The year 2050 – the two broad races, Mechas and Orgas dominate the earth. Mechas, or the machines and Orgas, the organic beings. The two races work in tandem dedicatedly laboring together to survive in the last few years of the Earth’s existence….
Cut to 2009, a completely different scenario. Ishan is a mechanical engineering student at ITER, Bhubaneswar. Nicknamed ‘Mecha Studs’, students like him are forced to labor in the same way their successors will work decades hence, completely unknown to them.
Monday morning blues brings with itself a host of woeful mornings where the alarm snoozes for the nth time before Ishan finally gets up, gets ready in a huff fulfilling his morning chores and prepares to face the daunting week ahead of him. A mutilated pathway full of potholes and iron rods dug in the earth, probably gearing up for a building above it, along with a gaping hole in one corner (giving the appearance of a meteor crash) and an unfinished football field is to be crossed before he finally reaches F-block, the abode of first year classes.
English for communication class greets the sleepyheads. A good-for-nothing hour for many. Ishan however sits unperturbed, reclined beside his favorite window overlooking the vast stretches of rural Bhubaneswar. Malvika ma’am tries her best to fill the voids sitting pretty atop our necks with the 7 C’s of Communication, although ‘chatter’ is the only ‘C’ we seem to have understood. Then enters Sarita ma’am and along with her a fresh wave of drowsiness for backbenchers. Generations of computers come and go but Ishan is eyeing all the pretty faces in the corridor. Physics finally gets us up and about as Parida Sir’s booming overtone sends even the professionals into a tizzy as he picks on his favorite ‘targets’ and bombards them with questions.
After a bland and tasteless lunch in the mess, Ishan is back in the F-block, this time in the EDCG lab. Some evil eye has probably eyed Ishan’s seat and he is sure to be punished yet again today for some reason oblivious to him. An hour later he can be seen hitting some laps in the basketball court or smashing in the badminton arena. Thus his first day draws to a close.
Tuesday is greeted with the Basic Electrical Engineering Lab. Often found huddled in groups of eight, mechas perform experiments with bigger bulbs, tubes and larger than life ammeters and voltmeters. Most of the time is taken up in writing the lengthy records, only to end up with a ‘B’ or ‘C’. ‘Better’ and ‘Can be Better’, claims Ishan. ‘D’ is dumb and ‘E’ signifies eccentrics. The rest is left to the imagination of the reader.
Sahoo Sir, our flamboyant Maths lecturer is full of life as he teaches us different methods to manipulate a poor differential equation and attack it from different angles to solve and eventually end up with the same answer through all processes. Any homework from ‘Kreyszig Book’ is ignored for the evening, to be copied the next day from a dedicated student who sits in the front benches every day.
S Pati Sir’s ever smiling face unfortunately is unable to feed basic components of an electric circuit into our brain’s nerve cells. A three hour long sultry Computer Lab follows where the A/C remains switched off for unknown reasons. The computer remains defunct for a complete hour and when they do function, our hands on the keyboard don’t. Ishan completes his assignment programs in record time and then tries to connect to the internet, but in vain….
Thursday’s free first half is a welcome respite from the arduous three days of college. When Ishan finally greets the morning sun, it is already overhead. All pending homework and assignments are given a cursory glance before being dumped back into the bag. A thorough holiday mood is painfully interrupted by the reminder that there are classes still to do today.
Friday brings the most dreaded three hours of a mecha’s week – the EC Lab. Terrified guys and girls curse their luck in the comfortably air conditioned lab as their names are called out and they make their way to the centre stage followed by seventy odd pairs of eyes. Shaking legs and trembling hands supported by an equally numb throat as words fail that pitiful soul. However, few like Ishan do make full use of the stage and leave a good impression on the teacher. The session finally ends as cold feet and relieved faces rush out, the euphoria dying within seconds.
Saturday’s Physics Lab is perhaps the only period where studs actually seem to be concentrating. The sonometres and compound pendulums and travelling microscopes which nobody can figure out to work on at least keep their lips firmly sealed. A readymade lab record saves time to be utilized in examining each part of the apparatuses. So exhausted are we at the end of the week that the next three classes pass of in a blur with most of the backbenches occupied by sleepyheads, satisfying their tired minds.
Thus we surrender ourselves to six days at ITER. Six days spent in room 308, exchanging Bluetooth videos, playing mobile games, finishing water bottles in one gulp (usually borrowed from our lady friends) and doing various activities oblivious to the eyes of the teacher. They leave something to be desired for the next week. Sundays are the most dormant days as all activity comes to a standstill and beds are occupied for a major part of the day. When the books are opened or pages turned remains a mystery, but that’s college life. At ITER, the four years will pass at their own pace and when they will, these memories will call us back to the corridors, wanting to be stepped upon and hear the exciting murmurs of the ‘mecha studs’….
