My third year of Engineering started with a sad note. I missed my seniors. Few of the senior girls in my bus had become close and I missed them a lot. I stepped in to third year keeping placements in mind and also with a purpose of scoring big in exams as VTU considers the marks only from 5th semester to 8th semester for award of class in B.E. But I do personally feel that VTU should consider marks right from 1st semester for award of class and ranks.
One thing I hated in Engineering was change of teachers in each and every semester. We would have impressed a teacher in our previous semester and they would know how we behave in class and how we score in exams and when new teacher comes, we will have to start all over again. Unfortunately, in 5th semester, 3 out of 6 theory subjects were handled by new teachers and it was like we were put in for experimenting how the teachers would handle the class and because of this I lost that enthusiasm towards subjects and 5th semester was quite boring.
There was one subject called Control Engineering and I should speak about this subject. I feel it is a subject which is not at all required for Mechanical Engineering and was a complete Electronics subject with those stupid circuits and algorithms. The teacher who called me "Angry Young Man" handled this subject and I was surprised by the way he taught and his willingness to teach the concept again and again. That was one change I observed in him which was not there in the past.
A beautiful teacher joined our college but sadly it was for Computer science department. She reserved a place in every boy's heart and I can never forget the way Appanna who was in first bench used to give that Million Dollar smile looking back at back bench boys when she used to walk on the corridors when our classes were going on. I should also say how smart our boys were when they used to stare girls through opening windows slightly and when some teachers saw that and enquired, they would say "Fresh air sir" and all of us knew what he meant by "Fresh air" and teachers would join our laughter which was the best part of Mechanical branch.
Coming to labs, I was relieved that one of the subjects is dealt with computers. ANSYS, which is a Mechanical analysis software, was very interesting. I loved it. I hated the other lab which was Machine shop. I feel the college authorities should give the right protective outfits when there is a danger in dealing with few labs. When I was in PUC, I burnt my fingers many times when working with concentrated Sulphuric Acid and thankfully there was no playing with it in Engineering Chemistry. But in Machine shop, hot metallic chips hit my eyes twice and it was on final exam day too. Wish they would have given a protective spectacle or would have given permission for wearing a cooling glass during that lab. By doing so, it would have helped boys to impress few girls too!! Part-B in Machine shop was funny, operation in Milling machine. It was like switching on the machine, rotate a wheel twice or thrice and it would do Milling by itself and goodness gracious, you have earned 10 marks for yourself!!
Majority of the boys in other departments used to spend their free time chatting with girls. But for us, Cricket was our girl friend, Cricket was our best friend and Cricket was our life. We were never scared of that scorching heat the sun produced during summer and never let it dominate over our love towards Cricket. We played under sun, under rain and in those strong winds which used to favour swing for bowlers.
For the first time ever, we were made to sit next to girls of other departments in 2nd floor when our internals were going on and all boys were in great joy. Earlier, one would give off his answer booklet and go out soon when he did not know anything to write but when it was in a class where girls used to sit next to them, none would move out of class even though they did not know anything to write.
Library was like a temple for us. We would go there only if there was a problem like when Internals were about to start. Library would be fully packed only during internals and exams and one foolish policy of our library was to deposit the double cost of a book if we require that book to be taken home during exams. I am not against the deposit but what's with double cost??
I loved Dynamics of Machinery subject the most in 5th semester. I can never forget the numerical problems we solved about Gyroscopes, Governors, Air planes, ships and other automobiles in this subject. Though the problems were quite complex and lengthy, I enjoyed it. The continuation of Design subject was also very good and I should say our Surendra sir was the right person to handle Design subject. Though Fluid Machinery is a nice subject, the lecturer messed it up with his own strategy saying that he will just finish 60 marks and do revision instead of completing 100 marks.
