HOTC Ch 7: The Rains Went By

A new semester, a new hope, a new beginning.. No No! we were right in the middle of the storm like in the beginning of HP7 and we didn't have time to appreciate the change in classroom. We were Potters in search of the horcrux jobs, with Albus Samson helping us out at CGPU. That's when the bubble-that-must-not-be-named burst (literally) into scene. Things never got better after that and even after a year our batch is still bathing in the aftershock. (pardon me for the absurd allegory in previous statements :-) . The fact that our class secured the most number of jobs in the batch was little consolation for what happened.

Looking at the smaller picture, the placement season was an 'experience'. There were the PPTs of companies in the beginning. The real deal didn't bore us as much as the PPTs though. It was a special sight seeing us dressed well, as executives for a change (got to say our ladies looked better those days too.. ;-). Those days provided some unforgettable scenes.. The joy after getting a job, the disappointed figures being consoled by friends. I was able to stay back many of those days 'cuz of the proximity of my house. Saw a lot of gr8 friends groups around CGPU including ours - staying together during the hard times. It had the funny moments too.. Sure going round and round the pillar before an interview and three guys doing the same after he'd gone in, AS claiming 'I love japanese people, I love japanese culture' at Toshiba interview and a lot more..

Then came one day that could be named the Happiest day in HOTC. It was our onam celebration. There wasn't any celebration to tell about the previous year. But this was to be our final onam celebration and the AE batch of '09 rocked it Applied style. Back were the laughter, the energy that had gone dim after S5 tour. After our customary trip around the campus (esp civil for obvious reasons), we were back in our class. Thanks to some organising by LN, we'd plenty of payasam and sweets. Then a session of onappattu accompanied by traditional dances (dappankkuthu). There were many cameras around and none of them were disappointed. We made all kinda permutations and combinations for group photos sessions which lasted well into the evening. There were even absurd ones like Akashagopuram kandu thenjavar.

Robotics was still in our veins and another Shaastra was coming along. This time we secured entry in two competitions (thanks to AS). Sleepless preparation nights (mostly just chatting around) and countless screwings (?) 'n debuggings later, we'd three bots ready. One was shaped futuristic-ally like a bat-mobile though it ended up having stability issues. This time, there were more of us making the trip. But we couldn't roam around the campus as much as previous time 'cuz we'd competitions on two days. The robotics competition was real tuff and we were a tad disappointed by it's organisation. Else might've had a chance at winning a prize. The laser show was stupendous! We did go to the beach and spencer plaza. The time we spend at CCD were enjoyable too.

Towards the end of the sem, we went for another robotics competition at GEC, Trissur as part of their tech fest - Resonance. Our group had become professional by then, each knew his part of the work. We were rewarded with 4000 bucks too though the organisers were reluctant at giving out prizes. We also witnessed the first and last Sargam (inter-sem) which went through without much fanfare. I believe Jisha (in pic) won many dance prizes. Another thing to take notice was that the teachers were in charge of the events, which told a lot about the political scenario.

In academics, lectures became more of a formality even though teachers showed their love by drawing hearts in class. We had our seminar and preliminary presentation(s) of main projects throughout the sem. We'd thought of them with reverence in the previous sems. But as usual, most of the work was done at the last minute, keeping up the CET tradition and most of us got through fine. The university exams came along dragging it's feet. We didn't have proper answers to his questions, but survived somehow thanks to our combined efforts. Thus ended the prefinal semester of CETlife and the fact that it would be ending soon was dawning on us.

-JFx

Coming up: Ch 8 - And Road Goes On

HOTC Ch 6: Of Nothing Much At All..

S6 was as short a semester as semesters could be. I thought there wouldn't be much to write about it, but I'm wrong. Time doesn't define the longevity of college life. It seems to fly fast as a bullet while living it, but we had in fact been part of many events during that short time.

As always, the previous semester dragged on into half of the next leading to s6 starting late into the second month of 2008. The next Ragam was upon us. But this time we decided to hand the reins over to our junior batch. Taken that Ragam's usually our unofficial tour, this time it was more so with half of our class ending up there. Our group made a breakthrough video titled "The Mask Within". The making so much fun with Maadan (in pic) being tied to the chair, tortured at will and left under the spotlight while we discussed the story. Those were the times when my parents had gone to US to visit my sis. Interesting times being the man of da house :-). Though most results didn't go CET's way this time around, we won first in choreography. Had a jolly good time too.

