An (Unwanted) Alumni Meet

"Good morning sir, may I speak to Mr. Saurabh Vijay" I heard it as soon as I picked up the phone call.
"Speaking, but I am not interested in listening to one of your "so-called attractive" schemes to sell your whatever product." I responded promptly.
One could sense the tone of these marketing girls. I wondered why did I get a call despite I activated DND (Do No Disturb). Damn, you can't be 100% sure of anything in India. That frustration forced my brain to dig a bit into its cache memory. It reminded me of a guy from Hyderabad suing a mobile company and claimed 1 million bucks because he got phone calls from an advertising firm penetrating his privacy despite DND activation. That brain retrieval gave me so much courage that I even decided who would fight my case in the court. The best friend of the son-in-law of my maternal aunt, actually the only lawyer I knew.  

"Sir, are you there ?" She hesitantly inquired and broke my continuous chain of thoughts.
"Hmmm.." It took me a while to return to the moment.
She took charge "Sir, I am from Lal Bahadur Shastri Engineering College from where you graduated 4 years ago."  She just broke my plan of earning 1 million bucks.
"Oh, may I know who's speaking ?" I softened my tone a bit.
"Sir, this is Nisha. I am currently in the II year of my bachelors." She answered.
"So, which branch of engineering. Must be Computer Science or IT, right ! Is this still a favorable branch for girls?" My curiosity came with sarcasm.
She didn't sense my sarcasm. "No No Sir, I am pursuing BBA in Human Resource."

"Okay, has our college started management courses, I didn't know about it." I sounded clueless.
"Sir, a lot has changed in the last 4 years. I can check on my system that you have never been to any Alumni Meetings." She informed me.

Really!!!! The same college, which was unaware of my existence during my studies, is now even tracking me after graduation and pretty much keen to invite me. Am I that important now ? Why ? I wasn't among the best students. I didn't get placed in the campus interviews. It took me 2 years to get into a software company, no one knows the name of. Yes, I am, like everyone, a software engineer. An only dream of every passing out engineer irrespective of one's engineering branch. But I am a normal one, at least now. I am sitting on a bench and having 6 coffees everyday because they are free. Probably one day I may be known to the community.

She again intervened and broke my chain of thoughts second time. I wasn't offended. "Sir, will you please confirm us your presence."

"Hold on. Let me tell you, in the last years, I usually got the invitations via emails which I spammed. I am very much pleased to have a personal invitation call this year. However, I don't get the idea of being to Alumni Meetings. I mean I am just 26 and I need to attain certain heights in my professional career. Honestly I am useless for current students if I share my experience which I don't have anyway. And I am not retired so that I would be extremely excited to see my batch-mates after 40 years or so. Reviving 40 years old memories might be an exciting stuff to do. So I don't know what would I do in the upcoming Alumni Meet." I clarified why I don't fit to such meetings.

"Sir, why are you thinking so much ? Its just a simple evening where Alumni will meet, talk, eat together, see the campus once again and most importantly a possibility to interact our Institute's Director Mr. Agarwal." She insisted.

After a long pause while thinking "who the hell wants to see the director ?", I somehow agreed because of her. " Ok. I am in. See you then."
"Thank you very much sir." She hung up the phone.
I made up my mind not to ditch Nisha as she has been the first girl from the college who insisted me so long. I hardly knew the names of the girls of my batch-mates. None of them fit into my criteria. Many of them were interested in the assignments, exams and marks, and the rest of them were interested in canteen, bike ride and hang out. I couldn't afford such girls.

Anyway I was up for the meet. It was in the Autumn of 2012. I reached my college. However, the college atmosphere seemed more like Spring as many fresh graduates just joined the academic courses. College entrance was flooded by advertising banners. "North India's No. 1 College" printed on one of the hoardings, without an * sign, caught my attention. What about IIT Delhi, Roorkee, MNIT Jaipur etc.? Anyway the campus had changed a lot in just 4 years. Many brick walls got replaced by fancy glasses. New hostels, new buildings and modern canteen with automatic payment options were added.

I was stopped by a security guard at the entrance. "Show your identity card. Which hostel ?"
"This is how you treat your guests. I am an invited alumnus. I passed out in 2008." I reacted angrily.
"Then please show the invitation card." He didn't let me in.
"I didn't get any. I got the phone call." I was surprised because of his interrogations. I wished he stopped me to enter the college in 2004 that I didn't have to study crap in all those years.