5th Semester exams began and I was screwed up in all the subjects. It was easy but I did not have that enthusiasm of performing well. I chose wrong topics to study for exams and I paid for it. Though my percentage of 5th semester was not bad, I was not satisfied with my marks and I did not take it forward. I forgot my 5th semester performance and my all focus were on placements.
As soon as 5th semester exams finished, the college management ordered us to attend placement training without giving at least 2 days break. We prepared our life's first resume at this time and there were many speeches by many people about placements. Our college made a mistake by giving many mock tests but not discussing the answers which led in building a mental complex about aptitude tests. All knew what type of questions would be asked but very less people knew how to tackle such problems. It was a 10 day training program and they told the importance of in-plant trainings for placements. So a hunt started to approach each and every company for in-plant training. Fortunately, I had a class mate whose uncle used to work in HAL and we got permission to do an In-plant training there. It was for 5 days and my learning quotient was zero there. I could not understand the working procedure of those giant machines and I was just eager to collect a certificate, that's it. You would not believe if i say we bunked in-plant training too and went to a movie. We were four people in HAL from our college. But it was a good experience.
I thought single In-plant training would not be sufficient and hence I approached Bosch for which I got permission and I and Baba did our training for 6 days in Bosch-Nagnathpura plant. Bosch was strict when compared to HAL. There was no chance for bunking here. The food was awesome and I liked the process of manufacturing the spark-plugs, from powder to a solid powerful spark-plug. We finished 6 days and obtained a certificate from Bosch as well.
Our 6th semester began on February 8th and the company for which we would be giving our first placement test was Wipro on February 14th 2008. It was a day where everyone came with their high hopes; high spirits and 9 colleges were invited to our college for pool campus recruitment. I will never forget the way there was a cheer from each and every student present there after seeing a presentation from our college side. It boosted up their spirits and it was a first opportunity to get a job for most of them present there. There were about 600-800 students from 9 colleges and it was a massive recruitment drive. One thing I hated about placements was the time they made us wait to announce the results of our level 1 aptitude tests. For Wipro, we finished our aptitude test by 11 am and they announced the results at 4 pm. I was disappointed not to see my name there and it was same with all people whose names were not there.
My face brightened up when I heard another company called L & T would be coming the next day for recruitment and it would be only for our college. For Wipro, only one person from our branch got placed and no one expected him to be the one who would get placed and it was a major shock to all the lecturers. Around 15 were placed to Wipro from our college including all 4 branches and since it was a one day recruitment process, it went on till 12 am for those who had qualified. L & T aptitude was like never ending one and just one from the entire college was qualified for the next round.
Our college did one more foolish thing by making us all attend another placement training program at our expense which was completely useless and hopeless. The level at which they trained us was like we were attending some CAT exam or something. When we were at a position where we are unable to understand the simple basics of aptitude questions, imagine the level of CAT exam type training!! No one was benefited by that program.
5th semester results were announced in last week of February and I was least bothered about my results as my aim was to get placed to some company or the other and hence all my focus were on placements. On February 26th 2008, we were told that we will be writing a placement test for Infosys in BTL College and all were happy to get another opportunity. Again, it was just one person qualifying for the next round and everybody's hopes were shattered. I told to myself not to have that high hopes hereafter and will not bother if I am placed or not.
March 11th 2008, Monday, Keane (Caritor) came to our college for the recruitment drive. Their aptitude test was one of the easiest tests I ever wrote and I liked them for keeping an essay as well for evaluation. I knew I had done well and was waiting for the results. As expected, many of them had cleared aptitude including me and our next round was group discussion. Fortunately, my group had just 1 girl and rests all boys and I knew I would clear this round as well. If it were many girls in the group, it would have become a fish market for sure as it happened in other groups. I cleared this stage with ease and next round was Technical interview. My technical interview was with a lady and she liked the interest I had towards C language. Though it was Mechanical questions for all, there was no single Mechanical question asked to me and I was happier to give answers for questions asked in C language. I was not sure whether I would clear this round and for my dismay, it was said that results of technical interview would be announced on Friday and HR round will be held on that same day.
