Flashback

Well, looks like I haven't done justice to my 4 years of engineering by putting together the last post... so on public demand I'm back blogging again...

I'm wondering where to start... There's so much to write. As Nirmal said, college life was anything but monotonous. I close my eyes and a plethora of events just flash before my eyes.

Warning: I'm taking Blogydog's advice n writing a really looooooooong post so hold ur horses...

Let me begin with the first day in college... 12th September, 2001. After the Principal's address, some of our seniors showed us around college, filling us in with little tit bits about professors (aah! now who doesn't enjoy a li'l prof bashing? ;-)) The trip ended at what was, is and always will be the favourite adda of all COEPians year after year, generation after generation.... the ever so popular Boat Club. All eyes were drawn to the flowing waters of the river (once again.. is that the Mulla or the Mutha?). Till date those waters have a strangely calming effect on me. Anyways, coming back to my reminiscence... some of us girls sat on the ramp and another fresher like us was sent to us by a senior. He was supposed to give us 2 bucks n say "Buy sweets n share amongst yourselves..." Obviously we refused. He then begged us to take it n said he was being ragged. We then took pity on him n obliged... The same day and yes, at the same BC (or Boat Club), I mistook two of my classmates to be seniors so when they came to talk to us, I thought they were 2 mean seniors coming to rag us. To this date those 2 classmates (and now friends) of mine curse themselves for not having ragged me that day, for sure as hell I would've fallen for the ruse.

I vividly recall a particular Mechanical Engineering practical. We were being shown around the boilers (yes, our college is the proud owner of a fully functioning Babcock-Wilcox boiler and a Lancashire boiler... great! I remembered those names... ;-)). Anyways, while the practical was in progress, some of us had begun to doze off or start day dreaming courtesy an overload of technical information. Our teacher asked something... none of us had even heard the question and Mr. Pranay Tewari (one of the most absent minded souls of our class) yelled out "Babcock-Wilcox" and shook us out of our reverie. The funny part was the fact that what he said not was not even remotely close to whatever answer was expected. Since then for a long time, we used to refer to him as "Babcock-Wilcox". I wonder if he knows that...

Fast forward to 6th September, 2002. The tables had turned. We were the seniors, gearing up to give our juniors a hard time. Our classmate and CR, Indranil, had been asked not to shave so that he could look like a stern professor and on that day he totally looked the part. He was to teach Maths. This was a trick we had borrowed from our seniors. He was all huffy-puffy and threw some of us out of the class, kinda to boost his credibility. And when everyone was sure that he was a mean prof, we let the cat out of the bag. We made our juniors introduce themselves in pure, unadulterated Hindi and everytime there was a fumble, they had to rewind n replay. They were an exasperated lot and we couldn't stop laughing. Then my classmates thought of (almost) ragging me as well. Incidentally it was my birthday so I was made to stand up on a table while my juniors and my classmates joined in to sing "Happy Birthday Rupsha didi". Grrrrrrrrrr!

Then there were times when we used to play Dumb Charades and Antakshari in the BC. Cannot forget Ellora's classic depiction of "True Lies". She gave me a push and then pointed to herself and then shook her head and waved her hands (as though in denial... didn't realise back then)... The pushing was supposed to be "True" and her pointing n waving were supposed to be "Lie".... :D We created a ruckus in the BC ( something that we did a zillion times later) and hence to keep our department name untarnished, we claimed to be students of the rival EnTC department. Now ain't that sneaky?

Representing the college at the Firodiya Karandak was indeed an experience. For the uninitiated, this is an intercollegiate cultural competition where each college puts up some kind of a play... only thing is it is so much more than a play. There's acting, singing n dancing and parallelly painting, sculpting, etc going on. You have a talent and you can showcase it here. We used to practise from 10 am to 2 am... no kidding! It was extremely tiring but boy, it was fun. Those days my classmates used to treat me like a celebrity as I used to get little time to be with them. And sure as hell, I enjoyed the attention...

Then the magazine happened. I got to marvel the technical knowhow of some of my classmates, and yeah I discovered that I enjoy working on animation. This doesn't quite make sense, does it? So let me explain. For the first time in the till then 148 year old history of our college, the department magazine was published not on paper, but as a CD. It was new and challenging. We learnt a lot, worked hard and once again enjoyed the limelight.

Of course, how can I forget all the birthdays? Whenever birthdays of friends used to approach, we used to gather n discuss possible gifts at the BC. Ridiculous ideas used to come up like parcelling a girl in an empty refrigerator box, tying a ribbon n giving that to a guy. He he he. And on the actual birthday we used to purchase a cake and I did the honours of smearing the icing on the face while almost half the cake was stuffed down the victim's throat. Of course, I used to get the due reward for my action. Friends used to wait eagerly for my birthday as that was "Payback time".

Come submissions and once again we used to be at the BC, writing sheets n cracking jokes. One time we got hungry, so a friend of ours, Rohan, actually went to a nearby pizzeria n got it there. Amidst a lot of stares, we munched on the pizza.... (ok, now I've started feeling hungry). Sheets used to disappear n appear again with an "Oops sorry! Dunno how it landed up here..." Sometimes a gust of wind used to blow all our sheets helter skelter and then we had to spend a while trying to retrieve our sheets from under almirahs, nearby punts and so on...

Pranks were also a part of our lives. I played a few and was at the receiving end of some as well, though surprisingly none were played around April Fool's Day. They were varied, right from Sumedh receiving a letter from the "Times of India" office (ahem ahem! can't take credit for this one... it was totally Nirmal n Ellora's idea) related to the magazine to a flirtatious email being sent out from Suvrat's account... He he he (Now Suvrat will say, "Abhi he he he kya laga rakha hai..")

This description of the 4 years of engineering would be incomplete if I do not mention the college trip. We had an awesome time on our 2 day class trip to the Konkan area. Exploring an old fort at Raigad after a long ride up via ropeway, fooling around in the waves at the Diveagar beach, the campfire at night on the same beach, admiring the waves crashing against the boulders at Harihareshwar, visiting the Zanjeera fort by boat Swades style.... it was perfect!!!

Project discussions at the BC were always a riot. Every five minutes we used to deviate from the actual topic and start discussing movies and people around us... then go on with that for 30-40 min... n then realise n come back to the original discussion... These discussions were usually accompanied by chaha ani cream roll. It was almost as though we had actually met to discuss the other stuff and not the project.

It does seem an aweful lot as though the whole of engineering revolved around the BC. Well, that's true... not just in my case, but for all proud COEPians. If professors were to take attendance for lectures at the BC, it would be 100% in the BC rather than at the actual lectures.. he he he. We've had our good times and our bad times, both at the BC.... and probably that is the one place in college that we'll miss the most.

8th June, 2005 was the end of the saga called engineering. After our last paper, amidst all the celebration, we all went to the BC one last time. We sat there and chatted like old times. Then finally the time came for us to leave. Some of us were teary-eyed as we didn't know whether we would meet again. We had shared each other's laughter and tears and it saddened us to know that we may never meet again.

But I guess this is called life... We must move on. When we bid farewell to our past, only then we can greet our present and future with a smile. It will be a new world.... new place, new people and new challenges. We need to be optimistic and hope things are as wonderful as they were during engineering... On this slightly positive note I sign off... Cya next time!