It seems just yesterday when I came all the way from Goa to join the SDM College-now, my college. All set to don a badge of an engineer in few weeks, here I am in the place of my own choice, unveiling myriad of my (our) experiences in the wonderful journey of four years-The four years…
Was I resolved on being an engineer? Yes I was! Right from primary school... I shall be an engineer- the best one, the most innovative one, the cool one… ;) I added on more adjectives to this as the years passed. Finally swam across the giant oceans called 12th standard, entrance exams, counseling, admissions and reached the end- the beginning actually!
Today on the verge of being kicked out from the college (on successful completion of Engineering of course), I sit back and try to give a logical explanation to whatever I did, we did, in this campus for four years! Here I go…
First day, first lecture, in wrong class!
Came late on the very first day (I was new to Dharwad, alright!), ran into some class, enjoyed the whole lecture, realized the blunder finally when my name was not called for attendance & I was finally sent to my own class by sir, I am sure I heard few giggles behind. huh.. it all strated wrong- my engineering!
All right! No problem! I told to myself, hota hai!, new place and such a damn confusing campus. I reached my class, wonderful “B” division and the race began. Within a while I realized all were running… I too should run?? Alright I started running- “morning 8 o’clock classes, lunch break at 1?? Hey seniors are ragging don’t go to fast food (I’m hungry- that’s ok!), how about canteen? No! Get Tiffin box from tomorrow like us yaar... alright… requesting ma’am at 5 to 5, please leave us, its time! And ma’am says-“I hardly said anything, if this is the status how will you survive for four years?” you are in first semester now, don’t act like PUC kids! You can’t do an experiment properly? Don’t talk, don’t smile in class, am I cracking a joke? Ias, labs, and many more countably infinite things.
Okkk boss… done! It was a slippery precarious edge I balanced on and it wasn’t taking much to knock me down. But thanks to my ability of last moment preparation, I somehow managed a respectable score in class. Huh I’m alive, first semester over!
Amidst all, there I was, observing things, making new friends, enjoying little things, I was happy somehow… : )
Oye, second sem! u are in second semester now. Don’t act like first sem kids?? Everyone was serious again. That wonderful break called holidays was over after all. I was honestly enjoying more with friends. Learning new things was always fun. New teachers, new subjects… well I am here to be an engineer, alright, I was getting used to work. Oh, there are events in the college. They are nice, competitions! I wanted to be everywhere. And such my journey continued and I finally entered the branch.
My rocking branch ISE- as we say our family : )
True to my habit, was late on very first day for class! A tiny beautiful ma’am had already started off with her lecture, more lectures followed all day. I didn’t understand much on first day but I heard terms like Unix, data structures, logic design etc. and we were all told that, now is the time when we go down deeper into the world of computers. The rigor with which it was told, told me that fasten your seat belt, more work awaiting you. This feeling was same for everyone because no one ever bunked classes then! Whenever it came to lab sessions, I always had some private talk with the frame of lord Manjunatha in our department- “please let her not see it, my journal is incomplete, please save me for today next time surely I’ll do it”.
Yes, it wasn’t easy here but it was interesting. Learning how things work, writing programs ourselves and watching them execute, discussions with those who felt the same was really fascinating. We somehow felt we are on the right track!
Days passed… the charm of fiesta, fantasia, technoscope, guidance from our excellent seniors, staff, raised our enthusiasm to new heights. We were everywhere. To add on we were conducting events in our own class! Debates, singing, extempore, and what not. Weekends were working days now! I was on top of the world and soon realized there are more interesting things than classes… ;)
So the journey continued to more semesters. Exams were due, we still had the guts to plan a small trip, sit late nights for gossips doing nothing. It wasn’t until the previous night, when the heat was beyond the measurable joules, we gave our bestest!
Results from vtu always surprised us... how on the earth could I fail? I’ll clear in revals.. I got 70??? How?? I passed. how?? I hadn’t studied… it was difficult to fit a reason to what was happening, a reason that excluded the assumption that we are too lucky! Of course we knew it all, in some corner of our brain. Thanks to teachers, excellent authors, lab sessions, seminars and so on… We did well… and there we were half engineers already. Since then I don’t know how time flied and today I’m sad- it has to end!
We learned so many things for life here. Our own insanity and blunders led us to dark pits. We missed few once in a while, fell flat every next time. It was fun, but added a major share to a treasure called experience and memories. We saw relations form right in front of our eyes, saw them reach the peak, and also witnessed their fall. Fights, misunderstandings were never absent, but what mattered was going beyond. And with no hesitations we moved on. By this time everyone knew that life is short for fights and we wanted to be happy forever. There were more mischief and fun to cover all dark things. We were all growing up in this regard. Engineering life was teaching us for life ahead.
To quote a few:
Results of 4th semester announced!! And to a girl who didn’t know what the failure was, may it be in any realm, to me failure hit hard… this was a mistake... seven so called good students had failed in the same subject… and it was really a hard pill to swallow… no doubt we all cleared the subject in the challenge revaluation, with a whooping more than 20 marks addition, time lap between the failure and success taught a lesson for life and that was “anything can happen”!
There was another turn; it was a season of competitions. And the taste of wins and prize money in and around different colleges was too difficult to control. Paper presentations, coding, quizzes were my all time favorite. I was enjoying the participation and wins more and more, but amidst forgot my classes and labs. I thought I knew I would do it at the end, but it was important to attend labs and submit the things in time were something I forgot. Forgot would we the wrong word, I kept postponing the work. It was not so pleasant surprise to learn I was detained finally from lab exams for not having all signs on my observation book. I was not allowed to enter the lab for rest of the semester. I had to ask thousand sorry to let them give me an exam. I learnt another lesson- let whatever happen, it’s important to submit things in time, and things can’t be taken for granted.
There were of course more things to mention. But I chose these two, as though forwarding my lessons. Had I had few more pages, I would have been more than happy to write forever about my own and my friends’ “blunders?”.
But today if u ask me, what shall I remember about these four years? I would tell you every little thing… but you would find me telling all these with full satisfaction and smile. If I hadn’t done them, my engineering would have been incomplete, and more over lessons I learnt through these are for my life…
I will really miss all these. ;) Of course I won’t get to do most of these again (I’m not telling you should do it please ;))...
Right from bunking classes, getting caught in class with mobile phone, being kicked out of class, punishments, single digit marks in ias, shouting from my dear teachers-“I won’t let u come in if you are late again”, detaining from lab exam, coming late for ia’s and getting a grand welcome of “you ll never improve”… To all glories we achieved together here…
But the enthusiasm shall remain forever.
I don’t know if I did complete justice to all those adjectives I added myself to the word engineer, years ago, but I’m happy and content on my way out. That nonchalant smile on most of our faces tells me, yes! we are somebody now, or at least capable of being somebody. Most of us already placed in good companies are eager to see what is coming next, rest of us are confident enough that something better is waiting for us.
Friends, let’s leave our campus with a pride and content for every second we lived here. Let’s move out with a new energy to live in the world out, and a “yes” to face new challenges. May all get the Best.
A special thanks to all my crime partners, friends, teachers, and non teaching staff for making my journey so memorable here. Thanks to everyone who were part of my (our) journey called the ENGINEERING in this campus, thank you for the wonderful four years-THE FOUR YEARS.
Miss you all.
