College and University Days

College and University

College days are the best days in anybody’s life. The reason being people are more mature in college and they know how to enjoy. Also they are aware of the fact that life will never be same again once out of college. I also have tons of similar memories. There can be no better relax than remembering those days and cherish them.

My Way to college

From my experience as well as others’ I think 10+2 is the toughest education period in people’s life. The reason being that its not just the time to focus on regular studies but prepare for future as well. Most of the students start to act towards their future in this only. I too did nothing different.

I started preparing for various Engineering Entrance Exams when I was in 11^th. It took me 2 years of hard work to clear UPSEAT (Entrance Exam for engineering, now replaced by various other such exams). Although I couldn’t score very well but my score was enough to get a place in College of Engineering Roorkee (Then affiliated to Uttar Pradesh Technical University). I opted for Mechanical Engineering as my stream. I was very happy and feeling like being on top of the world.

I got admission to college in Aug 2000. And started going to college. It was real fun in the initial days itself. Seniors never missed any chance to make sure I have all the fun(:P). But the real fun starts when you are past a couple of months in the college. Then comes the period of thousands of unforgettable moments.

 Multipurpose Cafe COER

The days I miss the most

I was DaySchee (Day Scholar) in my college. FYI.. DaySchee was the term used for Day scholars, the students who commute to college everyday either from their homes or some rented accommodations in nearby city. I used to live at New Adarsh Nagar along with several other batch mates Ankit (CS), Kshitiz (IT), Taresh (IT), Sachin (ET), Anil (IT), Vishal (CS), Narendra (IT). In bracket are the streams in which they were studying. I miss all the days when I stayed in that house where we stayed for almost three and half years.

• As our college was around 7 kms away from our house we needed to ride a bus to go to the college. The buses used to the heavily crowded. In initial days we used to sit inside the bus but after some days we changed that. We used to arrive late at the bus station and ride on the top of the bus. It was scary for a day or two. But later on it was fun. I miss riding on top of bus with my housemates.

• I used to speak very slow(not in speed but pitch). Many times I was marked absent even after I had replied “yes sir” for lecturer’s call for my name. My classmates used to call me “Kauwa Kha” means eat crows.

• There were hardly 5-6 students in the batch who used to complete tutorials and other tasks on time. I along with rest of 50 students used to copy their tuts(synonym for tutorial) in less than 15-20 minutes. We had amazing speed of copying. The same was true for practical notebook and projects as well. The time for copying was more though for the later ones.

• Many of my classmates including me use to hate practical classes and few boring lectures. And we use to bunk those classes. My college has a big entry gate and it was impossible to go through it before 5pm once you are in the college.  So we had to go to the back of the college to cross the wall and jump into the fields which finally will lead us to the highway. Even that was not easy sometimes as college management decided to put some security person to stop such escapes. I miss those bunks.

• On the journey back to house, we mostly used to ask for lifts from people who were travelling towards Roorkee in their Bikes, Scooters and Cars. That was not only free but a fast mode to commute.

• In the second year of studies we used to play so many cricket matches against our seniors. I miss those matches. I remember we hardly use to lose those days against ours seniors at least.

• I miss daddoo. He was an old man and we had him as our cook. And he didn’t like to be called as old man. He was exceptional not for his food but more for his character and livelihood.

• We(housemates) used to fight over the bathroom in the morning. As there was only two toilets and fighters were 8. Nobody will get up early but want to use the facilities. I think all the doors were broken by the time we left the house. It was never intentional though.

• I remember that all of us used to hide when the landlord was making a visit to house. Though one or two of us were his favorites. The escapes used to be marvelous.

• There was a all stop shop who used to cater all our needs. He also used to give us things on credit. I miss Lala’s shop. We used to watch cricket matches in his shop as he was the only person who had a small tv and was known to us. We knew other people as well but they didn’t knew us.

• Ankit and I used to go to IIT Roorkee every now and then to have a walk and malai kulfi. The kulfi tasted awesome.

• We had organized an Badminton championship among 8 of us. There were few other Dayschees as well. It went for 5-6 weeks I reckon. It was a night tournament and to say the least it was one of best I have played.

• There was a game of cards that we used to play like maniacs and it was 29. I remember playing that for so many nights and even in exam days.

•  I miss you guys for that game. I have never played that game that extensively since then. Also we used to play Pinball and NFS2. Thanks to Kshitiz for providing his PC.

I would like to thank here Sharma uncle for providing us that house where we shared those moments.

Now when the life is a lot different, I miss you all. But I cherish those memories every now and then.