College Vs Work

The days of college are never forgotten. But the irony was that when we were in college we couldnt wait to start working and earning a living and now that we are in the working environment we yearn for the days of the college. Why is it that we yearn for the college days?

Those were the times when friends were friends, when help was always round the corner. There was never a time when someone would try to make the day bad for you unless you were in some wrong group. The times when we were short of cash and borrowed some to have that extra drink or smoke at night with the gang. The times when because of the limited amount of resources, we would share a single cigarette among 8 of us or if we couldn't afford cigarettes we would graduate to a biddi or two. It was a time of glorious fun and time of forgetting the worries. And now, there is no time for the same friends to keep in touch. The splurging of money to show their peers how well they are doing in life with the cars and houses that they buy. The jealousy among the same friends who would once share clothes because they didnt have enough money to wash them or that they looked good on the other. The other colleague in the office who is eyeing your job and wants to show off to prove you wrong. The boss who is scared if he/ she promotes you his/her job will be at stake. The constant politics and games played at the work place!!

Classes were made to bunk or sleep in, rarely did anyone actually pay attention to a lecture and the tutors were always worried what would happen to the people after they graduated. Exams were something of no worries, a last minute study and the chits made to make sure that if someone doesnt know the answer we pass it on to the other and share the marks and the answer sheets. And now, the office is filled with people who are rooting for your doom. Help is in the form of crushing you and getting into your seat, there is no trust or belief in the other person next to you. The same competition that made good friends in college is now making you a enemy of the colleague you work in with greed, envy and jealousy being a part of the relation shared.

College was a time of no complications. There was always the girl/boy who you liked and the first time proposal that you planned on making but were scared to approach. The first time you said the three words and the world was bouncing all around you. The sheer joy and ecstacy of holding the others hand and going for a walk or a movie or sharing a sandwich at the college canteen. If you proposed a girl/boy the answer would either be a yes or no and a very simple no thank you or a yes. But now after college you want to get married and there are a thousand questions that have to be answered. Is he/she from the same community, what caste, creed or religion is he/she from? What do his/her parents do? where are his/her siblings? blah blah blah blah.... the complications of a simple relation.... not only is the start of the relation so difficult the complications of the wedding day and the rituals to followed, the wants of both the sides of the family and the relatives. And then the marriage starts with the wants and expectation of both the girl and the boy changing and the COMPROMISE and ADJUSTMENTS start for both the sides!

Where was the simple and easy life when college was on in comparison to what life is now treating us with? I sometimes wonder if this need of envy, jealousy and greed of materialism would get us anywhere at any time. There are so many things out there for us to enjoy but the green monkey is always on our back to remind us of its importance and how we cannot live without it!!!

This is the irony and the symphony of life. So its addios to the wonderful college life and hello to a life in the rat race. In a way we have become rats in life as well!!!