'Conned' vocation!!!

At the memorial service of an old family friend. You want to stay back but at the back of your mind, you know you got to attend the convocation ceremony due in about three hours. You decide to miss half of the memorial service and whole of the funeral following up and rush back home, have your lunch, rest for some time and then dresses up in the 'formal' dresscode prescribed by the Institute. You reach the campus about 45 minutes early.

Now let the first person take over...

I meet a few classmates there who arrive one after the other all 'dressed up' in formals, looking smart. We are all looking forward to our names being called out a few minutes later. After a little bit of usual banter about the party the previous night where I was "missed", we slowly make our move towards the large and magnificent college hall. I remember my first gathering in college was also at the college hall just before I started my college life in FYJC. Appropriately, it will also end, six years later, inside the same college hall. I had my dad sitting next to me that time but this time, unlike a few of my other friends, I do not bring my folks (Mom and Bro at the funeral and Dad in US). I wished they could have come to see their son go up and collect the diploma, but circumstances!

We take our seats towards the left of the auditorium and wait as the compere takes the stage and asks us to stand for the XIC hymn. After about 90 seconds of a really silent hymn, we are told to sit down. I crack my usual PJs there... ("I think she was referring to 'him' who is silent there"). We are again told to stand up as the technical glitches are sorted out and the hymn plays on, finally. We sit down after 'We are here to praise You'. The guests and the who's who are introduced after which a presentation of best works of the students of every course is shown starting off with 'Reaping New Lives', a documentary done by a group of students from Journalism that included my partner-in-blog, Pooja. A flurry of other presentations followed. I was waiting for our news magazine 'Maximum City' to be showed on the big screen and appreciated! But the lights came on after the last presentation (which wasn't ours) and the chief guest was introduced to speak! Hey, what happened to our news programme? My classmate sitting two chairs away to my right said that every class is alloted only 10 minutes of their work to be presented! Alas... My first disappointment!

After the chief guest's speech, the awards for the best students in various categories were given out! We were all now on our marks ready to get up and collect our diploma's as soon as our names were called out. The friend sitting next to me donned his overcoat in anticipation, which so far was in his hands. And the classmate sitting behind him had his overcoat on right through the function!

The compere then announced, "All the students are requested to please collect their Diploma Certificates from their respective course assistants outside the college hall. We request the staff and guests to please join us for dinner at the college canteen to your left and the students can have their refreshments from the back of the hall." "Is it over?" I remarked! That was it! It was all over just like that! Angry, frustrated, sad, disappointed, I got up from my seat. Feeling slightly relieved that I didn't make a fool of myself by overdressing! I went out and collected my certi! 'Chindi' was the first word that came to my mind after seeing the certi!

I was introduced to their folks by my friends, some of whom had come from far far far away to see their daughters receiving their diplomas amidst thundering ovation. (the guys in journo were all mumbaikars) Everyone would leave with a heavy heart!

I decided to check out the 'refreshments'. I'd told at home not to prepare dinner for me cause' there was dinner at our convocation. Or so I thought! The refreshements consisted of a bag of chips and God-knows-what inside the brown paperbag for I didn't even open the bag. "More chindigiri" I cried! Is this the reason why I paid all that money? I guess to become a journalist!

Craving for good food, I went with Sago and gang for a bite at McDs. XIC's got to learn a lot about event-management and convocations. (among a lot of other things which is best left untold)!

A day that had begun with such good hopes turned out to be an absolute dampener! Funeral would have been so much better. Connedvocation indeed! Grrrrr..........