College Death - Part 1

I call it death because it is devoid of life. It sucks! I expected a lot more when I got into the "Best Private College" of the Uttar Pradesh Technical University(UPTU). Its called Jagadguru Shri Shivratheeshwara Academy of Technical Education(JSSATE in short), more popularly(?) known as JSS. What a dump! I mean it's not a battered ruin having barely standing buildings and interiors like the public conveniences we used to have(by the way, those places have improved a LOT! the paid ones in CP I mean, haven't had the chance or the need to go anywhere else). It's a very modern setup, but still retains the village touch. I'll give a year-by-year rundown of the entire place.

1st year : Due to my out-standing performance in the entrance examinations, all I got was admission in Delhi University(ummm and that was based on marks I scored in the boards). I joined Kirori Mal College(KMC) for doing B.Sc.(G) Comp. Sc. I was planning to give the entrance exams again next year, this DU thing was just for security(if I don't get in anywhere next year either). Man that place was FUN!! It was even better than school because we had the freedom to do whatever we wanted, go wherever we wished within college hours. The time-table was unbelievable. Only one class on tuesdays. That too who'd attend. My fachha group wasn't exactly "COOL". There were a lot of Dipsites(students from D.P.S.) from far away places too, but a lot of them were studious types. My only solace was my seniors. The second year batch of my course was sparsely populated to say the least. But they were all buddy material. The third year batch did outnumber them, but not in terms of the buddy quotient. There was just one third-year whose company was highly enjoyable, only some whose was bearable, rest you can figure out. Also, there was only one of my batchmates who was like-minded and we got along well. So there were five of us - two first years, two second and one third and we hung out a lot and had a great time. Ocassionally the rest of the second years joined us. My first year friend and I also mingled with our own batch sometimes. We roamed around the whole of DU, Kamla Nagar etc etc. We even watched a movie together! Spiderman-2 it was. 7 or 8 people stuffed inside one auto!

Then my fellow first year left as he got admission in engineering somewhere. So there I was hanging out with 3 of my seniors, all day long. We used to play TT in the Boys' Common Room(BCR), a sort of rejuvenation of the sport after I started playing, because there were long queues for who gets to play afterwards. There was this one day when we played continuously from 10 to 4 almost!! Nothing's better for bonding than playing a sport together. Me and my third year senior became very good friends. He was called Jazz, short for Jassi, short for Jaspreet. Cool funny guy. And he lived nearby to boot. I often used to tag along in his car-pool. Our favourite hangouts were the Nescafe at Stephen's, the college canteen, the BCR and some others. This spanned for 2-3 months I guess. Then in October 2004, I got admission into B. Tech. Electrical Engineering in JSS. I didn't know what was in store, and I was severly disappointed.

I remember it was October 16, my first day in my new college. Apparently there was a dress code for all freshers till October 15. There was no ragging when I got there because it was done before and boy am I glad it was. The horror stories I'd heard scared the hell out of me. You needed a guardian at all times if you were to survive. There was this HUGE seniorty thing which I can't stress upon enough even with capital letters. Seniors were God. You did as you were told, or else.... Shudders! They made such a big deal out of it. I still don't know why. Of course we hear about the great camaraderie in the hostel and all but that was hard to believe from what I saw. They're to be addressed as Sirs and Ma'ams. Anyways, I was a complete stranger to the college and what was considered normal there. My first shock was the announcement of a "Mass Bunk", that too on my first day of college. There would be no classes from Monday onwards, for an entire week! Whoa!! The only solace here was a school friend of mine, who was in my class, was also studying here, but in a different class now. I was introduced to his classmates, who were all more or less belonging to Delhi. Our kinda people we used to say. It's a funny thing, we refer to most of the people as "UP-wale" and they call us "Dilli-wale", like the others are from a different planet.

The initial stages were shaky, as I didn't know many people(even in my class) and used to hang out with the Dilli group only. Slowly I got to know people in my class and after a few visits to the hostel for completing assignments or just hanging out, I had friends in my class too. The studies were back-breaking and very tough. I couldn't cope up as I was already 2 months behind. Got to know more people who were late admissions like me and most of them were from Delhi :) . I was getting used to Mass Bunks too because there was one every week(ranging from a few classes to a few days). The Semester Exams were hell. I scored a measly 60%. That's the time I used to think 60% was measly but atleast I didn't get any backs. Whew!

The second sem was much the same, except now I had found my footing and was as much a part of the college as anyone else, had a big social circle and life was good. But I got a back then. A back is when you don't pass in any subject in the sem exams. It was horrible. The only face-saving excuse was that almost everyone had one and there was a special exam for all of us. I cleared it this time, just barely. But I had been scarred. Or so I thought.

To be continued..........