Neverland - My Article for Alvida

Neverland

It is often said that you don’t realize the importance of things until you are on the verge of losing them. True, very much so.

I even say, that when you don’t have much time left, you realize which things are really important for you.

Until this last semester, life here went on at the usual pace. What with the day being spent in the academic block, and the nights in the hostel.  It never hit me that I’ll be leaving JUIT in another 6 months. The realization only came once we were placed in Infosys and my friends were leaving JUIT to join it. I made the very difficult decision of not joining Infy to pursue my dream of doing MS at a world renowned Institute.

Friends started leaving for Mysore around 25^th of January. It was heart wrenching to bid goodbye to them. When things change in your life at a normal pace or in a preordained fashion, you acclimatize to the change with sufficient ease. But when something is suddenly thrown in your face, it becomes so much more difficult.

After this episode I was at home for a good one month. On my way to JUIT a single thought kept recurring to me, “This’ll be the last time I’m making this trip from Raipur to JUIT.” In that single journey the entire three and a half years of my life at JUIT flashed before my eyes.

How I relished the very sight of mountains and clouds, the first time I visited here, and unlike most of my peers I’m still in love with the beauty of this place. Who knows, when will we again have the chance of living in such a scenic place.

Every semester in JUIT had a different flavour to it. That’s how I’d like to recall my stay and our stay here.

The first semester was the one with heightened emotions. Many of us were leaving home for the first time and we were starting friendships that were going to last a lifetime. The semester started with our mild ragging in a new environment. How we were always looking for ways to save our necks from having to do works of our seniors. How our teachers helped us to acclimatize to the new setting. How we came to meet new faces. How we went to library in the nights before exams to study, not having PC’s of our own. How we loved to chat into the nights with our room and floor mates. How we bonded with each other. It was surreal. Being in a new place, yet not feeling it. How anxiously we waited for the first Diwali holidays when we could return to our home. How it was the only semester where we could treat the two minor exams as minors and faced one 3 hr. major at the end of the sem. Heaven knows that most of us would suffocate if faced with the prospect of having to appear in a 3 hr. exam. Most of us are already planning to leave the LT early in the 2 hr. final T3 of our Engineering. I devoured many novels that were present in the library in the first sem. And so the first semester was spent.

By the time the second semester had begun lots of stuff had changed. We were now experienced engineering students, unable to handle one hour lectures! ;) Depending upon the teacher, sooner or later a group chorus of ‘Sirrrrrrrr’ used to echo in the LTs. We could now be found in places like McD and Café (which was in the lower mess then). Groups of friends had formed. Going out on a batch trip was the new hip thing for a batch. Classes were being bunked and we were being reprimanded for it. How we monitored the quality of education that was being imparted to us J, by judging the quality of lectures. The entire batch used to copy paste the physics and electronics practical file from a single source. As I was through with most of the good novels that were present in the smallish bookshelf, I took the initiative to get many more good novels in our library. And thus the small bookshelf turned into a complete rack, as we see it today. By the way this was the semester in which most of us witnessed snowfall for the first time in our lives.

With the advent of the second year, the feeling of seniority spread like a wave amongst us. We didn’t much exploit it though. This was the time when LAN gaming reached its apex. I formed my own CS team ‘Transformers’ and participated in a league. By this time each 1 hr gap between classes was used for team practice and one on one matches. The match recordings that I made during that time, are testimony to my superiority! Studies were of course important, but only before exams! ;) By this time many groups had broken into smaller ones as a result of courtship between people! Many hearts had united and many more had been broken! ;)

By the time the fourth semester had started my interest shifted to watching TV serials and movies. I was bored with Counter Strike (CS) by this time. On the other hand many of my gamer friends had shifted to AOE, but most were still in love with CS. This semester saw the entire year sweating to make a good financial management presentation. Many were relieved to be free from Physics. We were now comfortable daydreaming in our classes. Throughout our engineering life, time passed on swiftly, except for one recurring occasion. Exams! Those 3-7 days of our exams seemed to be the slowest phase of our entire semester. Time here stood still and in that frozen moment you could see a whole new world. People could be seen grouped like zombies around one prey holding a notebook and a pen and muttering something. The zombies stood there trying to grasp each and every word that was uttered as if that was their food. You could see people running amok. Knocking on many doors trying to get that elixir which would save their lives the next morning. Surprisingly, there was another herd to be found, which was glued to the computers, playing games. Reality only hit them an hour or two before the exam; when it was too late!

