It was year 2000-01 and I was quite thrilled as well as tensed for the coming year.
My final year of graduation (in Hindu College, Delhi University). The coming year seemed to have lot of uncertainties; actually it was in the first year of my graduation when I had decided to go for MCA after my degree.
I was lucky get a room partner(Shivam Sinha) in the College hostel who was quite serious towards his studies. The biggest hurdle during those days were all the MCA entrance exams were in parallel to our graduation examination.
I remember, few days after I filled and posted my CUSAT (Cochin University of Science And Technology) application form, just out of something(I don't know) I told my roommate that I think I will be able to compete in this competition.
Between Mar to Jun '01 came a series of exams MCA + degree.
After few failures, finally I got first success in VIT (Vellore Institute of Technology) ; tired and frustrated of giving exams, I decided not to give any more MCA entrance exams and went home.
In June'2001 I went to Vellore for joining; till then I hadn't paid any fees there. After I reached there the next day I checked the internet and I saw that I had also cleared CUSAT exam. At that point I decided to leave Vellore and go to CUSAT.
Counseling in CUSAT
This was my first visit to Kerala and I was excited. I went with my mother as she wished to see various temples across Southern India and meet my brother who was then working in Infosys Mangalore.
During the counseling I met people for the first time with whom I was going to spend next coming three years. Bhattu, Pandey, Manoj, Pradeep and Juneja(popularly known as Junnu) were few of the people with whom I interacted on the counseling day.
The counseling went fine but I missed the free seats by 1 rank (these were 30 out 60 MCA seats which were fully funded by the Kerala Govt.) , and I was placed in Wait List No.1. So again a bit of disappointment; but I was quite confident to get the free seat and same happened few weeks later when one my friend of Hindu College decided not to join CUSAT as he had one more option(actually two of us from Hindu College joined CUSAT during counseling) .
I went a week earlier to Kochi, in order to submit my certificates and other docs; from there I had plan to go to my brother place for a weeks. This time again I stayed in the same hotel where I stayed during counseling, it was very near to Ernakulam Rly. St. but far from CUSAT. The next day I had to go to the University; I went directly to DCA (Dept. of Computer Appls). This time somehow I had no fear of ragging as I was quite used to that during my 10+2 and graduation hostel days. But to my luck I met a very humble super senior (Siju Sir) who nicely showed me to the labs and classrooms in the dept. He then advised me to visit hostel as well. When I went there(Siberia Hostel) someone advised me to go to a particular room (it was room of Dhiru Sir and Amritanshu Sir which I came to know later). As I entered I saw many people around 10 to 12 were sitting there, I casually went ahead and shook hand with each of them and introduced my self. Someone in the lot felt offended and scolded me for my behavior.
But it didn't became any uglier. When I was done, Amritanshu Sir who was also from Delhi Univ., came along with me to downstairs and gave me few tips and advice; I haven't still not forgotten his humble and nice attitude (Thanks Sir and hats of to you). As I came down he introduced me to two depressed looking faces then (they were my batch mates Munshi and RajKumar) who unknowingly came there 2 weeks earlier (the joining date for us was postponed by 2 weeks and all of us were also informed for the same).
By afternoon I came back to my hotel and by the late evening I was off toMangalore (my brother's house) on a bus.
Ist Semester - Exciting and Enthusiastic
It was 14th oct'2001 Sunday morning when I came back to Kochi from Mangalore (on bus); it was raining heavily there and I asked the bus conductor to drop me around the same hotel where I had stayed earlier. The city was all water logged, till my knees it was water; luckily I didn't had much luggage and it was manageable somehow. But when I came to the hotel all rooms there were already booked so I had to walk again to find some other hotel. By late evening everything was okay. Before that night I shifted back to my old hotel again.
Next day 15th Oct'2001 was our first day (in records) in DCA, CUSAT.
First day I decided to go in formals and the decision went right as seniors forced us to wear only formals till freshers party.
I interacted with many seniors and batch-mates. Our batch was divided into two groups each 30 students - Batch A and Batch B; I was in batch A. Batch B was rich in terms of gals crowd; we had only three gals in our batch. Ratio was bad 9:1.
Seniors inquired where I was staying and one of our Super Senior Prabhakar Sir offered me stay in his room as a guest. Still I remember meeting Junnu, Manoj and popular Pandey. That day I went back to hotel and decided to go shift next day.
