college memoirs

I am really gona miss this place, I am gona miss my college days…something we chant nonchalantly these days thanks to gaurav dodontwatevr. I don’t know if I’ll miss the place or the people coz I’d never been too attached to the place and maybe 4 years is too short a time to bond to something. But I had thought the same in the last year of school where I studied 12 years straight. I miss school terribly!!! All the same I decided to take a peep down the memory lane..4 years down..

The first year was a blend of good and bad times. We took a long time to fit in. just out of school, extra cautious about everything, apprehensive about ragging which our college was notoriously known for, and of course looking forward to the new phenomenon called strikes. The seniors did not disappoint us. We had a strike on our very first day at college. We were specifically told to run out of the place at any signs of this queer occurrence. Gradually we fell into the routine, planning on where to hang out in case of a strike and tvm being quite a happening place it was not a tough job. We mostly ended up home :|.

The ragging sessions weren’t much of a threat. In fact, got to know much of the seniors because of that and also got all the necessary practice required for proposing. Hope it comes in handy:). In the evenings hanging out at rakhi’s house became a routine so much so that it became my parents unwritten duty to come pick me up at night if they wanted to have me home. And the few days I’d be home rakhi would be at my place so I was spared from the loneliness that I encountered later on in greater magnitudes. The one thing I would regret about 1^st year is missing out the tour due to some family function which I could have very well missed:(. But towards the end of 1^st year after we befriended the guys it was a fun ride. We used to jeer at their comments until then and suddenly we all were one big gang. Happy times those were! Me, rakz and ash formed our anti line association then and went in black outfit, armband etc on feb 13^th to signify our stand on the same. But 3 is the biggest number of members we ever had and it went on to become 2 with the end of 1^st year thanks to ash:|. Akku used to be a supporter too although not as blatantly as any of us. She was this silent ‘vettupoth’ then having a rational stand on everything and rushing off on Friday evenings not to miss her kollam train. She was preparing for medical entrance too that year and once when hemant took her note to complete something he found ‘bisexual’ written in place of bilateral with which we created a huge uproar stating her to have voyeuristic thoughts hidden in her calm demeanor. She was so embarrassed that I am sure she would’ve taken extra care about her notes and about letting anyone borrow it from then on.

