Thank You!

Thanks for all your comments and advice!!! Me signing off from the blog for few days...but will be back soon and publish the remaining parts of the "Roller Coaster College Ride..." and much more...may be live from Trivandrum!

Roller Coaster College Ride...perhaps...worth living...!!!

!!!Squeezed Semester!!!

So…after such a zippy roller coaster merry go round… (Wish I knew more names of Essel World’s rides)…start to the graduate program…it was time for something that never struck to me…could happen anytime down the line…! This was even a greater fiasco then the Zidane’s head butt…for me…at least…!

After been through all the nerves of the season…I or rather we joined the regular classes for the next semester…and believe me…the experience for the first day was even horrible than the first day experience at the college…! To make you feel the same…just consider a kid studying in first standard made to sit with the junior college guys!

Woooohhhhhh!!!

What I witnessed on the black board was horrible…horrifying…terrible…terrifying…! It read:

MVI something something…
LXI something something…
And more of alphabets…
And more…
And more…

And the blackboard seemed even more black with the letters soaking in the color…because they were as good as the sentence “Hello!” is to an illiterate…!

No idea why the mad soul was scribbling alphabets there…was this a class where we were to learn some sort of English…or what!!!

Absolutely insane…on the part of the college administration…to make us sit there and go through the happenings as and when they happen…This wasn’t the lone case…neither for the subjects nor for the elite 1%...Each subject repeated the same trend…with all of us looking completely astonished…may be at our illiteracy or at the class’ intelligence…! Whatever it may be…but I knew that is what I had to do hands with in the upcoming time…!

So…taking all that in its entirety…we began on the ride once again…a tad confident…a lot of apprehensions…a bit of tension…and a lot to study…in a couple of months…because the semester was already a month old…when we came!

And…those two months were curtailed to a month and a half…because of the annual day functions and corresponding events which took place at the college premise every year though I must admit…I was never eager to attend any of them irrespective of the time I had…I loved my morning jog…afternoon knap…evening coffee…and the good night dreams…! I don’t know why…this was a dramatic change…from my aspect… a person who was the spearhead of all the functions held at his school and a person who is still remembered by his teachers every year even after he left his school for his participation energy…never had that zeal…or enthusiasm to attend any such event at his college…! No reason…I could cite for the same…may be the environment had to do a lot with it …! May be…!!!

Making friends is an integral part of my life…and so did I…made new friends…and a lot more…this time around…!

Foremost…the girl whom I always admired…not because she was gorgeous…of course that was the prima facie reason…but because of her simplicity…intelligence and innocence…she was Ruchita “The Sugar Coated Beauty with blessed Brain”! She turned out to be one of my best friends…

Next came Ankur…yup Ankur Agrawal “The Courageous Man”…though we were not so well gelled at that time…but yes…he was a better friend in the making…because…the coming future was a better and a more interesting one for us…I shall dictate that as and when I can…! But I still believe…He is a courageous guy…….man…you have are a brave heart…and you know why I say so!

A few more whom I added to the ever growing list of my friends were…Mohit, Ritu, Deepesh, Priya, Suyog…!

The tie with Taran, Anu and Rahul just got even stronger as time flew by in the past one year…we had some really good moments shared together…some of them hilarious…some of them humorous…!

The subjects…though none of them were interesting…you must be thinking…what does this guy find interesting…! Well…believe me…engineering subjects are damn boring…! And so we had a bunch of them every semester…this time accolades for adding insult to injury were given to Microprocessor, Digital Computer Organization, Discrete Structures, System Programming…and the good old Mathematics…!If you think that was it…and no more torturing need to be insisted…..common…move on folks…we had some brilliant lecturers…my gosh…!!! Some of them were…mimics…! I know…this is bad on my part to say so about my teachers…but that is what some of them deserved…! Petrifying classes…perhaps the appropriate term I can give them…some were even worse than the Cruciatus Curse!!!