Much had been heard about the third year of engineering by us, by the time it started. We had expectations. We wanted to be placed in companies, any company! We had heard about how hard this year would be. This would be the year when we’ll really learn, what engineering really is! Much of what we’d heard was true. Many started preparing for MBA, while others were still perplexed about their future, myself being in the latter group. There was no inkling of companies coming in the near future. Despite few reminders from our T & P cell we procrastinated our preparation for campus placemets. By this time we’d toured many near and far places. Shimla was a destination for weekend recursion. Our hostels had changed at the beginning of this year. The old hostel (14 – Azad Bhawan) held many charming memories with it, and had an awesome view of the valley. The new hostel (H-2) however, made the frequently visited campus places (Academic, Café, Laundry, McD, Rasoi and Temple) much more easily accessible and had a longer supply of hot running water. J

And then the sixth semester arrived. There was no hint of any campus placements. The Indian companies had got a nice excuse in the form of ‘Recession‘ to lay off employees, stall increments and most importantly, to postpone fresh induction of new workforce. For the umpteenth time, we once again reflected how we were the victim of many such events, starting with IIT entrances, reservation and now this. We were oblivious to the fact that very soon we were going to be the guinea pigs of the University, to test the introduction of the system of project lab hours and the reduction of project credits. The Computer Science students had a particularly very very busy semester. I used to envy my roommate who was in ECE. He relished the free time at his hand while I was always bogged down with assignments and projects. I yearned to have time to watch a movie. Anyhow, this semester too, passed.

The seventh semester began with people discussing their future options. There was still, no wind of placemets. Everyone was anxious. Word was out that recruitments by companies would be done in the final semester. Friends had started worrying on how to improve their profile and were trying to increase their CGPA. People now had very few classes and also had the B. Tech. project to work on. We had plenty of time but we kept ourselves busy preparing for GRE, CAT etc. Occasionally we went out on trips. By this time everyone had his/her own comfortable zone. Some liked to while away their time with friends, some by gaming, while others were busy with their preparations. This semester highlighted the apex of uncertainty in most of our lives. The uncertainty of our future. The expectation of our families. Finally we appeared in the exams for which we’d been preparing for a long time; GRE, CAT etc. The results were both sweet and sour for different people.

Towards the end of the semester, there was a false alarm of Accenture coming for placemets. Then Infosys called us to Noida. We had mixed opinion about this too. But hardly anyone would’ve guessed that they were planning to recruit us on 15^th Dec! We frantically started our preparation. And whoa! 621 students had been placed in Infosys. For majority of our batch a dream had come true. But with the placemets, also came the news of early induction of CSE and IT batches. Plans were being made left and right. The rest is history, as mentioned above.

This brings us to the final semester; for those who are still in JUIT. Of course, many of our friends had left. But change also leads to transformation. Who’d have thought that even in this last leg of our fantastic race, new friends would be made and some friendships would grow so strong! How some friendships would be renewed! We had the exact same free time as the previous semester, as could be seen from the no. of credits we had, but it felt like 20 times more. We did all and everything we could think of. Playing games. Night outs after night outs. Watching movies and serials endlessly. Chatting with friends incessantly . We made daily mid night trips to the Rasoi (My Rasoi Pact! J). I even malled with friends at 4 AM in the night and took pictures in the academic block at midnight. We made frequent and long trips to our homes. Studies really did take a backseat. But not at the time of the exams. Project lab became a place to spend time with friends while surfing the net. We did everything there, except project work, except at the time of project presentation of course. For reasons many, I’m certain, I was meant to be in JUIT, in this last semester!

As the countdown to leave this place has begun, I cannot help to reflect upon my life here, day in and day out.

I recalled, how I’d planned on two things while coming to JUIT, having fun, while excelling in academics. Both objectives, I can see now have been achieved. J

Another thing that I wished, was to make friends for life. This wish too has come true. J

Despite many hurdles, our batch has emerged victorious and has turned out to be the brightest batch that JUIT has ever seen.

This was not the best of the places to be, but it most certainly gave more in return to each and every one of us in varied forms. From being the place that helped us to get good jobs, to helping us to pursue studies in the most prestigious of places. From giving us memories to cherish for a lifetime, to giving us friends and partners to share them with. It really has been a home for us, one that even Alzheimers would be hard put to erase from our memories. Its so hard to leave this place, for infinite reasons that can’t be put into words!

Love You JUIT!

You’re my Neverland! J

Tushar Jaiswal

061304

4^th Year, CSE