Three years...And we survived!

First off, YES, this is another of those mundane 'My days in college' posts, so if you find yourself groaning already, you may leave! If you're an SMCian...well....then maybe, you might stay. And if you're one of those possessed characters, who's not SMCian (usually, due to being of the wrong gender and hence, not qualifying), but who craves to know all that happens inside those (literally) confines...well, you may just do whatever pleases you!

Now this ain't no compelling account of the buffoonery of the 3,300 odd people, it just is a "just for jolly" (Crritteecss, if you ever read this, let it be known that I let you keep the copyright to it!) account of the escapades of the 57 odd people who sat in room 2-1, then in 2-2 and FINALLY 1-8 (And maybe, a few extras from other parts of that 23 acre campus)!

Now since I find myself so muddled, I shall just randomly type out things I remember...anyone with better memory, please do pitch in.

First day of college...
Now, this is something I distinctly remember. Walking into college at 8ish (this 8ish thing seemed to have persisted for the remaining three years, and will be explained later, if I don't forget about it before that), I see half a dozen familiar faces (from previous schools/interviews) and I think to myself, well...that's not such a bad start. And then.............I enter the NCC grounds & I'm shell shocked!!!! For someone who's been in a co-ed all her life (well, almost if you discount these 3 years that I'm rambling about), being surrounded by 3,300 people, ALL of whom are
women, can be QUITE an unnerving (to put it VERY mildly) experience!

This was soon to be followed by a somewhat 'inspirational' speech by Sr. P on our good fortune of being "one of the 4% in India who have access to higher education"...And, of course who can forget the famous "bouquets of flowers welcoming you" (In case, anyone did by some strange accident forget this, she was promptly reminded of it twice in the next two years, when the succeeding batches came in...and here we thought it was an original speech, ONLY for us, the batch of 2004-07!). For those who're still lost, the 'bouquets" referred to the 100 odd trees on campus that were in bloom (though, I do remember foolishly looking around for the cellophane wrapped variety when I heard of it... *sheepish grin*)

Fast forwarding... The rest of the day included following our 'friendly senior' around the campus (like the rats following Pied Piper) and trying real hard to hear what was being said and trying to remember the names of buildings and the room naming system [very important as some of us realised when we spent the next few weeks trying to make sense of our timetable: Eg: Monday (no, the day order system hadn't come in then) 4th hour MC (MC=Major Core...might have helped if they used things like Micro/Indian Eco./Stats instead of the MC/MO/AO/AC/GE...) room H-0-1]

To cut a long story short, we were kicked out of college by 11 (for once!) and the remainder of the week was spent sitting in class distractedly while waiting for the (ear-piercing) bell to ring thereby, allowing us to scoot for one of our numerous orientations (Lib, NCC, NSS... and of course, Student Union orientation! *cheeky grin*). And of course, the Welcome Social thrown by the dept.'s seniors (Theme: Beauty Queens...How apt!)

The rest of the first year may be surmised into an endless cycle of long mathematical calculations to figure out the EXACT number of hours that could be bunked without drastically falling short of that 75% mark that hung above our heads, endless conversations in the canteen, attendant jibes by the faculty (Most famous one being: "Girls! If you sit here so long, you'll have to pay a rent to the (canteen) trees!). A word here to those who've never been in a girls' college: No, these 'conversations' did not SOLELY revolve around things like make-up, trends in fashion, relationships, etc (hope that puts to rest some doubts, people I've spoken to, have on the subject)

(For the sake of avoiding long-winded posts, the 2nd year & 3rd year bit shall follow in another post.)