The year 2006 A.D.

'THIS WAS DEFINITELY WHAT I’D CALL ‘ONE HECK OF AN YEAR’.

As I’m standing at the end of 2006, looking back at the one year I’ve gone through, I can’t say anything else. A year ago, I did not have had the slightest idea what I was to become, or rather, what my life was to become in this one year. It’s changed my whole goddamn life upside down! Though I’m more or less the same in physical appearance, it’s the inner self, as one would call it, which has been subjected to a complete transformation by the …eh…vicissitudes of fate. Let’s look at the phases these changes took place, one by one…

PHASE 1 (January, February and March): The Headache

My half yearly marks had just come out and they were nowhere near encouraging. And it was time for my model exams. Added to this was the Ten Test headache at my tuition centers. I really didn’t do anything these three months except for jumping from one test to another, often getting low marks in many (especially Chemistry). But I didn’t give a damn for these marks; I never have, in fact. Before I knew it my board exams were staring into my face and I, at them. The headache was finally over on March 23^rd, when we wrote our last exam. The evening of March 23^rd shall be one that I’ll never forget. I, along with my friends celebrated the end of exams by seeing Rang De Basanti at Satyam, and I will never forget that movie, either…one of my favorites. That’s the end of Phase 1.

PHASE 2 (April, May and June) : Under High Tension

The next three months, I wrote four more entrance exams, the IIT JEE, AIEEE, BITSAT and the dear old CET, in that order. I really had a good time during common entrance coaching. All this was over by May itself…the rest of this phase, we all spent under high tension, waiting for the examination results. And when they came, it had a pleasant surprise in store for me. It turned out no one in my family had expected me to score that well…I found that a bit of an insult, but it was a good thing in fact. By the end of this Phase, I’d known my cutoff marks and had a pretty good idea what kind of college I’d be studying in.

PHASE 3 (July, August and September): Wrote my destiny

The entire month of July, I was in front of my computer, researching, making my decision on what college I would choose, from what would be available to me. Let me tell you what parameters I was taking into consideration. I kept hopping on from one college website to next. I visited the orkut communities of all those colleges to see what the students had to say about the college. And I tried collecting as much info as I could about the boys to girls ratio in each college (I can hear an “Ada paavi!” at this point). After all this I finally decided on being a day scholar, and to take EEE at SSN. But at the last minute, I got this call from my cousin advising me VERY STRONGLY to take the same course in the college I now happen to be a student of. I checked the college out on the net that night and found that it offered its students a lot of freedom. Perfect, I thought…just what I wanted. So, by the same time the next night, I’d written my destiny and I’d already found a couple of friends, my would-be classmates, over the net, all thanks to orkut. College was a lot different from the way I imagined it. And the hostel…I didn’t know what to say about it when I first saw it. But as time went, I adjusted myself to things. I had really nice roommates, and really good friends in class, and one in the same branch as me. As for the girls, don’t ask. Utter disappointment. Well, one can’t have everything. I was changing slowly at first…washing my own clothes, meeting and conversing with people with whom I had nothing in common, beginning to swear when I got annoyed without trying to control myself…and the like. Gained friends, lost a few…and well, I was not sad about my choice of college at the end of these three months.

PHASE 4 (October, November and December): Final destination

The last three months were really eventful. I spent almost all the time at the hostel these days, owing to the lack of many weekend holidays. This made me close to my roommates, though one of them never stays much in the room. I made a lot of casual friends, and a few good ones too, though none that can be categorized as really best friends. That’ll take time I guess, especially with a person like me, who finds it hard to trust people. Got blasted off by a lecturer, got caught sleeping in class often and really really screwed up more exams than I’ve done in the rest of my past life. One thing that makes me happy about my college is that, when I tell someone its name, they instantly recognize it and tell me it’s a good college…it does have some reputation, since it’s been around for long. At the end of the year, I’m still not sad about my choice of college. I would have never got to meet certain people had I chosen some other college. That’s maybe why I get irritated when people say they don’t like this college. But whether I’m happy with my college is another issue. I really don’t know the answer to that. Only time will tell…

It’s the last day of the year now…and I can’t help wondering, what a different person I was a year ago. But then, as I look at it more carefully, I haven’t changed much at all, am still the same old guy I was an year ago…its only my surroundings that have changed. I don’t know for sure. I never even guessed certain kinds of people existed before I saw them here, in my college. I’m still getting used to college. I’ve learnt a lot of good things at college, like blogging for example. I would have probably never started this thing, unless I’d been inspired by a blog of another college mate of mine. I started it only at the beginning of PHASE 4, in fact. And it’s been highly useful. At least, now there is a place I can put all the crap I write…instead of putting it in a corner of my mind and never writing it at all in the first place…and hey…its almost 12…so hi 2007…