Miss U Catwalk!

6th of August 2007 brought a new year for me. It’s my 3rd & last year in my college, SXC. I love it for so many reasons & maybe I have more reasons to hate it but whenever I remember that I’m a Xaverian, I can’t help but love it! I’m proud to be a part of this ancient yet modern institute. It has a completely different culture. So varied & cosmopolitan that sometimes my identity blurs & sometimes I’m too conscious of who or what I am. Xavier’s’ mean a lot to me! It’s another world for me, really! It has given me, taught me, made me something!
Xavier’s can proudly boast of being one of the most beautiful colleges in Kolkata. The building looks good, the chapel is so peaceful and the greenery can mesmerize you! This is a view from the front gate, but you must enter from the back gate at least once to know how Xavier’s actually is! Then only you can feel its charm, its vastness. The ground is soo big man! The green grasses looks & feels like velvet, you’ll at once know that it is regularly taken care of. The Green Benches, no no, not the one in court but green coloured benches where Xavierians sit, chat, chillax & have gala time in the afternoon & parents, especially mothers of the school students wait for their children. The path which leads you to the main building is known as the Catwalk. It’s so rightly named! We acquire a certain grace like a swan while walking on it! Whenever I enter through the back gate, walk on the catwalk, view the ground & head towards the college building, I get a feeling that this is my passport to my dreamland! This walk has varied in all these 3 years. 1st day of 1st year I was a shaky girl, walked on the catwalk with not so confident steps, having lots of doubts & confusion going on in my suddenly grown up yet childish mind. 2nd year, my group SPARK was formed properly & we 4 moved on it in a careless careful attitude! We tested how it felt being seniors & yet we were conscious of the so called senior most batch or the 3rd years! We seemed prudent to the juniors but appeared silly in front of the seniors! Yet another year has passed & we now hold the prestigious & much awaited position of the 3rd years! Our moves are the most confident! It has been our 2nd home by now. We walk on the Catwalk as if it’s the entrance to our drawing room. We are so confident! We need not think of any one as we are on the apex now. So the passerby’s are either our juniors or batch mates.
But this year, the college authorities made a decision to do away with the Green Benches. We are having staff quarters instead & so, our dear Catwalk has to suffer. It is undergoing attacks of the various digging instruments & it is heaped with cement, mud & all such rubbishes! Our beautifully cemented & tiled catwalk is now replaced with a temporary arrangement of bricks. Mind you, the difference is heaven & hell! This brick walk instead of cat walk reminds me of the atrocious road of Paikhala village which we visited as a part of NSS trip. It was a horror during last few days of heavy downpour. Water logged & it was filled with mud & we lost all our grace while walking on it. Yuckkk!!! This shift is like waking up from a beautiful dream. But this is not done! Seriously I want my Catwalk back! Not only Catwalk has suffered, all those beautiful trees which we used to have in the compound have been cut down. It has undergone such a drastic change that it hurts to have a look at it! I just hope this work finishes soon & our compound becomes as beautiful as before, with Catwalk & those trees! Though Green Benches won’t be there but since we were not that much attached to it, I can do without it but I can’t compromise with Catwalk! Come back Catwalk! I miss you!!!