Undergoing a Graduation: Year One

The Beginning

"First is choice; second is an option."

Taking admission to Information Technology was not my first choice; it was second option. Having missed the train to Medical and not buying the ticket to Engineering; I landed up in the IT compartment on my career journey. It was 9th July, a rainy day (even within my heart) when I got my career pass stamped for three years in the very same college which I called my Hogwarts. We had an introduction session in 2 Science by Tushar Desai Sir, Course Coordinator. I saw many new faces then (now my graduation friends), bunch of Hogwarts friends (Prajakta Pawar, Sameer Thakur, Pratik Thorat, Smita Lad, Supriya Tarse, Pallavi Kulkarni, Vaishali Ghogare) and couple of CET coaching classes friends (Prerana Jangale, Nayana Rane). Our lectures started off by Mid July in 21 Science (the room which connected the Main Science building to the Chemistry building). There were two ways to reach that room; so if the professor entered from one way, we took another way to bunk the lecture. On Day One, the first lecture was of IITA (Introduction to Information Theory & Applications) by Smrutika Dekate Ma'am. She briefed on the semester pattern, assignments, tutorials and In Sems. The next lecture on DE (Digital Electronics) by Sheetal Thakur Ma'am was interesting for we were playing with 0s and 1s (binary numbers). We had to buy the brown files filled with blank papers for assignments from the Comp Science lab. Our computer labs were on first and second floor above the Professors Common Room. The DCF (Digital Computer Fundamental) practical were conducted by Kalyani Godavari Ma'am on the second floor small IT lab. We had to perform experiments on 8085 microprocessor toolkit. It was interesting to operate using the machine opcodes. DE practical sessions were in Physics lab in main Science building. Again it was cool to do ANDing and ORing of small leds on the breadboard and measuring the results using multimeter. The IT effect was growing on me, but still I had other plans in mind. Our practicals were in the morning so I had to catch the 06:24 Dadar then. Pragati Mestry used to be in the same train. As always my favourite subject was Mathematics, lectures were taken by Laxmi Basutkar Ma'am. I really liked the way she taught us. Smriti Jain and Priyanka Patil, the BFF on first bench had to sit in different rows as a punishment during most of her lecture. The programming subject was C Programming taken by Swarupa Gogate Ma' am. I didn't have many friends then, I talked to a few sitting one bench ahead (the trio Amruta Deshpande, Rashmi Dixit, Vrushali Chaudhari) and one bench behind (Swapnita Jadhav, Anuja Shinde, Rohini Katke). My bench partners were Prajakta and Shweta More. This semester was short because it was like now we just started and now we have the exam! Again the 100 marks paper and some writing too much and taking supplements and some completing the paper in less than 3 hours. The exams were over and many planned to watch Jab We Met in theatre. I visited Mahalaxmi temple with Smita and group (Yojana Sawant, Urvi Shah, Kiran Chile, Pooja Bhosale, Mohini Lakade) as my first outing of graduation days. Diwali vacation was over and we got back to college for the second semester. One advantage of college life was that we got mandatory holidays, same doesn't apply at office now. Again the routine started for next five subjects. It was difficult to get up early during winters to attend the ENTC (Electronics and Telecommunications) practicals. We were though allowed to enter lab even when late for CG (Computer Graphics) practicals by short and sweet Pallavi Surve Ma'am. Now the Lab sessions were more lively due to Aniket Lambe and Aniket Varankar and there was Kaustubh Shetye to add to the fun. There was always FCFS at the library for course books and most of us used to end up queuing at the Xerox shop both in and out of college. I got to know the various ways of copying during tutorials; keeping the notes xerox within the answer sheets and some even dared to straightaway open the thick course books. Even though Ma'am caught us while writing assignment during lecture and tore those pages; we never gave up on completion of assignments till the submission time. The IT-Comp Science Tech Fest arranged by Second Year students was named Astute. It included brain twisters, coding quiz, circuit designing, debate, extempore, virtual stock market, etc etc. I bagged first prize in Sudoko, it was Headphones. Shylaja did help me getting the prize by following up with the Sudoku coordinator. 31st Jan is Deepti Ravikumar's birthday so all girls had Gulaab Jamun Party at the Ladies Common Room during lunchtime. We got our results in Feb and to my surprise I got a firing lecture from Papa for getting 100 marks in Maths. I was blamed for purposely not giving the Engineering CET. It was the last result I showed to my parents. There are students who hide there results even on getting good marks! DAA (Design Analysis and Algorithm) seemed to be okay okay. I literally by-hearted all the algorithms. PSDC (Professional Skills Development Course) lectures started in March by Smita Naniwadekar Ma' am. We had some debate sessions and writing sessions and resume preparations. Again the exam time and summer vacation marking the completion of Year One of Graduation. 

Read Next: Undergoing a Graduation: Year Two