Engineers...

"ஆக... அப்படி போச்சு..." (Courtesy: Erode Magesh [Mech Dept]) Thats how in our college we comment on something we have discussed briefly..so the first line comment is about the D-day, which I discussed briefly in my previous post.After the D-Day we started on our long march to become, what is called the most captive word for our parents at that time "ENGINEER"..Infact Selva had an email ID called engineer_selvakumar@yahoo.com, I created it for him. I don't know whether he still uses that ID. When we joined to become engineers there were some 200 colleges in TamilNadu. So that word did not make any big significance in our life after 4 years.

After 5 months of careless, lazy and breath transforming days..I started to become a (Ir)resposible student.I came to know that my friend Naveen had also joined my college, so I was happy that atleast I know one person in a horde of unknown faces. I called him the very night and we planned to meet at college b'cos he will not come to the busstop as his dad will drop him off on the first day of college. And at the busstop I saw many of my schoolmates, but everybody belonged to different colleges. In my schooldays I was just one among the funny guys of my classmates. I am not a good student, not a good bully either. So nothing is really important about me in school, Everybody asked me "which college you joined?"..When I replied "OxfordEngg College"..they giggled among themselves. Well! thats a good compliment.The reason for the giggle is b'cos nobody had heard such a college until last year. When the rest were in well known colleges, I got into this college which had no previous history. One of my schoolmate Prabhu on seeing my plight comforted(??) me saying "விடு மாப்பு எப்பிடியோ நீயும் இஞ்சினியர் ஆகிட்டல??" So after recieving their best compliments I got the bus and we all found our way into the bus I joined them in finding a seat for myself in the route bus which ply between Trichy and Tanjore. There I was seated and talking with my schoolmates. It was a 45 Mins journey and My final stop was Central Busstand. But most of my schoolmates got down at TVS Tolgate or the Aristo Roundtana. I was at Trichy Central Busstand. The Busstand is really big and to its one end shops served as compound wall. And to the front area of the shops there was space for local busses and when we enter we can see aisles of stands for different route busses. I didn't know that I have to stand outside I mean in the local buses area for the bus to my college, luckily one of the transport department employee guided me to a private bus. That bus was intended for Viralimalai.I asked the conductor whether that bus stops at Theeran Nagar. He said yes. When I got in, I could see some guys with their shoulder bags and neatly dressed, I guessed they are to the same college. My guess was correct, they too came to the same college. But neither me nor them uttered a single word. I really donno why. Then my stop came I got down and along with me some other guys too got down.
One among them was Senthil R.P .For some reason Senthil and me started to talk, at first Senthil seemed to be little reserved but after few minutes he started to talk casually. So I got my Second friend one more face other than Naveen. Thats nice isnt it?. I asked him "Have you seen the college before?". B'cos this is Pirattiyoor where we had the first day of our lecture. He was not sure either, and I too have seen it only from the road. I know the direction we have to walk but I didn't know where I should turn.So I was walking along side the mainroad and behind us were those guys from the bus (I suppose by now they guessed we all are going to the same college). I was thinking there should be some walkway were I can turn. And there was a tea stall, where I went and enquired where this college is, he said he is not aware of any college but there is some building coming up somewhere near and he showed us the place and pathway, then I remembered thats our college. Which I had seen earlier from the road. (I had once travelled to Ramji Nagar and on the way I had seen my college, thats when my uncle showed me that the new building coming up was the college) We thanked the tea shop guy and proceeded. I didn't realize then its going to be the tea stall where we are going to spend much of our college days. Not just tea, but food and ofcourse some times writing assignments too. And when we walked further, to our left was our college, yet we need to walk some 15 mins from the main road on a muddy trail. And our college was STILL under construction. There were two classes, rest were iron pillars ready for concrete mix and to be BUILT-UP. Ah..huh..this is where I'm going to study. It looked like a mess.

