'JIBONER MANE' in TARC

'JIBONER MANE' in TARC

 

'Being happy alone is important, but being happy with the people around you is what truly matters.'

The objective of BRAC University's TARC (Taslima Anwar Research Center) residential semester is to provide students a genuine taste like public university life, combined with the atmosphere of living in a dorm. We must spend three months of our third semester at BRAC University's residential campus in Savar.

Being an open credit institution, BRAC makes it challenging for freshmen to engage with one another since everyone is in a hurry with other different courses and the permanent campus makes it even tough to interact with new individuals and make friends.

Although we were asked to come to TARC on September 22nd of 2023, I went there a day later for a family reason. When I got there, I saw Sakif and Nehal, my other two friends and roommates, had already arrived.

My mom always made fun of me with a joke, saying, 'You can't even move a foot without me. I’ll see how you'll manage a day without me at TARC.' But, at the moment my mom was about to drop me off at TARC, she said, 'How will I be able to live without you for these three months? Everything will only remind me of you.'

My understanding from other students before I went to TRAC was that the view of the TARC was greater from dorm floors higher up. Regardless of our luck, we were drawn for room 321, which was located on Raihan Sir's floor, a charming man.

On the second day, we found out who our faculty members for the semester would be. Everyone was praying that neither Ali Sir nor Hilali Ma'am would be assigned as their instructors, as they had high expectations of their students.

In TARC, we had a total of five meals each day: breakfast, a snack before lunch, lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner. Every day, they serve different types of food; some days the food tastes good, while other days it does not, my friends and I always go for it together.

Every day, I went for walks 4 or 5 times with my friends (Sakif, Nehal and Maisha) to places like the Anondopur, library, football ground, basketball court, shop and laundry. I participated in cricket tournaments, badminton tournaments and running competitions, but didn't win any of them.

A wide range of extracurricular activities and workouts were offered, including yoga, Taekwondo, martial arts, glass painting, French language and guitar instruction. I took up guitar lessons because someone I admired had once suggested I learn it, but I had never had the opportunity before this.

                                              

My friends and I played many types of games together whenever we had time, including UNO, cards, chess and ludo. We always tried to ensure that no one of my friends had a bad time at TARC.

I had many friends in my class and participated in various projects, such as drama, poster presentations, debates and SLL activities. 

                               

For someone like me, who wanted to see a sky full of stars and the moon while lying on a green field, it was a perfect experience. I loved the clear sky and the moon than anything, something we can't see in Dhaka city due to the tall buildings.

               

On a rainy day, we enjoyed ourselves very much by singing, jumping, playing football and more. The rain hitting the tar felt like something entirely different.

There were a total of two parties held at TARC: one was Culture Night and the other was Gala Night. Many types of performances were given by the girls and boys as single, couple and in groups.

On Cultural Night, the girls wore saris and the boys wore Punjabis, while on Gala Night, the boys wore suits and the girls wore a mix of saris and western outfits. Everyone danced both days and had a great time.

Only one girl came up to me to take a photo together during the gala night, but my friend Nehal took the worst photo of his life. 

During my TARC semester, I took a total of 9 days of leave for various reasons and aimed to break the highest record of 13 days. However, due to the election, our TARC semester was significantly shortened, which prevented me from achieving it.

Before the final night, everyone had headed downstairs in the dorm. They were crying, singing and enjoying their last night at TARC.

The final day was incredibly dramatic. On that day, I had an EMB exam and was expelled from it for looking at another student's script.

On December 9, 2023, I finished my TARC, which helped my understanding of "JIBONER MANE." There, I made a lot of friends and created moments that I am going to cherish forever.