Then there was this DCO faculty…hmm…I can hardly remember attending any of his class except one…in the complete semester…No…No…I didn’t miss any…In fact he did not bother to take one…and so was the case in his labs…or rather…practical classes…! If that could have sufficed…it would have been wonders…but…there was something really bewildered on the notice board when it came to short attendance list!!! I was a prominent feature there…because…he took a single lab…and I missed that…! WOW!!!

The subject I would love to mention is System Programming…Bloody Hell! What was that crap…? I am still not able to be out of the trauma it caused in my head…and if I thought I can cough up some of the topics and pass my examinations…go to hell…the book and the author were a mere artifact of highly rusty writing…! That was the worst book I ever read in my life…Only cramming…and believe me…when I say cramming…Hardcore Cramming…made me achieve the up ticks in the number surpassing the sacrosanct number for an engineer - - - 35!

Well…what can one do…rather than doing it all himself.

Bruised by the courseware…I seldom felt free…It took a hard toll on all of us…If we tried to spare a few hours free…huh…extra classes…were at our disposal to feast on…now what more can one expect!

That semester was a muted semester…was all over in attempting to come at par with the basics of all subjects…learning half a book of each on our own…all muddled up…..copying files as it is…that was the worst part of it…and then rushing to make a stupid editor in C…when we had the best of them on our computers…! Hmm…that’s engineering at its best…!

Soon…even before I can think of…studying seriously for examinations…preparation leaves were at my doorsteps…and believe me…this time it wasn’t all about study…! It was about how much more time out of 24 hours can we give to those books…it was all about…how much 20 pin microprocessor diagrams can you trace in your memory…it was all about ramming up the algorithms…algorithms…which were as good as a Sanskrit poems…for an English literature student…! I still remember myself…getting up in the morning…drawing the diagrams in rough…the formats…of specific instructions…the algorithms which I buffed up the night before…just to give a consolation to my dreadful soul…that…yes…you know something…that you can scribble out there in paper…irrespective of whether asked or not…!

Examinations came at a pace faster than a speed post after the preparation leave which was all tangled up with books…Xerox copies…oh yes…this particular college showed me how one can pass his engineering totally based on Xerox copies!

Afternoon sun scorched down…in April…and as I reached the student studded entrance of the computers department…butterflies or rather I should say…frogs jumped in my stomach…that was the only time in the past…when I was nervous…and nervous…and more nervous…the left over of some confidence that I may have managed to gather was just washed away by some doubts which I could eavesdrop…from the crowd around me…! Huh…I wished the clock didn’t strike 1300 hours…and I may have more time to cram notebooks…! This was the lone incident when a person who never studied at the last moment felt completely shook…! I didn’t knew what awaits in the examination room…what will the tiny letters on the question paper read…what will I do…how much I can remember…nothing…absolutely nothing…I was damn busy in reciting some tit bits like shlokas enchanted by a pundit…as I moved up the stairs…to my examination room…!

Sitting there and scratching lines as margins on the answer sheet…I could just give a glance to Rashmi…as she was the nearest hope I had out there…if I blundered! It was microprocessor…on day 1…!

I recited every possible prayer I knew…every possible god’s name…I knew…and I needed every bit of it…because…I really lacked conviction in myself that I can manage to move out of this allay…on a study as brief as a month and a half…though I must admit with out taking any credit from guys who manage to score well studying only in preparation leave of a length as long as 7 to 10 days…! There are many of them…..in an engineering batch…but I can’t do that…!

As the invigilator dropped the paper on my desk…I could not gather courage to sneak at it…but then…read the instructions…unlike my dear friend Rashmi…who does not bother to spent time on it…which said…Question 1 compulsory…so I managed to read that particular question and solved it…as I moved on paper seemed more of one that I can manage…and so did I. I was really very happy when the bell rang and it was one down…!

Next few were a bit easy because of the confidence booster that I got by surviving the initial blow…!

