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

A glimpse of normalisation...!

After struggling...or rather battling with the gruesome semesters all the while, it was time for another semester in the engineering life.

It was really nice to see friends that keep on changing every 6 months or so...back...or rather I should say...seeing myself back in that group...because...whatever it may be...they had to be there...it was we that oscillated like a pendulum...though not by it’s frequency... ;)!!!

The semester started around the time when it starts to rain and thus college was truly blossoming with the nature’s blessings and the aroma of the sand filled the campus like cappuccino from Cafe Coffee Day filling up or rather stimulating your senses...and craving you to step in the outlet and sip it up till the last drop...!

Attending first few classes on day one...as I usually did...was good...was really cool...to attend something...from the beginning...after what happened in the previous pages...! Was a nerve setter...believe me!

The friendship just got better at this chapter...Sumit,Shubham,Satyam,Shrikant.....perhaps all ‘S’ gelled well...with me...and I am still bearing the brunt of them calling me “Sir” or “Bhaiya”...just because...I landed up in the college prior to them...in the most wild circumstances I could have. I really sometimes think...Why can’t they make their mind....Call...”TARUN SIR” or “TARUN BHAIYA” or.....why not a simple “Tarun”...I never asked them to honour or bestow me with their accolades...! Anyways....guys...take your time....I wish someday...I can be there....!....!....!....!Make it fast...even as I write this...I remember only Shri...converting to the meagre or more unconventional...”T.B.”...better than the previous version. Except him...I seldom remember anyone calling me Tarun...!

I had some wonderful time with these guys...They were really cool and awesome...I still remember Shubham and me...on the same bike...the Cruiser...the Yamaha Enticer...which never cruised but always...behaved like a sports bike...all because of the owner’s efforts...Shubham...! Man, he drove my breath out and ripped the bike’s engine on some mornings...when we were late because he could not even manage a bath on time in his own customary “A Bucket Bath”...!You must be wondering what is this bath all about and why special...It is a technique to have a one minute bath and re-engineered by this very young and dynamic fellow...He used to fill a bucket with water...of course that’s what you will it with and then just put his head into the bucket and done...So...That’s how you take a quick bath...! Hope might help you...

All over the semester...we played cricket...cricket and cricket...as this was the time I played cricket...in college...the other group never took efforts to do so...Neither did we...!

Coming to the more traumatic part...as usual...subjects to get you head screwed with.....this time it was...Digital Electronics...which should have read before doing up with Microprocessors (Already killed for life......Passed) ... Data Structure Using C was another nail in my coffin...Being a computer engineer you would expect someone to be proficient with the linked lists and queues...Damn!!! I am horrible at it...! On top of that the faculty made life miserable...Mrs.Dutta...! God save the students...! As usual Applied Mathematics...Version III...and Business Data Processing...A well disguised name for a very conventional or orthodox mainframe language...COBOL...! Whatever may be the case...this was the only subject I was interested in the complete semester...!Finally had something new to learn after all those boring days...when I needed to sit in front of that blue C/C++ editor...And...To counter act the course...so as the students don’t get behind time...was...MATLAB...a very advanced engineering and research tool...that was taught to us for creating loops and printing sequences...! Insult to some great tools...ironical...! Truly ironical...!

Ahh...I forgot the “Cruciatus Curse” for the semester...Humanities! A subject on moral science...perhaps...or some blend of economics...or some blend of politics...No idea...what the crap it was all about...with that idle figure..Arriving at the scene with his scooter and the having the courage of standing and delivering lecture after lecture after lecture......! I know...this is not the way to express myself...but then...I have no other words...for that phase...Extremely unlively afternoon sessions when the wind blows the dust off the grounds...the faces are shrugged off as if someone has toiled hard at a mine...dry grass flying in a plain...a perfect scene for a cowboy movie...!

The laboratory for those wired experiments was even more gruelling...I can never ever make out...which is the right way for the current to flow...I am always puzzled...how can this current not find his way from my path...I struggled with electronics as always...though on a smaller scale...because...Making Logical Gates was a bit easy for me...!

There ends the customary list of some articles that make up the life...at college...and which are the prima facie reason why one is there...and why this narration is here...So say a thanks to all of them!!!

This was the semester that was normal by far...for me and for all of us...I mean the elite group...we felt as if...we had some rest...to take...after all the curvy paths that we had taken...after all the zip zaps and bumpy rides...!

