College Christmas

Today we celebrated our college Christmas. This was the 4th Christmas being celebrated in Gitam. Dr Edward Williams was our speaker and Elizabeth Rani mam (HOD for EIE) was our Chief Guest. All the arrangements were done bang on time and the stage was set by afternoon itself.

I was an active participant and had co-ordinated in getting in the volunteers and contributions for the event. Though it was the college Christmas, we had little participation from non-engineering sister conerns of GITAM. The final year students of EIE formed the core organizing committee. As every year, the Principal had not granted permission to conduct the event within the college premises. Not even a banner was permitted.

So thus started the day - arrived from home at around 1:30 PM and made arrangements for the Santa's costume at Allipuram and a couple of bouquets for the guests en-route college. I had taken my dad's bike as I expected the event to finish late. Highway drive was a charm. Sorted traffic with minimum blockades was enjoyable. Our entire class was ready and waiting for the event, but to our dejection it started raining heavily at around 5:00 PM. People who had set off for the event turned around towards home. It rained for about an hour leaving us doubtful if our efforts would go futile.

We started off with the event before it was dark enough.Our very own chubby bumpy Santosh was the Santa. He was a perfect fit and was swaying graciously with pockets full of goodies for the guests. I shared the stage with Sudarshan from CSE as anchor for the event. I had invited Sowjanya, our NCC mate to the event and she was an instant hit in our batch - Raj, Shravan, Pradeep, Shanti, Suhasini, Sri Vani, Aroon to name a few.

The main speech of Edward Williams garu was very impressive and intended specially for the students. His voice was catchy and everyone enjoyed his message. The choir and musicians had done their job to perfection. Not to forget the skit which had everyone roll out of laughter. Towards the end of the event, I received many compliments for my anchoring but for Sowjanya who was of the opinion that I wasn't confident enough. The company of seniors from EIE - Sowmya, Sushma, Riya and Rani was great fun. I returned with Raj as my pillion and Sowjanya and Suhasini in a scooty.

ODYSSEY-2K5

Ah!!! Here comes the tour with memories of the jubilant days we spent together. Perhaps the most memorable tenure of our college life. We set out on 4th of November 2005, ready to embrace the varied experiences that the journey would throw up……

It all started on an ominous note with the major part of south India engulfed in torrential rains. We had our Kerala express cancelled which made us board the unreserved Sabari express. It brought us all together into one accord.

Ooty was our first destination. The imprint of the city as we watched from the Coimbatore station was awesome. A hill with a dwelling at a height of 2570 meters was graciously covered with clouds, inviting us to explore!!

The journey was exciting with steep curves and gleaming waterfalls. There was a magical serenity in the place. Fresh atmosphere and tall trees against the backdrop of lush green grass was a treat to the eyes.

We visited the geetanjali spot and enjoyed the chill freshness of the waterfalls. Boating was the event of the day. Come evening and we lit a camp fire with our feet tapping to the beats of disco.

The Shanti gears at Coimbatore was a heaven for mechanical engineers. We had a chance of coming across complex manufacturing techniques which could only be visualized when we studied MT-II.

The next destination was The Garden City - Bangalore. Our stay over there was busy with lots of shopping and outings mainly to MG road and The BRIGADIER road. We visited the prominent ISKCON Temple and the Visweswarayya museum, which dealt exclusively with science.

Then we marched towards our next industrial visit, NTTF ( Nettur Technical Training Foundation). It dealt mainly with planing operations and sheet metal works like bending, piercing, blanking apart from grinding and reaming operations.

The journey to Goa reminds us of the troubles with the Big–Bellied TTE at LONDA. The bumpy journey along the ghat roads with scorching sun and a very humid climate was well punctuated with the songs of antakshri.

Beaches, Wine and night long parties are synonymous with GOA. Our stay was no different either.

We visited Dauna-Paula and played in the beach. Cruising was an exhilarating experience with breathtaking dance by a gracious foreign dancer and disco on the ‘move’. St. Xavier’s church, of monumental importance which contained the relics of Saint Xavier was a majestic construction.

We had a chance of visiting Dil chahta hai fort. In our desperation of re-enacting the trio from the movie, we captured many Kodak moments there.

We drove past Goa heading towards Mumbai in a seven geared monstrous Volvo which gulped in a whopping 500 litres of diesel before our arrival.

After a desperate night we reached Mumbai. On making ourselves comfortable we zipped across the heart of the city, past high raise buildings and stopping at the historic Gate way of India. Having spent some time there we went along Marine drive and the rest of our venture comprised mainly of shopping. The journey back to the hotel was colourful passing through the infamous Dadar and the surrounding Lal Batti Jagah .

We organized a special get-together to mark the successful finish of events. Had a summary of the proceedings and opinions were put forward. We cheered those who put up special efforts for the tour.

The Konark express brought us back home on 16th Nov with our heads full of the past, which now suddenly seems more palpable than the present.

Done with the semester

Bidding farewell to the first semester of my third year, I start to pen down my experiences and feelings with the 'Industrial Tour' at hand.

With the grace of Almighty, I had finished my exams. Except for Machine Design, I had done all other exams well thanks to the early preparations along with Chandu.

I have a sort of satisfaction which comes out of not doing injustice to your subjects. I hope, I start here and pick up the tempo as it is already half the way down.

Once done with the last exam, it was time to prepare for out IT tour which starts tomorrow. We went for shopping and I cannot fail to mention that it was courtesy Pradeep that I could buy myself a travel bag for an economical 250/- when the shopkeeper was actually demanding 650.

Having done with my packing, I am now all set to explore a greater part of South India. I owe a lot to my sweet sis who has been very helpful during my exams and now in packing (infact helped me iron all my clothes)

The next fortnight, I would be off to 'THE ODDESEY' and I hope it would be as much fun and a memorable span of my life.

I am not being instructed by my caring mom to be off for bed as it's too late.