Kaloori Naatkal

Few years before, I attended some self-development workshop (some crap stuff) , arranged by my previous employer. Every attendee was questioned about, their unforgettable moment in their life so far. Please note that all of us were barely in our mid 20s... No body has achieved any thing great, other than being the coolies of the silicon valley of india, serving Fortune 500 biggies. i have planned a separate blog for this coolie story....

ok let me not deviate...for the most unforgettable moment.. ..phat !! comes the responses ...few samples for you;

The moment I got my job in campus interview..... (fair enough !!)
When I came first in school in +2 ( dey andipatti la nee first vantha, enna last vantha enna...)
When I got lost without money, in the all India tour in the college..... ( this is a good one....)
When my sister got married …( some kinda family sick comrade I think )

The day I proposed my girlfriend ( what a pity! the poor guy is now married to the same girl he proposed )

I thought for a while....and could not come up with a single specific event/day that is unforgettable. I told the audience that my 4-years of college life are unforgettable in my life, and followed by a big roar in the crowd. In fact it’s true with most of us and you would agree on this with me.

The sad part in this is, I was unfortunate to finish my engineering in the stipulated 4 years...there are much more fortunate souls, who enjoyed full 6 years with all the privileges of a college student.

So when somebody utters the word college, what comes to your mind ??

lem'me list down my personal favorites ...the list is exhaustive and its really difficult to bring down it to top 15 ... fyi...i graduated from a not-so-typical self-financing college from south tamilnadu

1. Class Room
We meet friends five or six days a week, if we are not sleeping and not bunking the class..

2. Canteen / Mess
we meet friends, fight with masters for larger piece of chicken, omlette eating competitions
3 times a day, almost every day for 4 full years

3. Hostel Room
How can we forget the dingy "dorms" of first year or our own private world "single-cell" of the final year ..when power goes off...its total fun....

4. Study Holidays
In which we did everything except studying ...hours of untiring Xonix, Need for Speed, Road Rash ....Matter movies... Vannathirai magazine...

5. Educational tours
Dont get dis-oriented by the name.. The tours have nothing to do with education - comes once in an year, mostly accompanied by psychic staff..but we can't afford to miss it ..its great fun...

6.Girls
Mostly stero-typed (either sydney shledon peter or rettai jadai stuff), but obvioulsy a strange commodity to handle with their strange sentiments...and resultant ...happy kadalai boys – poor lover boys

7. Lecturers

athaanga..namma respectable vaathis... we have to deal with

Sick and Boring - 50%

Imsai - 20%

Jollu Party - 10% ( mostly from mech department)

Torture Dharma types - 5%

Arivu Jeevi Type - 5% ( they understand the subject..but cant make us understand)

Sooper type - 5% ( they are a rare breed, who have teaching sense and common sense)

Kankaans Type - 5% ( enna nadanthaalum kandukarathu illa..me myself and black board)

8. Examssssss ...
Terrifying isn't it..remember the papers of circuit theory, advanced control systems, transmission & distribution ...machine design for mechies.... danger "antenna" for ece folks.. fluid mechanics for civilians....each one had theri own share of nigh marish subjects.

9. Schedule Test
This is total fun...It really helped us to find out innovative methods of "bit" ing..copying

10. Assignment

this is realy pain in the a$$... yes . we got to do it .....even if you going to copy it from some so called brilliant students..who do it first....!! athuvum intha maths department iruke.....romba thaan torture pannuvaanga..paa ...

11.OD (On-Duty)
....Aahaa...this is real creative stuff..... to bunk the classes.....we got ISTE, IEEE, Photography Club, Asso, Sports, Fine Arts(Front Stage, Back Stage), Paper Presentation, Project, Tour Arrangement etc etc... and guys keep inventing more legitimate stuff to bypass the attendance register....

12.Cultural Fests/ College Day

Rangolis, Fashion Parade, dances, other college chicks

Farwell - Candle light - Mustafa Song - happy and sunken faces .... girls in silk sareess aah !!

Collge life colorful innu summava sol raanga !!

13. Apology Letter
ithu oru "kenathnamaana" concept....ulgathulaye enga college la mattume thaan ithu irukum innu ninaikaren..... we have to write a letter of apology for everything from shouting in the study hour, bunking the class and staying in hostel without permission, mid-night birthday celeberations etc....The funniest part is most of these so called apology letters end up in the trash can of the sub-wardens' room

14 . Autograph Book

This item is a prized possession for girls . I remember some guys invest a great deal of money in getting a Nightingale autograph book, to impress the girls. He
would not even have spent that much amount in getting sheets for his college
lecture notes.

15. Chemistry Lab
last but not the least ...i have to mention this chemistry lab....some of my friends still have nightmares about the chemistry lab... ...the tough-to-crack ubiquitious engg. chemistry professors will literally harras you and make you feel, that you are the sickest and most dumb among all. They will ask for your chemistry scores in Plus 2 exam and if you had scored more than 195, more likey the harrasment will be doubled.

Glorious days isn’t it.... More College Galatta, in the forthcoming Scribblings…. Stay tuned !!