Entering The Undergraduate Platform

The lights flicker along the highway, the houses grow second by second, minutes later the cabin shakes, the engine roars as the fore wheel touches the landing, I get that eerie feeling whether the pilot is going to get it right this time. Soon the brakes kick in and so does the thrust reversal and in a matter of seconds the Airbus comes to a halt and is Taxied to gate 7 at the Anna International Airport. As I close my eyes for a matter of seconds, multiple memories of school flash one after another. My eyes suddenly break open to the stinging sound of the attendant calling to the proceedings of ones landing protocol.

To my left I feel my Dad being tensed whether or not I will be able to join classes this year, and to my right my emotional mother is jumping between my future plans and the recent passing away of her grandmother. As I look at her, her eyes seem so confused not being able to come to a decision of either closing them or keeping them open.

I on the other hand very light minded about my surroundings, am just excited about the words Mechanical Engineer and Anna University. Studied all my life at a reputed International School and followed the British Standards of O/L and A/L, I was well versed in my basic understanding and knowledge of the High School criterion required for entrance at the institute. A couple of mates who had already started University had given me an essence of how college life was going to be, and OH was I excited.

Within a flicker I was at the gates of Anna University and minutes later I stood outside my class with the receipt to enter class, I stood outside patiently as an old gentleman with strands of grey hair trying their best to stand straight on his head as he moved eccentrically teaching the basics of a 2 by 2 matrix to the class. As his hand moves in to squeak the chalk off the board his eyes catch me and being too afraid to enter class I sneakily turn around and walk towards my hostel in the plans of befriending a couple of people before I enter my class. With that plan in mind entered the hostel and that is a whole different story which will make this post an essay so lets just skip to a couple of weeks later.

As I studied at college I learnt that college life in Chennai is very different and for a person like me who has been taught a very different way of learning a subject it seemed almost impossible to complete the task of a college graduation. Hence started the never ending bar sessions with fellow insurgents. Instead of armed weapons we drowned our rebellion in the friendly company of alcohol and tobacco. I tried to fight back the system, rebelling to certain people in the faculty ending up with a beautiful result of four arrears in my first semester. The result was horrible, There was no fighting back but to budge and fit into the Indian system of education which seems to force students on a safe path. Study so that you end up at a desk job but not at a job which employs so many others. The system despised free thinkers like me. I was helpless but I seemed to find a pattern of people like this. Two semesters later I somewhat mastered the art of battling and getting an all-clear! However only my fourth semester was I able to do this.

During the course I started doing a lot of extra curricular like theatre and arts which had always inclined an interest during my foundation stages. In this process I started socialising with my fellow seniors in and out of my department, learning a flip side to this education system. There were people like me who instead of complaining and fighting back created opportunities for themselves and others to change life for the future generations. Had’t I met these insurgents I would have been lost in a path of desolation. Day in and day out I had met people like me who had agreed what I said but not one of us decided to do anything about it. Before I entered college I dreamed of creating a solar vehicle alongside a panel of the smartest students, I dreamt of halls with next-gen machinery that could analyse our ideas in a split second. Dreamt of professors and students conduct an exchange of ideas changing things for the better. In my first semester all these dreams crashed and died. However as months went by and continuous discussions and debates with fellow classmates and seniors, I slowly understood the way things worked, I slowly revived my dreams, they have somewhat changed though, mainly due to maturity. I am once again confident, a changed person.

Today I stand along with my fellow insurgents hoping to bring about a change and the reality of college here, life here IS fun, you just need to find the right people, surround yourself with friends who are always motivating you and would stand behind you no matter what. If life throws you at a gruesome environment, flip it around and create an environment that maximizes your abilities. Don’t wait for change to come, Be that change. Be the Benchmark for everyone else.