Enchanting Tamilnadu..

Enchanting Tamilnadu. Everytime i find these words in the magazines, my mind stolls back in the past, the day when i first landed on the Erode station, on 10th of November 2000 1:30pm. I was the most elated person probably, for i had achieved the rare feat of getting into REC Trichy, the dreamland of many and the reality for some.

My father was an equally happy soul, but that had taken quiet some time as he was initially not very happy with me having choosen B.Arch in such a distant place, unseen and unknown.But still he was convinced, for i knew, very clearly, what i had choosen and i had no doubts whatsoever.

Erode station welcomed us with dry weather, lots of fruit stalls and hanging TVs showing some melodious dance numbers featuring vijay in traditional lungis dancing to the tunes of illayraja. That suddenly reminded me of one of my childhood interests, and that is to visit madras ( as we used to call it then), likes of these types of music (only that part of it) along with the helluva of temples that i had read were the things that always used to attract me.

Now i was here, at the gate of such an entirely different region, agape looking at the sunny sky and then towards the ticket counter, as we had to take two tickets for Tiruchirappalli in one of the pessanger trains starting from Erode at around 4:00 in the evening. We somehow reached REC Tiruchirappalli at around 10:00 in the night, using our expressions ever more than words.

Actions speaks better than words..... certainly not fitting appropriately here.. isnt it?? anyways...

We somehow got into one of the First year hostels in the college which had come after waiting for some time, firstly on the trains and then on the final auto. Hostel was ok dokey. Nothing more than i can expect. It was newly painted and the floors were not neatly washed, and it was slowly getting covered with the peeling paints from the four walls and from the ceilings.

Somehow we managed, one more guy had come ( who later became one of my dearest statemates ) with his father. My father left very next day, as we had done the reservation for the next day thinking that we will be able to wrap up the admissions procedure the next day morning, but were unknow to the fact that college remains closed on saturdays. Anyways i said adieu to my dad and i was left alone in this not-so-small world, no mom and no dad within a radius of 2200 Kilometers or 1375 miles to be precise.. And i was crying internally, not for toys or books this time, but for not being able to see them...

First semester just flashed by, as we had arrived late already and we were left with just one internal test and a final semester exam.. means 30% of the full marks were already gone with the hot wind...

In between i got transferred from B. Arch to B.E ( which later on became B.Tech) and that had really made me happy for the first time @ REC Trichy. I had to complete the full syllabus at the last day of the semester as everything was new and fresh for me till the last date. I could feel the "Struggle for existence" theory by Charles Darwin, materializing just in front me, with no gap in between.

I passed and i passed quiet well in my first sem with a GPA of 6.82/10.0 and that looks the most decent GPA to me, given the amount of effort that had gone into the mill.

Second sem was like a dream to me and i just managed to pass decently inspite of sleeping full time during the lectures and taking break at times to listen to them, to come with a rank of 2 in
my department, Royal Civil, as it was called.

Department was fun, just mug up few things and learn the others how to do, and it is guaranteed that there wont be much of turns and twists, so it was easy going and i can still remember that i had never studied more than what i had studied in my first sem.In Department i started doing decently, GPA curve was increasing.. 9.24....9.50....9.60...9.60...9.60...9.30.. i was a satisfied man crossing the finishing line with a CGPA of 9.00/10.00... starting at 6.82 in the first sem..

Our department gave us enough chances to socialise with friends and their families also... Having said that, it willl be injustice if i dont mention about my dearest friends here... after my fourth sem, i with my friend Manab got a project in IIT Delhi... and then later on in IIT Roorkee and then finally in IIT Kanpur.. the choice was ours.. and we finally chose IITK for quite a few good reasons.. first of all the project were really fantastic.. and secondly there were other guys from our class who had also stopped at IITK as their summer projects location for the same reasons.. To name them, they were Saurav, acharya, abhay, kaushik, shalini, suganya, sreedevi, lakshmi and ashika.. we all started on 6th of May 2002 for IITK on TN express.. for jhanshi and from there to Kanpur... the location which consequnently proved more than just a summer project location...

I am not interested in blogging the type of work that we did in IITK in all the five different projects that we did together, but it was indeed a great time that we all had, the Kelkar Library at IITK, the restaurants, the gardens where we all had played the Seven stones still takes the prominence in our reminiscence, and will definetely remain the same as long as we remember ourselves.

By the time we came back, we were good friends and the bond of friendship became stronger and stronger with each passing day..

Then there were times when i got oppurtunities to explore Tamilnadu.. we went to places like Kodai Kanal, Neyveli, Madurai, Pondicherry ( for an instant lets consider it to be a part of TN), Srirangam, KanyaKumari and Tanjavur. All these places and many more like them, have their own characteristic importance. KodaiKanal is mind blowing for its natural beauty. Madurai and Srirangam are famous for their gopurams and huge temples and the museums bearing the life of old chola and chalukya kings.. Kanyakumari for its splendid vivekananda temple, pondicherry for its french tinge and the wonderful ourville and the aurbindo ashram. All these places are masterpieces in their own right. Along with this, i got to see the kaliedoscopic culture from a more closer view, thanks to these best buddies of mine.. and their families....

Sharing the beauty of this great place ( i am sure all eleven of us atleast will agree!) with still great people, had really made my four years of TN journey, a truly ENCHANTING EXPERIENCE.

The first class with distinction degree was just a sheer luck!!