My Engineering days.... Part 2

Why Hero Puch? Because of Shah Rukh Khan, the superstar.... He was the brand ambassador for Hero Puch and the featured ad was based on his Duplicate film. You can attribute my decision to the power of advertising :-)

Getting into CS department was like homecoming. Had lots of PU friends.

The way i went to college changed. Sudi was now my classmate and he had a Yamaha RX 125. So we used to use our two wheeler alternatively. That did save a lot of Petrol :-)

One thing which both of us did throughout our engineering was we hardly appeared for the first internals ( I guess only 2 or 3 times we might have written). We just didn't take the first internals seriously. I would say we were pretty confident of making up in the next two. And we did precisely that and we always had 20+ at the end of the semester.

How did the classes go? Class vs Cricket. Cricket got priority. It was like Eat cricket, sleep cricket, drink cricket. Even in class the thoughts were about cricket. We played hell lot of matches. Sudi, Mahendra, Umesha, Aruna... But i always ensured i had attendance of 75 %. Never had a shortage. It was like miss one class per week to play a match :-). Took studies very casually. Was not all that attentive in the class. Studied only during the second and third internals. But when i did study it was comprehensive.

WE had one bad habit in class. I along with Sudi, Aruna, Umesh occasionally used to play a game called Cow Bull Word finder game. Name sounds funny :-) It was one to one. Say i used to have a 4 letter word and the other person also had one. The task was to find out the word the other person through a series of iterations. It was great fun. There was absolutely no verbal communication. Just writing in the note book and finding the word. It didn't happen regularly. Once in a while if the class was too boring we played it.

Coming to labs.. Again hardly serious. Just go to lab. Type a program. Get the output and thats it. Never bothered whats the logic, how it works.. This was the schedule during the term days..

Once the semester exams were announced it was time to work. Work very hard. Our saviour was Nagaraju alias Naagu. Just a week prior to the lab exams we (sudi, aruna, umesha, mahendra) all used to go to his house. He used to teach us the logic and the programs. He used to scratch his head to simplify the logic for the program. In the mean time we were busy watching movies or listening to songs in his computer. :-) :-) And when he was ready we used to listen to his explanation with avid interest because the lab exam was at stake. Thanks Naagu for all the help.

After understanding the programs it was time to test it out. And i used to type it in my computer. Execute it. After getting the output i was over the moon as if i had written the logic. :-)

Forgot this computer purchase. After getting Hero Puch in 3rd semester. It was now the turn of Computer the next semester. Made a request to dad. Projected as if if i don't get the Computer it would be impossible to get good marks. Again dad relented. One more loan. This time cost twice of the Hero Puch (Rs 36000. ) But in a semester used it only for 5 to 6 days for actual programming and rest of the time it was games, movies. Get the latest Hindi movie and watch it. 20 Rs per CD and the CD was shared by 3 to 4. :-)

The actual lab exams. Getting output was the one and only priority. 3rd sem Data Structures got a linked list program and i was not getting the proper output. With 15 minutes remaining made a small change and it worked. It was about pointers. Just did it without any logic and it worked. When i remember that mistake now i realise how easy it is. :-)

Theory exams.. Used to sleep evening. Get up at 9 or 10 PM. Have dinner and study till early morning was the routine. Had this knack of predicting questions and it worked most of the times. It used to be an instinctive guess and the question would appear in the exam bringing a smile.

Third sem again barely managed to get distinction.

Fourth semester had interesting subjects. Graph theory, ADA and FAFL were the favorites. Got 99 in Graph theory. I wasn't surprised as the paper was easy and i knew it has to be 96+. Guess what, got 80.5 % and was the second topper. I was no where in the toppers list in third semester. I was surprised with the result. Never expected this. I still remember paying 10 Rs at a internet parlour near our college to see the result.

Second year ended great. I was still under a state of shock that i could score so much. Never realised i had so much potential. It gave a lot of confidence and it had a positive impact on my personality.

Moral: In a way its not fair to advice because i didn't follow it. But i believe we all make mistakes and its all about realization. Nowadays everyone has a Computer. Use it judiciously. Am not saying don play games or watch movies. Do that but also give equal weightage to its basic purpose. Keep a target. Learn one program per day. It won't take more than 15 minutes. It will surely help you in the long run. Or say read an article about latest technology.Spare at least 15 minutes. It will really come in handy.

Trust me nothing is impossible. Effort is all that matters. Don't limit your imagination.

And for gods sake don't be just studious. It doesn't help you in any way. It might be sports or cultural events or organizing something or being part of a team, it really helps in shaping one's personality.

Rest in my next....