Random thoughts

One of the very few and far between bright spots of our otherwise gloomy college lives is right around the corner- symposia. The very obvious lack of any sort of culturals makes us long for this event more eagerly than a greedy kid waits for Christmas! As usual though, we were a bundle of nail-biting nerves, wondering what new and wonderful rules the management was going to throw in our faces this year. A couple of days ago, we were summoned to the ‘symposium meeting’ to find out just that. Seated haphazardly around the table in our shocking green conference room, we eyed each other warily, and waited for the axe to fall. As it turns out, it wasn’t as bad as we expected. A quick look at the positives and negatives of the decisions made, .. starting with the good news:

1. They dint try and call off the whole thing- which knowing them, is a fairly big deal!
2. They’ve actually decided to increase our budget (gasp), as this year happens to be our wonderful college’s silver jubilee year. (the actual incremented amount I shall mention in the ugly side! )
3. There is no actual cut off on the number of outside participants allowed into the college (Last year, it was officially limited to 40!)
4. We’re allowed FOUR whole inter college events. If you’re wondering why that’s a big deal, we were only allowed ONE last year.
5. They very sweetly discussed and planned out minute details of the budget with us, right down to mementos for the chief guests and stationery for participants. And we very sweetly, did not bother to note down a word they said!
6. err.. ok that’s about it.. unless u count the fact that we missed class cause of the meeting!

Ok, so now the downside. Due to space constraints, I shall only mention the WORST things, and ignore petty annoyances. Here goes:

1. We have barely any time at all. Only a couple of weeks, to get events done, posters ready, send out invites, print banners, design website and select papers!! Plus, they’re pretty miserly about letting us off class.
2. The final budget proposed at the meeting –I’m so ashamed to say it, sigh- a sickening pittance- 15 grand. And now, they’ve very kindly increased it to 18, with an “yes I know, we are generous aren’t we” air. How we’ll manage with this is beyond me.
3. No sponsors. Period.
4. No posters or banners or any other “fancy decoration works” to be displayed on campus. Only one measley thing inside the hall.
5. No non-techie events at all, the most we can have is a semi-technical quiz, for which we have to reduce and restrict participants.
6. We have to force feed the participants our canteen food, by giving them lunch tokens. I ask you, where is the money for it?? And why would you want to give them dyspepsia??
7. And most embarrassing of all, we have to make sure that even participants follow the dress code, which means anyone wearing a tee or a “pants full of big big packets” (guys and girls!) and if they do stroll in, we have to bodily throw them out!

But other than that, I’m pretty sure we’ll end up having loads of fun organising it. So gung ho for Interrupt ’09! J

The end of our sojourn at this college is finally in sight. Now we have one amazing year ahead of us.. a year where we can rightfully claim the top spot in the college ecosystem, and have a great time lording it over the rest of the populace. Most of the juniors are now below our notice, as we set our sights higher and aim at ragging the Profs instead. Barely a week into the New Year, and already teachers shudder and offer long and silent prayers before entering our class. Our reputation preceded us, which resulted in one of the new and enthu people coming up to us and saying- I’ve heard your class is very indisciplined, but I’m sure you’ll be very good in my class- she said this with a beaming smile and looked around for positive reactions… half the class dint even realize she was talking- they were busy with their own conversations, a quarter were eating biscuits and/or biryani, while the rest were snorting gleefully at her ridiculous optimism. Another prof very sweetly told us that she wanted our suggestions, and collected a motley of torn, scruffy bits of paper from us. Poor thing, most suggestions were of the form ‘free hour everyday’ or ‘only ten mins of class per week’. I wonder how long it’ll be before our class manages to break through her composure.

The other extreme- the super strict and ‘I’ll mark you absent and make your parents meet the hod”-type of teacher seems to be faring just as badly with our lot. Every single day, nearly 50 of the 59 students in class bunk the last 2 hours.. every single day.. Naturally, the teachers notice- most however know what a pointless exercise it is to try and rein in final years, and end up having a well deserved break at the end of the day. College authorities however, don’t seem to have this happy turn of mind, and send around a couple of ppl to check on final year attendance- oh boy, do they know us!- the upshot, Hod got dragged into the fray, and told each of the offenders to write an apology letter…. And what do my angelic classmates do??- in spite of my dark hints and ominous predictions, they carelessly dismiss the letter, and bunk yet again!!. oh well, if you cant beat ‘em, join ‘em !!