Back in Trivandrum, it was the season of tech fests. Robotics being our forte, we shelled out another robot from the jigsaw pieces. We had and still have a collection of Aluminium kit which would make any aakri kada proud. The competition hosted by SCT had a problem statement in which the bot had to seek and put off a candle. We cracked it! the only team to do so, and won the prize money. It was our first robotics prize and we duly spend it and choreography prize money on great food from Zam Zam.

Pretty much like Dhwani, there are events in college which are held only once every 4 years. No, I'm not talking about college day. We witnesses our first Electronite that semester. The events were of good standard. Our video was displayed to much criticism ;-). We (Mosqui, Malu and me) performed some songs, though majority of the crowd had left for some reason.

College life went along it's usual way. Looking back at the photos, the scores of hours we spent in pancharakkadu were as enjoyable as these 'events'. In fact many of our fruitful ventures had it's root there. I'm getting nostalgic over here.. The final sem trauma. Back to the rest of story then..

Mini tours come along in unexpected ways. Who would've expected us to take half the day off our Industrial Visit to go to aruvikkara. The dam and area is small, but we'd much fun simply walking around. By the way, the IV was to Keltron something' centre near aruvikkara. After that, the semester was getting tighter each day and mini project turning out to be a monster for many.

The CGPU kicked into action towards the latter half of the semesters. It organised orientation programs in Loyola College. Those programs had varying effect on the nature of the class. It was an enriching experience for all who participated. Personally, my biggest gain was getting to know some people in my batch who I never knew existed.

Placements.. hmm you could write a whole story about it, and the first chapter would be Cosmic Circuits. That story's already told in another post. Tensions were high in the first few days and could be felt in pulse of the class. They calmed down as days went on. Maybe the companies had already seen the recession clouds looming close by...the season didn't go as well as expected. For once, the university exams took backstage and we were deep into getting ourselves placed before the rains came down on CET.-JFx
Coming up: Ch 7 - The Rains Went By

HOTC Ch 5: Step Back to Ponder

I've lost count of how many times I've thought whether it's time I should put this chapter down in HOTC. I've often pondered whether 'some' happenings in S5 was a step back in our college career. But no, they were indeed the times we stepped back to ponder, to be better.

We shifted (college policy) into a new class, but this time around none of us were happy. The class is a wildlife sanctuary - no I'm not talkin about us. During our stay in it, we must've atleast seen 3 generations of Pravukal. Any love for pravu would be over after a year in it. They made nests in the roof ventilators, trained the little ones proffessionally over the ceiling fans and shit (pardon me for offensive language) on our already cramped benches. Nice situation to be in when you're bored by lectures and pondering whether anything's coming your way from the sky. Not much problem afterall, cuz we spent more hours outside than inside. :-D.

Moving onto the other species in the class: We made the most of what we had, sat on benches, jumped over them to move about and concentrated more on..not studies. Maveli arrived early in CET as usual (the real one, not our staff advisor). That years onam celebration didn't have the verve of previous year. Many had gone home and hence participation was less. That didn't dampen the spirits and we had a nice time walking around for onakazhchakal.

As soon as college resumed after onam vacation, planning started for next tour. All of us were really pumped up reminiscing the superb tour we had the year before. But from the beginning the tour was doomed. Two opposing parties came up vouching for the right to conduct the tour. Cold wars came up as both sides refused to let go. Uncertainty continued right up to two days before the tour and finally one side conditionally ceded.

Thus we started off on a tour crisscrossing South India. First to pondicherry, then Bangalore, Mysore, Goa and back to Trivandrum. The atmosphere was kinda subdued on the first night of journey. Pondicherry is a nice place and we had fun at the beach. But the accomodation left much to be debated, especially for gals. That was put up in discussion and discussions about such things during tour is not a good sign. As a group, we had fun throughout the tour. But elsewhere, things didn't improve going onto next place. Efforts were put into force and the tour seemed to be moving for the better. But the final few days proved otherwise. Controversies that would not be forgotten in our college life, that too involving some of my best friends.. I'd better stop at that.