We never got along well with the math teachers. There was this swaying lady who was herself unsure about what she was muttering. Naturally we were least interested in the class and once the guys behind were passing some clever retorts. I was probably dozing off coz I dint hear them but the next thing I knew was myself and rakz being asked to behave and to explain some theorem the lady was wrestling with until then. Obviously we just stood there staring for about 15 min after which she left fuming. She left college within a month much to our pleasure and her own! Then came the ‘adorable’ sati who, despite being a teacher doesn’t deserve the respect associated with the title. In her very first class rakz was caught for talking and disturbing other ‘studious’ peoples in class:). She was towering over and demanding an explanation for the behavior. All of us sat shivering, wary of such an outburst but even after all the shouting directed at her, rakz was totally unperturbed. Hats off to her! But of course it was nothing new to her. Also remember sati’s comment to our staff advisor about our class’s ‘immoral’ behavior, on the holi day when she happened to see some guy throw color powder on a gal, “ ee kanakinu poya ee piller pass out aakumbo okathu oru kochu koode kanum”:|. I am pretty sure she was dozing off during her biology classes at school:|. Akku’s lecture to subi on the morals of returning borrowed goods when he lost a pencil of hers is something everyone mentions about her. But then, I assure you that she is no longer that innocent gal anymore:D . Oh n of course how can I ever forget the infamous roy mamman. He used to be this opportunistic nasty creature who thought I was perfect to be his ‘line’:|. I had to patiently listen to all his ‘kathi’ for the fear of disrespecting a senior if I let my attention wander. After a few days I started finding new hiding places for myself under desks (where I could easily fit in), gals toilet, on the stairs merged with the crowd and where not! My whole class was quite helpful in hiding me but the chap finally realized my tactics n sent his friends who used to make me write disgusting things on the blackboard n all. And then there was a guy for whom I wrote his entire record n he promised to buy me a family pack of chocolates. I expected at least one chocolate but never even saw him again:|. That brings in the definition of ‘thepp’:). Hemanth and sachin had given us a crash course in thirondoram mal n we were good at it by the end of the year. Now we could distinguish between the various forms of kalip, kola, thepp etc etc! Achievements! :). Then there was the time we spent at home with rakz mob and lots of free sms. The ‘pokiritharams’ we’ve done with that is beyond the scope of this write-up. There have been bad times too. But I do not wish to include them in this as it was nowhere as memorable. Time flew by blissfully during the study leave when our transformation as true engineering students was complete. Books had been wiped clean off our dictionaries (by us I mean just rakz n me coz there are lot of people who underwent the transformation much later). But since the subjects were the same combined study was still an accepted term by the families. Probably they mistook our loud renditions and laughter as part of intellectual discussions. Ahem. Our 1^st year results were proof enough for our ‘hard’ work:|. Oh, I even failed for the 1^st time in a paper which no-one in college had ever thought worth failing in. I still remember that day when I was sitting in front of the computer screen trying to make sense of why the external had failed a gal for smithy. There were people in college who failed in all the subjects but workshop. Why me god why! I was a nervous wreck then. But on retrospection I feel it served me right. For one, I gave back my model as it was handed over to me. All my futile attempts with the hammer were well evident. During the smithy classes I had always roped in gary n Christi to help me with it and never bothered to give it a try. Then the supple also made me look back at how callous I’d been whole year. The religious me was back. Thank god for that:). Oh, I also had my first ever serious crush around the end of first year. But as Usha maam would suggest (under altogether different contexts), ‘nip it in the bud itself’; I had to unwillingly do so ;). But he has been a gem of a friend and I am really grateful to him for that:).

The college fests season was good too. Nirvan was the first, and there was this organizing chechi who was bossing around asking us to go and attend the inauguration because of which we promptly did a walkout. Obedient kids aren’t we:)! Then there was the ABVP fest swaratharang, for which me n rakz participated in the treasure hunt along with manu chetan n sonoop chetan. It was organized by asianet and we were given a taxi to go treasure hunting. We had to shop at ‘dreamz’ for an exact amount of something. We weren’t paying and we weren’t given anything save an alpenliebe which happened to be the next clue. The driver was too slow and we got caught up in the traffic too but finally reached the computer centre for the next clue of ambrosia. We were given some 15-20 buns and had to gobble it up without even water! Rakz and I were having a hard time. The guys put some inside their t-shirts and we donated some to the ‘emaciated’ people who come to party at amb swearing them to secrecy. And also we pushed some in the space between their cash counter. But after all the efforts we reached second and the treasure was already found! I am pretty sure the other team cheated!!! Now our cheating doesn’t matter coz we dint win! :D. Akku was crowned Ms.Swaratharang while we were on our adventures. Then came aufait, disha, and not to forget tatwa for which I had to go begging for sponsorships! Altogether first year was a fun ride and I guess it was the happiest time in college life. That would be one class I would miss anytime!

Now to s3, s4. Not much of memories about it. We were stuck in an unfriendly classroom, unfamiliar people, and awkward moments. Akku and me chose the last bench and tried to get along with everyone thinking it was just the initial hiccups and we’d be part of the lot before long. High hopes:|. But looking back I guess that was the time when we didn’t know the true colors of anyone and believed in anything and everything people told us. Our BT class had the record of maximum number of ‘lines’ in our batch. Rakz used to accompany us in our mourning ceremonies with the ‘no takers’ board:D. And then we noticed that there is a single, handsome chap in BT who hadn’t been taken. I was all interested but so were Akku and Rakz. A competition ensued. We used to vainokify ikka so much so that the usual absentee that he was, started attending classes n hanging around during lunch hours to satisfy our craving for glimpses of him<:D>. One such day Akku said that we had waited long enough and it as time we introed him. Ok! So that’s what we did. The following conversation took place. Two excited gals inquiring about ikka. Ikka comes to us.

