chapter 8

The first day of my college. Mom and dad came along with me to drop me off at the hostel. The initial procedures took a lot of time. I had myself photographed and paid the fees. And then had to fight messy un-queued people to get my room allocated.

My roommate was allocated two rooms and he choose to choose the other room. I was petty much left alone the first day. My mother made friends with my neighbors, and told me to be friends with them. At that point of time, I wasn’t interested in friends, I just wanted to see how the college life worked. And I was scared to death about ragging. The same day night, a stupid prof and the registar come to tell us to shout – "Help! Help!" if any of the seniors try to rag us. The seniors were petty much cool. We were asked to introduce ourselves, a little bit of singing, dancing and that was petty much about it. Well, it didn’t even qualify as ragging, compared to what I heard from my other friends in NIT’s and IIT’s.

The first day of classes. As usual, I woke up after the whole floor was up and running around. And since my room was opposite to the washrooms, I couldn’t stay on the bed. By the time I was up and ready it was 7:30 and most of the rooms, were locked away and the people have already left for the lecture theaters, pit stopping at the canteen. By the way, some of us were allocated rooms in the ground floors of the girls hostel, which was petty much in the end of the campus, while the LT’s were on the other end. While, I was embarrassed for a few days, for living in the girls hostel, but I later started thinking I would have the opportunity to look at hots chicks.

I with, a few of my classmates from the Gowtham college, who also happened to end up in the same college, started off from the hostel. The path was all messed, infact there wasn’t any, we found ourselves the shortest way out of the mud. The canteen was already buzzing with ‘new’ students. I hardly could differentiate who’s the senior and who’s my batchmate. We each grabbed a plate of ‘poha’ and milk, found a cosy place to finish them off. And marched to the LT, pondering about why the campus had all twisted pathways. By the time we reached the LT, the LT was almost full, guess we were the last to enter. The first benches were as usual, occupied by people or by some notebooks on the desk. I walked up to the last benches, which were sparsely occupied. Well, I was the only one late to the lecture, people still came in after the professor was on the dias.

Before the class started, I looked around – The place resembled a houseful movie theater. The lecture started and the professor was quite intimidating. And there were one more lecture and then there was a break. People mingled and introduced themselves to each other. I was too sleepy to go out and make new friends. Said Hi to some familiar faces and frowned at the ones i didn’t know.

The first week wasn’t so hectic nor was troublesome. There were only lectures and no labs. Then soon started the labs from the second week. Assignments poured in. The computers systems and softwares were new to me, though I wasn’t completely alienated. There were a few, who were using the keyboard and mouse for the first time, and didn’t know what an OS does. I petty much knew what OS stood for and a little more than an average student in our class, but like, I was invincible.

The electronics labs were a nightware to almost everyone in my group – Group 3. Oh! ya the whole batch of around 240 people were divided into 4 groups. As usual, we had our own scheduled timings for all the labs. We had 2 computer science courses, one electronics, one mathematics, one humanities and something which was supposed to act a bridge from our junior college stuff to the engineering college stuff. I particularly didn’t like any of the courses. But, enjoied the introduction to ICT stuff very much, we atleast had the ‘limited’ freedom of doing things our way.

From the computer science stream we were taught ‘C’. I had learnt it long back after my 8th standard, but it was was mystic enought to freak me out. Other was called ‘Computer Systems Organization’. The Prof. taught was how programs in assembly language are written and used, without teaching us the underlying architecture of the computer. Okay, we were just shown some boxes and arrow, which made no sense to me.

The electronics course was awesome, it was full of all basic concepts which again were bewildering. Some labs were easy, some were tough and a few we never could complete them on our own. Somehow, I and my partner completed our labs, either doing it ourself or by copying it from our neighbours, who in turn copied the results from someone else.

The humanities was good to hear, hard to practice/imagine stuff. It was like the hard-core realities of life. It was anthropology. We were taught by one of the best anthropologists in India and I for the first time heard him swear -’Fuck’. My eyes popped out and I said to myself – WTF. Our batch was particularly afraid of him, because he failed 180 students in a batch of 270 of our seniors. We did his assignments and listened to his lectures with pin drop silence.

I dozed off in most of lectures, barely ‘listened’ to the ones, in which I was awake. Then came the mid-semester exams. I didn’t fare too bad, but neither did top the class. I was happy.

chapter 7

The results weren’t petty impressive, but Anirudh was happy with them. He ranked somewhere in 1800’s in EAMCET and somewhere in 5700’s at the national level in AIEEE. Which according to him were relatively ‘good’ ranks in comparison to the ranks of most of the friends from his circles. The old classmates in Bombay were no where near his rank in AIEEE, but had the advantage of passing their high school from a state where competition for a national level entrance examination was less than from that of the place where Anirudh passed his junior college from.

Anirudh was a bit worried about the college where he would get into and the branch he would need to opt. He planned to pursue Mechanical Engineering and then specialize in robotics and then work or DRDO or ISRO. Some people, acquaintances and family friends  were kind of depressing. While, most of them felt there’s no meaning to life unless you graduate from IIT or unless you are a software engineering in USA. Any other person other than his mother or father, if tried to talk Anirudh into Software or dropping an year to prepare for IIT, he attacked them back with his look – enough you loser, this is my life and I will live it my way, even if I have to grow down the drain. If ever I would have to, I will rise from it, myself.

