Old Familiar Faces-Epoch II

Now you might be wondering why did I not mention about any guy (Phew! Did you even think of that or me just guessing). I am not treating them a passé ,nobody is going to be left out don’t worry-my first interaction was with DC (who had volunteered for CSI membership and he had asked for my photograph reqd for the form since then I was teased with him Poor Guy!)Then the turnaround with Bala (he is used to treat us every week with home-made yummy dosas n idlii), he happened to be my lab partner initiated with lots of highs but now its all ‘mutual understanding’ lol. Bala is quite hardworking, intelligent, very helpful but a bit bossy at times, he wants his things done by hook or by crook .and the list goes on-Sumit, Punit, Girish , Krunal, DC, Anurag , Sushain , Gaurav, Umesh.

Sumit is a fun, good – natured guy. A ‘good guy’ types he calls himself Pentium-10(the rate at which his thinking goes- I am talking of the wild thoughts).Punit-the mischief maker (Whatzaaaaa), he wont let u write your assignments, push you, pinch you. He irritates everyone in the group and Bechaara; he is now being nagged by an unwanted gal. Overall accha banda hai, knows his responsibilities & really sweet (he brings smiles around-not everyone can do that).Cuming to Girish aka Anna ;the thinker, the philosopher; star wars endorser, intelligent, can do 10 things at the same time with great results, sometimes he gets into his mania(we do wonder after all Girish is not that serious, he too has his funnier side), cracks sarcastic jokes, he worked hard to get a tech fest in our college-Techithon’05 was born under the leadership of our very own Anna which turned out to be a grand success. Krunal another guy on the block, very high IQ, sweet, good natured, a bit reserved, gives wonderful critics, knows to get his work done(through the thousand ‘Please yaar’ that he uses), Darshan aka DC, the GS during our tenure what to say of him he is the “King Of PJs’ ,got a sense of style in his speech, makes friends instantly, loves to talk & blabber, gets really irritable when he has a workload on his head and very creative in his usage of words. A fun guy to hang out with. Sushain, Anurag &Gaurav have always been together as a trio. Sushain was a shy guy, he used to rarely talk to gals but now see the metamorphosis he has gone through turned into a cool dude. Anurag has always been the ‘Big Boss’, making rare appearances in the college. He has literally gone to Ma’m and said ‘Oh madam aur kitna time lagega ’(when during our viva external Prof arrived late during our final VIII sem). So now its all crystal clear how my comrades were and how we were surviving in this egosystem.
Oh yes now talking about my college-They quite thought of us for a while.We went for our industrial visit to Goa! (a happening place in the name of industrial visit- what more do we want- parents ko convince karne ka idea bhi college ne hi de diya-“Mom its an industrial visit. Ma understand’’).We had a blast , the trip was in the third year, our hotel was called ‘the old anchor’ it was in the shape of a ship & a disc on the upper deck, a beautiful ambience and a beach close to the hotel.It was a wonderful trip with lots of singing, dancing, mastii & sun bathing in the sands of Goa with palm groves lining the small narrow roads of Goa with palm groves lining the small narrow roads of Goa.
The second year was quite dull, no major activities, the only change that we saw was the entry of diplomats nah! I am talking of the diploma guys who entered in the second year. It was a nice change for our guys who looked forward to the new diploma gals. New faces are always welcomed, there is always a need for a change and experiment right Guys!From here I get hold of a pal who joined our group later on and even into the hearts of some….(hmmm….),Shrutii-the gossip queen, very studious, active in all college activities, enthusiastic about everything on Earth. And I call her my Tech partner (u have good tech skills thats why I employing u Shrutii ok!).Then there was Purva who joined my friends list with her loud laughter, gossipy talks, lot of chattering together &giving me insight into the whole US-MS application process. And yes how can I forget my friend Aditi-cute, sweet, keeps me on my toes about studies (if I forget to open my books she will gimme a call with her never ending doubts –so I am indebted to her for making me study.),she was from Lucknow had that typical north Indian accent, but now u see her tht accent has gone and she is definitely a mumbaite now. She jus cannot control her laughter and sometimes she gets into trouble too because of that .She is my cool buddy and always of immense help .
The final year had nothing much to talk about. Everyone was busy planning their career paths-busy with placements (aptitude tests->group discussion->tech interview->HR interview), banging the doors of placement office as to which company is coming next. Some were preparing for GRE, some CAT n GMAT. Some had already given it in the third year (se how proactive engineers can be!) and were ready with application process.
I definitely cannot pen down each and every moment I have spent in my coll but can only carry with me those beautiful memories in my heart. The only reason I did this because when Mahatma Gandhi said these words he was definitely right-“Memory is a very frail thing. The written word stands for ever ”
And the words of Charles Lamb remind me of ‘Old Familiar Faces’.........

I have had playmates, I have had companions ,

In my days of childhood,in my joyful school days-

All are gone, the old familiar faces.

I have been laughing,I have been carousing,

Drinking late,sitting late, with my bosom cronies-

All are gone, the old familiar faces.

Ghost-like i paced round the haunts of my childhood,

Earth seem'd a desert I was bound to traverse,

Seeking to find the old familiar faces.

