Raindrops tip-tap softly against the roof of the car, their rhythmic patter composing a soothing lullaby. The earthy aroma of wet soil that rises up when raindrops fall from the sky is pure magic. It wafts in through the open car window and makes my heart sing. It stirs up memories from my childhood, when we would make small paper boats and dance in muddy puddles after every rain. And then adulthood, especially in college, when the rains triggered that insane urge to smoke a cigarette and sip some hot ginger tea or coffee at a roadside stall, an urge so strong that it was like a gun held to your head by a gangster. You either do or die at a time like this.

Who says time machines aren’t real? Because when we reach the campus a little later and drive past the entry gate, in the span of a single moment, I travel nine years back in time to when I first came to this place. So yeah, the gates of the institution are practically a time machine for me! The corroded pathways, the red brick towers, the central library—everything transports me to a time of my life that I miss the most. Some parts of the old buildings are hard to recognize now because they have been renovated, yet the feelings they evoke are the same. A rush of memories, some joyful and some not so great, flood my mind.

The rain has come down to a drizzle. I see students walking around and a few guys playing basketball. Their faces are unfamiliar and strange, but I feel a weird sense of belonging.

Nostalgia hugs me like a warm blanket on this cold, rainy morning, and I am reminded of the person I was when I first entered IIT-D. My mother had come to drop me in her fancy pink car. It was the first time I was going to be away from my family and live in a hostel with a bunch of crazy folks. And as it turned out, IIT-D’s hostel life was exactly like the image I had in my mind after watching the famous film 3 Idiots.

As my mother drove away after dropping me, I watched her car grow smaller and smaller until it vanished from sight. Tears rolled down my cheeks. This would be the second time in my life that I cried, but I never called my mother back nor did I ever mention this to her.