Treading Unknown Waters

Some day in week 1: 11:30pm PD-220
Just back from my own beautiful moment of the day - the midnight walk back to my IISc hostel room listening to iPod. I didn't know whether Soumya, ma roomie, is back yet. Seems he's back early today and out talking to someone. Tomorrow it will be a week since I left my hometown.

IISc
I feel blessed to have been part of three awesome campuses. Right from the beauty of Loyola in school days, to the elegance of CET and now IISc. All three have something in common - unlimited greenery, and that's something I enjoy very much. It's said that the temperature in IISc is three degrees below the normal temperature of the city. All the roads are bound on both sides by trees. Though it's not the spring season, I can imagine how it would be during full bloom. None of the buildings are more than 2-3 floors high, each unique in design. They seem to pop their head occasionally out of the green and does not stand out from the surroundings. The main building is an exception. Made of some kind of white stone, just one view of it takes us to the grandeur of 1900s. Our admission procedure was held in the main building. Before that we'd to pick lot to decide our hostel room and I got PD-220.

Hostel
The walk towards my hostel room seemed an endless one, esp. with a bag full of stuff. I'd to cross a busy road. Thankfully the guard in the gate opposite guided me to the hostel. The room is a double room. It's really spacious with large wardrobe, well furnished and even a small balcony to top it all. There's also a terrace nearby. The area is very silent at night (which is pretty much the only time I'm there). My roomie is a bengali - Soumya. I got quite a shock when he messaged me for the first time telling name and informing that 'd arrived ;-). The name is pronounced Shomu, pretty nice guy about to do PhD in ECE dept. Though the hostel is about a km from main areas, I like it and the walk back to the room at night.

12:00pm PD-220, a week later.
CEDT
The department had impressed us a lot the first time we were here for the test and interview. On the official day 1 in the department, we were taken around the department, shown the labs and given a briefing about the subjects. Both Suraj and me felt like the labs comprised of our favourite subjects clubbed into one MTech course. The teachers were jolly, even overdoing it occassionally with chalus. Now we're past a week into classes. Labs are about to start soon. That's gonna be the tuff and time consuming part according to seniors and the dept would virtually be our second home. Four of our subjects have lab and we get to have a hands-on experience in electronics design.

September 5: U-47
Now in Sreejith's room. It's more than a month now. Starting to taste the real IISc life. The past month was pretty good with not much work. But towards the end we got to know what's going to haunt us for the next 22 months. Lab assignment submissions seems to be the worst of that nightmare now, but who knows what all are going to be thrown us at from now on. Lab work is enjoyable if you know how to do it. But sitting in front of some problem without a clue how to solve it for hours at a stretch is plain disappointing. Hmm.. Hope the situation gets better if we start studying. How to find time to that is another question.

Sept 7/8: Lab
Riding back to hostel at 4:00 am.

Find Me My Love

This darkness seems to surround me,
Taking me in and all my thoughts,
I seemed to have lost my way i know not when,
Its true i might soon see a splinter of dawn,
But right now i know i'm lost in this deep abyss of time,
I search for a hand that will lead me on,
For my journey is endless and my destination unknown,
All i need is a companion in this tunnel of desperation,
That someone who can show me that ray of hope i want to see,
I need that someone who in my silence will hear all my thoughts,
Find me my savior......Find me my love....
Hold my hand and let this wait end,
When my fingers would be entwined in yours in a bond of oneness,
And then will you wake me up from this dream to find me with you,
To give me my life,to give me my light...
And all the happiness and love i could ever ask for....

Workshop woes

(Yet another incident from my CET life. Slight exaggerations here and there, as usual.)

Usually for Engg. students, third semester begins with a bit of relief. The feeling that 'we are also seniors' comes in and the insecure feeling is far gone. Besides that, they get relaxed, and start to master this unique technique of covering the whole syllabus on the day before the exam. The same happened with all my friends also. (I had started to apply it from first year itself.)

The easiest electronics lab in the whole of B tech course was in that semester. Electronics Workshop. But there, things were not that simple as I expected them to be. I stood inside the workshop, like a rabbit thrown into a lion's cage, in total dismay, in front of RM ma'am. Things got worse when I started to write the rough record. I had to submit it, then go and wait somewhere near the garden that we had in the middle of the dept. building, so that I can catch it when she throws it away. The throwing - catching process went on and I had to redraw pictures several times for some grave reasons like one leg of the resistor is shorter than the other, the angular distance between the legs of BC107 is not accurate enough etc. Later, when I got the first experiment signed, I was relieved, and felt like I had just completed half the requirements for a b tech degree.