Old Familiar Faces-Epoch I

It was a journey of four years- exciting, surprising, enigmatic and creepy. There were the days of festivity, moments of breakdown & a dozen of gruesome nightshifts. A package offered of 43 subjects (I still cannot understand what did it really had to offer me), two projects & the hullabaloo of submissions (learnt immense patience dealing with Prof).A package that unwillingly could not be negotiated nor dictated. It had to be accepted for we had a single goal to be called –‘The Engineers’. An Engineer who of course cannot give life to someone unlike Doctors but make a life quite a luxury(I am not here to debate on Doctors vs. Engg) .
I have the vivid memories of the short span of my life I have spent in my college with my wonderful group of friends, some supporting & some grotesque Profs, the ever changing Principals, the not so co-operative peons (I specially want to mention the vulture Caution: His prey was a mobile user).
I remember my first day in college, I happen to reach before time (I know my dear friends are not believing it but I do end up with surprises u see!).I roamed around the classroom (It was R11) & then found a place on the third bench and took my place of pride, I had no school or jr. college friends to join me here, filled with excitement, waiting for someone to give me company. Then there came a gal-confident, friendly and talkative—my friend Chaits, we hit off very well within mins and I even bunked the lectures that followed what a convincing power she has. I remember we were given a brief orientation by a Prof who seemed like some senior of my coll. Then the lectures began as usual we had Mechanics, Applied Science (AS), Applied Maths (AM), Computer Programming (CP) & BEE. We had a sweet Prof for Mechanics but too slow and dunce when it came to teaching that subject though in the later sems he taught us drawing in his good form. I did not understand anything (act he did not explain anything either.), and used to scribble, mumble n crib, that was all I had to while the time away. Some cronies cracked the sums, thanx to the vacation batch classes @ vidyalankar( a place highly recommended for all engg-if u haven’t been here u haven’t really been part of engg exploration).If somebody would pitch in to ask me the answer to a particular question I would give a blank stare(I am ready to share my new fx991ms calci but don’t ask me such deadening questions).
So while comprehending my first step into the engg era I made some wonderful friends which culminated into a group of four-The Chandaal Chokdii which included me(Nifty),Neha (Nutty), Zarana(Zany) & Amruta(Amu or our JUMBO) all different but yet together. Nutty has always been like a big support, of great help and a good listener. She is always ready to pitch in for help and the best natured gal I have come across. The best part is when Nutty cries and hunts for her things that she doesn’t find them and we being habituated by her unnecessary cry we all end up finding her things right over there. Well n coming to Amu aka Jumbo she is a big comic timer. I remember how she used to enact the character Hansa of ‘Khichdi’ fame, how she can speak Marathi & Kutchii so fluently is commendable (I can’t even speak Gujarati- my mother tongue forget two lang).She seems to be cool headed but she is also the one who has broken down the most over these years (Rem-Amu-CP-I submissions, when Bala said something during a lecture about Sumo &u n u got a sweet apology letter from Bala-lucky u! or when we were leaving after lunch on the last day), she is our crying doll, our sensitive darling! Now coming to my last member in the Chandaal Chokdii Zany- a big blabbermouth, non stop talker, will tell stories about her Chachi , her Maasi, her cousins(all ending with the same name Chirag), gave me insight into the Gujju Culture-very hardworking, clever & street smart. have a lot to recollect for they have been there with me through thick and thin accepting my agonies and tantrums and of course my smiles!
Friends were around , but I was missing, yes missing in the first lecture , I couldn’t reach on time-never and ended up with low attendance in Maths and yes a panga too with Prof Madhuri somehow she realized that I wasn’t that bad n now she adores me). I was saved from her orders of calling one’s parent (call your parents- common we used to hear all this in schooldays & has never happened to me in school-what’s happening here!).Then came the submissions –it was time to write assignments (or rather copy assignments), complete journals (were those experiments performed were of any use-Titration in chem, crystal lattice in phy Huh! An elec & telecom engg why am I being made to learn all that),take printouts of programs from that Dot Matrix printer (which made such humdrum noise that can put anyone in a deep slumber).Submissions was all about getting good grades & getting the precious files signed by our attorney. But this submission dimension took a deadly turn when it was our CP-I dimension, a new Prof joinee in the bandwagon whose head was filled with vacuum, took our submissions till 9.30pm who made our day so unbearable & miserable. She refused to correct our files and made us correct some flowcharts which apparently she couldn’t follow. Running through the errands we somehow got our work done. Exams followed and that was it the end of first semester.
The month of January came the time of festivity-our college was adorned with posters, draperies, beautiful rangoli at the entrance lobby (the rangoli was made using wood dust this innovative idea was born in the mind of our college creative pride-Kalps-our wonderful senior-dramatics, decoration, designing fashion show sets , fun making he was topping it all-L & T guys might be having a great time having him).In the first year we freshers were silent spectators and definitely big critics—‘Oh they should have done it that way. What a waste! These seniors don’t know how to organize…and on n on. Its true when you are in the first year you think the seniors are always wrong and you are always right. There is no sense of self-reservation; you just don’t want to listen to them and you always want one’s one way (I remember this particularly because we had taken pangas with the GS of college-NO BRAINS NA! )
After the festivity and month long vacation it was time to hit back to college with the second sem- somewhat more comfortable than the first sem we had a better orientation with subjects CP-II, AM-II,AS-II,Engg Drawing and yes my favorite Communication Skills(CS)! I rather would not talk about other subjects but wont leave you without mentioning my tryst with the CS subject. Our Prof was excellent, outstanding, I think she should start teaching organizational behavior in a top B-school-She’s Worth it! (Ah! That the L’Oreal Tagline!).We learnt all about business correspondence-writing business letters, memos, making a resume, writing about our fav.communicators (mine was Barkha Dutt and Simi Garewal quite a contrast though!).Sem II turned out to be a bit shorter & winding up in the same loop(assignments->submissions->vivas->exams).
That was the end of our first year …with mixed feelings of love, pride, hate, sorrow & hopes…………