First Year

I think I've come a long way since the days I used to be buried in phy/chem/maths books trying to battle one problem after another. Those days were some of the best of my life but its now that I realize that those days appear to be special because I can no longer re-live them, they are gone and all that remains are some fragments of memories, both good & bad, that I'll forever cherish.

My First Day:-

I hate this place, its old buildings, the trees growing out of everywhere, the heat, the fat maharaj, the know-it-all lobby boy, I hate them all with every fabric of hatred I can muster. This isn't the college shown in the movies, Where have I come? Would I have to spend the next four years here? I have never been away from home before. Groups of students & parent keep pouring in, which one of them is my roommate, I suppose?

I found out a few hours later. Vivek walked up to me pompously and announced that he was my roomie. My first & last roomie (last because I am never going back to college, never ever). You were awesome.

Meanwhile someone has gotten hold of the name list of the students and is reading it out aloud.
" Who says girls hate mechanical? Look 5 girls!! Rakshita, Sonal, Soni, Shweta and even an Aishwarya, I bet she's as beautiful as Aishwrya Rai. God, this is amazing."
This is not as bad as it looks, I thought. 10:1 is manageable?
His/My/Whole branch's dreams were shattered the next day.
The least damage was caused by Aishwarya being a boy.

The Next Day:-
SK Sharma, HOD, Mech deptt: "If I ever see that red T-shirt on you again, I swear to god I will rag you, I will rag you so bad that you all will shiver just by hearing the word ragging"
Me (to myself): "Oops!!"


My First Month:-
Dad: "Stay clear of the seniors, and don't even think about smoking or drinking"
Me: "Well, you know me."
Mom: "so, Stay clear of the seniors, and don't even think about smoking or drinking"
Me: "I won't"

We used to move around in groups. These groups, as you all know, tend to be a little disorganized. The seniors noticed this and helped in policing our groups, maintaining a straight line, uniform dress code etc.

Also, what the hell are these abbreviations supposed to mean? VT, LC, LG, HG? WTF??

This is the time when I met my baap. He was as awesome as a baap can ever be. He is responsible for lack of my personality development as he single-handedly ensured that I was never ragged.

Baap: "Daaru piyega?"
Me: "No sir"
Baap: "Net surf karega?"
Me: "No sir"
Me: "Sir, notes chahiye the"
Baap: ROFL (He didn't say this, he was actually doing this)
Baap: "Chal kat le, koi dikkat ho to batana"

It was also in this month that we had the official fresher (given by the insti to show that the ragging period has ended, the proctor can go back to maintaining their tummy & moustaches and now whatever is done to the first yearites is just for fun, not at all ragging)

There she was dancing. My first crush in college :-)

Vivek: "Wow, Bhabhi ko dekha?"
Me: "$#^%!$@#!, Teri bhabhi"


My First Sem:-

Ist CTs come.
It was during this time that a manifestation took place in our hostels. He was a myth, a legend, known by many names. You could spot him from a distance. He knew everything, had everything you wanted,
Omnipotent,
Omnipresent.
We call him Pondy Baba, members of the fairer sex call him Prasad Uncle/ Bhaggu Uncle.

Legend of the Pondy Baba
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Now, in my fourth year, I often come across 1st yearites asking why he is named so.

Back in the old days, when the information super highway did not even exist, forget CDs even video tapes were not there, people watched DD1 and also enjoyed it, There was a man. This man satisfied the needs of the poor students by giving them what they wanted and he came to be known as Pondy Baba.

(Details left to your imagination!!)

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God, is this what tests are supposed to be like? Am I on another planet or what? After the rigorous prep for JEE everything seemed like a cakewalk.

IInd CTs come and go.

This is roughly the time when I began interacting with Kartik & Viresh on a regular basis. They would go on to become my best friends in college.

Kartik was very noticeable, specially during the exams. He used to come out of the examination hall and knock everyone of their feet by saying he had solved the one problem that had eluded us all.

