COL FLASHBACK 2 : THE FUN ABODES..

It is often said that college life is another synonym for fun and I do agree with this statement after completing my 4 years degree course. When I was a school student, I had heard a lot about the college life and all the ‘masti and maza’ associated with it from my parents, relatives, my elder cousins etc. The picture of the fun places that formed in my mind after listening to the different college tales didn’t consist of classrooms or labs or libraries but all the one outside the college building like canteen, grounds and often places way outside college premises. It was only when I entered into the engineering did I realize that even lecture theatres can be a place of fun. I spent a major chunk of my college life in LT’s (most of the engineering students have to) and I do miss it. We had our share of fun in the grounds and galleries of the college (excluding canteen. What an irony that the place that rocks in most of the colleges was the most sucking at ours) but I would like to write about the places that are rather unconventional or even weird for many, but were fun abode for us.

LECTURE THEATRES are the most unconventional places to have fun and enjoyment, but believe me some of the finest memories of my college life are associated with the LTs. Almost everyday consisted of some sort of ‘tamasha’. Every class consists of a bunch of funny people who keep you engaged with their witty lines and pranks even when the lectures are downright boring. Ours was no exception. Everyday someone would become a target of their jokes and pranks (actually only a few chosen by them). Sometimes even chits would move from bench to bench consisting of some funny lines about their target without being noticed by the lecturers.

In fact, lecturers too wouldn’t be spared. A new lecture was always tested by these people. A new lecturer was often subjected to tortures like giggling, sharp but funny one liners and a request to ‘explain again’. But these folks were smart enough to sense who the right person to have fun with was and who wasn’t.

Different LABS throughout our degree course were of 2 to 3 hours. The intention of university behind providing so much time is to make sure each student gets ample time to perform his/her experiment in a proper manner. But in most of the cases the experiment is finished within an hour. Very few students cared about the intricate details of the experiments and even lesser were interested in taking multiple readings. For the rest, labe were a perfect place to chat. It wasn’t possible in LTs to roam around, but there were enough excuses to help you in moving within the lab from one person to another. The excuses included taking pens, registers etc. or to understand a certain experiment from a certain student and the weirdest of all, ‘bas yun hi’.

A large table was provided at the centre of each lab so that students could do their file work there. It served one more purpose by allowing having chatting sessions as almost whole group would sit there. Though, when the strength would be less sometimes, the labs would become almost unbearable too.

TUT ROOMS were designed to accommodate 20 students as each group consisted of maximum 20 persons only. These rooms allowed the ‘lesser talented people’ to come up and show their wittiness (I’m not that witty, but when I moved into a new group in my 3rd year, I found the class a bit dull. Then I decided to throw in sharp one liners in between to somewhat create the fun environment I was accustomed to. It was easier to do so in tut room where you had a small group and even if your jokes backfired, there won’t be that much of embarrassment.)

These rooms also allowed to freely interact with the lecturer and to know him/her more. This interaction used to be friendlier and often a lot of information would be exchanged.

CONFERENCE ROOM was the coolest place in summers (there were ACs). We were not frequent to the conference room and would be called only for special lectures or guest lectures. We would go there early and grab the seats where there was maximum coolness and we could listen and see the presentation easily. As per our Indian tradition, there was always a gap between the scheduled time of the lecture and the actual time when it would begin. By that time we would enjoy the ACs and chatter with the fellows or the other guys of different branches with whom we had less frequent interactions. Many times it would become chaotic and a faculty member had to stand up to make the students go quite.

Now I’m writing about a place which many others would found weird but for the students of our branch it is a place worth remembering. The WATERCOOLER at the end of the gallery of the first floor, that also marked the entrance to the electronics section, was the center point of our gossiping and chatting in the last two years of engineering. The last five minutes of previous lecture and first five minutes of the subsequent lecture would be spent there. Drinking water was just an excuse. Most of the times there would be small talks about the previous lecture and if anything funny happened in the class, or pulling each other’s legs. It used to be a sort of refreshment for all of us. During free periods too, we would go there and either listen to the music or do some serious (yes, sometimes) talks about our career, about many other things. Many secrets have been spilled out there, many truths have been spoken. There had been fights and the reconciliation. A place I would love to visit even after 20 years.

That’s enough in today’s college flashback. See you soon. Bye.