Saturday, May 20, 2006

Lest Auld Acquaintance....

Well, it looks like I'm blogging in solitary splendour here, for which I guess the exams are mostly to blame. BTW, does anyone know where the board for the meatspace blab has gone? It was used during the MAdmission but I can't find it anywhere.
People, do you want this to go the way of the other defunct JUDE blogs, or shall we continue to bless it with posts? For one thing, it's a useful directory to everyone's blogs, and still gets used as such. PLus, it could be a space for people (like myself) who have a blog presence but don't want to take on a whole blog, since most of the time I (to take a sample case) don't have enough to say to prop up a full time blog. Plus the thought of pontificating in solitary splendour is kind of off-putting. Also JUDE newcomers to blogs and their habits can start off posting here and graduate to their own blogs if they wish.
Since JU Arts has been deprived by dastardly conspiracy of the lobby, this is as close to a virtual lobby we'll ever get. As most of the people reading this blog have no idea what the lobby was, let me try to explain. It was kind of like the late-lamented bridge, except that khuchro prem/subs. ab./pnpc were only part of the lobby menu. There was also plenty of serious, heated discussion and idea-swapping. Of course, in those days JU was a very different place. Nearly all the faculty we have today had not shown up, with the exception of Supriyadi. We followed the annual system, in as must as we followed any system at all. JU was NOT a trendy place to be, that was reserved for Presi or maybe Xaviers. Presi was the ideological hotspot: people there aspired to be thinkers. JU English and Comp. Lit. (which were much more sister depts then than now) were more oriented towards doing, esp. Comp. Lit. which still had the shadow of Buddhadev Basu on it and turned out many accomplished actors, directors, dancers and creative people. English was the oddballs' haven (diluted somewhat by the homely convent-educated ujjol shyambornos) with lots of moffusil-refugees and people with no background whatsoever. Anyone who turned up in a car was subjected to long, slow scrutiny. The faculty were mostly either nice, flustered incompetents or completely insane, once again with the exception of Supriyadi who is and will always be in a class of her own (yes she's my favourite teacher: Swapanda was in England). Of course, I didn't experience JU as an undergrad since I went to Brabourne (yet managed to spend most of my third year in the lobby). To the credit of the Brabourne teachers, they quickly identified me as a nutcase and left me benevolently to my own devices, a privilege I would not have got at Loreto or even Xaviers. I even managed to act in a JUDE play in my third year (this was before DIP and ALal). Hence the importance of the lobby and the people in it: they and the old British Council Library are largely responsible for my education (in so far as anyone apart from me can be blamed for it).
But things have changed. The stuff we bootlegged on the lobby steps is now part of the syllabus. The annual system is history. People who do NOT turn up in cars are subjected to fast, incredulous scrutiny (not). Most of the Presi faculty has been lifted Noah's ark-like into JUDE (no don't even attempt to pair them off). And we have blogs. Perhaps the lobby would have died anyway, under the mounting pressure of the new dispensation. Or perhaps not. I shall at this point resist the urge to quote Malory via Tennyson.

13 comments:

Sue said...

Can I join this blog or are alumni not allowed?

@Sweety, the lobby was way different, even I can say that and I only saw its last days. But I don't knock the bridge, except you couldn't really sleep on it in any real comfort whereas I've spent hours out of mind napping at the lobby. These things are also important.

Rimi said...

"Convent-educated ujjol shyamborno".

*Clutches sides and collapses into hysterical laughter*

--Rimilet.

Unknown said...

@sue: welcome aboard!
@rimilet: glad to be of amuse.
@sweety: As sue says, if you ain't seen it, you ain't seen nothing. And this is not to knock the bridge in any way.
who's got the lobby cd? In any case, that film was a bit post mortem.

Sue said...

Rimidi, thanks! Am leaving my current job today (cos of the pregnancy) so I have plenty of time on my hands from next week!

Strictly for my friends said...

Hi Rimidi,

Don't know if you remember but I came to your place just after passing out to get advice on how to get into publishing. You were so helpful, even though you had never really taught me.Now working as content writer cos i couldnt get a good opening in cal.bored...bored...bored!

feel rather lost in blabberwocky forum cos i know no one there.this is much better.steeped in J.U. nostalgia right now.

Unknown said...

Hi, P.
Of course i remember you.
would you like to join blab as well?
r

Strictly for my friends said...

Yeah, i would. Could you send me an invite?

olidhar said...

hello. can i join? and anyway, exams will be over in another 7-8 days. phew!

olidhar said...

that is to say, this place will be as much full of blabber as we could well wish for.

Unknown said...

people, if you want to be on the blog, i need your email addresses so i can send you invites from the control panel. your mail ids will not appear on the site. Your invite will have a link you can click to sign up with the username of your choice. mail me on rimibchatterjeeFUNNYATSIGNgmail.com

Illusionary said...

ha!ur post was entertaining! But im glad the old blab-blog is back. I stopped going to the Forum long ago.

Unknown said...

Guys! You MUST BE THE POSTINGGGGG! ami shob aka korbo na ki?????

Anonymous said...

@ illusionary - BOOOOOOOOOO!