Remembering College Days !

2001 - the year I completed my engineering. Its already been a decade and yet everything is so fresh in mind (not subjects and concepts though). After a mediocre show in EAMCET - 1997, my dreams of getting into Osmania University engg college fell flat. With some 4000 odd rank, I had to find solace in admission into GPREC, Kurnool. Counsellors consoled me that its one of the oldest colleges and blah blah, but my dreams of vrooming on a bike in OU campus and putting the city on fire remained dreams.

I was in a beautiful dreamland imagining how my classes, friends, lifestyle would be after admission. But the reality was completelyyyyyyyyyyyyyy and diagonally different :D

When I saw the college campus, I was so excited and felt my dreams were going to be fulfilled there. I felt it was almost as good as OU campus. But I didn't realize that a series of shocks were in store for me :D

First shock: Girls of all branches were made to sit in a single class and boys of two branches each were clubbed to form other sections. nahiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnn.....all my steam got ejected with a thud. To add to this, seniors warned us not to talk to any girls in the campus as faculty and college administration are ultra-protective about girls. Girls had a separate college bus, separate canteen, separate class and every non-student in the campus is their protector :(

Now you can imagine what a 18 yr old guy would go through, especially after the kind of rangeela dreams about engineering college I had. But if you think thats the rudest shock, you are mistaken. Stay tuned !

My another dream was to get into a company of a cool dudes as I thought I was one. I found a house-to-share along with 3 more students. My room-mates were all much more studious, intelligent than me (all of them got below 1000 rank in EAMCET out of some 1.5 lakh attendees) and all three of them belonged to pakka rayalaseema faction families (one of them even lost his father in faction murders of Kurnool). I felt like a fish out of water, eskimo in a desert, child in a strip bar; Thats how my first year started.

But eventually realized that my roomies were always sweet, protective and supportive to me. I learnt a new way of life through them, a new slang, new words, new attitude, new thinking process, raw energy. Though there were some conflicts in lifestyles and priorities, I came out of that big city snooty guy hangover and started thinking differently. I don't remember what I learned in the class, but I started learning about life as thats my first-time staying out of parents' wings.

Later I befriended few like-minded, like-cultured guys and moved to new house in the second year. And girls were my classmates from then. After living in that city for an year, I slowly got acquainted with the town, and with friends as roomies, life became easier and there was no check on me. Gradually a kind of street smartness crept in which turned into arrogance and over confidence. I was literally on rampage for the next 2 years.

Except studying and listening to professors, I have done everything else under the sun. Some 200 friends to chill out with, pocketful of money sent by parents every month, a cook and a dhobi to serve, access to everything or anything. Life was crazy and wild !

Watching second shows once in 3 days, passing letters to girls in classes, writing 10-page love letters to help friends in their love-stories, spending hours in archies / hallmark stores, spending evenings at KC canal savoring mirchi bajji, waiting for girls at a temple near the girls hostel, befriending receptionist at their hostel, one-hour exam preparation, night-out combined study-turned-gossip sessions, long walks (covering two ends of the town), long trips, silly fights, ego clashes, sulks, immature groupisms and all those silly stuff done by every student were part of the routine.

Those were perhaps the most crucial days of my life. I was 19-20 years old, nobody to keep a tab and was exposed to variety of situations: good, bad and ugly; Everyday was an experience and every situation demanded me to decide fast and act smart. I'm sure if I was in Hyd with parents, I would not have grown 5% as wise as I was then. More than academic education, I guess that phase taught me how to live and how to react to situations.

Its said that friendships that blossom during that phase would last forever. I'm guilty of not pursuing some relationships, with or without my knowledge; few are in touch, few aren't. But I feel good whenever I think of them and the experiences, days we shared together. I don't know how many of them will check this post of mine but a tight hug to all those who ever liked me or treated me as their friend: Shyam, Pavan, Ranjeeth, Sushma, Ravi, Raghu, Praseeda, Siva, Srinath, Uday, Srinivas, Kishore, Kavitha, Upendra, Naveen, Aruna, Prem, Sireesha, Chaitanya and many more.