Examination came to end…along with the torture cell experience of viva…! Scores were out soon…and was a pretty nasty one…702…what read against my name…in comparison to some up there…! But I personally think…that was something very good…on what I did…and what we were at the beginning…!

There was also this heart failure fatal error made by our institute…A score that read against the good old green eyed dude…who excels in mathematics…unlike me…who’s a duffer in that field…

Applied Mathematics –III
Arpit Badjatya 08

And believe me…my phone did not stop ringing…as if it was me who checked his paper and gave him that ultimate glorious hard earned 8 marks…! Common…I am not his caretaker…or his sole proprietor…ask him…what did he do…who was in his thoughts when he did the paper…but that was a blunder as big as it could be…because when scrutinized…the marks turned out to be none less than…two fat ladies…88!!! I pity the boy…as no one told him his result……sorry champ…that is what friends are all about…!!!

The end of another bombshell semester! Finally we were on track for fronts like…no more shrinking semesters…no more branching processes…no more ragging…no more engineering drawings….!

The only bit to bother this time around was…campus recruitment process…our eligibilities…time when we’ll face them…rather will we anytime? … End of something…very unique…as was my ride…in the college…because not many study a squeezed semester…I think many a times…was that an achievement…was that something I should write in my resume…was that something I should boast of…but then…it was…what it had to be…!

No complaints…when life…wants to play its own path…what can you do…! Just play it safe!!! Cheers!

Roller coaster college ride...Perhaps...worth rolling back...!

!!!Semester Tough on Nerves!!!

So…after a Jittery Semester…I began a new journey once again…!!! You must be wondering why…why…a new journey…!!! So the next few lines should make it crystal clear…!

Ever imagined in your life that you can study in an institute with two entirely different batches of the same institute pursuing the same course with an artificial difference of juniors and seniors…I hope 99% of you would not think so in the wildest of your fantasies…!

But ask the remaining 1%...you will hear experiences as good as a heavenly arch that one always wishes to cross and some as worst as a premature death even before one is born to see this gorgeous world…!

Yes…we were a group of that elite 1%...of the world…who studied with two entirely different conglomerates of people…and had a chance to interact with them!!! It was as if studying with two generations of the same college…

One that I mentioned in my previous script was a group that was chirpy…exuberant…experienced at the college level…full of confidence…well equipped with all tricks and traditions of the engineering college required to excel and survive simultaneously…!

The second which I was waiting eagerly to join was a group that was new to this paradigm of life…was a bit addled…a bit circumspect…was a bit of shakers and movers…as you would expect from someone new to a place…so no complaints…because that was a normal human behavior at that time…! This was the phase that we left behind recently…so were a bit swifter in our approach!

So…the batch was registered and in mid September college restarted for us. Semester 1 was at our disposal…this was the peculiar situation on our hand…not this time…throughout the journey of this roller coaster. We studied the even semester before and than the odd semester…phew!!! I need to confess…here…..It is really difficult or some times head smacking to build the top floor of a building without building the base…or ground floor…which I would elaborate substantially in the next part of the on going series…all courtesy to the college management…!

Lots of things turned around from the end of the first semester to the beginning of this one…the season turned for the best…it was all rainy…this was the only time of the year when I felt as if there is something to adore in the college…the green forest…not as dark and prohibited as the one’s you find in Harry Potter…but yes…only adorable…of no great use…at least to me…the faces in the class changed completely with the exception of Arpit, Rashmi, Ashish etc… Yes…I forgot to mention a person in my first excerpt…man ‘o’ man….believe me…from a day in the first semester to the end of college….I never saw the person in the same color…yup…You may have guessed it!!! Prabhakar…the tall stalwart of the class…I still remember him wearing his green shirt and black pleats with crew cut hair…asking me and Arpit…..what’s on with the classes!!! Perhaps the only time in his college life…he did so and when today we make him remember those days…he’s all shy and red face to hear that with a smirk of smile…lovely…I say…lovely…what an experience…to see him in that shade…!!! Because vintage cars are easier to find…but not that shade…Now Prabhakar…is all about hairs trimmed to the latest trend…and about pleats…wooooooo…What the shit are you talking about…??? Prabhakar…and pants with pleats…it’s all down to brands…jeans…torn…shaggy…low waist…sometimes I hope they stick there itself…hmm…!!!

