Is this the place we used to love?
Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?
And if you have a minute, why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
- ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ by Keane
The walls of St. Xavier’s College have held countless stories, sometimes in whispers and sometimes in loud declarations. But there is a clear distinction, because there are eight (relatively) mundane months of the year, and then there are the four months of Malhar Madness.
While our keyboard continues to write, delete, and rewrite File 26 of Project Malhar, today we reopen File 25 for a glance. Malhar reinvents itself every year, exploring new themes and new camaraderie with every edition. Yet, even with the universe of Malhar shifting constantly, we somehow find our way back to the same old spots for comfort.
Every department finds ‘that one adda’ that becomes its own little world within the magnanimity of Malhar. It lives in the quiet corners where you build Malhar piece by piece, in the Main Days when you return to your ‘hiding spot’ with your social battery drained for everyone but ‘your people’, and in the loud laughter that fills the college with hundreds of inside jokes and banter.
This blog is an ode to the previous edition of Malhar, because sometimes, it’s not just people we remember, but the places that quietly hold those moments for us.
The Hogwarts staircase is truly a magical place, and its magic extends far beyond the world of Harry Potter. If no one else does, a Literary Arts member, irrespective of their position, will always attest to this. The area near those stairs, opposite the Malhar Office, probably still has our imprints engraved onto its ground, as we spent days putting our Lounge together and building a community where every voice found its own audience. Music, pop culture, books, movies, banter, ice creams, and everything in between, the discussions followed one after another, and thankfully, silence was never well acquainted with us.
While IPA is hopeful of finding ‘their’ spot this Malhar, Assistance has memories spewed across every corner of the college, with a particularly soft spot for the Foyer. From pre-concert anticipation to the Core overthinking judge routes, to tired faces during evacuations, the Foyer, their 17th Core member, has witnessed it all.
Conclave never really had one fixed place that became its ‘adda,’ but LR 34 remains unforgettable, having housed the entire Conclave workforce in both 2024 and 2025. It saw every side of Conclave on the Main Days, from serious meetings before keynote sessions to the emotional, overwhelming sign-offs that followed. Beyond that, the Chem Lab corridor beneath LR 13, where AmNite rehearsals with the Finance Core unfolded, and the Woods, remain fond memories etched into the department’s journey.
For Comps, the Bonet Lab became more than just a workspace. Between endless hours of work and the occasional Roblox game to calm nerves, it became a place where stress momentarily dissolved into laughter. LR 38 held that same comfort for ETC-W, becoming their haven amidst the chaos. For three days, it transformed from an ordinary lecture room into their hangout location, filled with conversations about the Foyer, the Woods, sessions, and everything unfolding across campus.
For Finance and the CP, the Eco Department became inseparable from Malhar itself, a space filled with work, music, dance, and memories that stretched far beyond responsibilities. DnM found that same sense of belonging in the galleries of the college hall, where months of chaos, creativity, stress, breakdowns, and last-minute fixes slowly turned the space into a second home.
The comfort zones of each department were scattered: PR in the Woods, the M-Office, and near the 30s; WPA in the Woods, where work blended seamlessly with laughter and rehearsals; Admin in the scoring room; Security near the Foyer benches and arches; Creatives on a secluded staircase near the hostel building; and Texx in LR 13, where friendships quietly took shape. And perhaps Logs said it best, because sometimes, the ‘spot’ was never a place at all, but simply the people.
Every time you cross these places after the curtains are drawn on the fest, they become quiet reminders of what it all felt like while you toiled to weave the different pieces of Malhar together. Then, all that remains are nostalgic, reflective texts on the group chat, reminiscing about a journey that made college feel like home, especially during the three days of Malhar, when you probably spent more time in these spaces—the spaces between us—than in the comfort of your homes.
Malhar arrives and leaves every year, bringing with it new faces each time, but your legacy continues to live through these bricks and cement. And if you do not believe me, step inside the M-Office. Every year, the core leaves behind fragments of themselves in that small room, a space that holds a legacy far beyond what one can imagine. From names and faces to memories and moments, every corner carries stories of those who built something before them because, at the end of the day, people might forget, but the walls remember.