Good Old Days - Part 1

Time to go down the memory lane and re-count the experiences of my engineering days at Shah and Anchor Kutchhi Engineering College (SAKEC for short!). A lot of it is hazy now, but will try and pen down the events as I saw them and remember them. Some of it might not be accurate, so folks who remember it better, please feel free to correct it :-)

Here goes recollection of the First Year at SAKEC!

Story starts sometime in July 1997 when I finally joined the electronics branch of SAKEC. I still remember the first day of college when my friend Nilesh(or ND) and I took the double decker 90 ltd for Chembur and arrived for day 1. Our other friend from junior college, the one known as Big G and also the one responsible for me choosing this particular college arrived late as usual :-) Anyways, we reached college checked out our roll numbers and entered the classroom and took a seat somwhere at the back. Here we bumped into 2 dudes from Ghatkopar - Chin bhai and Subbuda. We immediately became friends and started talking as if we knew each other since ages! My buddy from junior college classes, Suren was also in the same class. Over time befriended AK, niloy, krisboy, inderjit and a whole bunch of people and above all Neta!

One of the first things which we checked out was the female crowd and needless to say, it was disappointing! I think we forgot that we were no longer in junior college (which had a commerce section and another commerce college which was known for it's crowd ;-) ) Well, things started going on smoothly and we got busy with the assignments and practicals and journal work. Life had suddenly become too hectic and it was a huge transformation from the junior college days, where at least I had led a very chilled life :) Soon sem 1 exams were on our heads and we had no clue how to go about preparing for it. Had about a month's preparatory leave (PL) where we joined our first set of crash courses. That is where we really came to know what the syllabus for the courses was :-p The rest of the PL was spent in collecting notes and going through those as well as some books. Anyways, the exams came and went and I was sure I would flunk in at least 4 of the 8 subjects :-D Everyone was guessing how many KT's they might be getting and it was a tense period of sorts.

After a brief break (long vacations were now a thing of the past!), college resumed and also the anxiety over our sem 1 results started increasing. But soon the work load of sem 2 increased and people kinda forgot about the results. Also, learning from my past mistake I had enrolled for regular class for engg drawing and going for the class every weekend in the most screwed up part of Dadar was a nightmare! Of course matters were made worse by my inability to comprehend what was being taught! I could never imagine the various views of an object and hence could never complete the drawings and would often wonder why on earth was such a stupid subject being taught to electronics grads in the first place?! Same was the case with subjects like mechanical drawing, chemistry and workshop!

As it happens in engg colleges, out of the blues one day the news came that the results were going to be announced that day. The anxiety came rushing back and everyone was tense. The result board was finally put up and after much jostling and fighting I managed to locate my number and saw a 0.224 P next to my name. I asked someone around if it meant I had passed and someone said yes! I could not believe it and in my happiness ended up hitting the dude next to me :-p After the crowd had subsided I checked again and came to know I had passed with grace marks :-p I had utilized the entire 10 marks available for, what else but engineering drawing :-D And then came the biggest shock that I had managed to get a first class as well :-D
So much for the fear of 4 KTs :-p Sadly, not all my friends had managed an all clear and there were lot of sad and crying faces around. Also, I was not good at consoling people in such situations and had no clue what to say to them. But netaji was good and he did a good job of it!

No sooner had the results come, sem 2 exams were on us and the whole scene of sem 1 was repeated. This time round though I was sure I would flunk in at least one of the papers! I still vividly remember how grossly under prepared I was for Physics and when I got the q paper, I found I hardly could answer 1 question! I relied on my 12th knowledge and also on the BU funda that if you write some nonsese, you might still get through! I followed that principle and wrote a lot of nonsense making up new physics fundas along the way, reading which am sure Einstein, Newton and the rest might have turned in their graves! :-D Also, in spite of all the classes and study sessions with big g, I managed to screw up engg drawing yet again :-D Needless to say, the break between semesters was going to be spent in a lot of anxiety and nervousness yet again :-)

And somewhere in between all this, we attended our first engg college fest, called VERVE. Had participated in quite a few events, and with some luck had managed to win an event called Tintoretto or 20 questions as it is more popularly known. We also had neta and julu (more about her and her friends in future posts) participating in the singing contest (or was it in the later years?)

Overall, the first year was a very hectic one and it passed by real quick and it was time for one of our last long vacations we would get in our life!

-uv.