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…!!!