And there was another creature…Nidhi…yeah…not Nidhi Modi this time…!!! Nidhi Mehta…one of us…who joined late…though we only had a talk in the first semester…because after that…she did not wanted to carry on the talks with me…we were in for another bicker… and I didn’t had any idea what was the quarrel all about…anyways…for the time being let me move on!!!

Dress code changed…I think we were lucky enough on that turn…to have a dress code for a mere 4 months in comparison to the 99% lot…!

Friends continued to be added to my list…Some of them I would like mentioning at this moment are…Sakina…another of our school mate…and believe me…a complete contrast to Nidhi Modi (I know I am deviating from my words of not mentioning her...but you know…I can’t find a example…besides her) in behavior at least…though when it comes to studies…take nothing apart from her…Sakina is a studious girl!!! This was a breath of fresh air…because from now on…I had to scribble a lot less than before for file work…assignments…etc…She is perfect at this…and so…I have a lot more ready stuff just to pen down as it is…!!! Yippie…

A pair I would mention here was that of Sumit and Shubham…I still remember them…gathering at the Workshop where we engineers were put to work without wages…and Ashish asking me who they are…because he didn’t like their approach to a senior like him (He was a hostler…after all) and hostler are pretty particular about wishes and respect from their juniors…! To Ashish’s amusement…I replied… ‘No Idea! I don’t know them…go ahead and do whatever you like…I am least bothered’ …!
But the tide soon turned and I knew both of them better than I knew Ashish…what to say…Sorry Ashish…that was the case that time around…!!!

Sumit “The Bubble Brother” and Shubham “The friend of all Sardars” …that is what I can connote to them at the present time…turned out to be the bunch of my very good friends…in the coming future…!

Shruti “Simplicity Personified”, Shrikant “The Anxious Engineer”, Varuni “The Dailian”, Namrata “The sweet girl”, Satyam “Happy go Lucky” were a few more who gave me a bunch of variety…!!!

Well…when things change they change for the better…and so I thought it to be…!!!

But witnessing the subjects…my god…things not always change for betterment…So what we had were…Basic Electronics...I heard a lot of tales for this particular subject from my earlier friends…and belonging to Electronics arena…it was definitely not my cup of tea…Applied Mathematics…again…not much to write about…same boring calculations and formulas…Technical English…oh yeah…a subject…I don’t know why they teach at college level…may be they need to make a cumulative score of 1000 and so need to fill in with something or the other…because it made no sense studying letter writing or 7 C’s of communication until you have the confidence to communicate…anyways…it was better than…the carpenter job or the job of a foundry man…which was labeled under the beautiful English word…Workshop…as if we were supposed to make Robots in the shop…!!! Adding more injury was the subject named…General Mechanical Engineering which was taught by a dual faculty…and I swear…that was the only subject I was frightened off…that time…not by the content of the course but by the looks of those monstrous faculties…!!! I say…thank you lord…for not giving me Mechanical as my stream…otherwise this book would have been a bunch of miseries…! The best subject to learn I suppose was C++ … not because it was something related to computers…at last…but because…I knew it…he he he…and because it was more of a comedy class…than something serious teaching…all because of Mr. … I still remember him…shouting and screaming at Shubham…to walk out of the class…irrespective of what the poor chap does…day after day after day!!! That was funny…!

