Oh Those Ten! - 10

Looking misty-eyed at that sunny day when I got down at Peelamedu bus-stop with cumbersome luggage (in hands and mind), I am surprised at the way these four years have transformed me.(For the better or for the worse is a question best answered by Mr.Future) As I sat down contemplating a series of autobiographical articles on my college life,I realised that reading them should be as enjoyable a ride as my Tech life itself.Hence,I chose the user-friendly format of choosing The Top Ten Moments when I was on Sky Nine (Clouds come and go). These ten moments shaped me up,moved me up the ladder here and made the person that I am.Read on.

10.FOURTH SEMESTER EXAMS :

Preparing for any exam has been a trial by fire.I remember calling in this very space the day when my final semester exam ended as The Happiest Day in my Tech Life thus far.This aversion towards exams reached it's zenith in the fourth semester when the names of the subjects themselves were intimidating enough :Microprocessors and Microcontrollers,Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits Design,Integrated Circuits And Applications,Probability and Queuing theory.I remember being so happy getting 2 marks in a PQT internal test as I had expected a lesser score.In Microprocessors,the numbers kept changing from 8085 to 8251 to 8279 to 8051 page after page (Why could not they name it as 1,2 and so on?).

When semester exams commenced,IPL commenced too leading to utter chaos.We studied how to synthesise a CMOS Transisor amidst shouts and cheers from the Recreation hall when Yusuf Pathan was hitting Ajantha Mendis out of the ground.For PQT and Microprocessors,we studied in Praveen and Raghuram's house.To say that PQT was all Greek to me would be an under-statement.Even before the exam,I got ready for defeat and sent a long SMS to Amma saying "Pls forgive me.Tough exam.I will pass next time.Sure". My amma kept on consoling me "You will definitely pass da magane".The question paper only confirmed my fears.I worked out all problems hoping to cross the border somehow.

As 9 of us attended Compensation Classes,our results alone were delayed.Already 20 had failed in PQT (Ishwarya who gets sad if she gets less than 90 percent had failed) and there were rumours that 2 from the 9 had flunked too.We started guessing who those two would be.("Dai naan dhan da" ,"Illa machi naan dhan").I started getting weird dreams daily.(In a dream,a staff angrily shouted at me "The probability of you passing in PQT is zero".)Then the D-day arrived.When I typed in my roll number,pressed "Enter" and saw that I had just managed to pass in PQT,a sigh of relief escaped from my mouth.The catharsis I experienced at that moment was something all the Ten and Nine pointers in the world could never ever enjoy.When I called my Amma and told the news,her reaction was a mere "I-told-you-so".These Ammas know their sons inside out.More than the sons themselves.