Throughout the journey (from car) you can literally see the buildings, trees and everything fading off outside and when you finally enter Pilani, you start to think to yourself that what a depressing place you have got yourself into.
While you are looking here and there and searching where the campus is, you drive up to a gate right in front of you like the all roads you have traveled through always meant to end up here.
It is not a grand gate. You get restless to get an early glimpse of the campus but there is nothing you can see beyond a brown gate with a welcome banner that just doesn’t feel enough in size. The gate in itself is enough to hold a long lost part of heaven in it. You drive through the gate and suddenly the world is much more greener, sky is a little more blue and the hot gusty winds turn into a mildly pleasing breeze. All of it reminds you of something read few years ago about illusions in deserts but you continue anyhow.
The road signs lead you to VKB (Vishwakarma Bhawan) and just looking at the large tents and larger crowds you find yourself standing in a queue. There is submission of paperwork and all other stuff but all you care about is your hostel allotment and then an official there asks you to locate the slip with your name from the huge stack and there on the slip is written Raunaq Arora 2015A4PS403P (your second name ;)) and hostel with a blank in front of it. You watch the official scribble “K-R-4-1-2” on it.
Three hours later you have had lunch, your room is all setup and you are just sitting there wondering how the wing is all silent (I reached there early :P) but is going to be anything but silent in the coming months. Out of nowhere there is a knock on the door. Its you roommate for the next year hiding his eyes in his father’s shadow, hiding his own struggles and story.