Seniors inquired where I was staying and one of our Super Senior Prabhakar Sir offered me stay in his room as a guest. Still I remember meeting Junnu, Manoj and popular Pandey. That day I went back to hotel and decided to go shift next day.
Next day was nothing extraordinary except there were few more seniors who interacted with me(a soft alternative of ragging word interaction was used in CUSAT), Sheena our super senior was one among them (I still remember this as she wrote the incident in my slam book, she described the incidence as harsh but I never felt so). This day I shifted to Prabhakar's room in Siberia hostel, Manoj helped me in shifting (thanks buddy, I know its a bit late to say this).In hostel life was cool, but Prabhakar's room-mate Dilip Vedula was the coolest one, I wondered every night why every night he slept with a bucket side to his bed? (Because he boozed every night).Very sooner I made lot of friends. One evening we(Manoj, Juneja, Sinha and me, Chettri was lucky to reject the offer) decided to go the movie Jurassic Park-3 unknowingly that this was not permitted during ragging; the funny part was that near to the theatre, we saw Munshi with some seniors (during ragging period Munshi was seniors favorite guy) and instead of hiding from them we called them and started discussing about this movie. At night all of us got call at a senior room (the horrifying room of Pravesh Bhatia); there we were asked to say dialogues in the movie, all of us were stunned but to surprise of all of us Juneja started shouting Gua-Gua-Gua..... (perhaps he was imitating dinosaurs).
Soon my room (i.e., of Prabhakar and Vedula) became a hub for our batch guys mostly with whom I had developed intense friendship. Sinha mostly anxious (whenever he entered my room) and one day he broke mirror of Vedula and it was the time for us to create a story about mirror. We(Juneja, Manoj, Chawla, Chettri and me ) planned a story and told Sinha that this mirror was given by Vedula's younger brother at station when Vedula was leaving Vizag and this mirror means a lot to Vedula's family sentiments. Sinha was soon totally convinced and he bought a mirror from market and presented it to Vedula saying "Sir you can consider me also as your younger brother; please accept this mirror". To this he added "whenever you will see your face in the mirror you can see your brother and me on the other side of the mirror". And suddenly Vedula Sir couldnt stop himself from laughing and all of us also broke. Sinha was stunned and started chasing us in the corridors.
Another incident that i cant resist adding here that Manoj and me was asked (by Dhawan Sir our senior in Sanathana hostel) to rag Chinmaya Acharya who actually joined a bit later than all of us. As we started to rag him; I asked him 'what will you do if Aishwaray Rai comes to your room late at night, on this chinu replied that he will quietly go out of the room and wait outside.' Before things can go worse we stopped and told him the truth. Chinu didn't spoke to us for many days. With many such funny incidents weeks passed away.
During one of ragging session I was asked to prepare and present a speech on "IT industry recession" but that never happened. In one of such session Sreeja (Sreeju, smaller Sreeja), she had many nicknames as there were two Sreeja in our class, she presented a speech on Dosa ("I am what I ate for breakfast"); then after we started calling her Dosa (to avoid any further confusion) for rest of our days in CUSAT.
After few more weeks five (Manoj, Chettri, Juneja, Sinha and me) of us decided to rent a house.
We got a fairly good and very spacious house just next to the highway. Half of the house was rented to some automobiles LPG agency and they had a lady secretary to whom Manoj(and also the rest) use to peep regularly from his room ventilator.
Enjoying, laughing, ragging (also getting ragged) and peeping; many days passed away. Girish and Chawla were regular visitors to our house and they soon became integral part of our gang.
During those days I was appointed, by Alok Das Sir, as a member of 'Special Interest Group' alongwith Linu, Ritika and Ravjeet. For some reason Alok Sir showed a great confidence in me. Together we organized a seminar where an external lecturer came to give a speech on "IT industry Future". This seminar was a big success and we all us got lots of appreciation.
By now we five were well settled in our new house. Work among five of us in the room was well distributed: Sinha use to study, Junnu use to do face-wash, chettri mostly found filling drinking water from the tap outside, manoj doing pull ups on the ventilator and myself mostly sleeping and giving fundas and gyan to others.
Finally the most awaited day arrived, the freshers day. We all decided to betray the dress code (Chawla was propeller for this), but his idea was good so we all agreed.
