My college journey at SATI, Vidisha: Aakash Rai

SATI, Vidisha

It all started when 10th standard was about to finish, when all the curious minds started discussing and asking questions about each other’s career plans, like they were going to join their jobs the next morning. Amidst all of them was a confused student, having no clue of any such thing. Yes, that was me. I was the one who was not discussing or bragging about my passion, instead, I was the one who was listening to everybody’s dream and passions and all their bragging about what they were going do after 10th standard, what field they would choose, what college they would get in and all the career stuff. I was just listening, and thought I would find my passion in their list of passions.

Instead, I got confused among all the streams to choose from. Ultimately, I went with what my really close friends decided and agreed to all the blah-blah they said about the particular stream. PCM (Physics, Chemistry, Maths) it was. Along with PCM, I heard a new word or phrase, whatever you may prefer, IIT-JEE (now called as JEE Main) – the dream of many and nightmare for a few.

After listening to their lectures on IIT and knowing what superpowers an IITian had in himself, I decided to take up IIT-JEE as my dream exam. It was the only plan I was focusing on.

Now comes the next chapter – the selection of coaching institute for IIT-JEE, the supernatural exam. For this, again, I got to hear some new names, and I must tell you, they were not the names of any compound or Physics theory, but the names of coaching institutes.

I again started to get curious but I had to show as if I knew everything about what everyone was discussing, so I nodded my head every time with a “yes, sure, that’s good”, “yep, that’s not a good one”. After all of this, my decision went from nothing to IIT-JEE and its preparation. I convinced my parents and they were more than happy to spend all their savings to get me a good coaching centre and the best quality education I could get from money.

How I chose my college

Skipping all the bad parts and the failures, now it was time for me to choose a decent college, as IIT wasn't an option and all the NITs didn’t consider me. I gave lots of exams including VITEEE, UPSEE, BITSAT, COMEDK, JEE Main & JEE Advanced, and WBJEE and what not. I got a decent rank in VITEEE, so I took admission in VIT, Vellore (ECE) as backup, in case I did not get any other college. I studied there for a month and then came the results of state counselling. I got a seat in SATI, Vidisha.

One thing to note here is the fact that after lots of coaching and hard work I did, I can assure you that coaching centres are not the only way to succeed in any of the examinations. I mean, in such a digital era, you don't even need to spend a penny on coaching classes, what you need is a powerful motivation and passion for your selected goal, and yes, a lot of internet balance too. With all this, you are good to go. This is definitely a serious piece of advice – use your digital tools for achieving something big and not just the game you finished yesterday. The marks I achieved can easily be achieved by any student by merely studying from NCERT books for about 3-4 months. So, if you aim big, work hard every day without thinking about the result. Just do your work and let the destiny do the rest of the job.

After the counselling and admission in my college

In my mind, one thing was very clear – I loved computers. Whether it was software or hardware, which I had to choose. I got the branch Information Technology, which I was somewhat satisfied with.

My family, especially my loving mother was really very happy as I finally got a decent government college in my state that had a nice reputation (in my parents’ and relatives’ eyes), after which, I was congratulated a lot by my relatives and family. Everyone was happy, but I was still unsure if it was the correct choice.

But then I saw the reality of engineering colleges and I was fine with what I had. If you are studying in an engineering college, be it any college from IIT to a private college, you’ll agree with me in this point – After some time, they’re all the same. No matter which college it is, you have to study on your own. You’ll be studying your subjects just before the exam and amidst all the extra-curricular activities, that too on your own. If you don't put any effort in the college life, everything is a waste. You can relate to it as a mouse walking on a rotating wheel; if it doesn’t move its legs in the right direction, it’ll definitely fall down.

The truth about an engineering college is that it can, at most, give you a direction or students to compete with and then you have to decide and work on your area of interest. Most of the students, after entering college, just sit back and relax as if the college will help them get placed or the degree of engineering is enough, which is the biggest myth. If you do not polish your talents in college or do anything extra from your syllabus, just note that you’re going be worthless after those 4 years.