It took a while for the atmosphere to calm down. We didn't have much time 'cuz Shaastra was coming up and this year we were determined to participate in the robotics event. The robo event we took up was Get a Grip. During the first few days of preparation, we understood that we'd hugely underestimated the magnitude of the problem. Finally after reading the problem statement properly, we got off to work on the robo. Aluminium sheets framed our days and dreams during night. Measurements went awry time after time. The whole thing was built and rebuilt and redesigned and rebuilt. I concentrated a huge amount of my time on a circuit which wasn't used ultimately. Few days and sleepless nights later, our robo was still incomplete [did i mention we had stuff and plan to build 2 robos?] - without even proper motors - before departing to IITM.

The Shaastra days still remains some of the most enjoyable days I've had. ur job on the bot wasn't over even after reaching IITM. The final touch took the whole night before the event. I was put in charge of controlling the bot and to my surprise it went smoothly. But tragedy struck in the form of our slightest misjudgement. The blocks we'd to load and unload got stuck onto the foam tape we attached on our gripping mechanism. We took the anticlimax in our stride and enjoyed the next few days to the fullest... Spencer Plaza, Tiffany's, CCD, chatting on hostel roof after 2 am, Ah I can't wait to go for next Shaastra.

We returned back to the boredom of classes and shut down our grey matters for the next few weeks. That year some of us went for IFFK - awesome movies. University exam came unanounced as usual and I don't remember having christmas celebrations. There was nothing much to do in class other than making fancy hairdos and waiting for the KU to postpone exams enough number times so that they get to schedule it right before the biggest hollywood release of the year.

-JFx


Coming up: Ch 6 - Of Nothing Much At All..

HOTC Ch 4: The Ragam Story

S4 was a short semester, but didn't lack any of the unpredictability that makes college life so much fun. Every semester we start off bunking class (don’t blame us, teachers wouldn't have got the timetable ready by then) to watch a movie and this sem wasn't any different. Thus began another memorable chapter in HOTC.

Let me begin with a correction to HOTC Ch 3. Bhavah actually happened in S4. It was one of the first events in that sem. Shortly after that we'd the accreditation fiasco. Dressed up as terrorists to kill the dust, we cleaned the whole department for the first time in years. The pond in the middle of dept garden (yes we have a dept garden!) could be used by the archaeological dept to study prehistoric organisms. The toil didn't go unrewarded as we were promised the forbidden fruit - sessionals. Accreditation gave birth to many clubs unheard of till then. One of them was the robotics club of which we became the unregistered members. On display were the finest of our creations - Innak and Aruk.

February breezed through and accreditors awarded us an A. That year tech fests by individual depts were discouraged. So ISTE put up their hand to organise Aavishkar '07, a technical fest conducted by the CETians, for the rest of the world (supposedly). On the day of choosing event managers, a band of Applied turned up (thanks to KK again). Our class ended up having half of the main event managers. I was in charge of Physics Paper Presentation of which I remember not. The interesting events for us were AdZap and Industrial Village. Industrial village is the story about AS coming to the rescue of a hapless 'lady' event manager. We had a flawless design but the team with a multiplex in the middle of a huge lake in an industrial village won the event. Another memory worth remembering is the romantic Bach falling in love with R's eyes during the best manager event. Iceman and AS won prize in problem solving event that day.

Even while Aavishkar was going on, preparations had begun for Ragam '07. This year, we were determined to make CET presence felt at Ragam. As 2nd years, our batch took the initiative and intensive preparations for all events started at least a week before the mega event. Our band, which already had its share of break-ups, patched up and prepared for Western Orchestra.

The journey to NITC was so much fun with all of us together in the train enjoying our off-season class tour. I can still remember Appu and me chasing the runaway train in a station we had got down at 2 am to have to have a cup of coffee. The first day was slightly disappointing personally as our band didn't qualify for the finals. That was soon overshadowed by the amazing result in dance. It was only the beginning. By the final day we'd won most prizes by any college other than NIT. The prizes were for Street Play, Mime, Eastern Orchestra and many others. I'm happy to say that again Applied played a hand in most of those events; CET spirit scored above all that. The celebrations in NIT didn't last long because tradition predicted a fight. So we made a hurried escape back to railway station. The Ragam story is a truly remarkable one - one that should be taught to future batches as inspiration for following a dream, striving to achieve it and finding pure ecstasy on reaching the summit.

Even semesters has it's share of other events too like College day, LH day, Nuit 'd Emmaus, and MH day. I remember the College day particularly 'coz I'd one more rock performance. We must not have gained much fan following that day judging by the crowd response :-). But for me every performance has been a great experience and will always be.