One of the squabbles I never thought would last forever was that with Varuni…Being a Dalian…I thought she was a bit more egoistic about her English compared to mine…and we had a fight over the same…with Supriya “The Strange Friend”…an additional force on her side…I know…I was wrong with the presumption about her…Varuni was a better person than I thought her to be…and this reflected in times to come…by the thoughts we exchanged over the time to come…I don’t want to post the archives here…but yes…she was a wonderful person…! A person whom I admired over the time for her attitude towards life…for her amicable nature…! This does not mean that we did not fight further down the line…we had some really memorable fights…which I would mention as the time comes…!!! But yes…She was crazy and vibrant!!!

Time flew with ease…leaving some exceptionally and dramatically boring afternoons at the rusty and dusty workshop…in the semester amidst all assignments…a bit of cricket…the new feature added by this class to my routine…a lot of information sharing about their seniors and our colleagues…acquaintances with the new folks…etc.

As usual…came the preparation leave…and this time it was far easier to prepare for the examinations…as I was more acquainted with the patterns at the institute.

But it’s truly said…things don’t go the way you like them to go…I still remember holding the General Mechanical Engineering paper in my hand and to all my amusement I was hardly able to work out something confidently…and was furious with myself after the paper…and was fully in confidence for the result…a ATKT for GME…phew!!! Nervous Breakdown was a synonym for the feeling I had down in my stomach when the results were being put on…and adding to this was that we…the elite 1%...were gathering for our branch allotments…even prior to the results…a good 15 minutes before…in front of the director’s office…!!! Hmm…couldn’t have asked for some more serious drama…Make it sure…that was an awesome nail biting afternoon…at the A-Block premises…

Thus the process began…First one to be called was…Arpit…moved in…and came out even faster…and he was happy…or rather more than happy…for being allotted Computer Engineering. For now…we thought this would proceed in alphabetical order and then once again the hammer of excitement rung the bell…and look who’s called next…Me!!! Ahhh…I knew how I walked in…trembling feet…the heart beat was running as if I was in a race for a gold medal at Olympics and if I am unable to achieve it…I will be thrown out of the country…Exactly…that was the feeling…because if anything other than Computer Engineering is awarded…I had to start it all over again…and would take me another 1 year…to make friends…wow…wow…wow…what a life!!!

But…but…but…may be…good times…needed to play out their role…I was astonished to hear my score inside the room…which was pretty good…and apart from that…Computer Engineering…LOCK THAT!!! PHEEEEWWWWWWW……..!!! I rushed to Arpit that day and we were happier than ever as if we won ourselves a true Olympics Gold Medal in a team event…! Sometimes…these smaller moments tend to provide you happiness in quantum of hundreds…which a much awaited success story may fizzle to do…! I was really happy to be a permanent member of the classes…I started with…!!! And adding to that happiness was the elite group was altogether…!!!

Hurrraaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!

That was some afternoon…!!! I hope god takes it to a much more dull afternoons for such surprises next time around…else it may be hazardous for weak hearts!!!

That ensured that we were going to be a Computer Engineer after a rigorous year…that saw it all…ragging…mischief…friendships…quarrels…nervousness…frenzy…glooms… everything…with a photo finish to the event!!!

I would term it as a “Melodrama”!

Just before ending this excerpt…Just think what awaited for us…If you thought or betted on that journey ahead was a smooth cruise…Better think again…!!!

On our sight was…A month and a half of classes gone…yes GONE!!! Absolutely wiped off…for us…the elite one’s…!!! No idea how would we cope up with the loss…No idea whether we’ll manage to scrap out some decent performance…No idea whether we’ll be allowed some extra time…No idea whether we’ll make it to campus recruitment process thereafter…!!! All’s messed up again……….!!! That’s why we are elite…!

What happened next…comes up soon…!!!

Confession!!!

12 years back…A young boy…came to Indore on a summer vacation and stayed here thereafter…The boy never thought in his wildest dreams that he would land up here amidst all the thoughts that jingled his head at the age of wearing knickers and gulping chocolates one after the other…!

