10 Things NOT to Do at NITT
A campus survival guide, with your best interests at heart
Starting your life in college can be a challenge. Every institute comes with its own perks along with some mysteries that you unravel during the journey. Lucky for you, we have compiled a small list of things you should look out for when at NITT. Feel free to follow them (or not).
1. Don’t go on trips with your friends, they’ll curb your productivity.
The whole squad is planning a trip to Pondicherry this weekend. You, an intellectual, start thinking about how this trip will waste your entire weekend. Suddenly, you start questioning your productivity and half-heartedly you decline the trip. Three hours into the “College Trip” which you decided to chuck, your FOMO starts kicking in. You start rummaging through your notes and you know it’s too late to realize that you shouldn’t have missed the trip. You spend the next 6 hours cleaning your room and doing laundry.
The next thing you know that it’s already night and you’ve successfully wasted half of your weekend. You spend the next day mourning for the loss of what was supposed to be a “Productive Weekend”, eating Nutella, listening to your “Sad boi hours” playlist, and marinating in your amplified sadness.
2. If you don’t have the time or are facing deadlines, don’t waste time in eating food.
Four assignments due this week and 2 CTs in the upcoming four days. Well, you can’t recall how you got here but this is how it is. Now I’d suggest you start ditching all the unwanted activities that might waste your time like Netflix, sports, hangouts, and meals. Yes, you heard me right, you should definitely skip meals to save time. If you store up on snacks and are able to skip 2 meals a day, you are saving at least 2 hours. Do you know how much work you could do in those 2 precious hours?
Let’s be honest here, are meals even that important? Sure, malnutrition is a real problem and can cause many issues later. Not eating your meals properly could lead to many diseases, and you probably won’t get that much work done if you are hungry, but who cares about all that. You need to finish your tasks! So for this week let's just sacrifice the amazing food from Himalaya and Dhaba. Ignore the juicy Gulab Jamun in the mess and get back to…wait why are you taking your mess card out?
3. Clubs and teams will eat up all your valuable time, it’s better to sit in your room and study.
The club inductions have begun, and all the WhatsApp groups are filled with registration forms, questionnaires, and what not. As you watch your hostel mates brainstorm over how to attend a group discussion efficiently, you wisely utilize the time to prepare for the next series of exams, and the effort actually pays off! You have outscored your friends, who are now members of various teams, enjoying life with chill meets, trips, and treats, all while making a meaningful contribution to their team, and getting into positions of responsibilities. “Well, that doesn’t matter”, you say to yourself, as you chuckle upon receiving yet another high GPA. As the years drag on, you find that you actually have no one to talk to, apart from the books that you have in your midst. Hmm, maybe they may be just jealous of your grades. I mean, who needs friends when you got professors to talk to!
The Campus Placement Drive has begun, and no one seems to be more confident than you. All the clubs and teams you sacrificed are finally going to be worth it. But hey, what’s this? A Resume? With all your accomplishments? APART FROM ACADEMICS? Is this necessary, you ask; the concern clearly showing on your face.
Accepting defeat, you look for a last resort. Maybe calling up any one of my classmates and asking them if they’d induct me into the club they’re a part of would work, you think, as you take your phone and scroll through the contacts. But unfortunately, the only contacts you have on your phone are those of your parents, the professors, and that one senior who graduated that you had a crush on. Regret filling in your heart, you start writing a self-deprecating tale about your college life, so that any unassuming junior won’t go down the same path you did.
4. Never visit the Dhaba or any other shop outside the campus, just stick to the good ol’ mess.
After a long day with all four classes and a 2-hour lab session, you are tired and bored to death. You know exactly what you need. FOOD. So you head on to the mess and find the same thing you find every day — white rice with dal curry. Well, what else did you expect? Looking around you see a few people leaving the mess and heading to the Dhaba. Now you know exactly what to do right? Don’t go there. It’s not like the food they serve is amazingly delicious, not to mention the mind-blowing juices you get. It’s not like the place is really economic and is yet a great hangout spot, located super close to the campus. Hey, did you leave me on read?
5. Never ever spend a night out at CCD.
The frappes and the lattes with smoked sandwiches and mellow music, apparently the coolest place for the freshers that doesn’t seem to fit in the whole NITT vibe. And there’s more - it stays open till 3 AM in the morning.