Me: nangale okke ariyuvo..ini orey classil 3 years koode padikandeya(I thought I was being charming ;;))

Akku: yea, itrem naal ayitu onnu samsarichitu polum illa.peru ariyuvo?

Ikka( in typical kadaapuram style+ thirondoram slang) : wo wo..agila alle..gee..yeniku ariyam..wo!

Ok I might sound like am exaggerating but it was really along those lines and the two excited gals were tongue tied and instantly learned the lesson that all that glitters is not gold. But we managed to talk for a few minutes for politeness sake and called it scoots!

Then having remembered our third musketeer, we thought we should be big hearted enough to let her have him without competition. We messaged her immediately that true friends ought to be understanding, kind and most importantly compromising. So we had come to the conclusion that if someone deserved ikka it was her and we didn’t want to interfere with blooming of such a lovely love story. She somehow read between the lines and replied that she too was ready to sacrifice him if we weren’t interested:|. Thus ended our long ikka story.

S4 saw us preparing to go on-stage. We presented a skit for Aufait 07 which is a stage for anyone who wants to showcase their ‘thollikatti’ coz however good or bad you perform, the net effect is kooing and that is the only one stage where I have heard even sesky females on stage being kooed at. Well no, I didn’t hint on myself coz my role in the skit was far beyond the concept of sesky and extremely truthful to the portrayal of my real self; my innocence :D. We dealt with the paper correction issue at the Kerala university where it is rumored that marks are given to the bulkiest paper and the peon gets an opportunity to correct papers coz the teachers are too busy to do the same. So we had sachin, a teacher who is a sports champ weighing the papers although that integral scene had to be eliminated on stage due to the fact that the weighing machine was left off stage:|. That’s at least acceptable, but the funniest part was we forgot to take the answer sheets to the dais n the whole thing was about paper correction:|. I had a fun time being a kid running around with a water bottle and peepee, disturbing everyone on stage and more importantly I had this golden opportunity to call raks ‘podi patti’ on stage :D. Needless to say that one dialog fetched a round of applause maybe coz of my incessant practicing ever since the day I met her..hardwork never fails :D. Jerryl made a star kallukudiyan n arshu kaka aced as pattar saami. Rasi closed the show with her broken mal dialogs which was hilarious. We had begged her to allow dubbing but lady had to prove her mallu prowess:|. Raks, even though she looked rightfully glam for her role didn’t speak to the mike and her flirtations on stage went unheardL.Anji did a good job as my momy in taking care of me :D. Preethi, anagha made great gossip monger teachers and hashi, a senior fit perfectly for his role of panjara sir. And having subi on stage as peon for the whole skit helped hush the sct kooval teams..anji tactics :D. Overall, it was one great experience for all of us and thanks to anji for such a marvelous script and for making us work, thanks to sachn’s father for improvising it and making us stage worthy and even with half the props forgotten off-stage and half the dialogs unheard, it was worth all the kooval. Cheers team! :D. Also had a most embarassing bathroom incident in s4 where me n akku mistook a boys toilet for a gals one(it was a new one) inspite of warning from all the senior guys on the way. We thought they were just mocking us and realization stuck us not far off. We were the mighty warriors who got a roaring kooval from an entire block of seniors till the moment we were back in the confines of our classroom. That gave us the name bb too :|.