(I accept the fact that "நாம என்னமோ பெருசா படிச்சு கிழிச்ச மாதிரி stanford university ரேஞ்சுக்கு வேணும்னு நினைக்கிறோம்
...படிக்கலைன்னா எப்படி இருப்போம்னு அப்போ தான் தெரிஞ்சுது " Yet I feel on other aspect also. I am not a good student in school and I didn't even get good marks in a system of education where filling up the vessel is considered more important than kindling a flame inside a student. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't be provided with a good college.
When we stop to kindle the flame of thinking. And when we start to encourage education by rot. Then we will get people who can only be like me I mean working for our American Masters in Service centers, I'm still surprised to find even my peers who had excellent academic record in school and made upto best colleges are working like the same as what I am, so the marks in school doesn't really matter most)

Placing aside the above said analysis and getting down on the road, we were actually in a place which were paddy fields in the past whose skin was tarnished by our college buildings (sorry building) and concrete. And then me and senthil looked at eachother. I know that the same question was ringing in his mind too..and that is "டேய் மொத்தமாவே ரெண்டு ரூம்தானாடா????"..but we didn't tell this to each other and were acting decently. There were already some guys in the class, we went and sat down without breaking the existing silence...Some 10 mins would have gone by then, we heard a bus sound. It was our college bus. It was painted in bright colors with the Name of our college. It came as if a Carnival band wagon. And from there came the "Engineers" adding to those of us inside the class. I mean our college mates who went on to become engineers. Some were directed to the first room while some to the second room. That group from the bus were the hostelers. I was sitting alone in the 3rd bench, So Karthik and Suri sat next to me. Karthik a tall lean guy was from Palani. He is quite friendly and easy going than Suri (Suri was the guy, whom I envied earlier for his stylish canvas). And its no surprise that me and Karthik became more talkative in just few hours. By this time the guy I know, Naveen had made some friends and he was in the other section so we had really less interaction. And I felt quite comfortable with karthik and Suri. Though Suri was a quite guy and more reserved, I really liked him very much. So infact I sat with him for the rest of the year. When the dust settled down, our thalai (I hope u wud understand who it is) came up, greeted us and introduced us to Mr.Kannavasan, one of our lecturers. All the hostelers had known him already as he happend to be the warden. Then Kannavasan started to instruct us, yes really!!!!! he instructed us saying what we should do and what are the notebooks to be brought and how we should be disciplined, I guess by now everybody would have got a question "Aren't you saying that you are gonna write about college life, then why do u use the word 'instruct'???"..uh, The real system of education will have the school, where teachers should instruct students as they are shaped for College. Therefore if we are instructed and disciplined at school we will know our responsibilities at college where we will have our first taste of freedom. And in college they will let us taste the freedom with guided use of it. Therefore, immediately after the college when we would be out in the society as individuals with full freedom we will perform to be good citizens. Unfortunately this phase by phase change was absent in our Indian system of education. Therefore we had to be instructed even in college, and we students ofcourse behaved on many occasions as if we required to be instructed. I'm sure some of my friends and readers by now will be ready to fill me with threats or questions why am I blaming in this post a lot about education in our country. Its not that I'm blaming but I'm just writing the fact that our education system requires to be revamped. If anybody could think about our system and understand the usability of this system, they would definitely be on my side supporting my views of revamping. Ok..ok...let me continue...After Kannavasan left we had our Arun sir taking classes for Basic Electrical, then we had our break, they served us with tea and biscuits. I really thank my college management for that, there were no cafetaria nearby we have to walk 20 mins for the cafetaria in the main road and by the time the entire coffee break will be over. They served us with tea, when we are really hungry. Since our classes start as early as 8:30 AM we have less time for breakfast. The break was pretty nice I got acquainted with some more guys from my class. Then came Praguna madam for Basic electronics. And she started telling something about basic electronics and our thalai re-entered and he greeted us one more time and started saying some thing wonderful. He said there will be a TV on one side of the fiber board (thats our black board) and a Computer on other side and we will be connected with professors from foreign universities and they will be answering our questions and sometime we will have lecturing via video conferencing also. Earlier its our parents and now its ourtime to get mesmerised. I have said already he is a good orator. No offence here on thalai. Somehow I don't know I was dragged to think about the movie "Suryan" in which there will be the famous dialogue by Goundamani "அரசியல்ல இதெல்லாம் சாதாரணமப்பா!!"
Anyway when he left, we were all in cloud nine. Trying to attach the word "ENGINEER" to our name.
-To be Continued.