My college life

Now, coming to my story, I was satisfied with whichever college I got, so the first thing I decided was to make the best out of the institution. In my first year, I joined a fun activity club named ‘FIAT’ and started grooming myself. I improved my skills such as speaking skills, working with a team, PowerPoint skills, etc. This was my first experience where I learned organising and volunteering an event. I co-organised many events with FIAT, in which, one of the events turned out to be a great success.

After my journey with the club, I learned one thing- why extra-curricular activities are necessary and how they groom you, and the more you work, the more you learn. Since then, I have been working continuously.

I left FIAT due to some uncanny reasons, which I wouldn’t like to discuss. Just consider it a case of senior ragging and stuff that all the government college students face. Now, after leaving the club, I was free and had no work to do.

Then came another big opportunity for me - ‘E-Cell’. I gave the interview for E-Cell (my best decision till date) and was selected as Secretary, E-Cell. I still remember that day; I was really happy. I got a position, a responsibility to lead something in my college.

Through the E-Cell, I organised great events with my team, and all of them were great success and most talked about events of the year. We worked really hard. And that is the best part- when you work as a team, when all the members are running here and there, getting permissions, checking arrangements, and doing promotions in classes, hostel, social media, etc. It was a blast working with a team and turning a small idea into a great event. That’s what entrepreneurship is all about. This is what we learned. I myself learned a lot from E-Cell, from my seniors, from the teammates, and definitely, my juniors.

Then, I was in my 2nd year and from this point onwards, I started working on my resume. I collected all the achievements and experiences I’d been through. This became my new passion – to add things on to my LinkedIn profile and for that sake, I started working. Any opportunity that came in my way, I was ready to conquer it with open arms.

Keep one thing in mind – if you really want to enjoy these 4 marvelous years of college life, the only way is to come out of your hostel room, leave your gaming laptops and PSPs, and just make your presence felt in the college. I can guarantee you that you’ll no more stay ordinary at this point. I have enjoyed 2 years of my college life making the best out of it and currently, I am enjoying the 3rd year in a row. Do whatever you’re good at, find your USP, and start working on it. Learn something new every day, meet new people every day, and live a life that you’ve always dreamt of!

So, by now, you must be knowing that I am currently in the 3rd year in CSE branch, still working fine. As the final year is approaching, the tension and pressure is starting to grow vigorously, as after almost 18 months, I’ll be graduated with my degree. And for that, I am working on my skills. I wish to go for masters after graduation, so it’s a pretty tight situation all in all. I have to start preparing for the exams in which I’ll appear and for that, I am definitely going with online studies for now. I have completed many internships and have made my resume ready to stand out.

Final Overview

After all the challenges and lots of semester exams, I think I really made the right decision with this college and my branch. I mean, I really enjoyed studying some of the subjects (not more than 4 or 5). I am also good with computer hardware, so my decision was pretty much on point. I am happy with my current courses and I’ll probably pass all of them without a
back (high hopes).

Also, yes, I made some mistakes initially, like I wasted the first half year of my college cursing it and my decision to choose this college, which came to an end when I started enjoying it. I also missed some opportunities back then due to my introvert nature, which eventually faded away (one of my seniors told me). But after that, everything was great and I do not regret anything, other than the fact that I could have given a little more time to studies, which, well, every student thinks of before the exams. So it’s not that big a deal.

I’ve told about most of my journey till date, but one thing I can definitely say is that it would have been a different case and scenario if I would be in a private college or an IIT. I’ll explain you how. The thing is, when you get every leisure at your fingertip, you no more praise the fruit of hard work. This is because in the above mentioned colleges, you basically get everything, from great infrastructure to great students and a handsome package too, but that's not the case with the state government colleges. In these colleges, you have to work really hard even to get a placement offer, so the students here know that only hard work will pay off, and so they focus on the same.

I too did the same and worked as hard as any IITian would work to get expertise in my field. Engineering has worked pretty well for me so far, let’s see where it takes me. I am travelling in a ship, rowing it in the right direction, but let’s see whether the ship gets to its shore or not.

About the Author:

Aakash Rai

I am Aakash Rai, a third year Engineering student at Samrat Ashok Technological Institute.