All in all, a great time for the entire lot of us. Camaraderie is at its peak, knowing its our last year together, we’ve put aside all our differences, and are doin our best to give back to the college what its given us for three years – HELL !!! We come to college with a nonchalant air, not giving two hoots about records and notebooks, our primary purpose being to gossip and have loads of fun. More and more people are trying out new looks, this being their last chance to make an impression. Wardrobes are spruced up, accessories are bigger and better than ever, coiffures are more elaborate, and make up is making a huge comeback. During breaks, in the restrooms and even during class, girls apply layers of shiny gloss, glittering mascara, lustrous lip sticks, and oodles of lotion. Guys meanwhile are spending ages with their gazes locked onto mirrors or any reflecting surface, painstakingly smoothing down individual hairs. Confidence levels are at an all time high, as we strut around like the whole campus belongs to us. Well, it kinda does, for this one year. So lets make the most of it! J

Written bout a month ago during compiler design class- the heights of joblessness .. came across it a couple o days ago when i was studyin for my sem exams! ..

Surreptiously, I stifle a yawn,
The enthusiasm of the previous hour gone
A dull throbbing fills my head
My eyelids are as heavy as lead
In a monotone on and on she drones
Till the boredom seeps into my very bones
Stupor hangs heavy in the air
In spite of the OHP’s glare
She calls for attention – in vain,
‘I’ll mark u absent’, her constant refrain
Finally she leaves with a pronounced pout
With glee, we prance and leap about

A hush falls, an impatient ‘quiet please’,
Oh no! back again to the domain of Hades

We've always had the raw end of the deal- all of us deprived students whose colleges are miles away from the city. Early mornings, awful claustrophobia-inducing buses, long hours of cramped boredom in the afore mentioned, prolonged torture if we happen to miss them, more difficulty in getting out of college than most prisons, having nowhere remotely interesting in our 20 mile radius even if we do manage to escape, and worst of all... terrible food- that we're stuck with till we get back home- late in the evening!!.. Meanwhile, ppl in city colleges sail in and out of their gates in comfortable cars and bikes.. after commutes of not more than ten minutes. They never have a dearth of places to visit around their college. And the worst bit- they get brilliant food even inside campus! Things like chocolate fudge cake, brownies, pizzas, pasta and galaxy bars are commonplace for them, not to mention cold coffees and iced lattes. we on the other hand have to make do with corn puffs, sambar saadam, bajjis swimming in oil, tea served in tiny steel tumblers and icky flavoured milk!

But, finally,.. after nearly three years of this torture.. . *drumroll* .. the winds of change have begun to blow in campus. They've brought in a mini-bakery stand and plopped it alongside our flavoured milk icebox. A whole new menu has been introduced, which at first glance looks way too ambitious for those whose baking expertise had been limited to our not-so-wonderful puffs. But, strangely enough, most of the stuff is pretty good. There are multi-coloured cakes, chocolate bonbons- that are referred to as anything from 'choc ball' to 'choc bum bums'! , doughnuts with deliciously sticky choc icing- albeit a little too chewy, apple pie that's actually pleasant, cute looking burgers with little cherries on top, yummy pizzas - whose vegetables are only slightly raw, and ooh even the little fruitnik bottles of apple and mango juice. I know none of these sound very great.. but when you're as deprived as we've been for so long, anything remotely edible and fairly hygienic seems like manna from heaven! Needless to say, the usually packed canteen is now so stuffed, that walking through it is like swimming through a sea of hands legs and familiar faces. And ooh, the best bit? All of the food is brilliantly priced- bonbons for rs.5, apple pies for 7, pizzas for 8 and burgers for 10!!.. ha! Beat that over-priced-city-college-canteen-that-sells-coffees-for-40-bucks!! J

