Like so much else in Manipal, the monsoon rains are the stuff of legends. Ok, nothing quite so dramatic, I assure you, but the rains in Manipal are still talked about all over the rest of the country. The monsoon season is the most eagerly awaited one in KMC, simply because there is only one other – summer. To my intense surprise, I found out that the season in December is known as summer, as is the season in May, both being interludes to fill in the gap between one monsoon and the next. Confusing? Try living in it.
When it does rain however, it does so with a vengeance. Storms that last for hours on end, flooding everything in their path. I’ve lost atleast four umbrellas to the cause in one rainy season alone. There’s something to be said for the rain though – it brings out the romantic in (almost) everyone. It’s not uncommon to see couples walking hand in hand through the rain, talking about things that don’t make sense to anyone but them, while grumpy singles follow at a safe distance behind, wishing they had someone to sacrifice an umbrella willingly for them.
The coffee shops do brilliant business this time of the year. My friends and I developed a routine during our first few months here. Every evening at 4, we’d leave dissection hall and wade our way through to the library. Now before you snort in contempt, let me make a couple of things clear.
The KMC Library is an extremely well-thought out piece of architecture. Six storeys of redbrick and glass sheets, a large lobby with leather couches, a group discussion centre, individual study rooms, an internet centre and (so I’m told) one of the best collections of textbooks, journals and periodicals in the country. Yet it’s not just the infrastructure that makes it worth the visit. The ground floor has a large Café Coffee Day outlet, to soothe minds tired from the pressures of studying.
We somehow worked in reverse, and herein lies the beauty of the system. Every evening we’d grab a cup of coffee … if I remember right it was Iced Caramels and Kaapi Nirvanas all through the first semester; sink into one of the maroon leather sofas and watch the rain outside, talking about inconsequential things. It’s truly the best way to build friendships – out of nothing.
An hour later, completely sated and unwound, we’d take out a couple of books and start studying right there. The atmosphere helped rid us of the boredom of work, and we always worked better with the music on. So much so that once we’d heard the CCD playlist for the nth time, we burned a CD and replaced their music with our own. It still plays there occasionally.
0 comments:
Post a Comment