Orientation at UGA, July 19, 2023

 Driving through the rolling hills of rural Georgia I had a midsummer day dream transported on a time machine to another era. I imaged myself in one of my previous lives back in the 18th Century kneeling down to propose to my tall, svelte dream girl standing tall on the gracian greens in her beautiful, flowing long flannel white dress with her brimmed hat protecting her pretty face from the peeping Sun. Karma endures, dream shall never die, it lives on for centuries and more to come.

The city of Athens in Georgia is located in a hilly terrain. The roads across this idyllic township run topsy turvy, like a sinusoidal curve we have studied in high school Physics. Unlike Columbus, Georgia the place where I live and is located on the flatlands of the Chattahoochee River Valley, most parts of the Northern Georgia are on a higher altitude due to their proximity to the Appalachian mountain range. The temperature is Northern Georgia is generally 3-5 degrees cooler thab Columbus. It explains why snowfall isn't so uncommon in Northern Georgia where in Columbus it is extremely rare.

A solo mosquito swarming around the face of the girl at the hotel front desk lobby reminded me about this funny incident at a hotel in Florida a few years ago. As the pretty receptionist handed over me the magnetic strip key to our room, I saw a mosquito surreptitiously sitting on her cheek. She smiled and asked me "Do you have any questions ?" I replied back "Yes, May I slap you ?" "What ?" She retorted back ! I pointed to the mosquito on her cheek. She instantly burst into laughter as her reflect action led to slap herself and blurt out - "Welcome to Florida. We call Mosquito, the National Bird of our State". Glad a la Mahatma Gandhi she didn't show her other cheek to the mosquito.

In Athens it is Dawgs, the mascot of the famous UGA (University of Georgia) College Football team can be seen allover - from the hotel lobby, banks, restaurants to the entrance of UGA, their Tate Students Center where they had their orientation, the ubiquitous Bulldog can be found everywhere. When my mother saw our neighbor's Bulldog for the first time in America she instantly judged it as one "ASUNDARA MUHA KUKURA" (An ugly faced Dog). But soon she ended up liking it. Though grumpy, growling and dwarf the Bulldog is a very cute Doggie. I love it.

Young students of various hue and diversity sprawled around the large, picturesque Campus. Their youthful exuberance was contagious. From the 5th floor of Tate Students Center you can see youngsters all over, under tall trees over slopy hills, with bag packs, gadgets with earphones stuck to their ears, girls hugging books and notes close to the chests walking and giggling. The campus culture is a whole world different from my Engineering College days. The similarly similarity I found, I was young, I too had a dream.

My son's orientation program reminds me of my counseling (as orientation was known back in those days in India) for admission to Engineering in REC (now NIT) Rourkela. It was done at UCE, Burla near Sambalpur for our batch who qualified in the joint entrance examination. I was with my father as mothers of that generation rarely accompanied their children to such occasions. A student of my dad took us around the campus and treated us a frugal lunch at their 2nd year student's hostel. Seniors were seen swarming around juniors salivating over fresh red meat to rag them.

UGA has a long history, established in 1785 when Georgia was one the first 10 states of the United States after they drove the British out of their country. But History didn't repeat exactly the same way in a different context. My father was only 44 when I entered into the Engineering College as people married much younger those days. I am a decade older now to what my father was during that time. Didn't see any one rag my son. His Orientation programs and activities at UGA were jam packed lives sardines in a can. There hardly any breathing time inside the campus. One major thing I noticed - not a single time I heard anyone mention about jobs, placement and campus interviews.

For the boys keeping beard is the norm in the dorm where my son is going to stay. It's a new style. For girls shorts have replaced Salwars in our time whatever few girls we had during our Engineering days. Those days there was a joke going around that God cursed all ugly girls to study Engineering. Not anymore. I saw a Sardar (Sikh) student wearing an orange turban. What's the similarity between a Sardar and Potato. Both are found everywhere in the world. Even Neil Armstrong saw a Sardar upon landing in moon.

Winston Churchill famously said - "England and America are common people separated by a common language". Now dad and son separated by a common campus separated by common subject" as my son as chosen Computer Science as his subject, same I did decades ago. Ciao UGA, see you again soon.