Freshers day was nice but the night was even nicer when we offered unlimited free drinks from seniors @ Chandani Bar. It was first and last(till now) unlimited free drinks offer in my life, but then I was not a good drinker(in fact I was a starter).
After drinks I Still remember Pandey's doing big big bakch*di; Joseph George singing the song 'Chaddi kya dekhte hoo.....chaddi utaar kar dekho naa.....', manoj becoming sophisticated and speaking in English, Chawla saying this is my 6th peg......
After drinks when we came back to our house; we found Sinha studying as usual.
Many days passed and came time for our 1st internals, Sinha did 17 times revisions for Graph theory.
All of us (roommates) did well in internals.
We found a new caterer Nepalis to deliver us food and it was a good choice over Punjabi Dhaba.
Then came the most awaited time (of Christmas vacations), all of us were excited to go home after those fearful days of ragging and exams. I still remember buying Kerala cashew-nuts for my home, but more than half I finished on the way. I was traveling along with Manoj (Pandey joined us in the last moment); journey was long (Kochi to Ranchi 48 hrs on slow Bokaro-Allepey Express) but it was exciting with two friends alongwith.
But there was much news of excitement from Delhi gang who traveled together on Kerala Express. These people not only enjoyed by sharing their foods and drinks but few also shared their berths with each other.
When we (manoj and me) came back; I was surprised to see a lot of people coming to station to receive us (actually Delhi gang arrived to Kochi one day earlier than us). One funny incident happened on train was that on any mid station when I asked manoj to come down and get his body stretched, he refused. But when our final station (Aluva) arrived where we had to actually get down with luggage, there I saw manoj walking and stretching on station and saying me "Arre yaar soocha thoda aaram kar loon, pata nahin apna station kab aayega".
On that night in our house people made Junnu (the biggest rather the smallest Kid in our class) to write a love letter for a girl in our class. He did that and next day he even went to her to deliver that. It was not fully accepted but he had some good time watching movie(Kabhie khushi kabhie Gham) together and carrying her bags, books and bottles whenever required.
After that; many days passed, everyday almost we went around places in Kochi like Marine Drive, Menaka, movie halls, Cherai beach etc. etc.
Soon 2nd internals passed by.
In Feb I went to Munger (in Bihar) to attend my sisters marriage, when returning it was a three nights journey from Munger to Kochi (I changed 3 trains also), the third morning when I had to get down in Kochi I kept sleeping and went one station ahead from where I had to catch a return bus.
Freaking and enjoying many more days passed away and came time for our first semester external exams. But then there was university staffs strike in all over kerala, and our exams were postponed indefinitely. Delhi gang once again went to their hometown. Me and manoj was left in the house. Also there were very less people in hostel and around. Everyday when going for lunch or dinner we came back with some visitor to just get some timepass. One day Amit Singh visited and luckily or rather unluckily(for Sinha) he found Sinha's diary in which he entered a hypothetical intimate love story of Sinha and a girl from our class (Sinha I think had never even talked to that girl till then). Next day when Maji visited we made him to read that diary, he was literally shocked and said "Sinha is a very dangerous and dirty guy".
Finally the strike broke and all our house mates came back. Soon exams dates were released and all of us were back into studies. Exams went well for all of us and now there was semester break and time to go back to home once again.
Time to say: Bye Bye First Sem.
Another incident that i cant resist adding here that Manoj and me was asked (by Dhawan Sir our senior in Sanathana hostel) to rag Chinmaya Acharya who actually joined a bit later than all of us. As we started to rag him; I asked him 'what will you do if Aishwaray Rai comes to your room late at night, on this chinu replied that he will quietly go out of the room and wait outside.' Before things can go worse we stopped and told him the truth. Chinu didn't spoke to us for many days. With many such funny incidents weeks passed away.
During one of ragging session I was asked to prepare and present a speech on "IT industry recession" but that never happened. In one of such session Sreeja (Sreeju, smaller Sreeja), she had many nicknames as there were two Sreeja in our class, she presented a speech on Dosa ("I am what I ate for breakfast"); then after we started calling her Dosa (to avoid any further confusion) for rest of our days in CUSAT.
After few more weeks five (Manoj, Chettri, Juneja, Sinha and me) of us decided to rent a house.
