From New to Knew

....and I could see them all coming out. One could make out from their faces that no matter what went on in there today , they knew it was over. Their faces were filled with stories. Stories that took 4 long years to complete.

For those who know what i am talking about will know exactly how i felt at that moment. A bit of worry, a chunk of disappointment but still a heartful of joy and happiness and questions that asked about the near future. I am talking about the evening when me and all of my class mates came out of the examination hall after appearing for the last exam of the final smemster.
I could at that moment remember the very first day of my college life in JNEC, Aurangabad. I was a student of Diploma so I joined college in my second yr of engg. New faces in the classes, the staff room and everywhere you could look. I knew only one person in the college, my fellow classmate from Diploma(who after a couple of days left the engg college leaving me alone).
I felt what every new guy feels. Pushed in a town of strangers where I have to settle until I can buy my way out through study and exams.

When a new guy or girl enters in the class , especially when the others know each other, there are different reactions. A new boy will get the attention of boys raising eyebrows and questions like "Attitude , Huh?" or "DO you think you are the only one smart around here?" and girls will just undo their hair and tie up again N no. of times if the guy is good looking else they'll just go like "Baap re , who is this?"(WHat people said bout ME is highly confidential and the one who tries to spread the truth about it is punishable by law...MY law).
If a new girl comes to class, boys are like "Theek hai, jyada Khaas nahi" or "WOw, sahi hai yaar!", and you know what girls will say.(the same things boys thought about new boys)
But slowly as you talk to the guy/girl you realize how similar you are to them. After talks , a gentle smile from the girl or a hi-fi from the boy assures you that you have a new friend.
Same thing happened to me , although a lot faster because of my witty tongue and sense of humour. From there starts a new a phase of life , a phase thats sure to last longer than you school days in your memory. The fresher gatherings, annual gatherings, trips and all the fun. But personally I think I'd remember more the days in college, literally. I mean the fun gained in practicals, lectures, seminars etc.

A bit of more detail here seems necessary cause as this is for my mates who have lived the dream with me. Well , the lectures for starters. were quite so-so. I mean i agree you cant expect lecturers to know the subject and its basics!(what were the lecturers at IITs thinking??)But atleast most of them know the name of the subject they are teaching and where they had stopped teaching in the last lecture. Us students would just enjoy watching the teacher make mistakes and would leave no such situation go unnoticed. Appropriate amounts of ooohs and aahs, a few hoots to add to the mix, and animal sounds for garnishing. A perfect recipe for acknowledgement, of the fact that teacher made a mistake. (for my class , talking about a specific teacher with the name A. Gaikwad would bring all the lovely memories and tears back, memories for us and tears for her!)
Practicals, oh my God! They'd be the best time for some educational fun. I mean as a Comp. Sci guy, opening up printers and CPUs under the pretext of checking some fault would present us with valuable knowledge of how to screw up the PC by just loosening the wire or some h/w parts. Hey, hey, we did not damage anything, we did it to get the practical off to do whats described below.
Times with absence of classes or practicals would be generously spent on the CAFE. Now let me tell you the CAFE is the most famous place in our college where lovebirds and groups of friends used to sit spend their free and bunked time.Of course i'd settle down with friends due lack of girlfriends.Every on would just have fun cause there'd be no lecturers nearby. The second most famous place is the Kaatey, where you can experience the bliss of sandwiches and pohe alike.(the above rankings of places have been said to be so considering the amount of knowledge, the boys and girls both ,have about places. Detailed scenarios of both places will probably be given in the next post)
Maybe you have some other hangouts in your college, maybe you had somewhat different things happening in you campus(,maybe you had teachers who knew what they were teaching!!) Although different places and different names but I am sure more or less you will have experienced the same things.

The transition from a student to Engineer,was is it worth it? Was is it necessary? Will one gain from it? There is no specific answer to the question. It depends on the person who asks the question. For it is upto you to make it worth it or gain from it. A fresher cannot answer these questions for he says "I am new to the college". An engineer can only say "I knew the college".But has that institution made an impact on your life. Only time can tell.

For all you undergrads out there, I can only advise you make the journey worth remembering.
The journey from new... to knew...