Saturday, September 25, 2010

Post-Birthday Blog

Hello all,

It's been a long time in a new place and I can see a lot of changes, both inside and around me.
To begin with, on 21st, I turned 18. It was the first time I spent my birthday away from family and with friends. I was woken up at midnight and smeared with cake on my face. It was quite an evening...after all, it's an important milestone in any human's life. You get more liberty, and along with it, more responsibilities. It comes as a package.

I do remember the times in my childhood when I wished I grew up. I used to picture the idealistic college life and how carefree I would be. Only now I realize that I can't really be carefree. Here after, I will be judged based on my actions, and often more prone to being mistaken compared to when I was a kid.

The past three months have gone quite fast, faster than i thought they would, faster than I wished they would. Yep, that's right. For the first one week into hostel life, I wished time went as fast as possible so that I could get back to what I then referred to as 'normal' life. As time passed, the definition of Normal changed. In these months, I've got new friends, met old ones and had a really good time.

Talk on Uni Life

As I've mentioned before, I've joined this Uni called SASTRA University. It has a long full form, let's get to that later. The campus is fairly big, spread across about 200 acres and has Engineering, Management and Law blocks. We have a cricket, football, volleyball ground and a so-so indoor stadium cum gym.

I, like most of the freshers, have been allotted a room in this hostel called Sandipani Sadan which has over 100 rooms, each housing people (well, in most cases.) In the beginning, I had three roommates, but one of them soon left since he had got accepted by a better Uni. Talking about the room, it's about twice the size of an average bedroom and houses four people, three in my case. The restrooms and bathrooms aren't attached and are common for about 8 such rooms. We've a number of these, but most don't have proper bolts on the doors. Every morning, I just hope that I don't run into a homo.

The food is decent, but once in a week we do get something for breakfast that very much resembles wet sand obtained at the sea shore.

Our freshers' courses are at the Mechanical Engineering Block, along with people from all streams. I've Maths, Chemistry, Basic Civil and Mech, C Programming and Engineering Drawing as main courses, besides the regular ones like English, CAD and Personality Development sessions. The wifi connection at the freshers' hostel is pathetic and opens nothing but what's stored in the local servers. Although, the popular sports are streamed in over wifi which can be viewed using VLC Player. I watched the Champion's League matches that way.
Sad as it may be, Uni has a strict rule on dress-code: No T-Shirts. That makes things a bit strange, but you'll get used to it since everyone around you is in normal buttoned-shirt. I mean, the guys.

But nonetheless, Uni life IS fun. I could also unleash my passion for photography seeing many interesting things all around me. There were many picturesque moments, like that time when I could see from the top of my hostel, that it was raining on the other side of the campus. And another instance when there was a small opening in the clouds and the evening sun rays hit down like a portal to the heaven. I've also begun playing Table Tennis on weekends, for two reasons: to enjoy sport as a human, and to reduce some weight since I'm a bit Healthy :P
Last month, I got a chance to go home and brought my guitar and iPod to Uni. It's really a good pass-time to play guitar. I met other guitarists in the hostel and even jammed with a few of them. Last week, a guitarist friend of mine, and I covered Street Spirit by Radiohead. I'm also teaching basic n00b guitar stuff to my roommate. It's really fun teaching another person, watching him or her experience what you went through when you learnt it.

The weekdays just go by in running to lectures, finishing assignments and writing lab records. But weekends are fun. I also went to a nearby town and watched a local movie with friends. The act of roaming in an unfamiliar town with friends was interesting, that I wasn't really much into the movie. And many more small but interesting things happen at Uni, such as late night milk-inspired talks in the terrace or heated arguments in the break between two classes...arguments which stop when one speaks out something stupid and funny...

Life is full of such small moments which give you momentary happiness and sit as a memory deep in your head. I believe it's these small moments in your Uni life that makes you remember and cherish it years after you're out living a completely different life.

I'm off to studying for my next mid-term test that begins on this tuesday.

Until my next blog,
Sumanth.