First Year

we did have a peek of our seniors when we went to complete the admission formalities. the first day came and i began the day on a high note. i took the college bus where i didn't get much ragging because i was soon pronounced a "paavam". the half hour journey by bus, standing in the din interiors of the battered yet crowded ksrtc bus was a first time for me and this had gone on to become a part of my life in the coming years. the bus drove into bus bay and i felt like i had landed on moon. the only time i came to college, i came by the front gate. i hardly knew where i was and the only thing i knew about my destination was that it was at some place called room no 108. a senior(my sisters friend) took me to class and thus began the best days of my life!. the class was almost filled as i walked in. i hardly looked at anyone but noticed that there were very few girls. i procured a seat in second bench which was safe as you are neither too close to the hot area neither are you too far away. the first class was taken by navas sir. he began the class by elaborating his "different" style of teaching and went on to speak about clipping and clamping circuits when one hardly knew what a diode was. i wondered if everyone else in class knew all this and the boy who kept telling all the answers provided little comfort.the first hour was over and then they came. they asked the girls to sit near the window and made us all stand up and wish good morning. by that time the area outside our class had become a hot spot as the information about the beauty of a particular classmate spread through the various higher semesters. we were shivering like leaves by then and i wondered why i haven't feared anyone else in my life so much. then things were pure sailing as teachers took care of our protection and stood guard outside our classes. i started a friendly relation with aswathy, our class rep, and it was her companionship that enabled me to know a good portion of students of our batch in the first year. the next day onwards we went for walks around college and though we were still afraid of ragging, the intensity of fear was decreasing every day. we even had the cheek to go to the mechanical department during the initial few weeks of class in our workshop uniform. the subsequent days were all enjoyable even with the ragging. i was asked to write an assignment for a senior and i made the mistake of showing some sincerity and gave back a neat assignment in beautiful handwriting. that mistake ensured the fact that i spent a good portion of my time writing assignments. i even became the default assignment writer to some seniors in my bus.
we had covered almost the entire college during our afternoon walks and our visits to the canteen grew frequent. we had a wonderful christmas celebration (without permission), when i got to knew many more people in class. then genesis came and we were all immersed in fighting for the much coveted top spot which the mechs took away from us with a lead of one point. my participation in jam and the subsequent experiences led me to decide not to speak in college ever and it was goodbye to old speaking days too.the spot dance and group song events were superb with good crowd turnout and huge amount of noise. and then series came and went. we went for our first tour to vegaland when i grew closer to my classmates.my skills in workshop led me to spending an entire day in fitting with a file in hand and at last i threw the tool in and quit. and then it was time for university exams and the first year soon got over.

Goodbye??

Four years in College getting over...so quick and yet so rich in experiences.school was over much before i wanted it to be and even in the sorrow of having to say goodbye to school days, having to shift from Ernakulam where every single friend of mine is, i couldn't wait to enter college, that place where everyone spends the most enjoyable and memorable time of their lives. I did have my apprehensions about joining college....
1.being the last rank admitted to EC in merit i was wondering whether i would fit in with my 'buji' classmates.
2. i knew next to nothing about electronics. i surprised my physics professor in 12th by failing to identify a capacitor. the capacitor had been my foe ever since.
3. i had no friends in this new place. there were hundreds of students here and i hardly knew three people.that was okay as that meant getting to meet so many new people.(but my first day into college and i knew that my wish of getting to know every person in college would never come true.)
4. those frightening species called seniors who allegedly lurked in corners and lay in ambush waiting to pounce upon you and rag you to pieces. the many stories of ragging which i heard had me in tenterhooks.
the stories of CET i heard from my cousin who passed out before i entered had me anxiously waiting for the commencement of the course. but the government decided to mess things up and i had to spend months without a tv, a computer or even a library membership. i went back to old times when man cared only about food and sleep.
and finally the day came when i stepped into CET

Summer Showers...again

As the unbearably hot weather continues to grip the city and scorch the people in its unrelenting infernal blaze, the evening sky brought a surprise ...threatening clouds in grey loomed high over the sky casting a gloom on everything that the sun's vengeance had set on fire..the winds let out a shudder and was accompanied by a chill instead of the familiar dusty hot air. and soon, the clouds gave way and the much awaited music,of the first water drops falling on the ground, could be heard. the ground, withered by the cruel sun drank up the rain greedily to purge itself of the pent up heat that it had gathered over the many hot days. trees who seemed to have lost their souls livened and everything changed from withered-subtle-dead to a celebration, a riot of colours. " the intoxicating smell of rain falling on earth" wafts in through the open windows and bring with it a promise of better days, of comfort and beauty after the harsh weather of yesterdays. may the rains be as dominant as the scorching summer was!!

Malfunction

Of late I ve noticed that electronics equipment tends to malfunction, more than it used to, around me. I had put down the fact that i never get outputs for lab exams to clumsy work on my side and a superstitious belief that i wont get output every odd semester. yet CROs had malfunctioned, power supplies had gone awry and the circuit itself had misbehaved on many occasions.
Now the issue has gone serious and it is everyday items like mobile phones and computers that put me to test. the landline phone in my house is somehow connected to the neighbouring line, which we( bujis) might call crosstalk, and every private conversation of mine is now a conference between the sender(me), receiver(whomsoever i am calling) and the third party( neighbours). and everytime someone calls their phone our phone rings for company. i had been putting up with a lot of crosstalk of late and had practically stopped using the phone.as if to remind me that this world is not entirely my own, my mobile phone has started having mysterious visitors too.
in one incident i called a friend (say D). i got someone else on the line. i could hear him speak and D could hear him speak. he could hear both of us speak. but we couldnt speak to each other. we tried to get him to act as our channel and pass on messages between us but he didnt find it an interesting pass time and didnt humour us.in another recent incident i called another friend A and instead of her "sweet" voice, got the hardy voice of a man who asked me 'which part of the temple i was standing at'. i disconnected and tried again and got my friend.
and then the computer thought of playing tricks. i asked for twitter, signed into it and what do i get...my gmail inbox .MAGIC (and black magicfor sure)
it is a jinx alright, a curse of the innumerable electronic components i have broken, burnt or mercilessly pulled off..