After the semester exams were over, I was thinking of possible ways to spend the forty day holiday and decided that attending some computer class might be handy. So I fixed upon C++ in NIIT and Karthi joined it too. Arun didn’t want to join that. Karthi came with his neighbour Dhinesh to the class. The classes were going pretty well. A guy(can’t call him sir, I refer to him as bro) called Jayanth handled the classes for our batch.
One thing I learnt well in the C++ class was inheritance. Otherwise it was pretty ordinary for the 3700 and odd money I paid. Days moved swiftly, in came my 18th birthday. Ya I became an adult. I could cast my vote, get my driving license, and watch an adult movie without the fear of getting caught. Adulthood has its own advantage.
The surprise birthday gift from my parents was a cell phone. I never thought I would be using cell phone in college. But I got one. In my view cell phone, just like the Internet has the cons as much as the pros.
And my classmate Kalyani started to kind of complaint on me during chats that I don’t even offer a courtesy smile on seeing her. Well, that’s been my problem. I am mostly pre-occupied with something else that I fail to notice people unless they are well known to me. I offered a promise to her that I would try to react when I see her the next time.
The much expected Sivaji film released. Saw it on the first day with my Chithappa! Can't forget the experience.
The semester started.
I still didn’t become a great friend of Arun as I was with Karthi. So I sat along with Karthi. And Arun sat with Pathiban, Maheshwaran, et al., and the people with whom he had been sharing the first bench.
There were 6 subjects in this semester.
Mathematics III-Initially Suresh sir and then Meena Ma’am
Data Structures-Vanitha Ma’am
Digital Principles and Systems Design-Gowsigaa Ma’am
System Software-Kalai Selvi Ma’am (My Class Advisor as well)
Object Oriented Programming-Nandhakumar Sir
Environmental Science and Engineering-Dr. Mahendran Sir
Object Oriented Programming Lab- Kalai Selvi Ma’am
Digital Lab-Gowsigaa Ma’am
Data Structures Lab- Gupta Sir
Things started smooth, as the much awaited Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows released. I should thank my mom. She stood in queue to get the book and handed it over to me. It was a Saturday. I had college on that day. I loved the book very much. Then came the Ist year semester results. I got 823 out of 1000. Which was pretty decent but I expected atleast an 85 percent.
So I decided to study well for the rest of the semester. That’s when; Mahendran Sir said we need to present a seminar on a particular topic by splitting into groups. Instantly Arun, Karthi and I joined. Then John liked to join. Parthiban pleaded to join with us. And I felt he could be given a chance. We were given a topic called disaster management. We decided to make it like a movie. Prabu joined later with us for this multimedia presentation. It went pretty well. I think that’s when my class people noted all of us to be different. That made my friendship with Arun and Karthi closer.
Then my class guys planned an IV with a mass bunk. I didn’t like to travel with them and didn't participate in it.
The seniors conducted fresher’s party for us, which went smooth.
Meanwhile Karthi was made the association representative of my class. And that led to the introduction of a Final year senior called Guha Pranav(called as Pranav). He was the president of the association. There were few association activities by him, Priyadarshini, Stephen, Ashwin. It was going pretty well. I was happy for the fact that one day we would be doing the same to our Juniors.
Then arrived the Intra Virtuoso, surprisingly, Arun Karthi and I didn’t clear any prelims.
Here I must mention my fight with Jinju. It was an amateur kind of silly fight from my side. One day she enquired about Surface Computing. Having seen a video on it. I showed it to my classmates during Environmental Science class. It seems that she wanted a present a paper on it. And me showing the video ruined it she claims. She could have told that straight to me. Instead she was complaining to others finally when she said that to me she said that I should have taken her permission on presenting the video. I was like bewildered. Why on Earth should I take her permission? She was in a yahoo conference with me, Arun and Karthi. Just as they left for a break. She told me that she was not in terms with this issue. I couldn't understand how a person could talk with me with an issue in mind. And complaining on me added to the anger I decided that I should not speak with a girl like Jinju who has THE ATTITUDE. From then on I have not spoken with her.
In hindsight, looking at that, I think I could have handled it better, I could have ignored it. Made here statements go into the /* */. But then the urge of adrenalin led to this silly little fight :P
Arun and Karthi said about a group called CUG, a student group started by Anmol, the most hated person in my school. Ishwarya heard about that from me and Deepika through her and they joined it too. Sundays were passing on with the CUG meetings.
I was inspired by Surya to make a blog and started one called, http://24x7interestingfacts.blogspot.com and spent day and night with it. When I started blogging, I didn’t know html/java script. Still through trial and error managed to do something. But I really worked hard to popularize it. And developed a fan base for my blog.
The semester lab exams were a morale booster for me. I did exceptionally well in all the exams.
In the semester exams too I did well in all subjects except for Mathematics III. Basically I didn’t like the Maths staff and it showed in the result.
My entry into the department was even.
Oh! I almost forgot to say about Nandhakumar sir. I could see a part of myself in him. He has this element of Sarcasm, the tinge of laziness, the fondness for puzzles etc., He explained about testing in a class, which made me, Karthi and Arun to test our code for all possible cases, a regular practice till now.
Journey will continue...
