The Journey into Awesomeness

With bag and baggage, I landed in God's Own Campus, the gates welcoming one and all with open arms. As soon as I entered the campus the air was filled with an exuberance that was a refreshing change from the humid warm weather outside. They said that come the monsoons the more panoramic the campus looks. This transformation was lurking around, may be waiting to happen.

The thing I was looking forward to most was finding a new room-mate which I did, quick enough to be cited as a record of sorts in the Guinness book. As soon as my feet touched the NITIE mess 1/2 ground, I chanced upon my friend from an interview earlier. It was an instant connection. I pray the bond stays for the next two years and more. The room allocation process was a dream crasher as I found myself cornered in a room filled with innumerous room-aspirants like me. Some painful blows later my buddy laid his hands on THE KEY to THE ROOM 414 and that was the moment our journey began together, the journey of the realisation of my dream (which is quite over-rated as every such journey has been known to turn into self-realisation rather than realisation of dreams).

The walk to the room was interspersed with celebrity (the famous seniors) spotting, the first being a chance rendezvous with Mr.X. My buddy, who pretends to be a dedicated student even to this day, and Mr.X, the celeb, got absorbed in a random question and answer session while i was 'checking out' the rest of His Campus. The session lasted long enough to fill my head with ideas for the rest of my life.

However the hopes were shattered when we entered the room. The room must have been used as a set on the show 'The Haunted House', my inner voice said. But the optimism in my buddy took over and he proclaimed that we can make it 'student-friendly'. Some hours (of sweeping dusting and coughing) later we made it look swanky clean. Mission accomplished.

The next day was the day of the registration which was a smooth and uneventful process. I was more interested in the fun that was waiting to be unleashed in Groove later that evening. But all good things keep us waiting and so did this one. The postponing of the event blessed us all with three days to have fun with random strangers which over time would turn, maybe who knows, into cherished friendship.



Be it the strolls near the pond to check out whose busy with whom or the roaring laughter shared over food in the canteen, all promise to make this journey magical.




Later that week I stood near the legendary 96 steps to the world of opportunities, introspecting.

 Meanwhile, the transformation that was waiting to happen did eventually. The rains lashed the campus, soaking one and all in an unprecedented natural charm.





A few weeks later....


One thing that gives you a high in NITIE, after senior-spotting of course, is snake-spotting. Once you spot one the next thing you do is tell everyone about your chance encounter. Posting on FB walls is easy and immediate comments means that your adventure has been taken note of. I wonder whether this 'crossing of paths' generates as much sensation in the reptile world as it does in ours. 


Now we are getting used to the life where things are changing by the second. It's like Alice in Wonderland. Classes are two hours of blah blah followed by 5 golden minutes of break. Professors are more than happy to give assignments as if they are going to get a national award for it. The more the merrier is their philosophy. So every student worth his dime who wishes to stay in the good books of the teachers has to fall in line with the their whims. Sacrificing sleep is the need of the hour as more activities are expected with Groove - 'the induction' coming on. Groove brings with it countless hours of discussing, debating, googling, pulling your hair apart, pulling your teammates' hair apart and doing whatever that goes into submitting a case-study before the 4 am deadline. This pattern repeats itself for the 2-3 nights together which makes you dare to sleep under the professor's nose in the class the next day. The randomness of the group selection for Groove was a blessing in disguise for me as i was in the same team as a hottie of the college. 

After you have had more than a fair share of sleep deprivation in Groove, you find yourself facing the committee selection process. The committees, ten in all, canvas before you portraying their good Samaritan nature before the crowd. Day ends and the chaos follows. Prioritizing between the committees is a trap as the one you give less importance to is bound to sting you like a scorpion later. Since during day-time the teachers are busy murdering our creativity the night-time is the auspicious time the interviews are scheduled for committee selections. Senior hostels are the slaughter houses where innocent free minded future managers are brought to ground. Placecom, Co-ordCom, AlumCom etc.- different names and different hunting styles, but in the end they all just tend to devour the meat thrown before them. Behind selected doors sits the pack of hunters (read the panels)waiting for its prey (the interviewee). Every one goes in as the king of the world only to find that the picture is not as rosy as he/she had imagined it to be. The world seems to regain its sanity when you come out of the interview. You have to sing, shout, sell, think, convince, negotiate, bargain your way out of the place. Survivors live to tell another day. 

Welcome to God's Own Campus.