But, then again his standing in the state during the AIEEE counseling for seat allocations was too low to get him a seat in any of the branches of any REC. But, Praatik got into IIIT, Hyderabad and Anirudh was happy for him. Anirudh got a call from DA-IICT, and he was happy to have it. At the day of counseling at DA-IICT, there was a Aptitude test, which later turned out to be a formality. Anirudh’s dad was very much impressed by the campus and the faculty, and as any other concerned parent there, he felt this is the best for my son to be. Anirudh, felt he still had a few options open, though he had a gut feeling that he would land up at DA-IICT, very soon.

The month of August had come, and the joining date for DA-IICT was close and as the counseling for the state engineering colleges wasn’t even close by. He took up the admission at DA-IICT and landed up in Gandhinagar on the tenth day of eight month in the fourth year of the twenty first century.

And then the life started for Anirudh.  New place, new college, new friends, new roommate and it was a NEW LIFE.

chapter 6

The board examinations of 11th were more fun than Anirudh expected. He was told that there would be hot chicks in most of the centers. And there always was a war between the different colleges. They threw eggs, rotten tomatoes and anything rotten they could buy, at each other. Anirudh had his examinations in Maris Stella College, the girls college of the city. He was elated, when his batchmates were giving him the jealous look. Well everybody forgot the fact that, as they had been assigned a different center, the girls of that college too would be alloted a different center. They realized that later on the first day. They were dropped off at the center one hour before the examination began. Most of them brought along ‘bags’ of books to study even before the examination. Anirudh kept to his two pens and a pencil.

To his delight, he spent most of the time looking at girls passing by the gate and on the streets, while others tried to cram up as much stuff as they could. The examinations were over in a couple of days and he had two weeks of vacation and had to report back in college for “IIT” coaching. “yeaaahhhh, it would be fun time” thought Anirudh.

It was the summer. Anirudh was happy to be in a quite deserted college, where there only some 200 odd people. While most of them kept themselves to the studying thingie, Anirudh and his friends and vela time. They sat under the trees and stared at the branches and leaves, till one of them was whacked by the passing by warden. The warden’s worked in shifts. When sun got high in the sky and when the heat build up, they move to the comfort of classrooms and fans. Well then again, he dozed off with the support of his hands on this cheeks, till the warden again whacked him on the head. Most of the times Anirudh would give a stern look and get back to his posture. And when the chief warden was not around he would pick up an argument with the warden over the authenticity of his posture, helping him to concentrate better.

While Anirudh was busy with his arguments, sleeping and staring; Praatik studied. Though he too had good time, he studied too, too keep up pace with the others.

One day, during his usual naps, the warden decided to have his time with Anirudh and whacks him hard. Seeing the chief warden go away before he slept, he assumed he wouldn’t have been back; Anirudh sternly denies sleeping and shouts back at the warden for whacking him too hard. The warden smirks and goes away. Feeling the sense of victory, Anirudh gets back to his nap. A few moments later, he hears the chief warden calling ‘Anirudhhhhh…’ from the door. For a moment he thinks he was day dreaming, before he realizes the chief warden was actually there. The chief warden was already fuming. Anirudh goes – ‘ewwww..i am dead today’ and the chief warden takes him out of the class into the corridor. And the rest of them in the class giggle, whisper and lay bets. The chief warden, a five foot guy stands on the elevated platform and pushes Anirudh down into the hot sun. Putting a hand on Anirudh’s shoulder, he starts his lecture and how to be studious and obedient and concentrate on studies blah blah blah blah blah blah……and goes on for a about twenty minutes. It’s already 5 minutes into the lunch break time, the chief warden then decides to end the conversation with these words – “Chudu, Anirudh, warden ante evaru anukuntuna…? okka student study hour lo nidra potunte, bujjam tatti lepi chaduvukomane vade warden, babu.” (“See, Anirudh, a warden is a person, who wakes up a student sleeping in a study hour and tells him to study”. Without a pause, Anirudh shoots back looking up into the eyes of the chief warden – “Sir, mari warden nidra pothe bujjam tatti nidra lepe vade chief warden a Sir ??” (“Sir, is the chief warden the person who wakes up the warden sleeping in study hours??”)

The chief warden’s eyes go firm and then angry and they his hand moves from the shoulder to the head and grabs Anirudh’s hair, bending him down and then – “Dhaaaad……….Dhaaaaad……”. Anirudh gets up – “Ouchhh….!! that hurts”. Jumping off the platform the chief warden leaves, shouting back to let the students to go for lunch. All of them rush out of the class, while Anirudh stands there, massing his back. Praatik passing him gives Anirudh a smile and asks – “Was that you??”, embarrassingly Anirudh nods and they both go to the hostel, laughing all the way on Anirudh’s debacle.

The summer passed. There was another screening test. When the results were given out, the chief warden looked and Anirudh and said, you didn’t make it. He looked back and said, I wasn’t expecting to. And the chief went blank.