"Stop making stories...." Seeing our arguments, a beautiful girl in a black saree intervened. "What happened bhaiya?"
"See madam, he doesn't have an identity card, invitation card not even an aadhar card and yet arguing with me to enter the college." Two other security cards chuckled. They got the sarcasm but I didn't.

"Sir, what is your name?" She asked gently.
"Saurabh Vijay" Still angry I was.
"Sir, you are invited. please come in." She felt guilty on the behavior of the security guard. "Sir, we sent the invitation cards, but we came to know that some of our alumni didn't receive that."
"Ah I was also wondering. You sound different on phone Nisha." I changed the topic.
"Sir, I am Natasha. Nisha has sessional exams next week. She won't be here." She broke my break. However Natasha seemed to be a reasonable replacement of Nisha. 

I entered the same auditorium which was earlier used for motivational lectures (I skipped most of them), pre-campus- placement-talks by HR (rarely invited), 15th Aug & 26th Jan celebrations (never been there) and so on. That day it looked more like a sangeet function of an Indian wedding. The caterers were serving fried samosas and cold drinks (orange and black both). Naughty kids were running after each other. The ladies and gentlemen were grouped in several groups. DJ unhappily played a light romantic music from the 90s instead of his wish to play "Honey Singh" songs. Most of the chairs were already occupied, either with people's butts or their bags. I didn't get any vacant seat.

I was still trying hard to find someone from my batch. Actually I interacted ~ 1% of my batch-mates when I was in the college. I was so involved with my own folks, couple of people always interested in making and spreading gossips, roaming around, spending time in the canteen without eating much. We were different set of people primarily interested in everything except education and girls. Very contrasting to what people expect from the college life. These people are unique and hard to find. None of these people make it to such meetings so I was not expecting anyone from them.

Anyway I saw a resembling face. That looser (Sunil) in a three piece suit. What was he doing there ? He couldn't clear his papers while we were passing out yet he progressed so well. At least he dressed like. I was curious.
"Hey Sunil. How are you doing?" I gently shook the hands though the gesture was fake.
"Arey, you are from my batch na ! I forgot your name. What are you doing here?" He responded without hiding fakeness.
"No problem. I am Saurabh. I am working as a software engineer in ABCInfotech Pvt. Ltd. What are you doing these days." I introduced myself.
"Yeah everyone from our batch is either a software engineer or struggling to become one. I am the head of the Electronics department (Academics) of this college." He shot sarcasm and confidence with one arrow.
"Okay. glad to hear that." I got disappointed and wanted to leave the party. Suddenly Natasha started to speak into the mike.
"Welcome ladies and gentlemen, now I would like to call romantic couples on the stage and they would ramp walk. Please give a huge round of applause for them." She brought new excitement in the party but still the kids were running after each other and many folks were looking for the waiters to grab some more samosas and cold drinks.

Sunil started his commentary as soon as the couple marked their presence on the stage. "See him. Rahul Sethiya. Bada dude bana firta tha. See, now how fat he has become. The entire family including their kid must be weighing more than 200 kilos." Sunil laughed out loud expecting my laughter. I smiled back.
"You remember Simran, our immediate senior. There she is. "He pointed to her. "The entire college was behind her, she is the head of the placement cell now and quite closed to Mr. Agarwal." He winked at me.

"Why are you telling me these stories?" I got irritated.

"Hold on and look at these bunch of people, The Jains. They started up a company. You know what their startup is all about?" He inquired me or just making an obvious pause between a sarcastic remark and a further explanation.
I nodded my head showing no clue.
"These guys are training young engineering graduates to get through campus placement. None of them cracked it but now hired few MBA graduates who will train the engineering graduates. God saves the planet." He finished finally.

I didn't understand why I didn't enjoy those stories which I myself quite enjoyed while making and spreading up in my college days. Have I become mature or sensible now? Or Knowing the fact that someone is doing a much better job. I don't want to figure it out.
What I figured out at the Alumni Meet - People get a platform to compare their lives with their contemporaries. The topics of comparisons are spouses, job positions, salaries and the differences to the college lives. Probably the college can use those pictures in their advertisements claiming that the college has the strongest alumni network. There is no connection established between the alumni and the current students. LinkedIn does a better job. I rest my case now.