Here I am once again with my ramblings and musings about the semester in college just past. After the mad rush to finish portions in the 4th semester, the 5th was relatively tame.
As the sem began, there were whispers all over campus, hushed voices speaking as if the matter at hand if heard would end in them being hanged for treason. Soon the voices grew louder, until I finally found out about this one word that had spread like wild fire. Docomo. The ad for the same, though initially catchy, has ceased to amuse me of late. You can only get so much mileage from an ad that goes Tu-too-do Tu-too-do. With college goers the phone has a permanent place right next to the container that holds the person's brain. Though the contents of said vessel might not be present, this accessory always is. It stays near the ear as if a bottle of Fevi Kwik had stuck it there. Hence it was that Tata's 1 paise per second promise with DOCOMO struck a chord with everyone on campus.
Talking about Docomo, some people I knew (or thought I knew well) made it clear, all of a sudden, that they would rather avoid me like the plague. Their reasons all the same were pretty LOL-worthy (me being me, me having not lent a record to them one fine day 2 years back). The things some people make note of... tsk tsk. Fine by me if schoolkids in college couldn't cope. Well that's a story for another day.
Sir Centum Sundaram was up to his usual part-time job of bulletin board updates, aided this sem by Vigneshwaran "Project boy" ;) Shanmugam. Most people have gone CAT crazy. No, not the feline kind, the kind that gets you an MBA if you're lucky enough to make it through. T.I.M.E sure is minting money this season with the economic recession getting everyone worried and driving people to CAT Coaching classes in droves. I think I'm one of the few left in class who aren't attending any coaching (or are too lazy to do the same :D ).
Vague hints like these which would perplex us mere mortals exist in a certain brilliant man's notebook. This man is Jayaram alias "Baja" (don't worry, sounds like a rowdy but he isn't). For his brain, problem solving comes as easy as cutting butter with a heated knife. Whatever he says is seasoned with practicality, I salute you sir for that!
This monkey has one leg missing. Apparently, he/she frequents the girls' hostel. Perhaps the like-minded monkeys in that building provide good companionship. Observe the specimens (a.k.a Aishwarya and Abhinaya) below as they devour a packet full of sweets and savouries. Enna oru paasam, adengappa..
The above article and several like it were a source of untold misery and suffering. What are they you ask, ye who are technically less inclined? These are microprocessor trainer kits, ones where you enter code and it displays a result. For one thing, they didn't work half the time. Second, there were too few of them left after many successive generations of engineers in training / monkeys :P had had their way with them. Third, learning assembly code is a pain in the posterior. Aspiring engineers please note, thou shalt not be given an i7 or Core 2 duo microprocessor and be told "Ye shall go forth and program". You'll get a crappy 8051 chip at most if you're lucky to try your hand at coding for microprocessors. Opening these kits was the equivalent of prying open Pandora's Box. Don't get it? Read on.
Besides all this, we had to submit a project as part of the above described lab course. The way people split into factions, talked in hushed tones, trademarked their ideas etc was all so funny. It was the cold war all over again. There wasn't even a research grant up for grabs and folks here were acting as if this was Intel's Innovation Challenge.
Below you see two souls weary of the day's battle rest their tired selves.
A little snap I took, watch how these naughty boys ;) boldly raided the seniors' snacks during a lab session. Cheers brothers!
Took a great deal of effort to put up a good show as part of the IEEE's 125th anniversary celebrations which were held in our college. Several days of practice with some friends, combined with our HOD's zeal and relentless vigour made it all a grand success.
Had more work at hand (quite literally, cos I'm a keyboardist for my college orchestra lol) when Sivaranjani, our intra-college culturals, came along. The displays of dance, comedy and music on stage all went well.
What you see above is part of my class participating in the "Pongal making" Contest. Wood was burnt, smoke was made, eyes began to water, people screamed into the microphone. But whether pongal was made, I cannot say. For I was fortunate enough to avoid tasting any department's cooking. God is Great!!
There was one Industrial Visit (a camouflaged class picnic :P ) to Bangalore.... ooops Bengaluru this time around. It was the peak season for Swine flu and I opted out of it. The majority of the class took the trip despite the professors having their reservations. Most everyone who went came back with a severe cough. Our class topper got herself admitted, and the continuous coughing and sneezing got so bad that even the faculty dreaded coming to our rooms. Several of us (including yours truly) sat the entire day with surgical masks on to atleast prevent getting a cold, though masks offered little protection from H1N1. Anyway, my friends got me this little trinket when they returned from Bengaluru. Thank you very much!!
Sadly a certain department in the college embarrassed itself (in Tamil, we'd say "Bulb vaangitaanga") by setting off some crackers right in front of our department thinking our IV had been canceled, only for us to have our trip confirmed at that very moment. Thanks for providing the fireworks for our celebrations, kids (read: douches). :)
Celebrated our friend, Aishwarya's birthday:
right before we burnt a hole in her wallet in the name of a treat.
Seven wonders of the world? Bah, humbug. We have the Seven Wonders in our own class:
Some of us, meanwhile, took the USE HELMET signboards around Chennai too seriously. Colour-matched helmets and raincoats, all this safe road user needed to complete her air-tight attire was a pair of maroon gloves. I shall leave you to speculate upon the individual's identity.
My mode of transport to college - my good ol' car - had served me well many a day. This month, however, it's time had come. This was it's final meter reading right before it was sold:
It was still in excellent condition, but I was sad to see it go and get replaced by a newer vehicle :'( .
And thus went another semester filled with fun, frolic and foolishness. In another few hours the sixth shall take over. A new year, a new dawn and a new semester. Let the madness begin!
