Live life to the fullest, so that when you transit, you can have memories and not tears.
~ Uddeshya Kumar
Yeah, I used my own quote in this article thus being “aatm-nirbhar”. So, this used to be my motto in life… to always live in the present and enjoy as much as I can so that when I undergo a transition between the worldly phases, I can move on to the future without a constant echo of the past. Worked just fine for me to date but now, I’m stuck! I’m stuck thinking that can I ever have any more fun than what I had here? I’m stuck thinking that can the new people who I meet later in my life possibly have even a shred of awesomeness that my friends, my people of BIT had? And finally, I’m stuck thinking, can I ever have this freedom that I experienced here anywhere else? Maybe, maybe not.
A very wise Jeetu bhaiyya once said, “bas 21 din ka suffer hai, bas 21 din lagte rang chadhne me.” But that isn’t the case with us! We, the batch of 2k16, became BITians the very next day after we entered this college! The reason? Only four words, “Re phast-year, 90 maar!” First-year was like an introduction to the real world for our sorry asses. This was the time when we came to know that, “Beta bhaiyya nhi, sir hota hai!” The inductions used to be of only a single day before 2017, and that too was washed away by a drizzle and as a result of which we were left completely clueless about the decorum of this institute. The next day, our group of newly made friends set out in search of an adventure, but little did we know that the adventure was waiting for us at PMC. And here again, we heard those four magical words, “Re phast-year, 90 maar!” All of us were quite hesitant to follow that command because “Who the heck are they to order us to do something?!” Well, we found that out in the next few minutes and that adventure turned into a slaughter, for our hair. And thus, we found out what the term 9mm meant in a very painful manner.
Later, to be cool, I decided to join some clubs and it opened the door to a whole new world for me. Finally, I had a place where I can be with likeminded people and develop my own skillset! But it sure did expand my circle and finally, I was in touch with some awesome final year seniors, who had a lot of wisdom to offer.
The rest of the first year went by in a flash, with a lot of events to fill up the time, and one such milestone was FOYC. This brought us closer to our branch mates and this was the time when we heard the phrase, “Abe ye CS me hai?!” a countless number of times. All of this made me some very nice friends, and I saw the prime example of their friendship on my birthday when they arranged for such a wonderful surprise, which even continued till the next day. Can’t ever forget that!
After all of this, arrived the hostel calling ceremony before our precious freshers’ party, in which all our dear seniors interacted with us on the next level, and that too in a totally friendly and non-violent manner. But at that time, we found out that all of the hesitation, fear, and the false sense of ego that we had at the start of the session has completely evaporated and these scary devilish seniors were finally more approachable and friendly. Thus, ended our first year.
The second-year was basically a picturization of IDGAF! It was a cycle of professors waking us up in the early morning for classes, us going an extra 200 meters past the classroom to MG, sports, movies, pranks and friendly & non-violent intro sessions with juniors, because “pratha”. The best things that happened to me this year was me meeting Jackie sir and finally finding out about my passion for Graphic & UI Design, Shreya ma’am giving me access to the girls hostel on the last day of batch 2k14 in BIT and the first session of Khajadi nights (LS people would know). And yeah, there was also BITAANSH! This was the time I discovered to what extent your friends can go to, to watch you win and how high those heels can actually go…
Third-year of our college life was a complete turn-over. This was the time when we finally grew serious about our careers. As the late-night work sessions grew intense and copious, we finally understood the true meaning of, “Work hard, play harder.” Students began doing stuff they pledged to avoid at all costs at the beginning of this campus life in order to get out of this monotonous and totally unhappening life, vegetarians went non-veg, sippers began chugging, sports fanatics began puffing, etc. We also had many new experiences and I learned the most fundamental rule, “The world is a shithole, and it doesn’t always go your way.” But to cope up with this, came to our rescue, the wise words of Lord Batman, “It’s not who you are, but what you do, that defines you!” The prime example of this was for our team to travel to New Delhi from Dhanbad in a general coach to attend the SIH 2019 finals (as our dear faculty didn’t have had enough connections with the DRM to provide us 3 RACs. Smh). During these three years in college, when did those scary immediate seniors of ours turned into untold brothers is still a mystery to me. And the end of our third year brought an end to their campus life as well. As we were watching them depart, a very bitter-sweet truth hit us like a raging bull. We were going to be the final years!
And thus, started the final chapter of our college life and along with it began the real race. During the final year, everyone had only one thing in their mind, we need to be settled before this session ends! As the placement season started, the echoes of the historic belt-e-belt tradition could be heard in the final year hostels. God only knows when did the peace-loving lot of BIT turned this aggressive and what could be the contributing factor! This year, we all witnessed something new, which was the NBA team visiting our institute to measure our greatness… you might’ve heard the phrase, “BITians are second to none”. To back this claim of our able Admin, we were decreed to publish the Sarjana magazine within a month, yes, the same amount of time it takes to design a cover, worthy enough of carrying the name BIT and Sarjana. During this time, we sacrificed countless nights and even midsems. Anyways it is said that you get to really know the person when you spend more time together and work along with them. Well… I found out how evil some juniors can truly be during this time. Yes, I’m talking about you Vikrant and Anibrato, and also thanks to some people for providing us with their room while they were busy with something else (*coughs in KM, those who know, they know).
Many things changed in final-year: night-outs became common, complete attire change, Dhanbad seemed closer, people stopped asking for permissions for trips, and most importantly, the rate at which we visited our homes dropped heavily! All of us were trying to have fun because we knew that these were our last days in college but at the same time, we knew, these were our last days in college! Night sessions were spent discussing and planning for the tentative farewells. But suddenly came this Chinese virus (I know it is SARS-CoV2) and washed away all of our plans and the last of our precious moments in this god-forsaken place we started calling home. This lockdown affected all the people in many different ways! Like some people got their physique destroyed, some people binge-watched some series, some took up new skills, some formed a new cult with a new “Prabhu” talking about various things like Chidiya, Naagraj, etc. But for us final years, it took away our farewell, and every passing day, we pray that this pandemic ceases so that we can at least have a last laugh n cry together.
Finally, I would like to state that Engineering life is all about realizations:
In the first year, we realize that the world is not a candy shop but a bed of thorns. You’ll have to get strong enough to survive!
In the second year, we realize that the phrase, “Rules and norms are meant to be broken” carries some truth in it.
In the third year, we realize that people do change and so do you! And that maybe for good only. Thus, changes should be welcomed.
In the final year, we realize that nothing is permanent. Everything has a certain time frame assigned to them and anything, be it good or bad, comes to an end.
These are my realizations. What you observe is totally up to you…
P.S.: All the puns and sarcasm are totally intended and you can infer them in any way you like. Also, may Thor befall his thunder on you normies…
SARJANA 