There’s no lexicon sophistication here, its sheer nostalgia, a desire which I had of late to pen it down. It was the journey, not the destination; which transformed a nerd to a substantive entity, Journey was SCIT (My Post Grad Insti). It all happened by chance, a newspaper advertisement, followed by a phone call, a rapid fire machinating for entrance exam, followed by GD, PI which landed me at Symbiosis Center for IT, Pune. I chose it, it was my decision, and looking back I must say I made a right choice, acquired a lot from this place.
First came the orientation, the phase I must admit we all were pretty serious about. Everyone was convinced the coming times would be intriguing and challenging for us. It was bunch of 35 enthusiasts (now don’t mistake it as acad enthusiasts). As time started flying by, the bunch broke up, groups came up. Priorities changed, it varied from Cricket to TT (only if its Girl’s hostel Block) to Movies to Gymming to Swimming to Sleeping (they were the coolest bunch) to Counter Strike sessions and later on, o yes Pinging to of course, Academics (there were few amongst us!!!).
Parties, Outings, late night gossiping became integral part; studies took a backseat always, only time most of us were seen studying was a night before exams. Every month had its share of birthday parties, (from girls must come to girls must not come!!!). Then came summer Internship, people moved away, pulling and nagging now drifted to mailing group (myself being in thick of events, engagement for some, and entertainment for others). By time everyone came back from Internship back to Pune, only thing on mind was Placements, damn the academics, who needed them. Classes and sessions froze, till eventually every one of us was placed at some company. But the worst part was, it remained like that even after that. Only difference was earlier, they (guess, who am referring to) didn’t wanted to, now we didn’t wanted (those few who wanted they were told to shut up and do it yourself).
All this makes it look like all play, no work but don’t you assume that there was no learning; it was a bunch of hard core techies who worked in labs till 2 in night, spent days in library, rooms locked with people going through text and loads of text, my own room being a mini library. On personal front, achieved best academic performer award, best performance of life academically, but I blame it equally on hard work, luck, my very talented peers and some times just reputation from previous terms worked. Also would always be grateful to (and each of us would be):
1. Anjali Madam (who laid the basics right, and got us what we wanted), we missed you madam Term 3 onwards.
2. J Hariharan, he got best out of us, he taught us security, but built competencies which can run across any domain in IT.
3. Somesh Chabalani, who made us realize finally it all boils down to processes and how good they are, which personally I never believed hold any relevance being a techie.
4. Ravindra Bhosle, our lab/network admin, he gave full support to our causes and made sure we had resources at our disposal for our work any time of day.
5. Jay sir, gym instructor, fellow cricketer, warden and above all a good friend to have. Totally chilled out and easy going person, always felt nice to be in his company. He was particularly famous with Networks Batch guys.
Moving out of academics, post placements, it was party time, parties flooding with booze, dancing till mid night (and yes, girls strictly prohibited) and then getting up at noon next mornings was order of the day. The bunch was getting together again at twilight, groups integrating again.
I won’t go into details of who’s who of network guys, its already scripted at Mann’s blog, (http://meet-mann.blogspot.com/), but he didn’t mention about “7 layers of our Network Batch Stack” i.e. 7 girls of our batch. Ok let me do the honors by walking this tight rope. It would be a brief Introduction and rest is upto reader’s discretion:
Chavvi Tiwari (Rawalpindi Express): No she doesn’t bowl at same speed; neither has she run that fast, but when she speaks, its case of fast transmitter drowning slow receiver.
Divya Malik (Malik Bhai): The way she walks, and looks straight into your eyes, it’s enough to run chill down your spines. Perfect D company stuff.
Kaweri (Amma): Title from Swades, very laid back, soft spoken, and always smiling.
Ranjani (Yedi): very expressive, We all used to her Gaalis.
Rincy (Rondu): When she smiles, it looks she’s doing a favor, the geography of face can change in instant to someone in deep depression.
Soma (Soma VPN Bhatamishra): her expertise with VPNs, her counseling sessions, and yes she’s the genuine techie from gal’s side.
Sumedha (Sumiiiiiii): Ever smiling, easy going lass from Chandigarh.
This was in brief about them, for details ask them yourself at your own risk :p.
I had my share of controversies, cold wars, but still there is this feeling of oneness about my batch which never left me, for me its always case of Networks Batch first. Some people loved to hate me, even I felt same for them, but i think we all would be there for each other anytime when we would need each other, differences are secondary, and closeness and togetherness we shared is primary. I have learned a lot from many people, from all of us, something or other, good or bad, academics or values, something being written to the book of my life continuously.
I would sign off with a note for my 2 room-mates. Yeh, they hold an important position in my life. First Manpreet, I felt his pain, his joys, his celebrations as mine, we had differences too, he’s someone who I guess knows me as closely as anyone else. When he departed, post Convocation, and gave me hug, his words “It was nice staying with you for 2 year” summed it all, that was what I wanted to tell you kaadi, and you stole my words. But I felt a part of me going away that time, but we would be friends forever.
Second Shreyansh, first time I saw him I thought we can never be friends. Then he was one I had spent most of my time at campus, at gym, at treks, at outings, movies, hostel room and now here is in Chennai, slogging it out and making subsequent plans to move away from here sooner rather later. There is a chemistry between us which works well, we share things with each other which we normally don’t do with others, what I feel is both are at a comfort level with each other which usually takes time for people to reach.
This is all I wanted to say, there are lots of memories which I have treasured and would always be with me, I hope we all see each other at our Alumni meet in 2010, would be eagerly waiting for that. In the end it comes down to how much we miss those days, I do a lot at times, but then life moves on.