Time is a tricky thing.... It crawls when u keep fussing about it, but when u happen to take your eyes off it for a moment or two, - it swooshes past you. We're now at the end of another year at college. It seems like only a week ago that we first got here and were cribbing about the fact that we'll have to waste four years of our lives at this dump. Well, three of those years have gone by in a flash,.. and somewhere along the line, this 'dump' has started looking a hell of a lot more attractive. All the petty annoyances and old grievances are now accepted with a tolerant grin. we now know the campus as well as the back of our own hands, have come to terms with our canteen and have actually begun to enjoy the food, we've learnt how to handle our heads of dept, how to manage our attendance, how to wheedle ODs and marks from our profs, have grown to love our rickety old buses - so much so that, we find it difficult to comfortably doze off on the rare occasion that we do get a good bus, we've got an " you stay out of my hair, I stay out of yours" agreement with most of our profs, and have found our own little niches in college society.

It's a big bad world out there, and we're all just getting comfy and settling down in here. I for one would definitely not like to leave. Added to that is the overall tension of what to do and where to go next... which makes me wish all the more that I could just freeze the clocks for a while.. and not have to watch helplessly as the sands of time trickle through my fingers while I try in vain to ebb the flow. ..
The last day was one filled with nostalgia, especially for our seniors. They all came dressed in flashy saris and ties, sporting cameras, and taking dozens and dozens of photos. The previous 2 years, I witnessed this ritual with indifference, wondering why on earth they'd want to remember college, and was certain that I would never make such a hue and cry on my last day. But this year was different. Watching them, I felt a strange tug at my heart, and I can well imagine doing this next year. Sigh. I hope and pray that this last year literally crawls past, but somehow, I think its going to rush by even faster than any of the last three years.. I guess we'll just have to make the most of it, and cram as many happy memories as we can into the next 365 odd days.

My day begins way too early for my liking, college being bang in the middle of nowhere- away from civilized dwellings, us poor students have to be up at the crack of dawn to get to the bus stop on time. In spite of the early rising, i usually end up chasing after my bus and jumping in when it stops at a signal, panting & breathless. Nice start to a day , don’t you think ? :)

Then, there’s the bus journey itself, which isn’t exactly comfortable- far from it really. The drivers seem to delight in scaring us out of our wits with their driving skills- or rather their lack of them. And the buses themselves- they make our MTC’s seem like the heights of luxury. Well, maybe we not all of them. There are a couple or so deluxe buses, but by some quirk of fate, i never get to travel in them and always end up in the rickety old ones. sigh.


Finally we get to coll, in a single piece and without too many heart attack cases. Once classes begin at 9, ppl generously make up for their lost sleep, much to the annoyance of the profs. They expect us to be all bright and chirpy early in the morning…. i guess that’s how ppl are on their home planet :) . Most of them have given up on us now as hopeless cases. All they ask is for us to let them teach in peace, for the super enthusiastic ppl in the first row. Some profs tho insist on askin us questions to make sure we go home and study our “notes”. Obviosly these sessions aren’t too successful. And then, there’s lab. For some, this means groans , sweat and khakhi overcoats. But for us lucky ones , it is a three hour long relaxation period in an air-conditioned lab, spent staring vacantly into free space, copying programs from the board/classmates , or playing games on the comp.


We have 3 breaks, to relieve the monotony of the day. The moment the prof leaves, ppl who were sound asleep and snoring are up and racing to the canteen before you can say “sambar saadam” ! The short breaks have ppl queueing up for the .. umm.. delicious .. puff. Half-burnt, with weird veggies(among other things) , enough oil to fry an elephant.. & yet mouth-watering. Lunch time calls for the standard ‘meals’ or the ‘variety rice’ of the day. At 3,45 once more the canteen’s crowded to bursting point, with ppl stocking up on chocolates, biscuits , appys and frootis for the looong an tiring journey back home.


A day filled with laughs & frowns. due assignments, late records and lame excuses. strict profs, grilling sessions and smothered giggles. passing notes, msging and writing observation under the desk. teasing, shouting and ragging. Races to the canteen, rushing back on time and eating in class. getting od forms signed and pleading for free hours. bunking class, getting caught and getting ur id card confiscated. The good, the bad and the ugly sides of coll …- in just another day in SVCE. :)