8th September 2003 was the day I came to Manipal to start my journey as a student of engineering. Owing to my year back, it has been more than 4 years since. And now, I have to leave this wonderful, beautiful, idyllic paradise (for me) in a few days. I shall be bidding my dear Manipal adieu on 6th of June, 2008. These 1734 days (to be precise) were the best, the golden days as I like to call them. I doubt whether any other place in this wide world would ever mean so much to me. Time alone can answer that, but for now I am deeply in love with Manipal. The metamorphosis from an oversensitive, immature and ignorant teenager to a relatively mature latitudinarian can be ascribed to Manipal and Manipal alone. Before coming to this place, I had the knowledge of the English Language and was fairly capable of expressing myself on paper, but when it came to speaking, I would get lost. Thanks to the multicultural multilingual atmosphere of Manipal, I am fairly fluent in oral expression. This is just one the many things that changed me for good. I made the best of my friends here, and a wide variety of them too. I had a first hand glance at the multifarious India. My taste in books, movies, music and food, my outlook towards life, in fact my entire weltanschauung was moulded here. The clean, green, pollution and population free environment is nothing less than a utopia for me. The freedom and isolation from the wicked world was almost like a hospitable womb. A person coming from my background can ask for nothing more. Add to this the fact that MU has one the most happening campuses in India. What else does a student need? A good education as well, but what the hell, you can’t have everything, can you? To be honest, it was average at worst. But I still don’t regret coming to this place. And I never will. I pity those miserable fools who came to Manipal and left this place just with a degree, and no memories or friends. And I positively loathe those people who claim to hate this place. I simply cannot fathom how anyone can hate Manipal. As I am about to leave, I wish I could visit all those places I used to frequent once again. I sincerely wish that Manipal could be personified (preferably as a female), so that I could profess my undying love for her, tell her how badly am I going to pine for her, embrace her, cry over shoulders and kiss her goodbye. But alas, I will have to contend with one last look at Udupi Railway Station. I love you Manipal and I shall love you forever.
