Best days of my life..

This is a very painful moment for me, today was the last exam of my 7th semester! Now all might be wondering what's wrong with this chap? Why will someone be unhappy when exams come to an end?

That's coz of the fact that now am into my last semester, 3 and a half years of trying to become an ENGINEER( successful or not-remains to be seen!). A Mechanical Engineer, better known as Royal's or Mexxians. Now all that separates me from life after BTech and now is 6 months, the last 6 months of being a student of an institution that shaped me to what i am(not physically :P).

Government Engineering College, Bartonhill:

A beautiful view of Thiruvananthapuram City from my college:

The college that gave me an identity, the insti that helped join the ever growing community called software engineers, the college that helped me to add four letters to the end of my name B Tech (oops that's five).

The place didn't look that great at first. Those who have visited my college would concur with me when i say that it's more of a school than a college. Starting with the board with fading paint proclaiming the entrance to centre of HIGHER learning. But then it's not just building's and concrete that make up a college, does it?? The other factor's that make a college were present aplenty in my college. Great teachers, a caring principal (not now!) and most of all the most diverse bunch of 60 guys that could be assembled under a single roof!

We all had a tough time finding the places in the 1st day. The seniors had left us sweet memories, with notices with warning's like - Enter @ your own risk and so on! All of us sat in our seats and were waiting for the 1st teacher to show up. Some knew each other from tuition classes and some were friends. I tried to meet everyone possible and still remember the reactions that i got from my classmates for talking to the gals in the other classes! Strangely all the years before i joined my BTech i was in a co-ed institution and was ..... let's say USED to having gals in my class. Seriously telling i missed them for the 1st 2 weeks. But after that i have NEVER EVER missed having them. I was made to change my decision by the camaraderie that was shown by my pals. Especially in the football ground. Yes we DID have a ground, a full scale ground where we used to spend the maximum time. I still remember WATCHING my friends play ball. I enjoyed being on the sidelines and having a running commentary about the match in progress. Their used to be abuses blurted out, commands being shouted and so on. 1st year also saw the RISE of the BASKETBALL team of GECB, yeah a team in which their were guys who had NEVER played basketball and still i love this team and am an ardent supporter for all their matches. Am proud to say that 70% of the team STILL consists of my classmates:

Basketball team,GECB

Now this is NOT the only team that is made up of my class as a majority. The college football team also has more than 3/4th of its members from my class.

Football team- GECB

The college ROCK BAND- INFERNO also is made up of guys in my class. It was started in the 1st year with the help of a few seniors and after they completed their course the guys in my class made sure that the legacy is carried on.

Inferno - Performing @ Crossroads '06

Another INTERESTING team that was formed was the GECB Quiz team consisting of Alen and myself. We can very well be called as opposites when it comes to be partners in a quiz team. We think in entirely different ways, and NO the adage of Opposites attract is NOT applicable here. Anyone who's seen even one quiz show in which we have participated would testify for that! And that's the reason why i don't have a picture of the two of us together. If you're that desperate to see us, watch the SIB Quiz in Asianet on Sunday's @ 730 PM. The quarter-final which we won, and the semi which we lost :(, are yet to be telecast.

After reading all this you might be tempted to believe that my class is all that's about GECB, well that's true to a very large extent. We have shown our TALENTS in and out of the college. We are the reigning champions in ALL the Arts festivals held in the college after we joined the course. Just two have taken place till now, one in our 2nd year and the other in the 3rd year. Waiting to reign supreme this time too! Also our class forms the debate team, the quiz team and the other teams which have won prizes across the city and south Kerala. We have the distinction of being the most notorious class in the entire 2003-07 batch and still manage to get the highest pass percentage in EACH semester exam. All this is proof to show that we are second to NO ONE, in arts or studies!(Open to debate!)

The football matches greatly increased the friendship and through the game we came to know a lot about each other. Like who's best to mouth abuses when a kick goes awry(that would be me), or who's got the defensive moves and so on! We were so much into football that we used to play it everywhere, including our class! We did pay the price for that with 4 tubelights being broken by the assault of the ball! After that we turned to the most common game in mexx classrooms- Cards. Well if i say it like that it doesn't sound soo cool eh, so here's the technical term- Cheetukali! Now that sounds better, doesn't it! Add to this the ragging, the funny games we pulled on each other(vaal games, ASS kali and so on), the great GOAL-SCORING verbal assaults and so on. The list is endless and somehow we all managed to write our 1st Professional Degree exam. Combined 1st & 2nd Semester B.Tech Degree Examinations May-June 2004.

We had a great time in the 3rd and 4th sem's, mainly coz the new batch came and we played the game that's the MORAL RIGHT of any 2nd year Engg student - Ragging. Had a good time with it! Well if i start mentioning what all i did and then what all i made the juniors do, the list will be highly unbalanced. So not mentioning about that! 2nd year brought us close and we were more mexxian's than any other time previously.

In 2nd year we took this picture:

During 2nd year and 1st year we had a combined tour with the other branches and on both occasions i was unable to go. I do miss those beautiful days:

Caught unaware in the tour:

REMOVED due to REQUEST! :P

Now after that we had an interesting 3rd year. I know i have cut short the 2nd year to a few lines, but then if i sit to write all that i remember from the time i had, it's gonna be too much for anyone. In s5 we went on a tour/ industrial visit and that's how we came to know the natural BEAUTY of Southern India(If you call B'lore, Koorg and Goa as Southern India). It was before i went to the tour that i started this blog. If you have the time and if your level of interest hasn't died out, you can view the itinerary of our s5 tour among the very 1st posts in this blog! Phew that means i am in this bussines of blogging for a long long time. :P


Now the tour can't be described in words so i thought pics would be better:

DIL CHAHTA HAI!!(they happen to be our teachers!)

