Mystory@Shashank Chandra: How I selected my college and course

This story is about my engineering.

Admission Process
After smoothly spoiling my precious one year in Class 12, I decided to become an engineer (about my motivation for engineering is another story). After a hectic search for a college in Bangalore I returned to Delhi to take admission in any college for graduation. One of my friends from Siwan told me one can get admission in Delhi University by paying some bribe or set some jugaad for admission. I said I am not interested in your scheme. It is not like that I am against but I didn’t want to get admission like that. I again started my search.

How I cracked college admission

I knew a little bit about Sharda University because my sister had taken admission in BDS in the same university. And somewhere in mind, I thought, that if I was unable to make it to any other college, I will take admission there.

One fine Monday of July 2009 I called on the helpline number of Sharda University and enquired about the admission process. I was told that they have a corporate office in South Extension and I may buy their admission form from there before July 15. We stayed at one of my relative's place near Dwarka and without wasting any second my brother and I dressed up and left for Sharda University’s corporate office. After 1 hour of travel and half hour of search we finally reached there. I don't exactly remember the cost of form but I think it costed Rs 1000 or 1500. However I clearly remember the face and name of the girl at the desk. She was pretty and obviously, I was not listening my brother’s conversation with her. My brother turned to me and asked me when I want to take the entrance exam.

I asked him, “can I plan it according to my convenience?"
“What man you didn't listen what we discussed?”, he retorted.
I stupidly said, “no, I was thinking about something else.”
“She is saying that you if you are prepared, you can take the test today or you may come tomorrow after preparation," my brother said.
So I decided to take the exam the same day. She took me to a room where 10-12 computers were arranged like a typical cyber cafe. I asked her if I was the only one to write the test.

She told me that 10 more students are preparing outside to take the test. They will take it one by one.

Online test! What is that? I wondered. I had hardly heard of online test before.

“Sit here, look! Your questions will appear in front of you after clicking here, you have 150 questions, with 30 second for each question. You can't go back to your previous question”, she instructed me.

“Good luck!”, she said and she left me alone in the room.

I thought I was in trouble. I don't remember what type of questions were there but just for understanding the system I skipped first 10-15 questions. However I somehow answered some questions of Physics, Maths, Chemistry and English, and my time was up. I came out from the room thinking I could have done better with some preparation.

I asked that girl, “when will you declare the results?”
“We have a printout of your result”, she replied.
I was surprised. My brother told me I had scored 50 out of 150!
In very low voice I asked, “what’s the qualifying score?”
“40”, she said.
I told my brother, “I scored ten marks extra!!”
“But you will not get Computer Science with this marks,” was his reply.

I thanked God because I was not interested in Computer Science as my brother had recently completed his Engineering with Computer Science.

With my score I could only get Civil Engineering and I immediately said yes for it.
"soch lo civil bahut tough hota hai!" my brother reminded me.
I asked her is there any system of year back in your university? She said, "no".
Then I confidently told my brother, "dekh lenge!!"
After this we paid Rs 30,000 for seat booking and returned home happy and excited.

It was the month of Ramzaan. I had shifted to Greater Noida beside my aunt's house. She insisted that I stay with them but I wanted freedom. But complete freedom is impossible in this country.

My aunt gave me a set of instructions:

• Don’t roam here and there. Greater Noida is not a safe place.
• In morning, just go to college and comeback home.
• I will prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for you or whatever you want.

First Day of College

After having breakfast, I left for college. From Delta 1st roundabout I took an auto and reached Jagat Farm. From Jagat Farm I took another auto and finally reached my college. My younger cousin Aniket had shown me the way to my college.

Wow! What a great view it was! I was standing at front gate and the road led straight to Hostel area. Little ahead of the gate two blocks are located facing North direction. I later came to know that at the east side was School Of Business Studies (SBS) block and at the west side was Bachelor Of Dental Studies (BDS) block. I was standing there as a battery operated vehicle hummed towards me with security guards. I asked them for the accounts department. They guided me to BDS block but said it will open after 10:00 am. I asked for the Engineering Block. They guided showed me the School of Engineering and Technology (SET) building in East end.

I was late for my class. I entered SET building and it was same as SBS. In front of me there was a staircase. No one was present in the building. Without asking anyone I entered the gate which was situated in left to the staircase and asked a man who was sitting there.

"Civil Engineering ki class kaha chalti hai?"
“107”, he replied.

After a short search I finally found room number 107. The door was closed and the noise of students was coming from the class. I thought that man misguided me. All through my search for my classroom, I had only heard the teacher’s voice coming from every class I passed by, but here, all that I was hearing was students making noise.

Suddenly I heard a voice ordering, "Keep quite otherwise I will not take attendance", and there was pin-drop silence. I was nervous. I was at the right place. I thought should I go in or wait for another period. But my excitement won over my nervousness and I opened the door, “May I come in ma'am?” I asked and heard, “No! you are late.” Without any argument I stepped back and closed the door. I came out of the building and went to a coffee shop in the vicinity. I visited there and ordered a coffee and a chicken patty. I thought, from now on I will not focus on my career and not make the same mistakes as before. Lots of things were running in my mind. And after finishing my patty and coffee I headed towards my class. The first class was over and next teacher was about to come. I just occupied a seat in the second row. A guy said ‘hello’ to me. He was the CR of my class, Vaibhav Tyagi. He introduced me to 5-6 other students.

Another teacher entered our class. She was completely different from the teacher I met in the previous class. I thought it was her first class too.

In the class, we were asked to share our opinion on a socio-political topic. That day, the topic was homosexuality. One of the students, Romit Sharma, spoke for and I spoke against the topic. I enjoyed a lot in the very first class of my engineering. After all the classes of the day, I got introduced to more student of our class.

About the Author:

I am working as an engineer in a private limited company. I love to travel and explore new places. But due to my hectic schedule I started writing and it really feels good. I am weaving stories since last year.