ME @ FE.com

                        I was on a self imposed sabbatical so no posts for February but after the break I am back with a post which I enjoyed the most to write as it made me recollect the best years of my life. As I come to the end of the four most wonderful years of my academic life I thought it was fitting for me to recount all those experiences throughout my engineering with my college friends. These are fond memories which I cherish some good some bad… and if anyone has a problem with what I have written then it’s their problem…..juss kidding….yeah but no harm meant to anyone here….

                        It was the first day of college and I hated the thought of entering college gates as it was not my first choice college and I never wanted to join a college without any campus…so the negative vibes started at the gates itself… a sea of unknown faces surrounded me and it felt as if this is not the place I was destined to be… So somehow the first week just drifted by and the defining moment as we all vividly remember was when we (being around 20-25 of us) asked Varun Harwani to treat us for his birthday that day and he politely obliged. Shameless that we were we all went – a clear case of “Jaan na pehchaan main tera mehmaan” and that is when the group actually happened.. People came to know each other by names for the first time even the birthday boy for that matter and it was when Tejasvi had asked Varun when was his birthday – she was clearly oblivious why he was throwing us a treat.

                        First semester were the days when everyone was afraid of a monstrous subject named Mechanics and everyone around me used to take tuitions whereas I trusted my instincts of IIT entrance exam and opted against it. It was easy to take the call not to take tuitions but study definitely was tough and that’s when I became friends with the scholar of our class Nihir Nemani. And so it was mechanics that helped me make my first friend in college.

                        These were the days of my wasted life where everyday we used to go to someone’s house or sit at a coffee shop or go to the beach. These were the nice days of getting to know people and making a good first impression. None of us knew what we wanted to do with life and that’s when one of us…the man who always had to do something- Harsh Parekh… came into everyone’s life with an idea. He wanted to direct a play, we had auditions and then Waisa Bhi Hota Hain happened…. A lot of practice and a lot of effort went into and we finally performed at a couple of festivals and we even won some awards. That was when I realized that even someone as obtuse as me could act…though I was not great….but I did something…

                        The first semester passed away this way and second semester started…when Mechanics was replaced by Engineering Drawing as the subject of focus (btw I just scraped through in mechanics with a measly 44 my first real insight into engineering never before had I come so close to failing). Again I didn’t take tuitions and for good reason here as I had studied the subject for a couple of years in school. Thinking about Engineering Drawing, it reminds me of the big bust up between Harsh Parekh and Arpit Gupta over a case of mass bunking practicals….where the latter wanted to and the former didn’t….just imagine the kind of issues we used to have…sounds so immature and both of them have laughed over it later…

                        Second semester was the time when I found my first love in college- flowcharts… I used to love drawing flowcharts so much that I voluntarily drew flowcharts for other people as well….Infact I was quite sincere during my first year of engineering…I actually used to create master copies of the writeups for journals and I used to enjoy doing it….It just goes to show how much I have changed since then…

After drama, Harsh and I thought of trying our hand at dancing and we joined a group in college which was performing dances of the famous Kishore Kumar and we were popularly known as the KK group. I must admit the dance was funny and we were also laughed at but I used to enjoy doing it somehow it was different than what I had done in my life till now and I enjoyed doing it…although I know for a fact that we were wonderfully pathetic at it.Again we had put together some stage performances and it was a good but fun experience. This was also the time when I made a new friend in Khyati and through her Monal. I have some very nice memories with them of this year after which Monal and I share a happy go lucky friendship still whereas Khyati and I have a very love-hate friendship.There is one month of love and one month of hate….and the cycle repeats invariably….But both remain special to me in their own respective ways….

                        Being engineers we were very intrigued by technology, especially Robotics. A couple of my friends- Nihir Nemani, Tejasvi Bongirwar, and the most vibrant of all Sagar were the first to remake a robot made by their elder siblings and we as a team took part in one of the college festivals- that was the first time we got introduced to festivals which later became a very important part of our lives. Obviously we lost, infact we didn’t even qualify for a proper timing but it was a good experience.

                        One very colourful character that got introduced in my life during this period was Henali (and the colour you must have guessed was pink)….She is a perfect uptown girl…as if a phirang entered this unknown world of backward classes and it was fun to hear her communicate in our matrubhasha Hindi as she knew very little of it. She made quite a few interesting comments but this one still rules the charts- her order in Papillon- “ Ek Nimbu pani bina ice bina masala aur bina shakkar”......She took the order quite literally as Nimbu aur pani was all that was left….

                      One of my first addictions also got introduced to me during this time….Messaging….Yes not many people remember it but I used to send a new forward almost everyday during this time…maybe that’s how I got to know everyone and everyone got to know me as my name kept popping in their inbox every morning.

                        Last but not the least comes the trip to Mahabhaleshwar which was supposed to be attended by a Mr.Karan who backed out because he had to attend Engineering Drawing tuitions- the nerd that he is…and Mr. Nihir Nemani who backed out due to I don’t know reason number 127 maybe..(as the years progressed his reasons became all the more innovative and colourful).Eventually Sumangal, Harsh,Shardul,Bandish and i went.

                        These are just a few of the good memories that I remember about my first year of engineering. But by far it was the best year as there were no quarrels no tensions people were trying to know each other and it was the best time that all of us had. We left home at eight in the morning come back at eight in the evening. Almost everyday we used to hang out go for coffee at some cafes, spend time at the beach, chill around on someone’s terrace, watch movies …while away our time just because we didn’t really know what to do with it….and trust me that was the best time I had … we had ………….