BEACHMONGERS

Lalbagh @ B'lore

Picturesque Hills @ Coorg

A beautiful path @ Coorg

A beautiful sight @ Coorg

Monastery @ Coorg

Poolside @ Goa Resort

Roadside @ Goa

At the end of s5 we had to go on a mandatory Industrial visit as part of our curriculum and some of us found a good time in that too, especially the one's who went to Hindustan Latex Limited, for the most OBVIOUS product they make:P. Some pics from the VISITS:

Kishore during the TRAINING @ Railways

A piece of machinery from the CONDOM factory...this is a generator, not the condom manufacturing machine. Sorry to disappoint!



At the end of s5, many of us joined for CAT coaching classes and their were serious discussions in the class as practise sessions for the GD's that take place in placements and we did have our share of MOCK interviews and it was fun to test the patience of our classmates and to watch them burst at their seams. It has happened many a times that after the INTERVIEW, the CANDIDATE runs after the panellist to beat him to pulp. Many times i have been the panellist too!


The lab's @ CET are a great place to have some fun, especially when ther's no one in the campus and a lot of area to walk around.

A picture from the CET labs(a dreaded area :P):

This was a picture that we took in s5 during our tour:

After s5 we got into a tight semester the 6th. It's tight in terms of the subjects it has and another EVENT that takes place at it's begining the PLACEMENTS, I was fortunate enough to get not one but two jobs in campus recruitment. I owe a lot of it to all my teachers and friends who helped me in any and every possible way to get the job i wanted. The companies that were fortunate(or unfortunate) to recruit me are: Wirpo Technologies and IBS Software Services. Some of us were not so lucky and had to suffer a long wait to get the right job.

After getting the job some of us were in for a relaxation and the favourite spot for us is Zam Zam Ice Fruits Restaurant. It seems when it comes to placement treats, this is the favourite hangout spot for all college's irrespective of it's distance. In the June-August(the so called Placement SEASON), one can find students from different engg colleges in there with the favourite dish:Chicken Shawai after a Shawarma, along with khoboos dipped in mayonnaise. Wow my mouth is watering now!






Into s7, the final year; most of us found it a experience to relish when we were the SENIORS of the college. Now there was no one called as SENIOR who would question us why we did this or why we didn't do it their way! The 1st change was that we got a new classroom:

New class:

We put up a banner proclaiming the greatness of our branch to be seen by the new batch of mexxians joining this year. And so S7 Started with a bang.






In S7 some of us planned a mega event to be conducted by the college. It was named as Aagneya and i was named as the Event Coordinator. This was the 1st time that i saw my classmates, who always have a 1000 different opinions coming together for a common cause and tried to bring the name of GECB in the cultural fest arena. We never had a cultural fest of our own, and for a college that has been the winners at Dhwani for the 1st three instalments and having many talented youngsters in it's rank, this was a shameful truth. It was SUPPOSED to have a budget of close to Rs 5 lakh. Now for those from outside my college, that SUPPOSED to would have been a surprise, well yeah; you guessed it right. The event DIDN'T take place, mostly due to internal affairs! :P I would like to have this as a reminder of what we had planned! IF any future batch wants to take up this endeavour they will always have all our blessings!

Aagneya Brochure's front page:

We celebrated Onam in our own way and put up a athapoo and had the best day of our lives on the day we had the Onam.

Athapoo by MEXX

During s7 the time for the MBA entrance exams came and the 1st to come was CAT. I have described about my CAT experiences in a previous post and hence no explanation would be necessary! I gave IIFT entrance test, JMET, SNAP and XAT in addition to CAT and as of now the only ray of hope has come from SNAP (dnt dare to ask me my CAT %ile).

Some college ACTIVITIES:

Burning the college :P

Community service - We FIX what we BREAK!

Again Community service - In a different way though!

We still manage to play, amidst the concrete jungle

This happens only in GECB!

A picture taken at the end of our ONAM- the best day of my life in college!

Now here i am at the end of S7. The past few weeks i had a harrowing time with my semester exams. 1st the university decided to play a prank on all of us by postponing some of the exams. For me and most of my classmates business went on as usual and we enjoyed the holz to the max. After the holz the exams hit us like a ice cold shower on a December morning. For the 1st time in my BTech, i didn't study in advance and for all the exams, i had done the most common thing done by generations of Engg students. The technical term for this is NIGHT OUT, simply meaning, not sleeping the day before the exam and tryin to cram up maximum amount of S**T up your head in the wee hours of the day!

It remains to be seen if it was a good strategy to follow or not, and be sure to expect a post on my SCORES after the s7 results come! But the strategy did take a toll on me, and i ended up sleeping in the MIDDLE of an exam and the teacher in the class had to WAKE ME UP! Well, today's(rather yesday's) paper was Marketing Management and i had a tough time keeping myself awake while i was STUDYING. I pray to god that i pass all the exams and sincerely hope to get out of college within the stipulated 4 years and 8 semesters!

And as Tyler Durden says in FIGHT CLUB "Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see us squandering it. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."

Phew, i started this @ 1:30 AM, now the clock reads 5:20 AM. God am gonna have a bad start to a good vacation!

That's it for now, over and out!