my 1st sem...!

my second blog and ive already repeated the word 1st..not that i am much bothered but i couldnt think of a better starting....and ya dont go with the heading and believe that m actually gonna write bout my first year..(which was 1991 btw)... ok lame joke...i know.... but the fact is that ive just completed my maiden year at college....and i thought what could be a better topic than this to write a blog on....! (m writing bout 1st and 2nd sem seperately because it would be too long a blog if i wrote both in one!)

right...after a lot of tension,drama,sleepless nights(mostly on my moms part) last year it was finally decided i would be gracing bits pilani goa campus with my sincere prescence for the next 4 years my life..4 years that are supposed to be the most "awesome time of my life"...4 years that would transform me from a "boy to a man"..4 years in which i m supposed to be ready to "face the world"...and every other 4 year thing people have bored me with ever since they heard of my next "stop" in this journey through time where ive gotta have a lot of such stops (i avoided the use of the word "supposed" here again for the sake of repetion..but my intention remains the same however). i was particularly happy...and my parents can validate that in exagerrated terms....i mean this was one of those colleges which i was studying for the last two years to be in (the study part could make another blog but i wouldnt dwell too much on it right now)...and my family was happy too...so we as in my entire family took off to goa 3 days before my registration..so that we could enjoy a break before i would be dumped in my hostel for the 1st sem... and since this is a blog on my 1st year..lets skip the 3 day holiday and cme to the registration day..

right we were supposed to be in campus by 9 am....but as is the age old custom ..things didnt start until 9:40. the 1st step was to book for hostels...the name of my hostel was ah6...and we wandered around the campus looking out for a billboard saying ah6 which eventually turned out to be the farthest hostel from the main building...the hostel was the most recently made...so the 1st sight which greeted us on entering it was the dirt and stones lying on the part where there was supposed to be a lawn...but it also eamnt that we would be living in rooms never stayed in before..and using toilets never used before (infact we found out later that ours was the only hostel with western toilets) though we had to live farthest off from the insti building.....and after a long day of registering and signing confirming details and giving certificates..a process in which i was required to run to and fro from the hostel about 10 times(remember my hostel being the farthest) and which ended with the most speech by the director in the auditorium...it was finally time to bade goodbye to my parents..it was enotional..specially for my mom..and i was kinda nostalgic too seeing them return to the hotel in the taxi without me...but the prospect of the new life energized me and i rushed back to the hostel...to my new room...i met a couple of guys who were of my hostel..people who i lost track of after a few weeks..but they atleast gave me starting ompany which every fresher might have been wanting at that time...i came back and was about to enter my room when a voice behind me said 'hi'...i turned around to see my neighbour...well actly a coupleof rooms off for a neighbour in exact terms but definitely the guy i chatted till bout nite joined in by my actual neighbour later...well its kind of an irony that i dont have either of my neighbours numbers even after 1 year...but thats the way its is...!

the next couple of days went without event just the normal intro part with friends and checking out the campus...and getting accustomed to college life. the time when i was askedfor my intro by seniors is worth a mention..though it isnt extreme as in iits perhaps but still it was fun giving intro in french,on both knees and to put 'sir' at begining and end of each sentence. we had to arrange for books from seniors and it was required to enter their hostel for that...a place where us juniors had thought of as a lions den till...then it didnt went as bad..we sat in 1 room for nearly 15 mins without incident...! so thats what are "encounter" with seniors went...! infact my first few days in college were quite boring.. except when 22 people gathered in 1 room to watch a movie on the only laptop in hostel till then..and the late night chats...for which our corridor was particularly famous...infact even the warden warned us not to chat to each other after 12pm...ya ohk..we listened!

but the real fun came after the classes started...for the first couple of days everone used to get up on time and dress up and bath (some people didnt even bother with those formalities even in the beginning) and go to class ready to take in everything our teachers said ...after all we are here to learn arent we?? but "first couple of days" lasted shorter than we expected...soon we were bunking classes gettin up late...not bothering to keep up with class...after all tests were still away werent they?? as time progressed we started sleeping late and late doing basically nothing..but still the air in hostel somehow seems to suck out the sleep hormones from body...i mean i slept so much at home..and still do while on vacations..i guess its part of hostel life..even though i slept really on time la=ike a good boy at 11 11:30 for the first few days..but again that didnt last long....another factor was the mess...though we were excited at eating out in mess...we found out pretty early that mess isnt something worth getting excited for...as the rumors of mess food came out to be pretty accurate...we were found hanging more and more at monginis,nescafe insti cafeteria for our breakfast and other snacks....

vasco is another place as dear to us as our hostel rooms...its the nearest town to our college..we get everything we need there...but not everything we want....so we have to venture out to panjim and other places to eat or treats and stuff...infact being on the beach with friends and then out for a dinner is one memory that perhaps i will miss bout being here...and by treat...i found out here as to how unlucky a person is on his birthday...i mean just look at it...that poor guy is beaten by the bullies who could hand the likes of stallone their pink slips...plus he is completely wet, if lucky by water...(usually eggs are the best deal) and he has to attend calls till late night depriving him of sleep...get up and first words he hear is treat...and whats more he doesnt get as much as a toffee for his efforts....he lives on in the hope that everyone present there had to be born on a day that is labelled on the calender...and that gives relief trust me...!!

college fests is something we all look forward to...though we didnt have national fests in our 1st sem....we did have one interhostel event....that was aweome in its own respect...wearing our specific hostel tshirts and and testing the capability of our lungs with all the shouting and staying up entire nights preparing for competions and making slogans to humiliate others was a great expierience!

but its not all milk and roses in hostel too...there are things like exams which act as great stress boosters to combat all the stress busters available....as i said we didnt really pay attention to whats happening in class till the test dates started teasing us about how close they were....and thus began the relentless late night struggles (with maggi and biscuits as our first aid to drowsiness...you know its shocking as to how exams even counter hostel air which is supposed to suck out sleep hormones and actually make you sleepy..exams are indeed powerful tor tools for teachers!) to conquer the mountain of exams...it were our first exposure to relative marking...a remarkable discovery of its own...so all our pride of gaining 90's were smashed when we saw our marks which were like in 60's.and all that was muttered after exams were estimates of averages of grade cutoffs and what were we expectedly getting (which surprisingly are always more than we put..no matter how strict we are to ourselves while estimating) .but the relative marking system turned out to be saviour...with people with bout 20 marks more than me also endin with the same grade and i did manage a descent cgpa as well...soon we were done with everything and it was time to return home...i mean even with all the fun around..you still somehow find time to miss home in between,especially in the last month or so with exams and all, so obviously we were all excited to go home and answer questions awaiting us... about the journey called "1st semester"!

2nd sem post soon!