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…!!!