2: First Year

       In the first year at the engineering college everyone apparently took their studies seriously. It was the beginning of the college life and we had not been used to the entertainment side yet, or at least not me. We had this physics lab, where all of us had assembled before couple of professors who were quite good, the realization of how good they were came to us quite late when we met with hopeless professors in the following years!. The entire batch of students at the lab was split into groups of two. There was this one girl who was really pretty and all the guys gave her the stares, they were dying to be with her and talk to her or whatever. Frankly even I wanted to talk to her and be with her. And lady luck smiled on me and we both were in the same group. wow! I was really thrilled and the guys were like, he is the lucky guy. I too got quite the stares but the other kind.

But given how chickened out I was considering the new college and new place, I just could not appreciate anything else apart from physics. How stupid could I get!. But the lab turned out to be quite exciting, this girl was very beautiful, quite intelligent too but she was too careless, come on!! There had to be at least one negative point right, she NEVER filled her lab observation book. And I had to come to the rescue every single time, but look at the irony, I was at the receiving end of the professor more often than not for the bad reasons. Made good memories though, she must have been like who is this boring guy who is into studies all the time, doesn't talk much and he does not even manipulate the experimental values if needed. Needless to say I was quite nervous around her that made me act even more foolish at times. One such occasion was when she offered me to meet her friends and to hang out, I refused! Can you believe that? And what was the reason? I bluttered out saying I had some other work. God alone should know what important work I had to deal with.

Anyways there were a lot more incidents which made the whole of the first year quite memorable. The mechanical workshop where we had to file a piece of metal infinitely to change its shape, but it eventually remained the same. The mysterious chemistry lab which was fun and of zero learning to me. Talking about the chemistry lab, I still remember an incident where a friend of mine had to plot the graph and circle the points to make sure the points are highlighted, he drew them so big that the professor with a silly sense of humor said "Why are they so big, are you circling the points or are you drawing the Mekhri circle!!" For all the non-Bangalore friends Mekhri circle is an important road junction in Bangalore. That was one hilarious incident that seemed to have stuck with me for quite some time.

At the end of the first year I came down as a guy who was sarcastic and very notorious too. I used to pull people's leg and play quite a few pranks on them. But the guys who saw the loyal friend in me, stuck with me.

I wonder that in the beginning I was quite an introvert, but as days passed by I realized that I was just opposite of that. I had the fear of a new place and language, but I shaped up quite well. One noticeable thing is all that characters that enter my journey have quite unique personalities that are something which I have always noticed and been quite amazed about.

It is quite hard to pen down all the memorable incidents, as there were plenty of funny and memorable incidents. At the end of the 1st year, I and 3 of my friends decided to take a small trip to the place I came from, Hyderabad. It was the first time that my parents let me out that way with no adult supervision. It was a big deal for us, as it was mainly associated with three words "Freedom, Freedom and Freedom". Not that we were up to something mischievous but fun in our own kiddish way.

Trip was good, we visited all the famous places in the city and had amazing breakfast on the streets of the famous Birla Temple. The authentic South Indian breakfast "Idli and Dosa served with delicious chutney and sambhar on the Banana leaf". Quite an unforgettable meal! Before the trip began I was pretty upbeat about it as I was from that place and I was trying to show off as if I own the place. There were some situations when I was quite confident of myself, this trip was one such occasion. But that did not last long, I ended up fighting with the auto driver! I feel stupid about it till this day. But I stood up for the injustice, quite a big term for the scenario right. But the embarrassing thing was my friend Aditya settled the matter in the end by paying him more than what was required. Yes, the main aim of my fight was lost :( I know, I am making it a big deal, let me move on from this. Anyways moving on from there, the trip was quite good with no more fights along the way. The first year thus came to a close and we had an important transition from juniors to seniors.