Audient-XIII

Alumni Article

A Stroll down memory lane

Swallowing down Parathas as breakfast after a hasty shower, speeding along the road for the 8:30 morning class of Computer Methods in electrical engineering, knowing that you are never going to make it on time again, you stop for a moment to have a look at your watch, its already 8:40. At this point of time many questions start popping up in your mind and brain starts reasoning, it will take five more minutes to reach class, how Prof. is going to react for coming 15 minutes late especially when prof. is also HOD, whether he will yell or give a silent stare, how many classes of this subject I have attended so far, does attendance matter in this subject , whether he is going to teach something important today and so on and after a brain-storming session of two odd minutes you decide to skip the class and straight-away head towards the Central Canteen (CC) to have a cup of tea. In your way to canteen you take some pseudo-resolutions for no more late night dhaba visits in this semester, attend every 8:30 class by getting up early in the morning and avoiding late night hang-outs with friends .During the thought process you also start raising doubts on curriculum set by the college administration to teach age old Fortran-77 in the name of Computer methods in electrical engineering and scheduling the lecture in the early morning slot taught by HOD. Meanwhile you occupy seat in the canteen that has just opened and you wait for the tea to be served. After tea you enter your next class, you select the last bench behind the bulkiest guy and patiently wait just only for the attendance. Almost all students keep gazing at the professor but with their minds somewhere down in the canteen or at the door, waiting for `that someone' to come or thinking of that special appointment you have on that day. By the end of the class, everyone is restless and keeps glancing at their watches, slamming books and dropping bags and the professor mercilessly continues teaching. This snapshot of events has happened n number of times with me during my college days in Pantnagar. There are basically two types of students in the class. First rare species comprising of sincere first-bench-students , who attend each and every lecture and having all the detailed notes and the bulk "others" were photocopy dependent creatures surviving strictly on the Xerox machine. Sometimes I wonder what would happen to our fellow "others" students if Xerox machine was not invented at all. Life of an engineering student is full of examination. First you have to give two pre-finals one optional make-up and then finals, twice in a year. We start each semester with a firm determination of making proper notes and starting early preparations for pre-finals and finals but in the end our course of action confines to the most infamous phrase of college of technology -"one night fight" or worse "make ups". The memories of my engineering days are still clear and vivid inside my mind. How can I forget my first day in the college when seniors forced me to dance in the notorious TIC, our fresher’s nite, tech fair, Tech nite, and last but not the least kisan mela. The thrill of bunking lectures, the fun of partying or going for movies, the joy when you receive the long desired `yes' from the one you have always loved, or the embarrassment of facing the person you were talking about, who all the while was standing just beside you, are truly unforgettable. In the end I want to say that there are the few years, in which, you are going to be participating in some of the most fun, silly and memorable experiences of your life. Never again will you have the opportunity to dance at 3 a.m. without being questioned. These are times you need to hold on to, the memories you want to be able to talk about for the years to come. Sure college is a place to find yourself, a place for textbooks and Campus interviews , trainings and exams - but it is also a place for you to have fun before heading out into the real world, a place for you to make the memories of a lifetime. Before you grow up, let these years be the ones to hold onto because they are sure to be some of the best of your life. And finally a word of caution: enjoy to the fullest in the college but remember there is a reason to be in college as next 40 years of your life will shape up on the basis of how you spend your time in college ,So all the best for your career and future.