This piece of writing follows, in the fond memory of my group benzene. The name may suggest a group of chemistry geeks, but it was nothing like that, there were six of us, hence the name. Six of us and unfortunately after first year we were allotted different hostels. I was in Cautley, 2(Dex and Myst) of them were in Ravindra, one (Virus) in azad, 2 other(Dude and Matt) in Ganga. Except for two of us all our branches were different, so meeting regularly became problem. We met sporadically, especially on bdays to give bumps and all. Still we always felt that we could make it more frequent. Finally as I remember it was matt’s bday in 2nd yr (6th apr) when the idea of meeting every Saturdays , w/o miss was discussed and passed with 6 ayes to 0 nos. Now every Saturday we used to meet and go for dinner, then have a night-out, play AOE (which is a one big story in itself :D) and then be back in our rooms around Sunday morning to sleep. After sometime, this Saturday night dinner came to be called as Saturday night ritual and there were very few Saturday in the next 2 yrs when the ritual was not followed. Even in heavy downpour we used to walk to hostels and eat in canteen, just to keep the ritual intact.
Actually I was just thinking about it this Sunday when it was raining on and off for the past 2 days and I had lot of spare time. When I looked back I realized how the unfortunate event of separate hostels became a kind of blessing. It reiterates its importance when you get out of college and into the job when weekends is the only time when you can have a night out and it is the only time to go out with friends. May be the ritual seems too stringent but believe me if you enjoy with a group it will become a way of life. What I feel is that living in a social group is ingrained in us, as we grow up. No matter how much we try to remain a loner, a need for a group, where we can laugh off some bad memories, where we can discuss some problems is always felt. And believe me, when you will look back on these meetings, as I was doing this Sunday, you will feel a surge of emotion rarely felt.
I came back to present and it was still raining and I decided to dine out along with some friends, since we dine out every Sunday.