S5 started off with our much awaited IV (theoretically expanded as industrial visit with no practical connections whatsoever). I didn’t expect it to be any good as we hadn’t made many good friends in the class. But as it turned out, it presented some of the most memorable moments. Akku, Anji, Rasi, Sajid n me got along really well as the ‘Immorals’:). The time in our rooms with all the hush-hush talk, the shopping spree where we never bought anything, roaming around the streets of Bangalore trying to find corner-house, demo in front of all the branded stores at Forum, exquisite beaches of Goa and much more would serve as a highly inadequate description of the 10 days!( an elaborate account is with abel if reference is required :P). Our bonding with Jayanthi maam was way too good and she was mighty impressed with us as a group. She suggested that we go for paper presentations; attend symposiums conducted elsewhere so that we know what exactly we lack in our course. As a result, we went to Coimbatore after a month and it was a nightmare experience. The moment we stepped onto the railway station hell broke open and it started raining furiously as had never happened in a few years there. The college bus which promised to collect us at the station failed to do so due unfavorable weather conditions and the resultant road block. We were stranded in an unknown place with no clue as to what to do. But thankfully, rasi had few friends there who braved the rains and got us safely into a taxi. Even our stay there was a pain for them. We (read rasi) created a flood there by leaving open a tap in the night when there was no water only to find the floors flooded in the morn. The caretaker bathed us in tamil ‘theris’ which only the wrong-doer could understand so she got the well deserved returns :P. The trissur experience was comparatively better because we didn’t have to deal with such unforeseen calamities and everything was taken care of by the college. However, both of them taught us one basic fact as Jayanthi maam had wanted and it was ‘we are wasting 4 long years of our life studying absolute crap’:|. Well it isn’t crap if you consider the renamed course but all of us joined under the misconception that we’ll be studying biotechnology which figures occasionally as electives in the course:|.

Sigh! No point crying over spilt milk. Anyways there wasn’t anything more to s5 and s6 too doesn’t bring any memories to me. It was just the usual corner classroom isolated from the rest of the college. There was a diwali blast for which the whole college was suspended. The principal was subject to paper rocket attacks, Ayyapan had to run off with bursting malapadakams all of which I missed as I was on a usual bunk class practice then.

S7 brought us back with civilization. We were on the ground floor and we were finally SENIORS! We commanded respect in all our moves. It kicked off with the onam celebrations which was nowhere near as good as the previous year’s (ok I shouldn’t be saying this but just for the record :D). We had a collective enemy in the form of our new staff advisor, the infamous Big B. He was this sturdy chori fellow and all of us hated him for the improvisations he was trying to bring to our class. He was equally hated by the faculty who usually think we are at fault for everything. All of us opposed his bossy ways and he finally quit to try his luck with the state water authority (truly pity them). Oh, n he was a mega kozhi in the true sense of the word! Even teachers used to warn us about his nasty good for nothing ways! Loser! Anyways he unwillingly accomplished one good thing; finally we were in agreement with the faculty on somethingJ! Don’t remember going to college much then. But that was when we started hanging out with the auto gang near our chai kada. Subi and Arshu were our buddies even before. Now it also included Abhi, Luta, Chathan. Sachin n hemant were out as they now belonged to the EC elite and didn’t bother with us anymore; neither did we!

S8 started off with a month long project at RGCB, and that includes the days we bunked to sit at the museum discussing on serious issues for anji’s MBA interviews, going to see luck by chance with just coins in our purses. We were left with only about 2rs after the tickets and just enough petrol to reach home! Then there is the Ragam detour which was awesome. I had initially not wanted to go but due to pressure from the boss and fear of strangling to death at the sharp tongue of raks, I conceded to take time off my busy schedule8). The journey was full of chathan’s thallu, abhi’s matchmaking, subi’s aakal. Jaimy also was part of the group. We refused to go to our berths and had a round of firing from the TTR’s as well. We had a long wait at the NIT campus after which we were given a common room with mats, buckets, mugs all counted. Their shower was good so I made it a point to take a bath twice a day (oh yes I did!!):D. Raks, jaimy, me and Nikhil went for collage and made a ‘kolam’ out of it but we were happy with our achievement! We went to the Benny dayal concert that evening. The guy was simply making a lot of noise and I really wanted to get out of the place. Then we decided to alambify. Nikhil was sitting next to me and he suddenly decided to enjoy and started head-banging with his totally oiled long hair. There was an oil spray and we had to beg him to stop! We sat on the campus roads well into the night and it felt great just to be there! I qualified the spelling-bee prelims by some random luck and found myself really out of place in the finals where everyone was sitting all serious. Subi had taught me how to behave all professional but I felt clumsy just sitting there. All the same I cleared the first two rounds on an advantage and couldn’t hold on any longer. The judge was asking Italian, Japanese extract words all of which I found too ridiculous and was out by the pre-final round. Then we went to cheer subi, chathan, rameez, abhi n petty for their potpourri. It was totally an ‘A’ tagged event but we cheered all the same, oblivious to the nasty comments we got from the other participants. Chathan had a displaced elbow as part of his unrivaled performance during the dance round. They came second in spite of being the best team by public opinion. I missed the sankar mahadevan concert that evening because I didn’t want to subject myself to another screaming session however great a singer he is. I just lack the appreciation for music and definitely can’t stand loud ones. Anyways we got only 4^th unlike the previous year where sct had bagged an overall 2^nd with the hosts coming 1^{st :|} as always. The next day was our kozhikode trip. We went to focus mall after chathan’s treat of kozhikode biryani which none of the gals could gobble. I was having my nomb and the others were all in different states of stomach upsets:D. That didn’t stop us from going to the beach where we remained till about 7-7.30. It was my dream come true. I had always wanted to go to the beach at night and half the time I was simply gazing into the sea. It was such an enchanting feeling! Me and raks cramped in a single berth during the return journey so that we could talk all along. It was like the end of a chapter and a very good one at that!