March 15th 2008, Friday, Eight from Mechanical had given their Technical interview and I am sure none of them would have had a good sleep like me since Monday. I did not want to say anyone that I cleared 2 rounds and yes, I was little superstitious. I was waiting for Friday and I was so relieved when I heard my name to be qualified for next round. I had to wait for a long time for the last round of interview. My HR round was a little tricky one. He asked me few tricky questions for which I was honest and gave my answers. It was just a 10 minutes interview and I was not at all confident that I would be selected. The answers I gave in HR round haunted me all the while and I used to think I should have said this, I should have said that. I was so nervous that I skipped my meal and was waiting for the results. When it was 3 pm and still no signs of announcing results, I plugged my MP3 player to my ears and started listening music and forgot about the outcome of my results. They came in at 3 45 pm and started announcing the results. First name was my classmate's, Jayanth. 6 of them from my class had made it to last round and there were about 30 of them from all the branches waiting to hear their name. When I heard my name, I was on cloud 9 and what a feel it was!! There was no end to my joy and I wanted my mom to know about it as soon as possible. 5 from my class and 23-26 from entire college got placed to Keane.
Seeing high number of people getting placed to Keane, many of them started working harder for recruitments and sadly, Keane was the last company in which Mechanical guys were allowed for recruitments. Placement helped me a bit in getting recognized in college. With all these, I was least bothered about the subjects in sixth semester. After few days, while going home by bus, I once heard lecturers talking about placements and how students would behave after getting placed and show no more interest on studies. I wanted to prove them wrong and I wanted to tell them that it is not true with my case and my behaviour will not change no matter whatever happens. I always gave priority to discipline and when I am from NCC background, I knew the importance of discipline and character.
For the first time ever, we had a female lecturer Mrs. Hamsapriya handling a Mechanical subject Engineering Economy and she was very friendly and taught the subject well. But it was Operations Research subject which stole my heart and this was my most favourite subject in the entire span of Engineering. I loved this subject because it was a complete problematic subject with no necessity of learning definitions and other silly theory and each numerical problem was of 20 marks and hence if you know 5 concepts, you were all set to score 100!! Mechanical Vibrations was another subject which was a difficult one but it was interesting. I can never forget the way our classmates used to make fun of the lecturer who was handling this subject.
Elective subject came into picture from this semester. We chose Theory of Elasticity and I repented later for choosing this subject. Mr.KNS used to handle this subject and the specialty of this lecturer was it would be general talk for at least 30 minutes in his every class and our boys were always keen to have that general talk going on and on instead of writing the notes he dictated. This subject did not have a text book written by a local author and it hit me seriously as I referred to 4-5 notes and it got complicated. As usual, VTU skipped off 2 chapters in this subject which I had studied thoroughly and I was "Stamped" in this subject.
The labs of 6th semester were Fluid Machinery and Energy Conversion. The former lab was like playing with water in every machine and we got a chance to play with Mercury as well when we broke a thermometer! Energy Conversion lab was a beauty. I loved all experiments in this lab and the best part was long calculations.
Sixth semester exams started with Operations Research and there were no efforts by me to study that subject in depth as it was all about 5 simple concepts. My aim was to score 626/900 in this semester and I was 10 marks short when I saw my results and it did not disappoint me that much. My Viva-voce in Energy conversion lab went superb and I cannot forget the way the invigilator praised me after I gave the perfect definition when he asked me what Knocking and Octane number is.
Gowda's change of lady-love surprised us all. His preference changed from a thin girl to someone who matches his personality and he became crazy about her. The best part of this semester was 2 sections of Mechanical branch became one and Diploma students joined us and were too friendly. I and Sandy became close friends and I used to admire him for his readiness to mingle with people. With time, I started to enjoy the deadly jokes cracked by Nischith(Patte) and Naveen(Tini).
More about my friends and how they won my heart will be in next blog....
To be continued....
