To B.E. or not to B.E.

As I write this I think about that one guy who screwed my life!! I am sure there is one in everyone’s life. This GUY WHO SCREWED MY LIFE (GWSML) has absolutely no connection with me whatsoever but still has made an unforgettable impact, making my past a daily remembrance in the present.
The only conversation that I ever had with this guy goes something like this

GWSML: Unga first choice yenna??? (What is you first choice?)

I: XYZ College

GWSML: Anga poi unga allotment order vangikonga…(Get your allotment order there)

B!@##$%%!!! U just asked my first preference!!! Who asked you to allot it!! Maaaannnnnn…aaaaaaaaaaaagh…

And that is it…my journey into the unknown started just there.

College was far from what I had thought. Spoilt by Karan Johar flicks I was expecting professors in mini skirts. But I was enlightened with the dress code that women were not allowed to wear anything else other than chudidhars! With the kind of girls around I later was thankful that such a dress code was in place.

Having gotten into electronics my dream was to make a radio on my own. Two years after completing college I am still trying to make one. I seem to have everything that is required to make a radio other than knowledge. I hope to complete it very soon.

My life was chaffed by the ignorance of the so-called professors of my college. Ruined by parts in the various years of my college life.

First Year:
The only person whom the whole class feared NIRMALA!! She tried teaching English. She was some gold medalist in Phonetics. I still remember the class when she asked one of my class mates “Where is your soos” (Supposedly Shoes). And the other time when she dictated “church for” (which probably was the phonetically correct way of pronouncing “search for”). She was particularly angry with me for not doing some paper presentation in English. She made sure she sent me out of her class lest she knew I was quite happy about it.

For some reason all the course books were prized too high. We had to stick to cheap XEROX of the books. The best part about these Xeroxes was that all the print will magically VANISH after the exam and thus can be used for taking notes in the next semester!!

Second Year:
We were spread among various classes based on our groups. This was the start of the electronics based subjects. So we particular didn’t have to carry knowledge of various subjects from the previous year other than English, which we were Suarrly more confident about. Thanks to Nirmala!!

The whole set of lecturers walked in with photocopies of materials and read from it. I always wondered why they couldn’t give one photocopy each and save all of us the trouble. We might as well read on our own. Nothing more can be expected from this CURRENT-YEAR-PASSOUTS-WHO-BECAME-LECTURES.

Heard of fines for failing in exam!! Oh yeah! My college had that too. The idea was that we will study for the exam to avoid fines, but we instead resorted to stealing the question paper. Many a times we would fail with the question paper in hand two days in advance either due to lack of materials or for the lack of patience to find answer in the material.

Third Year:
By now we all were sure that we could be good dacoits, smugglers, conmen but engineers!! The inter department cultural show was around. Guess what? AUDIENCE NOT ALLOWED!!! Just the participants and the judges; SOUNDS CRAZY!!! If it didn’t then drop me your mail-id I am sure we were classmates!!

The Q-paper stealing continued. Being wary about our deeds the Profs made the papers password protected. Thanks to WORD PASSWORD CRACKERS we unlocked all. By now Xerox shops around the city had grown and had started selling XEROXED-SPIRAL-BOUND-BOOKS.

Fourth Year:
Most of us had managed to place ourselves in various S/W companies. They took us probably because they were impressed by our COPYING skills. Now that we were placed, we were remotely bothered about studies. All we had in mind was to complete the course with no backlogs.
We also had to complete a project. We(me and my project mates) decided to buy one some place. Since I couldn’t find one (in our budget) in Chennai, we decided to go to Hyderabad. We got a project in my friend’s uncle’s factory. We got the project free of cost with absolutely no effort at all.


Now two years after my successful completion of my degree. I wonder if it was worth the lacks of money spent. With professors who were no better than the students and a mark-centric teaching system I am a B.E. on paper.