Cut to 2009, a completely different scenario. Ishan is a mechanical engineering student at ITER, Bhubaneswar. Nicknamed ‘Mecha Studs’, students like him are forced to labor in the same way their successors will work decades hence, completely unknown to them.
Monday morning blues brings with itself a host of woeful mornings where the alarm snoozes for the nth time before Ishan finally gets up, gets ready in a huff fulfilling his morning chores and prepares to face the daunting week ahead of him. A mutilated pathway full of potholes and iron rods dug in the earth, probably gearing up for a building above it, along with a gaping hole in one corner (giving the appearance of a meteor crash) and an unfinished football field is to be crossed before he finally reaches F-block, the abode of first year classes.
English for communication class greets the sleepyheads. A good-for-nothing hour for many. Ishan however sits unperturbed, reclined beside his favorite window overlooking the vast stretches of rural Bhubaneswar. Malvika ma’am tries her best to fill the voids sitting pretty atop our necks with the 7 C’s of Communication, although ‘chatter’ is the only ‘C’ we seem to have understood. Then enters Sarita ma’am and along with her a fresh wave of drowsiness for backbenchers. Generations of computers come and go but Ishan is eyeing all the pretty faces in the corridor. Physics finally gets us up and about as Parida Sir’s booming overtone sends even the professionals into a tizzy as he picks on his favorite ‘targets’ and bombards them with questions.
After a bland and tasteless lunch in the mess, Ishan is back in the F-block, this time in the EDCG lab. Some evil eye has probably eyed Ishan’s seat and he is sure to be punished yet again today for some reason oblivious to him. An hour later he can be seen hitting some laps in the basketball court or smashing in the badminton arena. Thus his first day draws to a close.
Tuesday is greeted with the Basic Electrical Engineering Lab. Often found huddled in groups of eight, mechas perform experiments with bigger bulbs, tubes and larger than life ammeters and voltmeters. Most of the time is taken up in writing the lengthy records, only to end up with a ‘B’ or ‘C’. ‘Better’ and ‘Can be Better’, claims Ishan. ‘D’ is dumb and ‘E’ signifies eccentrics. The rest is left to the imagination of the reader.
Sahoo Sir, our flamboyant Maths lecturer is full of life as he teaches us different methods to manipulate a poor differential equation and attack it from different angles to solve and eventually end up with the same answer through all processes. Any homework from ‘Kreyszig Book’ is ignored for the evening, to be copied the next day from a dedicated student who sits in the front benches every day.
S Pati Sir’s ever smiling face unfortunately is unable to feed basic components of an electric circuit into our brain’s nerve cells. A three hour long sultry Computer Lab follows where the A/C remains switched off for unknown reasons. The computer remains defunct for a complete hour and when they do function, our hands on the keyboard don’t. Ishan completes his assignment programs in record time and then tries to connect to the internet, but in vain….
Thursday’s free first half is a welcome respite from the arduous three days of college. When Ishan finally greets the morning sun, it is already overhead. All pending homework and assignments are given a cursory glance before being dumped back into the bag. A thorough holiday mood is painfully interrupted by the reminder that there are classes still to do today.
Friday brings the most dreaded three hours of a mecha’s week – the EC Lab. Terrified guys and girls curse their luck in the comfortably air conditioned lab as their names are called out and they make their way to the centre stage followed by seventy odd pairs of eyes. Shaking legs and trembling hands supported by an equally numb throat as words fail that pitiful soul. However, few like Ishan do make full use of the stage and leave a good impression on the teacher. The session finally ends as cold feet and relieved faces rush out, the euphoria dying within seconds.
Saturday’s Physics Lab is perhaps the only period where studs actually seem to be concentrating. The sonometres and compound pendulums and travelling microscopes which nobody can figure out to work on at least keep their lips firmly sealed. A readymade lab record saves time to be utilized in examining each part of the apparatuses. So exhausted are we at the end of the week that the next three classes pass of in a blur with most of the backbenches occupied by sleepyheads, satisfying their tired minds.
Thus we surrender ourselves to six days at ITER. Six days spent in room 308, exchanging Bluetooth videos, playing mobile games, finishing water bottles in one gulp (usually borrowed from our lady friends) and doing various activities oblivious to the eyes of the teacher. They leave something to be desired for the next week. Sundays are the most dormant days as all activity comes to a standstill and beds are occupied for a major part of the day. When the books are opened or pages turned remains a mystery, but that’s college life. At ITER, the four years will pass at their own pace and when they will, these memories will call us back to the corridors, wanting to be stepped upon and hear the exciting murmurs of the ‘mecha studs’….
No comments:
Post a Comment