Rewind: Sathaye College

On my return to Mumbai it felt as if my vacation which had just gotten over was but a dream. It was back to the old routine. The same early morning class and studying. The only saving grace was Kewal’s company and the early morning drive to Pace which was the only exciting thing that managed waking both of us up (I yet remember Kewal’s face after the first one).

 It was now admission time with form filling and discussions about which junior college to choose and once again my decision was affected by Pace. Sathaye College was chosen as it was said that minimum attendance was required there and you could drop biology to take up electrical maintenance, a subject which didn’t require much of studying. The only drawback ( a major one) was the crowd sucked.

First day of college I am treated to the sight of a dingy classroom filled with more than a hundred students such that there is not even enough place to sit. Well actually that’s a boon as you wouldn’t even want to sit for the only empty place is next to a girl dressed in a salwar kurta who seems as if she wouldn’t understand a word of English and must have never heard of the word ‘waxing’ for one glance at her hand assured me that my arms didn’t even have half as much hair as hers.

Finally I found a place next to one of my school friends (also from pace) and try to settle in. The teacher starts to mutter something in Marathi which at first I try to comprehend and finally give up and instead look around my class to analyze how bad my situation is. I see a couple of guys from my school and feel a bit relieved, My eye is then caught by two girls sitting on the bench next to me who look familiar. Siddarth tells me they are Radhika and Sakshi. Again both from Pace and Sakshi is also from our school he tells me, wondering how come I didn’t know that. Well neither did I know that Radhika would go on to be one of my closest friends and Sakshi (whom I didn’t even know in school) would become my best friend. After this a visit to check out the canteen ends the first day of college.

So except for the jokes on the college and on how the canteen food was dangerous to ones well being (I don’t think that is a joke though) the first day had the potential to depress anyone coming from a non SSC background especially those with the dream that the two years of college would the most chilled out and happening years of their life.

 Note on Sathaye College: Sathaye College made in 1959 consists of two buildings (old one and new one) though no one has ever figured out how calling the new building was ever justified.

The classrooms seem as if they haven’t really been cleaned since a decade. The toilets can be smelled a mile away. The peons in the office never do anything when you go to them except for say some fancy Marathi words and tell you to come tomorrow as they don’t feel like opening the file right now. They are the moodiest specimens of the human race one will ever encounter. One of the chemistry labs make you feel as if you suddenly gone back hundred years in time when dark torture rooms with poisonous substances in glass bottles existed (the burner once blew up suddenly almost burning my face). The teachers generally try to compete with students in bunking class. The level of the English language paper was such that it could be aced by any fifth grader. The female NCC cadets advancing towards you with guns would be one of your worst nightmares. The canteen is an epic story in itself.

 You may feel that this note is a work of fiction and I must be hating the college. Well it isn’t and I don’t hate my college. It just wasn’t what I expected my college life to be and if it was not for the friends I made in college (kudos to Sakshi, Radhika, Devika, Sharmila, Sonal and Ashutosh) maybe I would have hated it but thanks to them it was worth bearing the college.

Also now after going to VJTI I think Sathaye college was way cleaner and the crowd better (at least it had some girls who could actually be called girls without insulting the rest of the fairer sex). 

Rewind: Pace, Sikkim and my 10th grade results

It was a few days after my Std. 10th board exams and instead of partying all day there I was at 7 in the morning looking at this fellow teaching vectors to a cramped class of more than a hundred students sitting on benches arranged so close that the knee of the guy behind you constantly pokes your ass. Welcome to Pace.
So well this is how it went on for about a month attending lectures in the morning, and then studying and going out a bit including my daily evening swim. It was all ok didn’t really think the studying was a big deal as I had just come out of the 10th exams so a few hours a day didn’t feel that much. What did this lead to was a gradual decay of my contact with my school friends. I didn’t realize this much at that time but I do know when I think of my friendship with Saarth as well as the others.
Then in May I went for a vacation to Sikkim. Beautiful place I must say. Scenic rivers, deep gorges, towering mountains and lovely wather and above all a nice break from the daily routine. However while enjoying all this there were also the darting thoughts of my 10th ICSE results. I was not really worried or tensed about them as I thought I had done decently well. I hadn’t given them my best shot and studied too much and slogged for them so I thought a 90%-92% would be good enough. I always thought it would be a 90 but according to my mom it would be 92%. So the day of the results dawned. I was in a very remote village on top of a small hill in Sikkim with no cellular network connection and was feeling a bit anxious of how I would get the news. Finally I walked down the hill in the evening to the STD booth there to make a call to my friend back home. She checked out my result and read out the marks to me in an excited voice and calculating the percentage I could not believe the result. It was 94%. 28 marks more than what I thought it would be. I asked if she was sure and if she was seeing the right persons marks, Well the result was of Shronit Sanjay Ladhani and that surely was me. So I ran up the mountain as fast as I could with a bounce in my step that must have been visible from a kilometer away for as soon as I reached up all my family and cousins and all jumped up and asked ‘How much?’
‘94%!!’ I screamed

Rewind: Pace

In India the IIT’s (Indian Institutes of Technology) are the premier engineering colleges. The admission to these takes place through the JEE (joint entrance exam) which is taken by about 5 lakh students every year of which finally only about ten thousand get admission (about 2%) and is rumoured to be the toughest exam for entering an under-grad university. Except for this there are two more major exams the AIEEE and the Maharashtra state CET which is taken by every engineering aspirant from Maharashtra. As the IITs are the most coveted there a number of institutes coaching one for taking the JEE. IIT’ians Pace is one of those famous ones in Mumbai. Understandingly to score well in the JEE is very difficult with one having only aim for the period of two years that is to study, study and study. You spend like almost the whole day studying slowly cutting down on everything and all forms of your social life. So the question was do I want to do that? Do I want to spend two years of my life eating, drinking, sleeping and dreaming books? Well the ones who did and succeeded in getting in say it is worth it but what about the remaining 98%? Also did I want to live for 6 years (4 of engineering and 2 of post graduation) out of my house in a hostel sharing my room, having common bathrooms, eating in a mess and all having no idea how the food and all would be, especially if I don’t get into the major ones like the one in Mumbai or Delhi and end up in a place like Roorkee or Guwahati? For a 15 year old who had never stayed in a hostel before it was all too much to consider. Would the cleanliness be fine was also a major concern for me because my allergy to dust further aggravated my asthma.
I was told that if you have the passion, the brains the will to work all day you could get in. Even after doing all this it was yet a could. Well I think I could be having the brains for it but the will to go through all this? Didn’t know about that. So I thought why not try it out? Lets give it a shot see how it works, see if I enjoy it and if it really interests me then its cool otherwise big deal I could always fall back upon the CET.
So Pace here I come.

Rewind :Science or Commerce

Science or Commerce? This is how it all began two years back. Every student just out of 10^th grade has to face this question. It was not arts for sure and I think I will like commerce quite a bit but then I surely want to do a MBA or something for post graduation so 5-6 years of studying in this stream seems to be a bit of a bore. As for engineering, I love computers but I don’t think I really want to sit the whole day on a desk in front of that screen with my head overflowing with ASCII, C and things of that sort working for some multi-national. In fact I really don’t think I want to take up a job in the long run. Well a bit if construction and designing interests me and maybe I could take up something like civil engineering or architecture. But if so then why not to continue my dads company which is in the field of construction and infrastructure development (I really don’t want to sound like some lazy blob who just doesn’t want to do any hard work, wanting to just sit on his fathers chair and enjoy life, it was just that I could use all the energy required to set up a company and bring it up to take the existing company to greater heights). So civil engineering was chosen and hence science it was.