Back in college it was the same routine of two hurried series both of which we passed all thanks to anji’s last minute coaching classes! I sat at home most of the days but whenever I went to college it was just to bunk and sit at chai kada or elsewhere and I seriously don’t regret that! Even with all the bunking we had record attendance statistics:D. Our class decided to bunk the ethics exam for the 2^nd series and we all got out after scribbling some rubbish like name, question numbers etc for 5 minutes until we got our attendance after which it was the celebration of BT’s first ever bunked series. The mex were yawning while we were elatedly blowing our trumpet. It was something habitual for them:|. We joined tidycity, a voluntary organization promoting a litter free city and we also realized a long time dream of educating kids. We called up an orphanage and fixed it with them to teach English to the kids every weekend. It was a unique experience! We even roped in juniors so that our initiative remains undeterred even after we leave tvm. As is the usual practice for every outgoing batch of seniors, we had high hopes for our demo day but we fell short of time. Not wanting to give up, we presented a unique demo, one that has never been done before,on our arts day! We went on-stage as pichakaaris n contrary to popular belief, we really had to work hard to look the part :D.

Once the university exams started, it was a chain of combined studies always at rasi’s place, always wasting almost half the day and then marathon studies without any sleep. Akku would be sleeping minimum of 7 hrs while rasi n I would be madly mugging up stuff to no effect. And after all the mess Akku would be chilled out before the exams while me n rasi would be at our wits end. Sigh! It was also an eating fiesta as Akku would come equipped with goodies for her continuous supply! But I did study more than I would have ever done sitting alone at home and strulling to keep awake. Before the last exam which was emci, me and rasi were somewhat convinced that the paper was easy and we could tackle it by 3 and get some sleep. Towards the end of the day i.e, by 12 we realized that the subject was nothing like we imagined and then, we had a struggle with lots to study and with sleep creeping up. We were on a sleep 10 min, wake each other up, run around and what not mode. Needless to say, Akku slept peacefully even that day which was too much for us to bear:|. We went to college on rasi’s scooty pep in triples, had 2 cups of coffee and somehow managed to get the awful exam over with. It was a great weight lifted with the exams finally over. The burden was definitely not of studies because that happened at random during the combined study sessions, which was more of nostalgia n fun! We went to Akku’s place and celebrated monu’s birthday. The kiddo was really happy as he had wanted someone to be there and it didn’t bother him the least that the some ones were his chechi’s friends. We gave him birthday bumps and all and he even gave me a kiss:D. The next day we were off to kovalam to celebrate the end of engineering. A day well spent getting drenched and throwing sand balls at each other. And thus the four years of fun ended on a wonderful note definitely lovelier than it had kicked off and definitely with heart full of beautiful moments to cherish forever! Thanks to all my friends who made those wonder years worth remembering.