Now despite being the best place you might want to chill at past midnight, you should never spend a night at CCD and stay in your room. Got late-night assignments to write, head to Octagon, the Computer Center of NITT. I mean, what would you miss out on - comfortable seating, great WiFi, a long enough menu to satisfy your tastes, and a perfect air-conditioned place. Not much, right? Next thing you know, your mates have planned a late-night movie in CCD. But don’t let that lure you even for… hang on, did you just text them “Will be there”?
6. Never skip an assignment submission just for going out and playing.
You have a very important assignment submission the next day, and you’re determined to do this on your own. You take a longing look at your phone as it buzzes, knowing that they’re calling you out to play. It’s a tough decision but you’ll have to stick to it just for the day. No pain no gain, after all! Your mind is filled with the buzz of the playing field as you reluctantly get through the assignment, but you finally manage to finish it, great work done! The next day, you’re all set to submit it, the sheets all neatly pinned up, only to hear that the deadline has been postponed and you’ve been assigned as much work as you completed yesterday. Oh well, life is unpredictable. You did make the right choice in foregoing a few hours of fun to (sort of) complete a part of the assignment on time, right?
7. There is no need to lock your cycles when you are leaving them for a short while, it’s not like there are thieves around (wink)
You’re cycling by Classics and the aroma suddenly hits you. Now you simply cannot resist those fries. You must run and get them right now! There’s definitely no time to lock your cycle. After all, it will stay in your field of view(more or less), and there are definitely not going to be any thieves around. What’s more, you’ve also written your name and roll number on the crossbar LIKE THIS in huge block letters, so there’s no way anybody can mistake your cycle for theirs. Forget conveniently the fact that the aforementioned scenario is highly probable considering the fact that there are two hundred or so other cycles of the exact same model. So leave your cycle behind and rush in, order those fries, and while you’re at it, you might as well check out their menu to see if they have any appealing drinks to go with it. Enjoy your meal! Your cycle will safely be awaiting your return (at a random cycle shop in town; hopefully, you’ll make it there before it’s gone forever).
8. Don’t stay up too late.
Tring Tring! And the alarm clock hits 12 midnight. Time to end the day. Oh hey look, your friend just invited you to a movie night! But you know, it’s not a weekend. You know you will have an 8:30 class. You know you need the attendance in that class. On top of that, the professor will not let you in if you’re late by even a minute.
And by the time you will be done choosing, it’s 1 AM already. That’s it! You’re going to bed. But then you recall your lab record submission is due tomorrow! Now what? Text your friend for the readings, finish off those remaining calculations, unless you want to be served with zero along with a good dose of humiliation. Winding it all up, you are finally relieved, but only to find you are another two hours into the night.
With another sleepy start to the day, you promise yourself to sleep on time today, only to repeat the same thing over again, just for different reasons this time.
9. Don’t stay in campus for fests.
So, your CR got you a week off just as Pragyan is around the corner? You really are looking forward to going home, aren’t you? Say no more. Pack all your dirty laundry and skip right off, because the fest ain’t worth it!
Oh, and by the way, on your way out, do hand your food card over to your roommate. Why waste all that delicious free food? You definitely won’t get to taste it, so let a friend have the privilege instead. Do delete your Instagram account, otherwise you might want to return to campus the moment you see those mouth-watering waffles. Also, don’t worry about the FOMO gnawing away at the corner of your brain. Even if you miss a great Pro Show, you’ll surely be able to witness the artist in action again sometime in the future. For free. Or will you? Wow, you’re already unpacking?
10. Don’t worry about the 8:30 class.
After a tireless night of binge-watching yet another Netflix TV show, you wake up to the sound of your alarm which once was your favourite song, but is now one that you obviously hate now. You check the time and see that it’s already 8:25. Before the panic hits, you start doing the math and realize that even if you wash your face, brush and change in 3 minutes (Trust me it’s possible), It will still take you 4 minutes to reach the lecture hall, which means you’ll still be late by 2 minutes; and you know the prof will NOT let you in. So you start doing math in your head again and remember that you missed only 5 of the 8 classes you are allowed to miss. So you very easily decide to sleep and it feels like the best nap you ever had.
Fast forward a month, you have 50% attendance, you need to attend every single class to get to 65% attendance and on top of that, you need to get a medical certificate that holds up. Good times, indeed.
This article was written in collaboration with Aditi Bhagat, eeshan sharma, Faaiz Zaheed, Hanan AJ, Nandini Kumawat, and Nikhil Raju.
