Yaadein: semester 1 (JU)

The first semster of Jadavpur University started in July 2004. The first experience of college life. 8 students were joining the Computer Science department from my school. Of them Sayan and Arpan had my good friends for the past two years, and i also had speaking terms with Aveek,Dripto,Dhrubo and Debarshi. Apart from them, there was Haimasree, whom I was not acquainted to in school. In the initial days, during the ragging and settling-in period, the first seven people from the school stuck together though Haimasree, somewhat to the surprise of us, would hang around with a different group. Our temporary group had marked diversity- Arpan mostly talked with us and the seniors about career plans, GRE and CAT, Sayan talked about combinatorics problems and plans to go to US for phd, Debarshi talked about football (Euro Cup had just ended) and English movies, Dripto and Aveek talked mostly about the girls in the senior batch and Dhrubo....well forget it :-P.

One of the earliest memories in this semester were the games of cards. Debarshi, Dhrubo and Dripto were into cards before joining college. In the first few weeks, classes were few and far between, so to kill time, I also joined them. Arpan was furious at the irregularity of classes, but even he joined sometimes. We played "Call Bray" and "Hearts" in the classroom sitting on the desks, or in the A-C canteen, over coffee and egg chops.

The classroom ragging by seniors had happenned for the first 4 days, and I was the biggest victim in the class. However this ragging was only verbal, and nothing objectionable had happened. However I had heard horror stories of ragging in CET canteen from Aveek and on the central playground from Chiradeep. They used to narrate the stories with great enthusiasm, as though they wanted to face such experiences. But I felt scared. For the first 2-3 months, I never walked in front of CET canteen. We had a class in the Mechanical Engineering department beyond the playground, and I felt scared to go there. On thursdays we had Drawing class and had to carry the "T" on the shoulder. This "weapon" would give me some sense of security :-D.

Dripto's fascination for the girls in the senior batch, and his open flirtation with them had become a hot gossip in the class. Everyone from Karati to Arpan was talking about it. That was fine, but Dripto often kept on asking how I felt about different girls. I felt quite awkward when asked such questions, but Dripto insisted. Taking a walk in the campus with Dripto in those days was a real ordeal for me. Whenever a girl walked past he would ask me how I felt about her :-D.

The Freshers' Welcome was to be held in september. The freshers were supposed to perform- drama, music, dance, instrument or whatever. Dhrubo had prepared a drama which he thought, would please the raunchy-minded seniors. Most of us thought it would only provoke more ragging. The theme and dialogue of the drama were enough to scare away the innocent guys Souri and Swagato. I was offered the lead role in the drama. I was reluctant, and considered staying away from college on the day of the Freshers' Welcome, but Dripto convinced me that it would result in a much worse ragging on the following day. So thus I was persuaded into acting. We rehearsed for several days. I always had a thing for acting, and transcending my initial hesitation, got into the role. My acting drew arousing appreciation from the other dramatists and viewers. But on the D-day, the seniors were not impressed with the drama. They did not appreciate the over-raunchy theme, and stopped the play midway, much to the disappointment of Dhrubo and ... well, even myself :-P.

Apart from the theoretical classes held in the classroom, we had practical classes, called "Sessional" in the terminology of JU. In this semester, there were 4 sessionals: physics lab, drawing, workshop and technical arts. Almost everyone complained that these were completely irrelevant to Computer Science and engineering. But for me, the worst part was that the class was divided into two groups- A1 and A2. Most of my friends and acquaintances were in the A2 group, while I, by virtue of my advanced rank in the entrance exam, was in A1. I found myself clubbed with Satyajit, Sourav, Arijit Khan, Rajdeep, Biswanath- most of whom came from suburban areas, and initially I had a bit of problem synchronising with them, having studied in a posh urban school for 15 years. These sessional classes of the first semester were quite boring for me- not only because the work was boring, but also because I could not connect with the company that well.

Personally, the first semester of JU was memorable because of the great change associated with it. For the past two years there was endless pressure to study, and now all the pressue had disappeared so suddenly that I was quite confused what to do...how to adopt myself to the changed situation. I thought I would forget about the change and study by myself, but what to study?? I tried studying physics- the Feynman Lectures of Physics, but soon discovered that I was not really being able to commit myself into it, and was just wasting time- neither studying nor enjoying.

On looking back casually towards this semester, the first things that come to mind are the peculiar odour of machine lubricants in the technical arts lab, the games of cards in the AC canteen, the songs "saanso ko saanso me dhalne do zara" (Hum Tum) and "dhoom macha le" (Dhoom) which played all the time over the new FM channels, the hubbub of the freshers' welcome, the times spent with Sayan, Arpan and Dripto, and the confusion- to study or to enjoy...and if to study, then what????