The admission producer was delayed for our
university because of various approvals (university recognition etc.) we had
short time for first semesters and really tight schedule. Normally the sessions
start by Aug/sep however as the IP entrance exams, then counseling and
admissions was delayed therefore the first day was 19th of November
for our first semester.
A day before, I was happy with dreams of going to
college since I saw Delhi University college building like Ramjas College,
Hansraj, Stephens where I applied to save my year with B. Sc. in case I do not make
it to B Tech entrance. So I use to day dream about college life like we see in
movies, having liberty to bunk classes and do whatever you want. This is
exactly the same age where you are traversing through your adolescence so you
feel like you are grown up enough to take your decisions etc. so getting
freedom on top of it from school life type strictness and taking charge of your
life adds more to feel free happiness. However today I feel that those are the
days of life which can make or break someone. If you get good friends and channelize
our energies in right direction you can be good or you can deep drown if you go
other way. I saw both kind of people in my college time. People coming with
higher ranks and paid seats scoring excellent marks and intelligent people coming
in free sets flunking the exams. There were people how were still pursuing
their dreams of getting in IIT/other better college and preparing for entrances
so they were in this college as I took admission in B. Sc to save my year. I
think those guys were putting double efforts of concentrating the current
college and same time preparing for entrance exams to come.
Like every Teenager, I was also equally excited
about my day 1 in college and finally my father told that he will drop me on
day one since I never went to the west Delhi part until now and not familiar
with route. He also wanted to see my college and drop me there. We had the
address on my admission letter so we reached there and I found an equally
bigger building with a playground and good area. It was Friday and i just met
my first every college friends on that day Jitin, Sonam Raj, Akhil, Amerish and
few other friends.
On day 1 around 10 AM, everyone was there in
common area and our director was addressing us. He welcomed us to be part of
that institute and he urged us to put our best efforts to study and get the
best from professors. He also promised that he will get us the best faculty and
staff and provide any reasonable demands for making up best in studies (ours
was a New university and 4 new colleges only). He also broke the news that our
building was shared with a School so right hand side is school and left hand
side is us which did not hurt us much since there was a partition between us
and to a laymen we could tell that this entire is our college building for sake
of telling that we study in a College and not school. I will appreciate the
efforts of our director to bring the best teacher from premier institute for
teaching us and I commend the efforts of every teacher there who tough us so he
tried bring all the best things like we had the first running computer labs
with all latest P4 at that time among all colleges and ahead of courses then
other institutes. We also equally supported him by coming and attending all
lectures on time and study carefully for first year since we were running short
of time. We had our class starting at early morning 7 AM. I use to start from
my home around 5.30 -6 to reach college in time. We had classes to early since
the professors where guest faculty and they will teach us from 7-9 AM and will
go to their college, then we will have a longer break in noon and then
professors will be back in evening to teach us. The longer break meant spending
time in AC Computer labs for some and for others Cricket time with Burgers and
Pepsi from Cafe shop. Cafe shop anti ji will ensure that we never run out of
Sauce for burgers and samosas.. I will usually sit in aisle on the stairs or in
parking lot which was in ground and watch match with Jitin so we had s stronger
friendship starting those days. At home, my mom was equally working hard for my
studies, she will get up early and pack lunch for me so I and Jitin will share
food. He would give his curry to me and will take my Stuffed Mirchi Achaar
(pickle with Stuffed green chilllis) and we will enjoy food. Jitin's House was
near to college to if we do have lectures post lunch we will go to his home and
I will learn some C++ code and try my hands on programming since I did not have
computer at home and Lab was always overcrowded at all times. Jitin use
to come by bus intially but then his dad allowed him to come by scooter since it
was only 10 kms from his home so at times, we will go his home on scooter and
he will switch off engine on the flyover while coming down ''Petrol Bachao
Andolan" ("save Gas drive"). We used to be in touch with a local
shop for getting some computer repair work so at times, we will go to Nehru
place (an IT hub in delhi for hardware and software) and make money by assembly
computers so that we can use it for our Patrol/Gas requirements.we along with
Sonam and Akhil will go to Fests at IIT and other colleges and try to get free
T Shirts. So we really had good days in college and we had a lot of Fun. Just
FYI, I only went to 2 fests since I never liked them much as it will be late
and my parent never allowed me to out of home after 9 PM and got a Free T
shirts and Cap at IIT Delhi Fest in 1999
Coming back to college first day, it was our
first class for physics and the teacher came and then classes were going like we are in school.. get up early, catch DTC bus to go to college and in some time the driver also knew to pick me up at 6 AM bus to Peera Garhi.. (route no 966)… it was still a little more like a
school where we study and go home however we had really quick things to digest…Our first semester ended with quick uni tests and I scored well to my parents expectation.
For next 8 semesters my parent never asked me about my results and when exams are happening. I was on my own however today I feel that they never took their eyes from me. They let me do what I wish to do in life and allow me to groom freely however at same time they kept checking if I am right track.
I will share my results (unit tests and semester final exams) and my parents will just take it with the faith in had in me and I am very lucky to say that the same faith remained with them until today when I have traveled to Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and many other places during my job.
I will take this moment to again thank my parents who had so much trust in me that I will never go wrong as per our family tradition and in case I do something out of the way, they will understand and appreciate it. This confidence still exist today so I also kept the same faith and never let them go down any time in life.
One good thing to shared that I am a software engineer but when I tell you how I met computers in life for
first time, it will be real fun. I have put it in next post so watch out for it.
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