I got sufficient experience about the college during this one year. After that I joined a college that was a little away from my place. The college was near to my eldest sister's place. So, I stayed with her and started going to college.

Again, it was a new experience. You would see young boys and girls everywhere like new flowers. It was almost like a garden and one felt like the spring season had started. In fact, it is a never-ending spring season in college.

I enjoyed the company of boys and girls thoroughly. We used to mix and talk to each other freely and that was also a new experience in a sense that earlier you were slightly restrained and shy. Now, we were also away from our homes. We felt totally free.

And then little love affairs. These are normal things in colleges. When I left college, I was very sad. We would write autographs and letters to our friends. Whatever they would think of us, they would write in an autograph and pass it around.

I used to keep all these autographs in my house, occasionally to go through it and enjoy those times. One gets transported back to that period and becomes very nostalgic. These are wonderful memories of my early life.

After that, I left for Madhya Pradesh for higher studies. Since some of my friends were already there, I thought let me also go there. That was also the place where I came fully in contact with the Hindi language. I mean spoken Hindi, accent, etc., etc. I was in the middle of the country’s Hindi heartland.

Then I went back to Kerala and started looking for a job. One offer came from State Bank of India (SBI) but I didn’t go. I had no interest in banking. My interest was in becoming a lecturer in a college so that I would always see the spring season. I have a fascination for flowers and the spring season.

To be continued............

P.S: The picture is for representation purposes only.