We got a fairly good and very spacious house just next to the highway. Half of the house was rented to some automobiles LPG agency and they had a lady secretary to whom Manoj(and also the rest) use to peep regularly from his room ventilator.
Enjoying, laughing, ragging (also getting ragged) and peeping; many days passed away. Girish and Chawla were regular visitors to our house and they soon became integral part of our gang.
During those days I was appointed, by Alok Das Sir, as a member of 'Special Interest Group' alongwith Linu, Ritika and Ravjeet. For some reason Alok Sir showed a great confidence in me. Together we organized a seminar where an external lecturer came to give a speech on "IT industry Future". This seminar was a big success and we all us got lots of appreciation.
By now we five were well settled in our new house. Work among five of us in the room was well distributed: Sinha use to study, Junnu use to do face-wash, chettri mostly found filling drinking water from the tap outside, manoj doing pull ups on the ventilator and myself mostly sleeping and giving fundas and gyan to others.
Finally the most awaited day arrived, the freshers day. We all decided to betray the dress code (Chawla was propeller for this), but his idea was good so we all agreed.
Freshers day was nice but the night was even nicer when we offered unlimited free drinks from seniors @ Chandani Bar. It was first and last(till now) unlimited free drinks offer in my life, but then I was not a good drinker(in fact I was a starter).
After drinks I Still remember Pandey's doing big big bakch*di; Joseph George singing the song 'Chaddi kya dekhte hoo.....chaddi utaar kar dekho naa.....', manoj becoming sophisticated and speaking in English, Chawla saying this is my 6th peg......
After drinks when we came back to our house; we found Sinha studying as usual.
Many days passed and came time for our 1st internals, Sinha did 17 times revisions for Graph theory.
All of us (roommates) did well in internals.
We found a new caterer Nepalis to deliver us food and it was a good choice over Punjabi Dhaba.
Then came the most awaited time (of Christmas vacations), all of us were excited to go home after those fearful days of ragging and exams. I still remember buying Kerala cashew-nuts for my home, but more than half I finished on the way. I was traveling along with Manoj (Pandey joined us in the last moment); journey was long (Kochi to Ranchi 48 hrs on slow Bokaro-Allepey Express) but it was exciting with two friends alongwith.
But there was much news of excitement from Delhi gang who traveled together on Kerala Express. These people not only enjoyed by sharing their foods and drinks but few also shared their berths with each other.
When we (manoj and me) came back; I was surprised to see a lot of people coming to station to receive us (actually Delhi gang arrived to Kochi one day earlier than us). One funny incident happened on train was that on any mid station when I asked manoj to come down and get his body stretched, he refused. But when our final station (Aluva) arrived where we had to actually get down with luggage, there I saw manoj walking and stretching on station and saying me "Arre yaar soocha thoda aaram kar loon, pata nahin apna station kab aayega".
On that night in our house people made Junnu (the biggest rather the smallest Kid in our class) to write a love letter for a girl in our class. He did that and next day he even went to her to deliver that. It was not fully accepted but he had some good time watching movie(Kabhie khushi kabhie Gham) together and carrying her bags, books and bottles whenever required.
After that; many days passed, everyday almost we went around places in Kochi like Marine Drive, Menaka, movie halls, Cherai beach etc. etc.
Soon 2nd internals passed by.
In Feb I went to Munger (in Bihar) to attend my sisters marriage, when returning it was a three nights journey from Munger to Kochi (I changed 3 trains also), the third morning when I had to get down in Kochi I kept sleeping and went one station ahead from where I had to catch a return bus.
Freaking and enjoying many more days passed away and came time for our first semester external exams. But then there was university staffs strike in all over kerala, and our exams were postponed indefinitely. Delhi gang once again went to their hometown. Me and manoj was left in the house. Also there were very less people in hostel and around. Everyday when going for lunch or dinner we came back with some visitor to just get some timepass. One day Amit Singh visited and luckily or rather unluckily(for Sinha) he found Sinha's diary in which he entered a hypothetical intimate love story of Sinha and a girl from our class (Sinha I think had never even talked to that girl till then). Next day when Maji visited we made him to read that diary, he was literally shocked and said "Sinha is a very dangerous and dirty guy".
Finally the strike broke and all our house mates came back. Soon exams dates were released and all of us were back into studies. Exams went well for all of us and now there was semester break and time to go back to home once again.
Time to say: Bye Bye First Sem.
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