We still don't know why his marks never reflected this :P

Maybe because he used to solve just that one problem. Whatever the reason be, He just doesn't surprise us anymore. And Viresh, well he tried to give his roomie a particuraly offensive nickname and in turn returned with a very nasty one of his own. We still call him by that name, and its arguably the most popular nick in the batch.

I and Vivek decide to stay here for Divali. Our biggest mistake ever.

We had no form of recreation, save for TT racquets & my cd player+common room's TV.

We scourged each & every cd library in HG (yeah, I'm using HG, VT faster than you can bat an eyelid now), all we could manage was Evil Dead I, II & III.

PURE TORTURE.

If you hate me, kill me but never subject me to that shit again. It was then that we decided never to stay in hostels during another vacation again.

End-sems come.

Vivek: "Is the theorem on page 243 coming?"
Me: (Laughs) "Yeah"
Vivek: (Laughs) "OK"

He thought I was joking, A question from that page came. He still claims he would have gotten a branch change & not me had it not been for my laugh. Nobody ever trusted my laugh, ever again.

Papers were a cake-walk. Time to leave for home. Hell Yeah, I've made it through one sem.

My Next Sem:-

The first computer in the lobby arrives courtesy Anurag.

Its an ancient piece of shit, but it does the job, well who gives a damn till you can play UT, AOE & watch movies.

We have fun watching movies together, something we never do now, now that everyone has his own computer. Viresh is mortally afraid of horror movies and when we start watching The Ring, he runs off like a scared rabbit, his tail between his legs.

This is the time when I come to know some of the people from my to-be branch.

We used to play UT together and when it comes to UT, there's one name I have to mention. C2.

C2 was in the 3rd yr at the time.

He was fking Godlike. He could kill you just by staring at you. Now a person playing on Bathla's lappy had a small edge over the other players. You could move at twice the speed of your opponent and all he would see is you teleporting from place to place because of your speed. We tested all the possibilities and then I mustered the courage to challange C2 to a duel.

I won 20-19, Yeah he killed me 19 times, in spite of the handicap. It was the last time we played against each other. I could never spoil that beautiful feeling by getting pwned by him the next time.

I know this now.
In IT the Btech course is effectively of 2 years. The even semesters are just a wild frenzy of fests and the end-sem to top them off.

Technex:-

We make an amphibot (It could walk on both land & water). How cool.

We lose but it still is fun. All those sleepless nights. All the time spent in IT workshop. It was then when I saw that the workshop assistants knew more about the practical stuff than the teachers. Yes, the could talk about High -carbon steel & fitting & other stuff for hours, but when it actually came to doing something......

Kashi Yatra:-
Lucky Ali's performance is awesome and Niharika Singh is as beautiful as in the pictures. All this in the first year itself. Lets see what the coming years hold.

Spardha:-
WOW, a hundred time WOW.
File after file of girls from different colleges, cramped together in a small space. It just doesn't get any better than this.

A smile comes across my lips now when I look back.,
"Hamara yahi sapna hai..
Modi ka coach banna hai"

Freshers :-)

This was all a fresher is supposed to be, we even rope in a couple of foreigners to dance with us.
Booze is flowing all around and some of it mysteriously makes its way into my tummy. Hmm, not bad.
Ashank has his moment with the paper dance.
Kartik has his first attack of smoke-induced nausea. Anurag comes to the rescue and saves the day (By cursing everyone around)
Viresh confesses his true love.
My baap gives me a "special" cold-drink (Laced with the strongest alcohol containing beverage he could find).
We give bumps to one of our seniors, who in his anger threatens to call of the fresher this very moment.
He can't do that he's bluffing. Hit him harder.
We pee while drunk!!
Mishra speaks english (most of which is about this girl he knows) on the way to hostel. He's damn good but tries to be goofish when he's not drunk.


End Sems:-
Again, cake walk. One year over. One Amazing year that will never come back.

I simply love this place, its old buildings, the trees growing out of everywhere, the heat, the fat maharaj, the aloo-fry, LC ki chai, VT pe masti, the know-it-all lobby boy, I love it all................................