Welcome to the club
If you were friends with me on facebook or following me on Twitter, you wouldn’t have missed out much on my journey from my hometown in Kerala to Bangalore and then to Surat (that’s roughly close to 2000km on road link). I reached Surat after like 4 days of road trip which is pretty much an unforgettable experience.
First few weeks were a bit alienating just because I didn’t know Hindi much and didn’t know anyone other than a couple of guys from my school. The first few Saturdays and Sundays used to pretty boring but then after a few weeks, met few my best fraaands and they named me “ Big Man ”.
Life without internet? Can’t even imagine it. Yep, that was the scene for me when I was in 12th. But then I realized one thing, just because I didn’t have internet during the first few months of university life, I didn’t turn out to be couch potato and turn into this anti-social fuck who’s always in front of his computer ( some of the peeps here would disagree to this coz of my laziness and my love for the bed + mattress ). Studying only happened a week before midsems or endsems which turned out to be okayish. After the first endsem, several reforms in my studying schedules was sorted out in my mind, say, practice math problems every weekend, try reading through the books etc etc which as you all might have guessed, didn’t work out as planned once the second semester. Oh and one more thing, I HATE ENGINEERING DRAWING!
I opted for Computer Engineering and I was disappointed when I had to learn everything that’s not related to my subject at all (except for some topics in Physics). I wonder where they use Dyes, Drugs, Corrosion and other topics in Engineering Chemistry in a Computer (maybe just for cooling the machines down). Funny part is, I had to learn more subjects related to Mechanical Engineering than any other branches. I wonder how far my PC at home would fly in a projectile path if I launched it at a velocity of, say, v (fuckin’ bullshit mechanics!). There’s no point about telling how pathetic Math in first semester was (yes, I know Math-III is even more f’d up). I had this one prof who was kept on explaining the same thing for almost a month when the realization struck that the syllabus had to be completed. In the second semester, there was atleast one subject that didn’t act like a sleeping pill that knocked you out, FCP. I used to love sitting in those classes just to listen to those computer terminologies being used, even though they were used in the wrong instances. FCP labs were amazing just because we knew how to code in C++. Even though the last few weeks were hectic, the results were okayish and acceptable.
To all those juniors who are reading this, I’ll write this and give it to you, “Study in the first semester and get your pointer up. It’s always good to have a pointer above 6.5. You’ll regret about not studying during those times when you had to sit in the hostel because of the curfew timings. Once you enter second year, you’ll start moving around way too much for different reasons.And mos”
Getting to know seniors is one of the best things that ever happened to me. There might not be an event that would introduce you to seniors. It’s through all those “hey!” and “hello” at Galla or anywhere in the campus, that you get to know your seniors. A senior asking for introduction is not ragging, FYI. Playing ball or football with seniors are also another way to get to know them and grow your social contacts inside the college.
Join all those clubs you are interested in. These clubs are also a way to know some of the seniors deeply involved in these clubs. I was interested in the Photography Club, but didn’t know about the interviews that took place in the campus because I was having waay too much on my plate then.
Going home during college fests are something not wise to do. The technical fest, MindBend, cultural fest, Sparsh and the freshers fest, Kashish are three events that makes your college life a bit colorful. Without them, it’s just monotonous classes over and over again.
Venturing into the TV Series and Movie world with your friends in the darkness of your hostel rooms are so awesome that you’ll do it almost every day, no matter if it’s a week day or a weekend, or if you have assignments to submit or not. Find out TV series and Movie buffs among yourselves and explore into their 1TB hard drives. You won’t believe what all you could find in there. My hard drive was the Pandora’s box in first year. :P
TV series suggestion: Friends, Suits, The Big Bang Theory, Breaking Bad. Make sure you atleast watch the classic series Friends. Otherwise, “I keel you” * achmed, the dead terrorist speaks *. You might not have seen the world of DC++ yet, but it’s like the place where you can get pretty much everything you might want to watch.
LAN gaming is also a great time pass if you’ve nothing to do on a Saturday night. Get your friends together on different laptops. Fire up a server for CS 1.6, and enjoy fragging. :)
Handling funds. When it came to handling funds, my friends and I fought with rickshaw drivers and other service providers (including subway for charging Rs10 on cheese which was supposed to be free). Those ten rupee notes might be your hunger killer at the night canteen. Tipping servers should only be done if they haven’t charged you a percentage of your total bill as service charge.
Open up a bank account in the SBI on campus and make sure that you give your account number to the people who are running the hostel so that you get your refunds at the end of each semester which can be your secret fund for the next semester. :)
Starving without even trying out hostel’s mess food is like going to buffet and not eating starters just because their looks didn’t entice you. I’m not telling that mess food is awesome and stuff. It’s average. You will not believe the combinations your mess cook can make with Aloo. To all the non-vegetarians out there, the probability of getting non-veg food in the mess is almost close to zero. Don’t even think about signing a petition to the chief warden and other authorities. Non-vegetarians, you really don’t have any other option other than going out to Chicken Hut, Satish Bhai’s, TOI, Tempting Barbeque etc. if you really can’t stand without eating chicken. Find out the locations on your own. This is how you get to know where shops are in the city. Keep moving around.
I really hope you guys have a time of your life.. :)
Welcome freshmen!
Originally published at dej0e.wordpress.com in 2013.
