Moving on ........
Oct 29th ,2001 -now that seems like long long ago.
Well,its been three years now,three years at one of the best colleges in the city,three years doing what every third person in the country does,three years trying to convince myself that im on the right track ,Three years people !!!
Rewind -First day at college,i hated everything around me,the campus didnt look like the one in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai,people didnt wear colourful clothes,you didnt have music playing in the canteen,wait a minute ,we didnt have a canteen at all ! I felt cheated,like somebody had promised me chocolate icecream but gave me iced bournvita instead (????!!!!). And for this iced bournvita i had to travel 32 km to and another 32kms fro ..sigh ..For this ,i fought with my parents who asked me to take a better discipline in a college in the city. I was shattered so to say.
Second day at college.My first word...hi ..my first friend,the first curious glances,the first joke,my first wholesome laughing at nothing ...hmmm it wasnt that bad..but it was still far far away,still not kkhh,it was still iced bournvita..
Third day,my second friend,i laughed twice that day(yes that does matter !),and i discovered we did have a canteen,small and dingy it was,but u got the yummiest biryani in the whole world -that after u remove the cockroaches and the flies,but it still so yum..ok so food ceased to be a problem,but it was still far ,i still wanted chocolate icecream !
The next couple of days were my teething problem days,ragging started,me wasnt ragged badly though,probably cos i ran away everytime i saw humans who even remotely seemed like seniors,and when i did get caught it wasnt all that bad ,they called me arrogant cos i cudnt speak the local language,they asked me to sing,they regretted that the moment i was done ,they asked me to write their assignments-thank you mummy,thank you sis !!
Thats it,i was settling down,getting comfortable...i made my happy little world ,i learnt to have fun...and boy did i learn well,the first 'year' of college passed by so quickly,it seemed like 8 months !!Well,it did actually last just 8 months ,but hey i was done with the first year !!!
Students are weird in the first year,the ones with great grades in the qualifying exam chill the most cos technically speakin,they are anyways the best in the class until proven otherwise in the semester exams ...the ones with the not so good grades,keep thanking their stars that they scraped through and work the hardest cos they so want to stop looking up to the top ones in the class ..and when ur roll no in the class is according to your rank,the whole "ouch !there goes my ego !!" thing comes into play ..
But second year ,people realise that engineering is not all about proving yourself..nor is it about scoring well ,hmmm actually it isnt about anything at all !! Your scores dont help you get great jobs,you will not/dont have to excel in sports cos u dont realise that sports actually happen here ,and by the time u realise that,u find that u are short of attendance and your compulsary presence in the classroom is solicited by the higher ups!
Third year is all about taking part in technical fests,pretending to do paper presentations actually end up doing a couple of them ,collect certificates in college, outside college ,at home of all kinds-merit,demerit,good conduct-whatever! its all about enriching the resume -ah! that magical word-resume ! Life starts becoming one major job hunt ....suddemly wisdom starts dawning ,life aint no fun anymore ..the topic of discussion in the parking lots ,the canteen,those teeny-weeny break times all revolve around that elusive 15K software job(yeah we call everythin software -clerical work,typing work-its all software-yo !)Gre scores become hot news -irrespective of whether u ever know what GRE stands for .Coaching classes -yes we start filling their coffers..whether you wanna go to The USA or Srilanka or Mehdipatnam-you have to be coached for Gre -and yes there is a catch -you should never attend more than half the classes-thats wrong you know !!Time flies again ..parties go on as usual,we have 4 of em for 4yrs -2 freshers and 2 farewell ..and that adds up to hmmmm ...hmmmm.... well a paltry 4000 bucks ...aint life grand ??!!!!
Your academic aggregate starts to fall ...no actually it continues to fall...u are borderin on the 80/75/70 % and no one can save you ...well..except those lab assistants(if your a girl ,smile -thats a sure 10 points extra ..if your a guy ..well ....sympathize with his condition ..make it out to be as pathetic as possible ..u have to smile too....but u also have to hang out with the guy everyday for atleast 10 min ...now isnt that a lot easier than actually buying the text books and worse studying them !!!!)
Final year is all about studyin/not studyin for CAT..writing Gre for the second time ,waiting for the deadlines of all the universities to come close-really close before you actually start applying...securing a job(about time i say !) with minimum/no effort at all..Until now,It was all about getting A job ,now its about how Not to start working immediately cos theres so much more to learn,so much more respect to be earned (whatever!!!!) .
People,so many of em,different kinds of em you come across here. Some with huge aims in life,some who are happy not doing anything,some who wait throughout the year and slog for the college fests,and after its over start waiting again,its amazing how by the time you come to the final year you love all of them,its amazing how u realize that your life is soo incomplete without them.
People came,people went ,i made great friends,and some not very great friends.Whats more important is that these 3 years have felt like 15 yrs to me ....my maturity levels have risen from minus to a little above nil ! I have learnt so much.I have learnt that life is so not about cramming ,and that academic excellence doesnt define the person you are....Also that life is a set of phases-good bad and the blank ones---its upto us to come out of each one without losing ourselves ....A struggle starts right from day one.A struggle to establish an identity,to justify our place in the world.....im still struggling ....my identity process has been tedious ..all ive learnt about myself is that i love food..and ...and....well thats about it ! But as i told you its a process,and the sooner you finish it,the drearier life will get ...I didnt know why i was doing engineering in the first place ....now im so happy im not doin anything else ..i havent learnt much about microprocessors and Java ....but this place ...this field has made me who i am ...i know for sure now that i wont get lost .....
Thank yous------
thank you--My college for the campus ....and by the way theyve spruced up the place..lawns ...trees flags n all ..it has started resembling the kkhh one (yipppieee!!!).
and music plays too people ...jus walk past the gym ....and we have our own little radio city there !!
thank you--- My new big big canteen ....the biryanis still yum ...without the flies ofcourse!!
The parking lot -- for the shade ,and the trees ,for the spirit ...it stood by us through thick and thin ,through the internals and the externals .Cars ,bikes and people ,it loved us all !!
All the seven-seater guys ...for their bose-emulated music systems --for making that long journey full of life and fun ..what would i do without them ??!!!!
My placement cell- for that 15k job ...thank you for adding an option to my empty "what to do next" options list !!
Thank you to the alumni association -for doin watever u guys do .....ur contribution to the college can never be forgotten ...rite from being the topics of gossip ..to organising fests against the management's will ...thank u ....u make it all exciting !!
Thank you to all our lecturers ....we havent learnt anythin but we'eve sure learnt that attending classes isnt goin to get us anywhere ...thank you for teachin us that !
Thank you to all the people ive met ..ive become friends with ,ive fought with ..and whom ive had nothing to do with !!! Honestly , this whole writing thing is happening because of you guys ....
One semester to go ,and then everythin will be over ..or wait ...everything will begin ...Looking back ..all i can say is Wow !!! never thought it would turn out this way !!
I have no qualms about leaving this place Im not sad .Not in the least worried .I am just overwhelmed by the fact that i made it this far so well ,and so happily !!!!I love what im doin ...i love bein here ...im living ....i am so living !! I finally got my chocolate icecream !:-)
Current Mood: Happy Indeed!
Current Music: pudichidichi