I made some really good friends and I mean to say...I understood few people even better...than before...! The spat of a more polished English between me and Varuni...settled down with time and we understood each other even better...I had some real good chats with her...on Yahoo...sometimes...she was a vivid character...Even my orkut account was her creation...very few know that...she was the one who created it!!! We had some real good talks...about all sorts of stuff...creative writings...to...movies...to...English vocabulary...to girlfriends (mine of course)...to...stupid squabbles...to future plans...Etc...Etc...Et-cetra...! I also got to know a lot more people in this group...as I got more time to make myself familiarize with them...This was a more vibrant group now...in comparison to the one...I met six months back...with the customary dress code shaved off...they looked even more...better...!

Ahh...I really forgot to mention this incident.....and as I was going to wrap the chapter...suddenly...out of no where...I remember this...Oh My Good Lord...Thanks...for the flashback! How could I miss this...?

It all begins from the introduction of a new species...nah...I am not talking about any wild life adventure...I am talking about another few students...who joined the class a year after...basically students who took transfers from their respective colleges...! There was this girl name “Kripi”...I can never make out what that means...and neither did ever wished...If I could just!!!...By now...most of you acquainted with me or Arpit would have made an intelligent guess...what’s in store...for the next few minutes.

So...here comes the CAFE COFFEE DAY saga...I swear....Girls are the root of all evil...My dear friend...who never took me for a coffee...at a “nukkad” as you call those tea stalls...in past decade of friendship...took her to the cafeteria...hmm...! Thanks to a nice dude...that I came to know this...and rest is history...every girl keeps on asking Arpit...”Did you take her for a coffee?”.....I wish...I could have been there for a snapshot...Just loved the scene...when every second girl pops up and asks him the same question and he is left astonished and perplexed...until few days when he managed to find out how the gossip spread...now that was some fun...and still happens to be...I suppose...if not me...he’ll remember the same forever...No problems dude...you can take anyone out from now on and I will not come to know...!

Thanks...to the hunk...another of a person whom I could never make out...yes...he was the new specimen in the elite group...Loveen “The HUNK or DJ”!!!...who incidentally was dragged or rather pulled because of his piece of interest too...to the same coffee shop...! Cheers dude...without your help...A great moment would have slipped out of my hands and lost in the pages of history...Now it is like a sand dune in desert...!Will keep on recreating itself...even after getting wiped off every now and then.....!

A new thing was introduced in between...all this...! The college authorities decided for a stricter or rather a more fashionable...midterm test pattern or class tests...! They thought it would be better to display the printed time table for the oral communication earlier...a printed test paper to the black board questions now as students will study for it...! lol...lol...lol...I seriously loved this new pattern...2 days of full fun and frolic...come to college...give a test in 1,2,3,5,10,20 min...depending on your capacity and the external factor...of the arrival of attendance sheet and run away to the nearest restaurant for a chilled 3 hours coffee cum chat cum gossip cum sandwich break...! We even tried the college roof...the side perch on the roof...as a place to study...and did every sort of talks...except the study...was a good rejuvenating exercise...my gosh...give these authorities some brain.....!

Now was the time to gain the magical figure of 35 and cross the figure substantially to score some cookies...Preparation leaves were more fun...with me and Shubham studying together most of the time...at my place...had a blast...we used to call people and make a bunny out of them...a day before the paper...was real fun...to disturb and create havoc...for already frustrated folks...This time around Shubh was far more relaxed as he didn’t had the sword of Basic Electronics hanging over his head...Had a real good time together...!

Scribbling all that I can remember in the afternoon session of exams was something I managed to squeeze out...except Humanities which rather squeezed out my hands after filling all those sheets...just to increase the pages of the answer booklet.....making it resemble...a bollywood script...pulled out of a jukebox...long back...!

External practicals were not a tough nut to crack...except Business Data Processing for many people...as few took interest in the subject and made some efforts.....Rest all was...CTRL-C and CTRL-V efforts...! And I still remember the professor tearing the files in front of the external...of all those which were a result of the Copy Paste bug.....and as I sat to give my viva...I thought of Shubham and Sumit...who had a Xerox of mine...and awaiting their turn...but to

Getting away with the semester with a decent score was easier and swifter...and was fun...this time around...Really relaxed with the only gray cloud...of Campus Recruitment Process...and the circumspect scenario that surrounded us...! Rest was fine...cool as a cucumber!

So that was it...a bit less rocky ride for me or rather for the elite group...after all sorts of thunderstorms withstood...! Had a marvellous summer to enjoy ahead...and seek some preparation for the oncoming battle...on either of the fronts...face the unseen, the unravelled, the wrapped mystery that awaits someone on the same ground as a novel by Jeffery Archer...!!! Or the more lucid one’s by Nancy Drew...!

Chill yourself...for the next winter...the chilly semester or the semester that turned it around for me...! Lots to say...lots to write...something unsaid...something worth mentioning...!