A Memorable Semester

Back in July, as I came back to Roorkee after a two and a half month long vacation, I was pretty skeptical about moving into a new room (it was, in no way, easy either). In fact, I mentioned about the same in a post which can be found here. Little did I know that this particular semester would end up to be one of the most memorable ones(technically, this was my third with seven more to go, but I've a certain feeling)!

The semester started with a trip to the Saharanpur campus with a third year senior, Sandeep Ruhil, for helping them with the registrations, which turned out to be quite exciting not because of the fact that I visited the extension centre for the first time, but the journey. I'd always advise you to take the rail route to go there from Roorkee, but then, I was not this wise. The road trip took four times longer each time, which left the two of us really tired by the end of the day.

Domino's remains one of the few places in Roorkee where you would go in case you skipped breakfast and plan on skipping lunch too, because of the 'awesome' condition of the mess food. However, I followed a strict twice-a-month policy in case of Domino's (considering diabetes runs through my family). In August, Domino's started a one-on-one free offer, which led to such a high rush that I could no longer control myself from going there about 5 times in the last two weeks. Although the offer ended with the month (with an occasional 'expiring today' offer every now and then), my urge to keep on visiting the place quite frequently made me compromise my resolution again and again and again!

Considering Lipton in inside Cautley Bhawan, I felt that was one good thing to look forward to (as compared to the ones from Rajiv Bhawan), and Lipton did play a major role in making the semester memorable for me. The midnight bakar sessions with Animesh, Shitty and Nitesh were something I really would look forward to. Discussions ranging from secret affairs to the cranky profs, this was an ideal hang out for us. Such were the intensity of these hangouts that I had to literally run away from them during the end terms. One memorable moment in Lipton was when Shitty suggested jokingly that we must mix tea and coffee and see how it tastes. I actually did that and the result? It tasted like Bourneville! Experiment successful...

The month of October was the most memorable, though I spent half of it in Guwahati. I met my father after 6 months. I also got a new cellphone. Hung out with a lot of friends during Durga Puja. In addition to that, a certain something happened on fifth of that month that I can't exactly put here (basically, if you're a close friend of mine, you know it)... The month ended with the launch of my first intranet application, Online Exams, which has been devoted a separate post altogether. During Diwali, the handful of students left behind were invited by a professor to his house (and then, we went to the house of one more). That was quite a enjoyable experience as the warmth we felt was really amazing. We also realized that their Diwali was incomplete without us!

This semester was also my first in the department. I was exposed to the geological sciences for the first time in my life. Though it was quite a rough ride at the first (well, I was quite defiant as well), I ended up liking my subjects quite a bit. I also made some really good friends (no names taken here) and all I can say is that I have no regrets taking this branch!

The semester ended with the placements. Last year, I wasn't much concerned about them as I was pretty new and the senior-most batch in my branch was only in it's pre-final year. The placements were kick started by Ruprekha Brahmachari, an IMG senior getting placed in Rio Tinto and Mayank Garg in Facebook(Read again: it says F.A.C.E.B.O.O.K.). The first branch senior to be placed (coincidentally also from IMG) was Sampath Vinta in Schlumberger(So much for those who doubted my branch). Another significant placement for me was that of Haaris (ex-chairman of WONA) in ITC. By the time I left for home, it was just the 4th placement day, and the entire IMG team had been placed and companies like Rio Tinto and SHELL were hiring from my branch.

In short, this semester was something which is gonna remain in my memory for quite a long time to come...