Friday, October 15, 2004

1st semester...1st day at IIIT


First time in IIIT

It somehow happened that I joined the institute a week later than others....I came to institute on 22nd of July 2001...I reached institute at 8:40 and went to the reception, where the guard was not understanding what I was saying...I was not admitted till then so my name was not in the freshers list...so I sent him to see Cdr Raman who told him to get me a room...

I reached obh with the guard...I was sitting and waiting for the guard on the entrance as he went to search for a room for me...A guy came running outside hiding from everyone...as I was in T-shirt and Jeans he thought I am his senior and he wished me 'good morning SIR' ... after he was gone I was laughing...then the guard came back and took me to 3rd floor of OBH


OBH...
...it was a sunday so most of the people were sleeping after having a GALA time the previous night (FIRST SATURDAY NIGHT) ...
The room allocated to me was the biggest one...it was a common room facing the octagon...I thought I will have a nice time in such a big room ... then I started meeting new people, new faces, the people I would be spending my next 4 years with , some of which would become my friends forever...

A senior (Puneet vohra) came upstairs and saw me for the first time and that too in casuals and got !@#@!#%%&^ so he called me to his room in the evening (which I did not obey) ... I went for breakfast in the same clothes...I took 2 Dosas and was searching for shaved heads to sit with...and I met Mr Vinod Gupta (goli vaale) and few others (I dont remember) .. I started eating and just after the first bite my appetite vanished...I left it as it is cursing the food and the place and went back upstairs....Another senior came (dont remember the name) who saw us doing BC (till now I did not know it was BC that I was doing , and neither did I know that it will become a major part of my life@iiit and otherwise .. ) and told me to change...

Some part of my luggage I left at the main gate so I went there with 'Ajay bedi' to get it...He was one of the most 'terrified from ragging' guys...I got the luggage and kept it in my room and as soon as I stepped out a guy with plaster in his left hand approached me and asked about room keys for that room...All my dreams of living in such a spacious room blew off, and I was the only one person (also the plaster guy) who would be sharing room for few months in whole IIIT.

I went to take bath and he went back to get his stuff...I came back and it was nearly lunch time...I went for lunch and there I met 'Ankit Bhargava','Nipun Malhotra' ... I did not get paranthas as I was late for them ;) ... so I took 'biryani' and sat for eating...I took the first spoon and got the same feeling that I got in the morning after eating dosa...Ankit said "Abhi naya naya aaya hai na isliye lag raha hai, ek hafte mein khana theek lagne lage ga" ... and hearing this I went back to room...The plaster guy was already there...this was the time for introduction and starting a relation that would continue for lifetime...Hi I am Sandeep Chandna from Ghaziabad, I am Manjeet Bothra from Bikaner,Rajasthan...A brief talk on background etc...why you came late etc....and as we both were tired so we slept in the afternoon...

In the evening we both woke up and started searching for people...most of them had gone to 'KOTI' to get books and all...we went to the wing to the left of our room...
That wing was full of BC...with Ankit kumar (kaka),Ankit Bhargava,Arvind (upadhyay),Nipun (man),Sourabh (rajjo), Jayaram (jaya), Imran (kya re), Aaradhya, Ashwin (chaddi),sanyam (sam) ...
After seeing few locked rooms we saw two guys doing some work in one room (Arvind's room) , one was obviously upadhyay, other was apna 'Paritosh Pandey' ... Paritosh started cracking jokes from his database (till now I did not know whats a database) ... and he also told us few of his experiences with seniors and of previous night...
We were just talking when a chubby guy approached us ... guess who .. yes 'Sreejith (unni)' and told me and bothra to go upstairs for some 'healthy interaction' and we took unni and bedi also with us...

This was my first experience of 'Healthy interaction'...two seniors (final year - first batch of IIIT ) started asking us lots of questions...one of them was not intersted in the 'interaction' so he was just listening...the questions varied from favourite heroine to which car does the rock in the back of obh resemble most...he asked us some intersting questions also ;) .. on which except bedi everyone started laughing...bedi was very good at pretending that he did not know anything like that...it went on and on for an hour or so and we went back to our rooms...

As the previous night was full of fun so most of the seniors were not around for more 'interaction' ... so we met lots of people in the night ... we slept pretty early as compared to normal sleeping time in IIIT...

This was my first day in IIIT...the new life was about to start...with new professors, batchmates, seniors, subjects, environment ...

Friday, October 08, 2004

3rd - Year -- Start of Sixth Semester & the winter break

November 2003...

The 6th semester had begun before holidays and all hell was breaking loose in courses like CV,DSS etc...I had no idea of what was happening in those courses..
We had plans to visit GOA after the winter break for which we had to start our journey back to institute from home before celebrating new year :(( ...

Initially I was not sure of the trip to GOA, but then I thought if we wont go to a place like GOA in our college life then when will I go...and thats it...

So We all went home for few days in winter break with the dreams of visiting GOA...
My friends , parents and 2 sisters were angry that I am leaving on 31st December itself...not even spending one more day to celebrate new-year...but I had to do it for GOA...

I met Manjeet in the NewDelhi Railway Station and we boarded AP express at 5:45...bidding adieu to mom,dad and my sister...

We were tooooooo excited about GOA and were discussing all the plans we had thought of...

We celebrated the commencement of New-Year in the train...by eating some sweet which Manjeet brought from home...

NEWYEAR....
We reached the institute on 1st Jan and met all the people - Amal , Amit, Nitin , Sachin , Vidit, Abhinav, Aditya, Kunal , Jagan , Manoj ... Amal was not coming to GOA but we forced him and he gave up ....

Amit had arranged a Mitsibuishi VAN for 5 days....and then....

3rd - Year -- After 5th Semester

November 2003...
We got a small break after 5th semester exams... the sports meet was about to come and we had no classes...
on one such fine morning we had a nice time ...
After having our breakfasts we had a photo session...

Anubhav, Sachin, and Sandeep


Ketan amal and manoj going for bad-minton...(amal in T-shirt,socks,and shoes)


Nitin and me being nasty to amal..


A spy-photo...of nitin


My good old room...


Working on General Awareness...nitin and me

After our wing we thought of surprising some people in other wings...so went to work on this...


After waking up shekhar...


Working for RICH future...


Got into 3rd year - Summer Vacations after 2nd year

May 2003...

In the holidays after 2nd year, we used to have a good time...
The feeling that 'we will leave this institute after sometime' had started coming as more than 50% of our time at IIIT had passed...
The completion of 50% was just like a wink...time really flies..


A normal day started with jogging for which we used to go till ISB . After coming back we used to drink raw milk (argh) and then a good breakfast in mess. Our rooms were on 3rd floor (II wing) and almost everyone was there in institute for some work (usual projects) or other...me,ketan,amal,visesh,kumar gaurav,manjeet,nitin,manoj,sachin and jagan...
Most of us got our Hons projects and we started working in the holidays...me and nitin were working together on sth related to MPEG 1/2...
All of us were working under Prof. P.J.Narayanan or Prof Jawahar in IIIT's most famous research lab CVIT
After breakfast we used to read newspaper, watch movies , sleep ;) ...
we used to go to JNIDB mess for having lunch...
This was the time when I ate outside institute the most, almost all lunches and dinners were outside, either in a restaurant or the Chinese shop outside our institute...

Sunday, October 03, 2004

Life at IIIT

This blog is specifically related to all the things that happened around me in IIIT in the 3 1/2 years I have spent here....
mostly all my batchmates will appear here atleast once
Bye then
wait for the next post
Sandeep Chandna
IIIT Hyderabad