Lastly, a few words about the club houses that sprang up in town those days. The first one is the famed PancharaKaadu. For years, the Acacia forest in CET between LH and main entrance had been the abode of lovers seeking privacy amongst the beautiful shades of those trees. We made it our club house #1. Boring teachers didn't worry us anymore, neither did the unfortunate souls who'd cut through PK. Club house #2: Madhavan Sir's tuition class. The previous semester taught us that electronic circuits can be interesting. What made it more fun were the innumerable days when we ended up either chatting away or went our club house #3 after trying our luck at the first circuit. #3: who said Trivandrum lacks a hang out place for youth. You have it right in the middle of town, under the shade of large, sticky-red-fruit bearing tree (dunno its name). Museum sessions on that lawn were the most enjoyable for me. These club houses brought the best brains in town together to discuss world issues, college life and PDs (ParaDooshanam).

Towards the end of semester, it was time for our dear final years to bid goodbye to our campus. The demo week was really funny. When it was over, we were so gloomy that it felt like losing someone close to us forever. We still miss you..

- JFx

Coming up: Ch 5 - Step Back to Ponder

PS: Everyone is encouraged to add all else that you remember in all HOTC (can be done as separate paragraphs in the end), plz add your name tag at the end of wht u add.

HOTC Ch 3: A Cultural Awakening

A new semester and a new classroom. We finally had a place in the electronics department. Though our class had a feeling of being out of place in the silent electronics dept, the new classroom's strategic position allayed our fears. The classroom had windows opening to the archi dept and the paths to Civil and Electrical depts. As you can imagine, there was continuous entertainment around ;-). Above all that, we found a new goddess - 'Sou' as we called her. No other senior have got so many dedicated fans in a single class she does. Her legend lives on in our mobile phone themes.

S3 was a semester of cultural and other events. The first in line was the sophomores' day, codenamed Miraglo. Though many connotations grew out of the name, the event was a success. Gokul, being the convener propelled our class into active participation in Miraglo. Mime, dance, rock show, Pulikali, Compering- you name it- we had applied colour in every event and organising committee. That was also proof that we were indeed a cultural force in college. The other major cultural event in the semester was Dhwani. It still remains the best Dhwani I've seen and the only one. Rivers of colourful birds didn't deter us from the job at hand. Once again we played our hand in organising the mega event.

One of the most memorable event that sem was our class tour. It's undoubtedly the best tour I went on. For once, we set apart the groupisms and celebrated it. Campfires and the bus turned into disco floors were not a single soul dared to sit. Wild adventures into mountain terrain, mischievous antics and interesting controversies - the tour had it all.

It was also the semester when we chartered unknown territories in the field of tech - Robotics. Thanks to Baachi, we were inspired into a field that both interested us all and gave us an 'academic cover'. Our first attempt, the soccer bots Innak and Aruk gave us third place in the competition held at TKM - Bhavah.

One of other things that comes to my mind is the Chicken pox epidemic, that engulfed our class. There were many more events I've missed mentioning. S3 was one of the longest semesters we had with University exams split up before an after Christmas (damn KU). With lots of fun and still lots of free time, it surely is among the top in my semester rating.

Coming up: Ch 4 - The Ragam Story

HOTC Ch 2: 'Dare' Remo Jayan

That Christmas was the season of dares and crushes. Every other boy had at least a small crush on someone. As the 9 gals in our class wouldn't suffice, there were even crushes in other classes. Though I'm not much informed about the gals' crushes, some of the names have surfaced.

I don't remember who introduced the dare idea, but it must've originated in the LH. Anyway each person had to dare another to perform something in class. That's whe Jayan got a dare from someone (Later revealed as Sreekesh). He was to propose to V, Remo style. His friends added an additional dare to do it in front of Jaseela Ma'am (a guest teacher ;-).

Jayan, who already had a crush on V couldn't resist the offer. He came in the period after lunch. Jaseela Ma'am was standing in front of the class, about to start teaching. Jayan said " I love you, V" and gave her a 'Remo' kiss in front of the whole class with teacher watching.

We hadn't realised then, the importance of that moment in the HOTC. V was shocked and reacted with an outburst. Jayan was both furious and heartbroken. Our group united for a common cause for the first time - to support Jayan (avane thekkan :-). AS, Varun, Hari etc. moved to our side to join in the fun and thus the incident brought our gang together. Jayan on the other hand found a partner in crime by accusing (not completely falsely) me of having a crush on V. In the following months, U and V became close friends and what we call a 'pair'.

