Majors over!
Actually I have no clue if the title of the post is totally correct, but methinks that I am not too far from the truth. This is because I didnt have any courses with exams this semester. None. Zilch. Zukk. Take your pick.
This is possibly one of the perks of being a dulla --- no exams in the final semester (unless you have to pay for past sins like audit fukkas and such like:P). Having diligiously managed to avoid the same, I was clear of all lecture courses. Which leads us to the fact that I didnt have any majors. It feels a bit weird because I cant remember what my last major was. I mean, I dont remember what I felt like when I took that exam. The feeling of joy, relief etc. was distinctly absent. I had not forseen that the lack of lecture courses would make it my last exam in IITD. Just that I cant remember what "it" is. Was it High Speed Networks or Distributed Computing ? Perhaps someone can help out on this.
Well, I dont have much to write about the last exam, but plenty to write about the first one. I remember that day with all its gory details. The "interaction period" had just ended and we were trying to get used to the heat (no water coolers here), the water shortage (2 showers day ?! in your dreams) and the long hours of classes and labs. Particularly tortuous was the engineering drawing class whose only consolation was the fact that it was the last class on Friday and I could go home after it!
Anyway, coming back to the point, our happy, mundane existence was suddenly shaken by the advent of something called the "minors". As the name suggests, they are nothing more than a minor irritant once you get used to them. But the these were going to be our first exams in IITD. And the FIRST of them was a maths course - MA111. The terror of first year CS and EE students. Almost half our seniors had got Ds last year (rumour had it) and many were repeating. And this was the awe inspiring minor which was going to be our first exam.
The more observant among the readers might have missed the fact that I didnt mention power shortage along with the rest of the problems earlier. As far as I can remember, there wasnt any. Atleast not till the day before the minors. We were wading through sets and metric spaces, theorems and proofs. And then, there was a power cut. There was panic and confusion all around. Some relief too, since now there was a valid reason to stop studying.
We trooped down to the mess where something wonderful called extra-messing was going on. The mess had a line from a genset and the tubelights were on (no fans ). In that stuffy, sweaty atmosphere, progress was made on MA111. The more enterprising took off to the institute, where there was power in the academic area. Some time into the night, the valiant genset of the mess gave up and darkness reigned.
Details from here on are a bit fuzzy. I cant remember if I studied under candles or something, but I do remember that I gave up and went to sleep in the heat. My bed was soaking wet ... with sweat (what else !). Around 5am or so, power finally did come. Seniors claimed that this was a regular feature before all minors and majors. The institute authorities, in their infinite wisdom supposedly didnt want us to study on the eve of exams. We were supposed to have done that earlier. But this is mostly an urban legend (readers who have more on this are welcome to post).
The exam surprisingly went off quite well. I also heard lots of stories about what others had done. Apparently one of my friends went to sleep on the cold stone of the WindT !
The power saga repeated itself in minor 2 and possibly the majors too. In case you are wondering what the scene is today -- we have generator backup in the hostels now. Of course, this doesnt mean that there are no power cuts before the exams!
This is possibly one of the perks of being a dulla --- no exams in the final semester (unless you have to pay for past sins like audit fukkas and such like:P). Having diligiously managed to avoid the same, I was clear of all lecture courses. Which leads us to the fact that I didnt have any majors. It feels a bit weird because I cant remember what my last major was. I mean, I dont remember what I felt like when I took that exam. The feeling of joy, relief etc. was distinctly absent. I had not forseen that the lack of lecture courses would make it my last exam in IITD. Just that I cant remember what "it" is. Was it High Speed Networks or Distributed Computing ? Perhaps someone can help out on this.
Well, I dont have much to write about the last exam, but plenty to write about the first one. I remember that day with all its gory details. The "interaction period" had just ended and we were trying to get used to the heat (no water coolers here), the water shortage (2 showers day ?! in your dreams) and the long hours of classes and labs. Particularly tortuous was the engineering drawing class whose only consolation was the fact that it was the last class on Friday and I could go home after it!
Anyway, coming back to the point, our happy, mundane existence was suddenly shaken by the advent of something called the "minors". As the name suggests, they are nothing more than a minor irritant once you get used to them. But the these were going to be our first exams in IITD. And the FIRST of them was a maths course - MA111. The terror of first year CS and EE students. Almost half our seniors had got Ds last year (rumour had it) and many were repeating. And this was the awe inspiring minor which was going to be our first exam.
The more observant among the readers might have missed the fact that I didnt mention power shortage along with the rest of the problems earlier. As far as I can remember, there wasnt any. Atleast not till the day before the minors. We were wading through sets and metric spaces, theorems and proofs. And then, there was a power cut. There was panic and confusion all around. Some relief too, since now there was a valid reason to stop studying.
We trooped down to the mess where something wonderful called extra-messing was going on. The mess had a line from a genset and the tubelights were on (no fans ). In that stuffy, sweaty atmosphere, progress was made on MA111. The more enterprising took off to the institute, where there was power in the academic area. Some time into the night, the valiant genset of the mess gave up and darkness reigned.
Details from here on are a bit fuzzy. I cant remember if I studied under candles or something, but I do remember that I gave up and went to sleep in the heat. My bed was soaking wet ... with sweat (what else !). Around 5am or so, power finally did come. Seniors claimed that this was a regular feature before all minors and majors. The institute authorities, in their infinite wisdom supposedly didnt want us to study on the eve of exams. We were supposed to have done that earlier. But this is mostly an urban legend (readers who have more on this are welcome to post).
The exam surprisingly went off quite well. I also heard lots of stories about what others had done. Apparently one of my friends went to sleep on the cold stone of the WindT !
The power saga repeated itself in minor 2 and possibly the majors too. In case you are wondering what the scene is today -- we have generator backup in the hostels now. Of course, this doesnt mean that there are no power cuts before the exams!
posted by anonymous coward at 10:31 am
2 Comments:
Quite a vivid description of out first minors...the powercut and the rush to the mess.. phew... I remember giving up 20 mins into the mess and managing 2.5 in the minors :))
btw..nice post ...keep the tempo up !
saale.. audit fakkas are an experience in themselves, dont berate them just because you couldnt be a part of the experience yourself :p
good post though :)
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