

But our poor pockets won’t permit us to take a rickshaw. So we were literally running along the streets. We asked a man, then a woman, then another man for the way. Everyone told us, "Beta take a rickshaw!"

After almost 20 minutes, finally the campus gate appeared. 

When we reached our classrooms we were already 15 minutes late. We were gasping for breath.

Our professor asked,"Why are you late?"

Abhay looked at me. I looked at Abhay. The professor looked at both of us.

Then he yelled, "I cannot allow you now! Please leave!"

Rejected we went back to the canteen and started waiting for our next class, still gasping for our breath after covering 5 kilometres in just about 20 minutes.

Anish De,

Department of Computer Science and Technology,

2019-2023 Batch,

IIEST Shibpur.