My Days At Pratap

Memories make man. Everything else comes under the sway of change except the memories that a person has of the times he spent, the moments he lived and for the people who later became inseparable part of his life. It’s not only one’s flesh and blood that makes one a living entity but also nostalgic memories which constitute one’s identity, personal as well as social, and help it persist over time through Nature’s foundry. The pleasant and nostalgic past always forms an essential part of one’s whole life. It’s a gallery of recollections that a person often draws upon in order to revisit, refresh and relive what he once lived, enjoyed, observed and absorbed.

Like most things in the world, memories too consist of different species. We may remember our past as a child being spoon-fed and lullabied, or sometimes we happen to hit upon a little tinge of the time when we were on the driving seat of our baby carriages that had no wheel to steer. We often evoke the memories of the days of our growing up during adolescence, the great transition from childhood to boyhood. Nothing seems as fast as the memorable changes which take over us during this period. The flying leap we take in this time lands us in our school days which can patently be described as the best part of one’s life. Such are the multicolored memories that one houses in oneself, ever providing the nourishment of reminiscence.

Among such a host of variegated memories it’s the time we spent in college that vividly etches itself on our minds and embellishes and completes our memorable youth. Like with most of the college-going students, for me this time remains as one of the most cherished periods of my life. When I reminisce about my college days, I recall a similar nostalgic past associated with Sri Pratap College of Srinagar, popularly known as S.P College, where I spent more than three years as an undergraduate student. I joined the college in the April of 2013 to study for a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology (BSc-IT). Having just finished my school, I had a mixed feeling for being enrolled not just in any college but the oldest and one of the premier colleges of the city. I had been hearing from my father as to who included among its alumni in the past, which in a way both overwhelmed and excited me. I was overwhelmed because I found myself in awe of those great personalities that had once been its part both as teachers and students, and some of whom had even tutored my father also. What accounted for my excitement was the fact that I myself was in the college as a student, maybe a potential candidate for that league of the great. Standing in the heart of Srinagar, the college was established in 1905 when the British Raj was halfway there. At the time it was the first one to be established in the region. Ever since its inception, it has maintained its sheen and glory.

The Bachelor’s programme in Information Technology that I joined was introduced there in 2006. Perhaps that accounted for the fact that the three-storey building from whose top floor the said course functioned was isolated from the century-old spired heritage structures which housed Mathematics, English et al. Upon entering the premises of the college from the main entrance, one had to and still has to turn towards one’s left in order to reach the place where it’s tucked away with a modest-sized green signboard, among others, reading Bachelors in Information Technology, hanging outside the façade. Despite this separation from the old, the learning ambience and a sense of being part of something prestigious could still be felt all around. Similarly, the student-student, teacher-student and inter-department interactions would not be any less or low. Our department was headed by Professor Gazi Imtiyaz back then. I suppose he still does today. He taught us from the very first semester all through the last. He was a very gentle person, and had an aura around him of getting along with the students, being concerned about them in quite a fatherly way. I consider it more than a privilege to have studied under his tutelage. Besides such teachers, I was also fortunate enough to have the fellows I had. The company of the fellow students some of whom became my close friends is due to the college and the time spent with them there.

The main attraction of the college was the outwardly modest-looking library. Although we had our own departmental library, it would never prevent me from frequenting this central one. On the outside the building appears to consist of a single storey, but has three in actual. Over the period of three years it had become my haunt where I would while away my time reading books. As far as I can recall the top floor, which was least accessed, was particularly interesting in that it contained the oldest stock, textured hardbacks of varying sizes with semicircular spines, and most of them were printed and published in England and United States way before Independence. Having said this, I have also some of the darkest memories associated with the college in general and the library in particular. Disaster struck when the September floods of 2014 came. No other college in the city bore the brunt of it as much as S. P College. The floods lay complete waste to the college, especially the library. In the wake of this calamity, thousands of books got destroyed. I remember when I visited it a few days later I had to literally walk over the books that lay across the floor like the dead, the dying and the wounded on the field. It was a horrible scene to look at. But thanks to the administration and the then Principal Mr. Mohammad Yaseen Shah, all of it was restored in no time. With the brilliant show of resilience, they put all of their efforts in bringing the college back to its glory. 

I passed out of the college in March 2016, and in the same year it was made into one of the constituent colleges of Cluster University Srinagar that was established under J&K State Legislature Act-III, 2016. It also secured Grade A accreditation from NAAC, and deservedly so. It’s always a delight to see your Alma Mater bloom. You cannot be happier.