The past weekend I in Baroda. The Paschim express was late by about 3 hours, which is nothing as compared to the Ahmedabad-Madras Navjivan Express. Its scheduled hour of arrival was 5 pm but it very rarely made it at the correct time. The Jalgaon-Surat was a single track and the trains were invariably late. Once when I took the train it arrived in Baroda at midnight long after the hostel gates were closed. A kind fellow passenger took me home and I made my way back to the hostel in the morning.
It is always a pleasure to get back to Baroda. Even though close to 17 years have passed since I left Baroda, nothing much has changed. Stepping out of the train, I could see the STD/ISD booth from where we (Ritu, Vidya, and I) made phone calls to home. Ritu and Vidya would always accompany me. Not because they too wanted to call home but because they were the ones who remembered my home phone number. They also would check the address on every letter I wrote ensuring the address as well as the country was written clearly and legibly.
The gate which we often climbed over after the curfew hours is still there though it is little bit dented and does not look as imposing as it did when we broke the rules.
The Hotel Kalyan where we gorged on the club sandwiches and the Dairy Den which we frequented for its lovely ice-creams are still there. As is the large bus stands minus buses (somehow Baroda never went in for public transport) and the medical store where we purchased our medicines.
The Kamati Bagh, opposite the girls hostel, is as lovely as before. We girls spent quite a lot of time there.
The department has run down quite a lot though. Lack of funds is one of the major reason. But the entire faculty is still there. And it was very disconcerting to realize that there were few of them who saw through our demure facade.
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