This was as good as a bolt from the blue…he had to leave all his friends…whom he never got the time to bid farewell…the school that gave him some mesmerizing moments…the bazaars that he loved to go for a feast…the roof of his sweet home…which had the marvelous memories of his childhood attached to it…flying kite in severe temperatures…playing sports at a deadly pace…playing with colors…the home he loved to stay put at…the home that saved him from scorching heat…from shivering winter nights…from pouring rains…and many such things which mattered the most at that age after his kiths and kins…! He was unable to pay his regards to it…He cried and cried and cried…but that was only what he can manage to do at that time…

Well….time passes and so does the phases of life…!!!

Perhaps his being stuck at Indore…was a lucky charm for him…got admission to one of the best schools…and the school did not disappointed him…He excelled in all aspects and the school gave him the best of bests…..some sugar coated moments that will stay with him throughout his lifetime…..some of the best people he met in his life…..! He didn’t had words to express his emotions for the time he spent at the school…the school from which he was dejected in the first 2 days and was so ready to leave it…but but but…they say it… ‘Best things need time to flourish’…

Then came his graduation and believe it…It was as wonderful as a journey as one could expect in his wildest dreams…Friends…Best Friends…and BESTEST FRIENDS… (Bad English)…wonderful time…time that can’t be expressed and can only be felt…can only be experienced as it slips through a sand watch…time he would cherish and would remember even as he dies…time that he would love to fly back in…time that he would exchange for all his wealth…!

Indore gave him a new family member…his sweet, innocent, dashing, notorious, faithful, lovely Rocky…the member whom he loved more than his entire possessions…more than his ambition…Sincerely…Indore…the boy owes you a lot for bestowing a member like him in his life…though he left the boy amidst his journey of life…and though that vacant place can’t be fulfilled now…the thoughts of him being far from his life…makes him cry…! But yes…the boy…still prays every night that wherever his friend is now…he is happy and cheery…! Miss you…Rocky!!!

Sweet and Sour is a flavor of life…that one needs to be accustomed to…so he feels there is no need to cry on what has happened and what could have happened…! Move on!!!

The boy always hated Indore…The boy always saw Indore as a second home…The boy always had a suspicion about the city…for this was the city that see him loose all his attachment to his native place…the place where a man spends the most vivid moments of his life…his childhood…but now as time ticks away…..and it says…Time to SIGN OUT of Indore…the boy is perplexed…Tears don’t come out of eyes…perhaps…because now he is grown enough to cry…or perhaps…his heart cries…because Indore nurtured him…Indore made him grow as an individual…Indore transformed a child into a human who can contribute to his family…his friends…his loved ones…and many more…he can only express his gratitude to the city…the city of Devi Ahilya…the city of joy…at least for him…in this manner…and would love to say that…or rather confess that…He would love to be back soon…back in the cuddle of the family…back amidst the warmth of his dear friends…back in the city which is his home and…not second…..first home…!!! Cheers!!!

Roller coaster college ride...Perhaps...worth rolling back...!

!!!Jittery Semester!!!

December 16, 2003…the hazy, foggy, chilly morning when I first attended college, was a day which I could never erase out of memory and rather should not.....those are the moments everyone cherishes as sands of time slips through the hands.

It was quite special for me as we were a batch of few people who were joining the conglomerate of so called techies or computer engineers…who joined the institute as per the regular schedule and were a lot more comfortable and accustomed to the environment than we were.

Me and my friend…ami…amigo, Arpit , somehow managed to escape our respective universities which we chose during our admission procedures for which we scrapped our heads whole summer and re united to join the same institute somehow after a long term friendship which flared from our fabulous and sugary school days. That day and today…the bond got even stronger and tougher though neither of us is that tough.

