22 November 2008, Saturday, Bangalore Mirror published a
cover story on VTU revaluation system where a student was not given the right
marks even after applying for revaluation.
This was some awesome news to my ears as I knew there will
be a lenient evaluation because of this and I was damn right. For the first
time ever, I got 3% (27 marks) more than I expected in my 7th semester results.
There were no more labs in 8th semester and Mechanical
Engineering guys always bid farewell to labs in style through art on uniform.
It's always nice to experience the nostalgia of autographs from lecturers and
friends on uniform.
The best part of 8th semester was attending college for 3
days only and the other 3 days we had to spend on the project. Finding a
project was one hell of a task and forming a team was another. Somehow, a team
of 4 was made which had me, Gowda, Tini and Vishak. Though the initial days of
searching project landed us in a shameful act of settling for a project by
paying for a prototype in market which is already done by someone else and
ready to be delivered, we didn't do that and got a project in Bosch. Thanks to
Gowda's father working there.
I still don't know what we did there but ended up getting
98/100 in our project. Those project days made me learn a lot of things. I
never knew someone can eat so much until I saw my team mates eat. What an
appetite they had!!!! Sometimes my stomach would be full seeing them eat. It
was free and unlimited food in Bosch. Though the food was ultimate in quality,
I was never an appetite guy and didn't make much use of it as my team mates
did. Next, I saw another face of Gowda which I had never seen in 3 years with
him. I had never seen him being so angry on someone and was surprised that he
was angry on me for being 10 minutes late. He did apologize later but I was
astonished with a sudden change in him. Lastly, the pleasure you get when you
do something you love after you are stressed to the core! The project was going
tough and we were stressed and there came a stressbuster in the form of
Cricket. We started playing Cricket for sometime everyday after we came out of
Bosch and had a great relief. I miss those days!!
I still have that guilt of doing nothing when my team mates
were striving hard to design the component of our project through Catia. I
never understood Catia and I never understood design. It was nice to see the
workers in Bosch staring at us everyday and we used to admire the heavy
machines and the ease with which the workers controlled those mammoth machines.
Then came the Project-Report formation. If xerox shops do exist and if they are
making profits, it's because of Engineering students! It was irritating to do
the report in a specific way and it was more annoying when all the hard work we
put to form the report was seen just for 3 minutes and thrown somewhere in
library after the project presentation was over. I still remember it was 2 AM when
my team mates left my home the night project report was completed.
According to surveys I went through, final year Engineering
was the most enjoyed by students and hence I too had a feeling that I am going
to enjoy it which turned out to be the other way after our new HOD came in. He
was unfit to be a HOD. The fun of being in last semester and the fun in being
the seniors of the college were all ruined by this man. What a wrong time he
came in! The biggest blunder he did was arranging parents meet for shortage of
attendance. That too for 8th semester guys!! And attending 4/5 classes still
left you at 80% attendance which is lesser than the prescribed required
attendance and it is shortage!
I badly wanted a break and we all headed to Sangam on a
weekend and had good time there with all friends. The seminars were fun.
Especially to sit as audience and stare at your friend like you are going to eat
him when he is on the dais. It is that moment when the presenter thinks why the
hell he chose Engineering to make a career. Microsoft would literally die if
they see the bloopers we make on powerpoint presentations during our seminars
in Engineering.
I got a chance to compere once for a Mech-Tech program
organized by our college. I might sound narcissistic but I really fell in love
with my own voice there. We had just 3 subjects in 8th Sem, Powerplant
Engineering, Composite Materials, Robotics and an optional subject Constitution
of India. Powerplant Engg was interesting, gave a wider picture to think. Robotics
was a tough one. Composite Materials was boring. Constitution gave a nightmare
after the exam as I thought I would flunk in it.
I needed 80% in 8th sem to make my aggregate 70% from 1-8
semesters. I badly needed it. I was very much happy when I saw my results.
Received 82% and the biggest miracle was I had cleared Constitution! My
objective of getting 70% aggregate was achieved but I need not say how tragic
2009 was due to recession.
Every moment spent in my 4 years of Engineering was
priceless. If given a chance, I would love to do Engineering again in that same
college, in that same MECHANICAL branch, with those same classmates, with those
same teachers and of course with those same beautiful subjects and yes, with
lotz of Cricket!!
THE END.