And after a few screening tests, Anirudh made it to the third section in the hierarchy. He moved to another campus, a kilometer away from the main campus. And then again the final year of residential junior college started. It was fun right from the first day. Classes began at 6 in the morning. There were the regular study hours and in addition there were one or another type of objective tests. Weekends he played volleyball and spent time on the terrace with his new found friends. Sometimes, he used to get away to the main campus to meet Praatik. But, they had their bi-weekly quota of movies in the new campus.

Months passed by. It was January, most the students around Anirudh were already tensed about AIEEE and EAMCET. Well, it made him nervous and he started dusting his books and finally sat down to write the practice tests and solved every objective question he could find. Revised all the old test papers, picked up random stuff to study and went on for three months. The examination dates got postponed due to the central and state government elections. While the EAMCET was over my May, AIEEE was postponed to May end. And it meant a month more in the college during the summer.  He slogged and dragged away time. And finally, he was done with the system. He went back to Bombay, learnt to drive, caught up with his old school mates and then came the results and the rains of Bombay.

chapter 5

First day in the hostel. People were excited, sad and afraid. But, Anirudh wasn’t like any of them. He was expressionless. Each room had 12 occupants and around 20 rooms in a wing had a set of common washrooms. There were quarrels among the parents as to whose kid is to occupy the bed under the fan. Well luckily, Anirudh got the last bed near the window and he was satisfied with it. Everyone had a big metal truck to put their things. His grandmother knowing that everyone would have one, she got an old one from the store room for Anirudh. She got it cleaned and painted blue for Anirudh. Which he was emotionally persuaded to take along with him.

The first morning, others in the room were long awake even before Anirudh woke up. They already got washed up and tucked and ready to rush to the classrooms and staring at him for getting up so late. While Anirudh was dragging along his bucket and his brush, to the washrooms. By the time he was back, the wing was almost empty. And those who were missing were rushing to the classrooms, thirty minutes before the class time. Anirudh rushed up to the classrooms. Well, he belonged to the elite ‘Central Syllabus’ kids and so he belonged to one of the elite two sections of almost his type. Well to his horror, all the first benches were occupied by atleast six on each of them, while the center ones had reservations too. He was happy to find the last benches left out and had one or two on each of them. He chose the row next to the window and thought that the last bencher’s were his only shot of getting some good friends.

The study hours began, and they slowly extended into late nights. Well, ten was late night for Anirudh and nine in the morning was too early. The concept of the study hour was alien to him and a handful of others. And then finally one week, the tests began. Every weekend there was a test on every little crap they were taught. A syllabus and a timetable was give out at the starting of the week. And then started the tough times.

Anirudh answered in his own way and laid out proofs and stuff in the way he understood, while the chief warden and others insisted it to be the way it was taught in the class. Because they preached that that way is the only way to stardom. Well, that was something in-digestable and so was the ways of Anirudh for the chief warden. And so was he whacked every time the test papers came in after corrections. Just because the ones who corrected refused to give credit for any other method other than those in the text book and the study materials. That was only 70% of the problem, other 30% was – Anirudh couldn’t stay awake after dinner and slept off in the chair during study hours, and there again was whacked again for sleeping during ’study time’. It went on for a couple of weeks and it became routine for him. The chief warden was hardly five foot tall. He got onto a big pipes or a platform and then used to hit the students with his bare hands. But, most of the time, he stuck to the cane and whacked anywhere below the waist.

Meanwhile, Anirudh made a friend-Praatik. He too used to sleep along , but rarely used to get whacked, because he was the intelligent one. Always found his way with the chief warden and somehow the chief warden too was found of Praatik. After a couple of months there was a screening test to compartmentalize the good muggers from the bad ones. Well, Anirudh remained in the better section. And there was again one more, this one was for getting into the coaching for IIT-JEE, Weird !! Anirudh clear this too, he scored the cut off and so was send to a section named – ‘IIT-B’. While, Praatik landed up in the first section with a very prestigious roll number too. The hierarchy was something like this – the best kids in the college were in ‘IIT-A’ the second best belonged to ‘IIT-B’ and then came ‘JC’ and then ‘J-1′, ‘J-2′ and so on. Anirudh has the feeling of pride of belonging to the elite, but he knew it himself, he was no good to appear for IIT. He was there, to feel the heat.

And there he felt no heat. There wasn’t anyone to push around, there was the same old chief warden, but his right to whack and hit were revoked. There was a huge guy who was the campus in-charge who was particularly not fond of Praatik and Anirudh. Tough Anirudh faced down, while he was around, Praatik used to lift his head high up. Praatik furious on loosing his books, was shouting at the roommates. The in-charge was passing by Praatik’s room, after getting drunk. And there went Praatik for a six, he was called out and was hit and slapped. That was just an excuse for the campus in-charge to take out his grudge.

Anirudh and Praatik always stuck together. There was this , whom Anirudh thought that was jealous of his friendship with Praatik and tried to pull away Praatik from him. Atleast, Anirudh felt the same way. He, was kind of allergic to a few guys who had all the branded stuff right from their head to toe. But, he didn’t care much.