Adios!

Disclaimer: A longish one, this just-released-from-the-drafts post might attract "Yawn" reactions. :)

"You have done, in these four days, all the lab work that you have never done in your past four years"- a teacher joked, upon our recent completion of a relatively simple job. This kick-started the cliched train of thoughts which I boarded to go down the still more cliched lane of memory.

What have I done in the past four years?

I decided to breeze through the time period briefly.

Have I enjoyed life in this college? Not really.

Can I quantify my learning here? My non-academic learning should be well over a thousand times my academic cgpa over the same denominator. 

First Year..

Started with Josh and eagerness. Happiness that I got to choose the college I want to join. Getting used to the fact that there can be two Physics labs in a campus and not reaching the correct one on time will result in being told-off. Hourly attendance. Freedom to bunk. New Friendships. Fights. Movies with friends became a matter of habit. 

Second Year..

IV, Intrams: Possibly the best time of these four years. We were never united as a class, both before and after this period. And the third semester comes closest to what can be described as "enjoyable". Subjects like Analog electronics and Electro Magnetic Fields were really brain-stimulating! After all, this blog was conceived while studying them :) Got to know a good lot of friendly seniors; even did my first mini project! 

A short stint at Reliance Communications, Mumbai for an In-Plant training after the second year served the purpose of changing my "Mujhe Hindi malum nahin" to "Mujhe Hindi thoda thoda malum hai" :P

Third Year..

I Block!! The 135-step climb to the classes (while the elevators were reserved only for faculty members and physically challenged students) kept us fit throughout the year! We started working on Embedded Systems, celebrated a "Batch" Day with only the girls and started taking placement prep tests. A tough period for me, for I didn't want to risk opting out in favour of an MBA and simultaneously hated learning C/C++ in greater depth. I preferred Quant Books to "Let US C" or "The Complete Refernce to C/C++" , earned the wrath of the Placement Representatives, being an unyielding girl, went unprepared for the first mock interview (which turned out to be a blessing actually, helping me get in touch with two Great Seniors I still adore) and skipped the second mock interview! YLGC'10 was fun and I decided to attend more Model United Nations conferences. And then there was Kriya. The joy of organizing and seeing my words on the official homepage were temporary. The most valuable thing I got out of Kriya'10 was my study partner. I don't prefer group study usually, but without this guy, my CAT prep would have never gained momentum.

Fourth Year..  
I started planning for my life beyond this college. Fervent B-school entrance prep, laced by occasional studying of Engg subjects (the occasions being the Internals and Semesters!). An enjoyable Model UN Conference at VIT with Bala & Sathya provided a respite from studies and made me richer by Rs.1000 :) 
An incredible first-shot placement success. Several lessons, learnt on the personal front, added to my mental maturity. 
Jobless Project-work sessions. Realization that even without flexing a single muscle for your project, you may gain the maximum score of 9/10 in the Project Review (err.. I'm not sure if this has yet been officially renamed as "Fingerprint-Attendance Review" in honour of the component that counts). You may have broken your leg in an accident, you may have attended interviews or you may have just casually bunked college. Everything seems to be the same here. Absence is absence. Legitimate and Illegitimate reasons don't appear distinctive.
And finally... The Nearing End! 
Am I nostalgic? Will I miss this place? 
The answer happens to be a loud "No!"
There were good moments; so also were bad, worse and even worst moments here. Each of those has contributed to my evolution in the past four years. For these, I thank you, PSG Tech.