BITS-Pilani Chapter-I

As stated in my previous post, I decided to choose civil engineering at BITS-Pilani over a career in merchant navy. My dad accompanied me to pilani. It was a long and tiring journey. The reason was that we took the wrong route, which proved to be long. We reached pilani at 2 AM in the morning, and we were dead tired. We tried looking for a lodge for a night's stay, but couldn't find anything. So we were sitting outside a shop when suddenly dad went to buy a cigarette. There he met someone who offered to help. He was here for his brother's admission. He said that the college was providing the acco for guardians of the to be admitted students. He was kind enough to take us inside the campus in his car. So we went with him and were told that we were supposed to stay at Shankar Bhawan. The chowkidar escorted us to room number 416.

Upon entering the room, I didn't find the room to be much. And to make things worse, dad didn't like it much either. He even asked me if I still wanted to go to mumbai for merchant navy. I refused, coz I had made a decision to stay here. So however bad it was going to be, it was going to be here. We woke up in the morning but were unable to locate the mess. So we went to a redi and had something to stuff ourselves up. The registration was underway. We were photographed in the most annoying manner(I think all BITSians would agree). There was orientation session and some formalities.

The thing that was about to strike us was still on its way. I found out that there was still a way to go to BITS-Goa. I had heard that cut-off's for Goa were low. So that meant that i would be getting a higher preference of my choices. But the problem was that dad was short on leaves. He had to leave immediately. It was not due to his short supply of leaves, but my decision to stay that led me to stay in Pilani. And now I am grateful to god with all my heart that I made the right choice.

It was a weird feeling, staying by myself. I went to the bus stand to see dad off. I wanted to cry but I knew I couldn't. I was a big boy. A college student now. Do college students cry? I asked myself that kept the tears inside.

Like almost all the freshers, I had a room mate. At first he seemed to be very nice. Later I found out how careless he was. Losing things and blaming others. I still remember lending him a hefty amount of cash, coz he wasn't able to locate his money. Later I found it for him after browsing through his stuff.

Unlike other guys at college, I was very reserved and introverted. When all freshers were busy meeting each other and making friends, I was busy with my harmonica, enjoying my loneliness. I used to get to bed at 10 o'clock. I know...that is kinda childlike. My mind fills with a feeling of pity for myself back then. I was so naive. It was almost a week before I came out of my room and talked to the people in the adjacent room. They seemed to be nice people. And soon were going to be very good friends of mine. One of them, bhuvan was going to be the closest friend in BITS. At first he was difficult to understand. He spoke so fast that I could hardly get anything to my head. So i just nodded irrespective of what he spoke.

Soon I began to mingle with other people as well. I somehow managed to make a few friends. Ragging was the hot topic everyone was talking about. I had started doing push-ups in class 12th so that I could take some amount of physical ragging. But I was surprised to know that there was hardly any ragging here. Although it wasn't completely extinct, it was very little. I remember one of the seniors who tried to rag me but left after saying that I was too innocent and naive. He told me to be careful, for it was a bad world out there.

I used to be a very sincere student back then. I used to wake up at 6, took a bath, went to classes. Very unlike the person I was about to become. I had to walk quite a bit and I must say that I lost quite a few inches on my waist. I used to go to the library every day to go through the notes of the classes. Not to mention that my primary aim was to take another shot at JEE and go to the IIT's. But I fell in love with the place in a matter of days. And I never thought about JEE again. I was working hard and wanted to get transferred from civil to computer-science.

I hardly went out anywhere during the first semester. Never played anything, didn't join any clubs or associations as I thought they would waste precious time. For leisure, I used to sometimes watch TV in the common room. I used to play table-tennis. Also I spent quite a bit of my time with my harmonica. It was a good companion to have.

The food was ok. I was quite comfortable with it, however a few of my colleagues weren't satisfied. They sometimes approached the mess authorities with demands of improving the quality of food.

During the 1st semester, I hardly came into contact with anyone other than the handful of friends I had made, and a few of the seniors. I was more concerned about my studies.
The end semester tests arrived. They were not so good. I couldn't do as well as I could have. Especially physics, I must say that I can't get hold of that one subject. My mind simply stops functioning when it comes to Physics.

Anyways I made a GPA of 7.47, which was far below what I had in mind. Now I could never get a transfer into computer science. But as they say, whatever happens, happens for the best. I got a transfer into Chemical Engg on the basis of my BITSAT score. And I must say that it was a life-saving thing for me. Although the joy wasn't that evident back then, but I am grateful that I got a transfer.

That was the end of the first semester. Quite dull and nothing happening there. But do keep reading....the surprises which are about to be unfolded are really worth reading. Some people even might change the way they think about me after reading it from here. CYA!