But more bitter things were still in store for me. I couldn't attend the regular exams due to chicken pox. And that made me the only person to have a suppli in workshop. I attended the supplementary exam, got Hartley oscillator or something, screwed the whole thing up miserably, and failed again. That put me in one of the worst situations I had to face in my B tech life.

A s5 student attending the workshop exam with juniors.I felt like shit. I entered into the exam hall, and as soon as I saw the internal examiner, I knew that I was doomed. It was none other than S ma'am (who, later turned out to be our VLSI teacher). We were pretty familiar with each other by that time. When I had to go to the staff room related with the SB sir episode in s4, along with bond, Bimal etc., we had already had an encounter. At that time, she had blessed me with some divine words like "Nee orukaalathum gunam pidikkilla" (Translation will destroy it's beauty.) as if I had done something highly reprehensible. (Gosh.. but all that was for not writing class notes..!!)

When I was drawing the layout, she came walking towards me, with a disdainful look.

"You stay at MH. Don't you?"

"Yes ma'am"

"So you proud MH ite, you have no intention to complete the course in four years huh?"


I didn't know how to react. I was already a bit nervous. I wanted to ask her to give me some peace of mind. I knew that it would make her more hostile. So I kept looking at my answer sheet without saying a word.


"What is your first year gpa?"

"6.4"

Right then, she sat on a stool near to me. I knew that she was not gonna leave me soon.

"What was your entrance rank?"

"194"

"What about your tenth and plus two marks?"

"94 and 88"

"Don't you feel ashamed of yourself and what you are doing? You are letting your parents down in a big way."

She was snarling at me like I just raped someone right there.

"Why don't you tell all these on another occasion?" was all what I said in my mind. I just stopped drawing with a deep sigh. I looked at her with a 'What the fuck you want' kind of an expression.

She got more furious.

"What do you think of yourself.. huh? Now, all of you MHites do have a feeling that you have conquered the world. But once you get out of the college, you will know what real life is.. At that time, you will regret thinking of all these. But it will be too late.. Your parents will also suffer for what you are doing now.."

I decided to change the track, and tried to bring a sad expression on my face as if, I was deeply moved by her words. Shook my head in between and kept staring on the floor. "Oh.. you just opened my eyes!!" was all what I wanted to convey, and from her face, I knew that I had done very well..


I saw her face expression changing. She used her palm to support her chin, and her face looked like that of someone who is at the funeral of a close relative.

"You have done a few mistakes, but now you are worried about your future, right?"

Her voice was very soft.(Er... I mean.. the maximum softness that she could bring in her voice. of course, she has got her own limits..)

I nodded very slowly.

"Why you were not able to study properly?"

For a moment, I was blank. What would I say? I can't tell her that it was because I didn't give a fuck about studying. I couldn't figure out anything quickly. So I chose the option of silence.

After a few seconds, she leaned forward, and asked in a lowered voice.

"You have any problems?"

"Eh?"

"I mean, any mental problems?"

I felt like rolling over the floor and laughing, but I did respect her concern. Somehow, I managed to keep the sadness on my face, and replied.

"No, ma'am."

"Physical?"

I wanted to say something and abandoned the idea too quickly. I had to turn my face to the other side so that she wouldn't see me smiling. I retained the sadness, and turned back.

"No"

She crossed her fingers, and said very seriously..

"Anyways, we have to find a solution. Do you study at least an hour everyday?"

"Yes ma'am"

I replied without thinking much.

"No, you don't.. Because if you did, you should have scored at least 7.5"

"Er.. actually... I started doing so only in this semester ma'am.. "

"Hmmm... That's good. You should promise me that you will continue to do that.."

"I promise, ma'am"

"That's really good.. Now go on.. "

As she left, I felt totally relieved. Somehow, I managed an output that time.. But, the trouble wasn't fully over. Viva was still left.

As I sat in front of the external examiner, she, straight away, asked me to identify some components. My eyeballs bulged outwards as if I was looking at a ufo. Examiner got a clear idea of my pathetic condition and let me go very quickly..

So that was how the thing got ended, folks.. and the only thing left was a
promise. What about that? Now, even if I tell you that I kept my word, You will take it to be a joke. Won't you??