Back to the college…..we stood there at the entrance of B-Block (Why the hell people call it so?) or rather the Computer’s Department, puzzled…perplexed…confused!!! And then the first person we asked something was a much awaited senior to our astonishment when he introduced himself…perhaps an unlucky chap…and our question was…

“Excuse Us!!! Where are the first year classes held?”

His answer was on expected lines…A-Block…Mechanical Department.

We knew the conversation would extend a bit and so did. An advice from a friendly senior…

“Boys!!! Why are you folks not in the prescribed dress code? And don’t even dare to talk to another senior the way you did to me…!!!” Words of advice blended with the flavor of caution flowed out of him and left us amidst the froth of his alphabets.

Phew!!!

That took us to our destination for the day…the classroom. Any guesses, any ideas, any conceptions, any prejudices…all were cleared as we entered the room. To our astonishment…an empty classroom!

Time clicked and by noon…we had a few new classmates to our relief.
A particular girl should be introduced at this juncture... Rashmi …She entered the classroom and by the looks on her face and to the surprise of our fellow classmates… we came to the best conclusion we can…She’s the piece from the same cake that we two belonged to.

The day somehow passed with anxiety and a feeling of uncertainty towards the mysterious future that was going to unfold in times to come.

Day 2, started off well…because we knew where to go at first!

A little bit of introductions here and there to kick off the journey was all that we were able to manage because we knew no one except our class representative… Nidhi Modi…a school mate we always wanted to be in competition with…This is perhaps the only mention of her you will find in my extract so don’t bother to remember her further.

I still remember, a boy with his tummy trying for a breather beneath his shirt asked Arpit to greet him on that beautiful morning and with no other alternative Arpit saying,
“Good Morning Sir!!!” to to to…..none other than my dear friend Rahul Jain. Though neither of them ever discussed the topic in the coming time but it was a light hearted moment after a long day at the block and I captured it.

The day moved on in tits and bits including discoveries of some pretty dusty labs, getting accustomed to the aura around, the corridor walks which were a bit terrifying because of the seniors who always waited for black plates to be in their sights and silence in between…when we just wandered around the limited campus space we were allowed.

So, quite a day that was.

The coming days seem to pass as if sand slipping through a glass watch...a bit sluggish, a bit smooth.

I made many friends in the interim period from which many made it to my elite list of friends. Tarandeep "The Intelligent Sardar", Vidisha "The Bengali Hitler", Richa "Richie Rich", Rahul "The Kid on the block", Anurag "The Sugar Coated Handsome" are a few worth mention at this moment.

The semester carried with it subjects with every quality imbibed in them to torture students physically or mentally.

Engineering Drawing was a nightmare which I could never ever get along well with whether it was the course study or the absolutely dirty and filthy labs brocaded with some ugly faces of stinky professors.

Electrical Engineering was like adding insult to injury with some brilliant faculty talking at a level I could never grasp.

Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics did seem to me like the gatekeepers to these above mentioned devils. These were a bit easy to handle and make a respectable showing for the ultimate glory achieved by an engineer…his mark sheet for the semester.

The only subject I liked was Information Technology, as you can expect from a guy interested in Computers. But somehow things go wrong here and there and that’s what happened when I understood what a faculty we had for the subject.

Keeping pace with the completion of sheets by our class representative, discovering a new topic to study every time I opened the book, the dusty and gusty college premise, some jerky classes, some pretty boring afternoons made the dark side of the session while some new friends, some new relations, some new thoughts made it a bit comforting.

Amidst all these fuss and fun came the examination…the ultimate test of all the toil and hard work. The notice board displayed the dates when various departments would create waves in the minds and hearts of students.

And then came the real study mania…the preparation leaves…the time when engineers study…! A hell of studies…I mean to say…if you haven’t had a look at your books the whole semester. Well…I studied my part as well as I can…and managed some decent performance considering everything that happened throughout the semester.

So…that was the end of something very nostalgic and will remain in my memories as fresh as a lily and as fit as a fiddle…because perhaps…that lead to even better times ahead…!!!