To summarise other relationships, Jisha broke with Jaleel and became friends with Gokul. Nothing came out of Gokul's crush on Remya. LnT-Gemo melodrama continued in the background with most of the class (excluding me and some others) unaware.

The college sprang alive with events like genesis, techfest (Dyuthi), our first class tour, Ragam '06 and the election. Those were the times when we played dumbcharades and cricket in class. Cricket ended in Principal's room below us and the dumbcharades made Suraj Baachi. The election revealed for the first time a rift in our class. Two sections in our class were in cold war with each other due to political and other reasons. Thankfully not enough reasons surfaced for a physical fight in our class, but the college was thrown into turmoil. Thus ended S1S2 with university exams approaching.

Coming up: Ch3 - A Cultural Awakening

HOTC Ch1: A Class Apart

I shifted from mech to applied the next day. College classes hadn't been what I expected. After the immeasurable freedom we had in Loyola, college felt like captivity. The mech class whom I expected to be the most alambu were a disciplined lot then. You can undestand my apprehension in moving to AE&I who are expected to be the second most padippist class in CET. But an hour among them/us changed my views.

The first thing I noticed about the classroom was it's size. High ceiling and large spacious walking and playing area at the back and sides gave it the feel of a small hall rather than a huge classroom. The benches were arranged in 3 columns. Two wide-bench columns to the right and small-bench column at the left. My friend Gokul guided me to one of the small-benches and he sat in the row behind me. My benchmates were Krishnakumar 'KK' Ajithkumar (ya that's one name) and Umesh Malayath. KK was busy taking notes the whole period and Umesh wasn't far behind. "OMG", thought I, but as I turned around realisation came over that the rest of the class was a different picture. The students were having fun - talking, playing etc and if noise level went above limits, the blame went to the adjacent S8 Comsci class. Thus began my life among the applied kidillams.

I migrated between the small benches and the last rows of middle benches in those days. Other than my schoolmates Gokul and Sureannan (then known as Vishnu), I sat alongside and became good friends with Gautham (now Gemo), Mahesh, Baachi (formerly Suraj), Jayasankar 'Jayan', Maadan a.k.a Akhil, KK and Mosqui (what was his name again?). Emmaus boys, Rep Rahul and some others sat in front of us in middle. Most of the right benchers remained unknown to me, though AS (Vishnu AS) was a familiar face from some tuition centre. AS, Varun, Hari super-knae, Ajeesh, Jaleel etc sat in the first two right benches with 'sweet talkin' Ajesh most often occupying leftmost position (for obvious reasons). Sadly, many of those old right benchers still remain unknown to me as friends and I know nothing of their stories.The gals occupied the first row of middle and left benches and still reserves the first row to date.

Our group was in it's formative state then. Spending more time together made us know each other pretty well. In other news, Lakshmi N, Jisha, Ajesh and Jaleel were friends then. Lakshmi Thulasidas (LnT) was one of the few gals who talked with us. Vimina was already crowned the online beauty (better of the lot) of the class, but she gathered only few fans 'coz of her reserved and apparently conservative demeanor. Noone knew how Remya or Simi sounded like (few still know). About academics, KK held the reins over assignments, and thankfully still does. Other than being a constant entertainment in Krishnakutty's class I didn't have much academic achievements then. This fun loving class was completely unaware of the interesting times awaiting them in near future.

Coming up next week: Ch2 - 'Dare' Remo Jayan

History Of The Class- through the eyes of a student

Foreword

Let me warn you that what is said this is purely not a work of fiction and are true incidents in the past three years of our class. Names have not been changed due to lack of imagination to create so many. Apologies for any mistake in the timeline 'coz I've focused more on the relationship dynamics than getting the time factually correct.

Some free time at my native place gave me the inspiration to write about the joyous years in college. It's fun reliving those moments and memories before they fade away and only the feelings remain.



Preface

It all began one fine afternoon in the |Autumn (October I think) of 2005. I was standing in front of the college office to complete the formalities concerning higher option. A girl stood beside me looking at forms similar to those held by me. I asked her name. 'Jisha', she answered. 'That's four', I counted in my mind the number of of people I knew as I entered the AE&I class of 2005, CET.

Coming up: Ch1 - A Class Apart.