Recollections of Life - Engineering (Part 9)

Hi guys...im back...after a hiatus of about 4 days!!...

Anyways,i was just talking to a friend of mine (Jay) some days back and told him that i'll be writing about BE (Final Year) in the next post. So, he told me what my greatest problem will be. He said that we had so much fun in that one year itself, that it would take me about 10 parts just to write about that year!!...how true...but lets see how i get through the hurdle of telling you guys everything and at the same time not boring you!! So here goes...

BE!!...our last year in college. I remember telling a senior that we had to spend two more agonizing years whereas she had to spend only one. She had said that i would also feel bad when i would leave the college. How true that was i realized later!!

Post placements we had absolutely no worries. The world was our oyster. Or so we thought. All of us were placed in good companies. It was a dream come true for most of us. This, we assumed was our license to freak out. And boy, did we freak out!! It was the most awesome year ever in my life. I got to know lots of people from the other division of Comp Engg and the group expanded. Teachers knew us well, and that was a comfort for me, as they knew that i was decently good in acads, and can scrape through on my own and hence did not bother much. Plus, we were pretty sincere(??). So we had no worries.

The year began with new subjects and an extra holiday in the week, which was our 'Project Day'!! An additional day to goof off! We were in seventh heaven! The duration of our happiness however, was equivalent to the number of girlfriends i've had in my life (ZERO)! The subjects raised their ugly heads and we were scared shitless, atleast i was! But fortunately the teachers were good! We were saved.

The first thing of great importance was that we took to drawing (all of us) in an over-zealous way. This was not the 'ART' kind of drawing. We basically drew pictures about what our teachers said. It was really funny for those who were present (esp. Jay, Kedar, Rashmi, Snehal and yours truly, which goes without saying). We used to draw all sorts of silly pictures while we were being taught and would keep laughing endlessly. Most of the times it was Jay who was my partner in crime!! That year, we were scolded so many times for laughing in class that if ever there is anything in the Guiness Book to record such an event then im sure that we will win hands down! WOOOHOOOOO!! We ended up with so many pictures that we made a scrap book out of it. I still laugh when i see it.

One of our favourite pass times was to go to the canteen, eat POHA and CHUTNEY (if it was available) or MISAL PAV. We used to eat the same things everyday as though we would never get it again!! It was that tasty. We still swear by the 'POHA-CHUTNEY'!...aaah...im hungry just by thinking about it...

The other thing we used to do very often was land up at my place. It was unbelievable fun. All of us used to be there (Snehal, Ajay, Ashish, Jay, Kedar and me of course) and the laughter never died down. We always had something or someone to laugh about! Night or day, it never mattered, we were at my place nonetheless.

The third event was watching movies. It had become a tradition that we must watch a movie on the day the results are going to be announced...just before the results. The best part was that everyone used to come along and the worst part was the we never ever saw the movie properly. We were always under tremendous tension owing to our results.

BE was also the time when we were in college for the longest periods of time...ever!! Once we were in college, some of us, from 8:30 am to 7:30 pm. But, we never felt tired. Being in college had become a way of life and our college was our life.

to be continued...

Recollections of Life - Engineering (Part 8)

TE Sem II !!...Everyone was apprehensive and afraid of it, not because it was tough, but because our placements would take place after the semester ended!! I was petrified. My future looked bleak..i had nightmares about no company wanting to take me! Believe me, its not a good feeling to have!!Hehehe...

But anyways, after the holidays, most of which were spent in catching up on lost sleep, we got back to college! It was right after the new year (our college started on the 1st or 2nd of Jan!!...they actually thought that students will come...hahaha...how wrong they were!!). The semester started and the teachers straight away aimed at our group. They were not going to let us get away this semester. The subjects as usual tried to subdue us but we fought back. We refused to get caught up in the web of studies and getting good marks (except Ashish, Ajay and a few others!!). Our subjects had names like Software Engineering, Systems Programming etc etc which sounded highly interesting!! I thought we could have fun learning them. Well, my hopes ran as high as Mount Everest and i tried to pay attention in class for these two subjects...atleast!! But, no sooner than the teachers started i realized..."ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD!!" and later, after a little more analysis, i realized that in this case there hadn't been any glitter anywhere right from the beginning!!...DAMN MY EYES AND BRAIN!!

Software Engg (SE) turned out to be a brute of a subject which involved nothing but memorization and memorization and yeah...a little more of memorization!! I obviously did not like the prospects because i have been blessed with a horrible memory!! There was nothing interesting about it and to top it all, i kept hearing from my seniors that the probability of getting outlandish marks (the range of marks falling in this category differs from person to person...for me it meant PASSING with a few marks over the lowest acceptable limit) is very very low. I am not good at probability either, but i did understand that this subject was not going to be a WALK IN THE PARK...or in our case A WALK TO THE CANTEEN!!...

The second subject was Systems Programming (SP). It sounded cool and it would have been cool if it was not for the bumbling teacher we had. The syllabus consisted of Assemblers, Compilers and all sorts of technical mumbo-jumbo which i didn't not understand till the very end!! But, the lectures were awesome. For about 2 months we were being taught Assemblers. For the people who are unaware, this meant about 5% of the portion and about 85% of the time!! It was baaaaaaaad!!As always, the PL's turned out to be our saviours as all of studied in the PL's and we managed to clear the exams.

This semester also was bubbling with extra-currics, as all 2nd sems are usually. Baddy matches, Intechxication, Gathering, Abhivyakti, Robocon etc. all of it was packed into the same semester like sardines packed in a box!! But, this was what we attended college for...apart from the POHA-CHUTNEY of course!!

This was also the year in which Jay was the in the magazine committee of the college!! Now, when Jay was doing it, no one was worried. He's good at everything he does...and sometimes even at things he does not do...hehehe...but anyways, we all knew it would turn out to be one heck of a magazine. And it did!! The magazine was wonderful, but sadly, it did not win the coveted "Best Magazine" prize...but if its any solace, BHAAAAAI...THE MAGAZINE WAS MIND-BLOWING!! :)

The semester slowly but surely came to an end, and put us in the position we had become used to...1.5 months, a huge syllabus and a leviathan task (read exams) looming ahead...but as always, we overcame it and stepped into our final year in college....and man, was it a blast!!!...

-to be continued...