Visiting College after three years…
March 2020 — Final Semester
Nikhil Gowtham and I were doing a project for a course called Engineering Noise Control. We were looking to purchase a toy or an electrical appliance within our budget that makes noise. The project’s goal was to develop ways to reduce the noise. It involves dismantling the thing, understanding the sources of noise, and coming up with ideas to reduce the noise.
Sai Sandeep, another friend from the same branch, accompanied us. We went to Koti, Hyderabad, roaming around the streets for it. Finally, we purchased a hair dryer for our project and watched HIT: The First Case in Panjagutta PVR.
While returning to the college, we purchased masks as the fear of Covid in India was visible in the market. We boarded a bus and found a middle-aged man coughing uncontrollably with no mask on, and he didn’t cover his face with his hands either while coughing.
We were about to complete our final exams in May, and finish our graduation from the premier Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, fulfilling our six years dream 🙂 and inviting our parents for a grand Convocation in August 2020, but Covid played a spoilsport.
In the second week of March, our college declared two weeks of vacation due to the sudden increase in Covid cases in our state. We hoped we’d return to the college in 2–3 weeks to complete graduation.
But here we are, visiting the college as Alumni after 3 years of graduation! The farewell wasn’t complete, and a part of our hearts wasn’t satisfied.
We never had convocation. Our degrees were couriered to home in 2020, and as time progressed, our Institute realised they couldn’t organise a convocation and organised a formal get-together in the Institute last weekend.
IIT Hyderabad was established in 2008 and functioning in a temporary campus, Ordnance Factory, for some years. Even when I joined in 2016, our hostels were on the temporary campus, but we had Academic Buildings on the permanent campus.
In our second year, 2017, we moved to the hostels on our campus, and the campus grew as we grew. There was only one Academic building in our first year, and by the time we completed our graduation, there were three Academic buildings. The library was within a small room back then.
When we visited the campus now, it had a lot of new buildings, new energy, and the same old good memories of our college life. We have a building called the “Knowledge Center” with a library too!
Even coming to the campus by bus from Patancheru was nostalgic for us that we did take the same Sangareddy bus this time. The ticket was Rs. 13 from Patancheru to IIT Hyderabad in our first year. When we left the campus in the final year, it was priced at Rs. 17. Now, the price is Rs. 30. Inflation is real dear friends.
We used to go for long walks and discuss the exams, faculty, politics, and cinema back then, unable to purchase and eat at a cafeteria with premium rates.
Now, we took a long walk across the campus, witnessing and awe-ed by how the campus is shaping up and sat on the benches inside the classes reminiscing the good old days. Remembering the classes, courses, faculty, and the unpopular Academic Office made us suddenly feel old.
We ate at the cafeteria, but the prices now seemed far lower, as we are earning now and aren’t spending our parents’ money.
The dust on the campus is still there as a mark of our incompleteness during our stay on the campus, and the air pollution from the industries nearby is still there too!
We started walking from the main gate into the campus, asking for the route to Open Air Theatre, where we had the event on Saturday, 11th March 2023. A couple of friends made it to the event, meeting their friends for the first time after Covid.
From our branch (Mechanical Engineering), we had Janmejay, who came from Pune, Sankalp from Mumbai, me, Kazim, Yoga Nivesh, Anirudh, and KC. And we met a couple of friends from other branches with whom we had common interests during our stay on campus.
After the event, we had impromptu conversations with a couple of juniors. We learned that the institute is getting the recognition it deserves, but no change in the politics inside the campus.
I discovered that the hostel block where I stayed is now a Girls’ hostel, and we aren’t allowed inside. Nakul and Abhilash were fortunate to visit their hostel rooms as the block is still a Boys’ hostel. On the walls, they wrote their names long back, and we can read them even now, although the wall was painted.
From there, we went to the ground and cafeteria. On our way, we found that the Table Tennis room was converted into Hostel Office, and there was an HDFC bank instead of SBI at the same place. Anyways, we went to the cafe and, again, had good conversations 🙂
There were three buildings for Academic blocks, and now, many buildings are coming up for different things, and we explored a couple of them until midnight. It was lovely to speak our hearts out about things like Love, career, relationships, politics, and cinema, of course!
We had a fantastic day at the campus and talked uncontrollably until we were tired and slept past midnight.
The four years of college life were life-changing for me as I met a couple of people who have impacted my life. To name a few, I wouldn’t have graduated without these people — Tribhuvan, Nikhil Gowtham, Ranadev, and Bharadwaja. I consider them friends and mentors. Although they couldn’t make it to this get-together, I remembered all the walks, discussions, and preparation I had with them.
And Nakul, whom I have known for the past nine years since we were two teenagers working towards a common dream — making it to the IITs.
And Revanth, with whom I had brief interactions in college, but after graduation, we have been meeting a lot and have good memories.
Abhilash and Bhanu — we enjoyed ourselves a lot in those few hours last weekend!
And many others, whom I can’t name here, deeply impacted me and made me the person I’m today.
On Sunday morning, we hugged and bid each other farewell, making one part of our hearts feel content!
Until next time we meet and make good memories again…
This blog post wasn’t planned. I was just thinking about it and putting my thoughts on the document, which made me publish this.
Hence, it’s written as the ideas kept coming to me, and I felt it shouldn’t be edited. Some things are good in natural flow 😀
