NEW BLOCK HOSTEL

 

Harano Sur

Block Day 24th Feb 2002

 

 

Sudipan Maity

with original inputs from 

Sudip Banerjee, Subrata Basak  

and 

 

edited by

Arun Saha

 

24th February 2002 was a very very special day for those people who have been associated with the New Block Hostel of Jadavpur University at some point of time in their life. The Block Day being held after five long years, that too organized by those who never have experienced any Block day themselves, is a remarkable achievement.

 

Events started in the morning. But before going to that, a description of the decoration of the hostel is must. Starting from the lawn to every room, the Common, the Dining, the Table Tennis were beautifully decorated. There was a huge 'Welcome' on the sand carpet placed at the main entrance. The famous New Block fountain was converted to a tiny lake; with lotuses and fishes beautifying it and lights showering in the evening. Beyond this there were around 7 to 8 tables with colorful umbrellas. Then there was some free space for dancing and ultimately a beautifully decorated stage. The walls of the hostel were covered with posters and drawings (not those engineering ones of course), thanks to Santra.

 

The day started with breakfast, the menu being boiled egg, laddu (can't think of any English word for it), cake and vegetable patties. Then the excitement started with the competition of breaking earthen pots, "haa(n)ri phatano " (can't resist the Bengali word). Dandabat won the competition with Bijon coming second.

 

Senior boarders started coming by this (noon) time. About thirty ex-boarders attended the event. Cute tie clips were presented to all of them.

 

The lunch was the next item in line. It was awesome; all the delicacies of bengali cuisine were put together in this mega event.

 

Radha-ballavi , panir-pulao, fish fry, chicken, chatni, sweets and soft drinks - to name only a few. It was a late lunch [how about the word "linner"?] probably because there was no dinner.

 

The Registrar graced the occasion in the afternoon.

 

One of the exciting events on Block Day was the quiz competition. The group consisting of Bijon, Partha, Basak, Kestada won the competition. A team from second year came second and Sudip, Chana, Chat came third. The organization by Anirban Majumdar and Koushik Bhadra was nice and well prepared which led to a good competition.

 

Next came the item of the day, "Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar". In Basak's words, "senior junior nirbisheshe dhore dhore murgi kora". According to him, it is the first time that he didn't mind that somebody outwitted him.

 

There were some casual tt, carrom, cards here and there. These continued quite long.

 

All these activities made people thirsty or at least it seems. After sunset, people started drinking. There was no shortage of alcohol. If there was shortage of something, then it was space. Observers say that, at a time about forty people were there in a room, all standing and drinking. Oh what an experience!

 

  "Raat bhar sham tak, jam takrayegA"

 

When drinking comes, singing cannot be left far. Ranada, Sumanda and Kausikda as usual, lent their voices to the melodious night. I don't know whether they sang their good old favourite number, "Lal pahari r deshe" this time also. The last item in this event was Miss Mumpi. Guys continued drinking, singing and dancing with the rhythms of this hot chick till late morning.

 

This is how the New Block Hostel celebrated the Block Day (Harano Sur) on the 24th of February 2002.

 

The description does not end here. For those ex New Blockians who could not made it to the happening place physically that day, there was an option to rejoice too. Arunda had organized an internet chat on the afternoon of the same day. Koley, Khendo and Arunda himself did appear for the chat. Yours truly just missed the bandwagon because of being a bit early of the specified time.

 

The only thing that should be bothered is the scarce attendance of the ex-boarders in the event. New Block Hostel is a hostel of great time and tradition. There was a time when NBH’s Saraswati puja was so famous that lots of people from outside the campus used to come. How does it justify that a hostel of forty years has only thirty ex-boarders attending the block day? At least the people in and around Calcutta could have come! The experience and knowledge of the seniors, if shared, always helps the juniors. The ex-boarders should consider it as their responsibility to enlighten the boarders to make the flag of New Block flying high.

 

Anyway, this effort to reunite with our cherished memories of the past, to reunite with our old friends, seniors and juniors of the New Block Hostel is going to continue as long as we live and hopefully this is going to become much easier owing to facilities like world wide web in this electronic age. Lets all of us try to go out of our way to cement this bond into a permanent one.

 

LONG LIVE NEW BLOCK!!

--