It’s all about PUKING….


Hmmm.. Interesting caption. Isn’t it?? Thought about writing this blog way back in 3rd or 4th sem exams. By the way I have just completed my BTech so you can guess how long it has been. Anyways I am not talking about vomiting in the real sense of the word. You will get to know about it as the story progresses. Transition…. Is a necessary thing in life and a person undergoes numerous transition in one’s life. One of these transitions is SCHOOL to COLLEGE. So my story begins at this note. Everyone almost feels the same after entering college life and so was I feeling after getting admission into Btech in UIET,KUK i.e Kurukshetra University..one of the well known Universities of India. So all of us feel like “OK school over that means studies are also over.. College is meant for masti aish ……” but the case is slightly … or should I say completely different. 8 semesters,about 40-45 subjects, Labs, seminars, tutorials, sessionals and exams after every 6months….. “abe yar padhna padega sath sath warna dikkat ho jaegi” so we used to attend our lectures sincerely and made proper notes of each subjects in 1st year. Used to study seriously in sessionals and the fact was that teachers also taught us very much in the manner we used to study in schools.. So it ws ok.. As during final exams most of the syllabus was covered during sessionals and it was easy to study as they provide very long preparatory holidays before end sem. We used to wonder why are these long holidays provided.(We here refers to my group and we were idiots in thinking so as we eventually got to know the reason behind it in the upcoming semesters)


And soon I came to know about this great university KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY…I don’t know if every student hates his/her university but we btechers at Kuk just feel the same as It doesn’t matter which college you are in or which stream you are in –“you are bound to hate it”. There are many funny facts about this university, its examination branch its administration etc which will be covered in this story. First one is that no matter how much you attempt the paper you will get the marks according to the wish of the paper checker and I don’t know what mysterious system they use to evaluate us. I have heard people saying “yar 40 ka attempt kia tha 60 number aa gaye :P” waooo good for you mate but there is other side to it too “O BC 90 ka attempt tha and supli de rakhi h 32 number!!!!! :X “ and ye manghadanth afwah nahi hai … I myself have witnessed it. 1st sem maths exam… I was sitting next to a friend who was in ECE . We matched the answers and I found his 2 questions were wrong. He re attempted them by copying me. I was sure to get good marks as my 95 mark paper was correct but when result was declared (that too during the 2nd sem exams..another loophole in KU administration,) I GOT 52 marks while that friend of mine got 100!!!! hadd matlab… :D Ab ye funny lagta h sunate hue but that time it was so humiliating and frustrating and reval mein 20-25 number badke aaye the… (salon ek baar mein dhang se check nahi hota kya….?? )


Chalo moving on .. we used to study sincerely in 3rd and 4th sem also but the size of our notes gradually decreased as teachers stopped teaching us in the manner they used to… some of our friends didn’t study for whole sem and got as many marks as we did and sometimes even more..(ab ye kya chakkar h yar?? ) and eventually one day when me n my best buddy vipin were studying together(and we seriously used to study hard and kept asking questions that how is it done and all sorts of intelligent questions) for an exam, we got so frustrated and came to a conclusion that “ITS ALL ABOUT PUKING” yes its correct … for getting good marks in BTech, KU all you need to do is CRAM the got dammn syllabus in the last 2 days and puke it all over the sheet next day in exam… no matter how relevant or irrelevant your answer is. Just fill the whole 36 sheets and bingo you’ll pass in any exams whatever the questions are …. And from that day me n my friends took an oath “that we’ll not waste time in understanding the subject we’ll cram it instead” Waise I can only talk about CSE and I am sure all you CSE guys will agree that we don’t know shit about what are we being taught. That’s the sad story of this system. There are subjects which has got nothing to do with becoming an engineer still we have to cram it up. And moreover there aren’t any teachers to teach. I remember some semesters in which teachers were appointed in the last few days before exams and still all get passing marks.. Now here comes the relevance of long preparatory holidays… all you need to do is aish maro poora sem and last mein notes and books arrange karke padh lo and no one can fail you in exams…


Coming to the point of books.. I have got no hesitation in saying that I owe my 77% honors degree in Btech to a great publishing house which almost every CSE student adores…. Yes you are right guys I am talking about “ISHAN PUBLICATIONS” no matter how easy or difficult the subject is.. You will get the theory word by word in the syllabus.. Let me quote you an instance .. A friend of mine used to study from the foreign author books which are mentioned in the syllabus.. I guaranty you that he studies more than my whole group but unfortunately he is pronest to get a supli if any such word exist… so what do you learn from this ?? “Never ever study from foreign author books in KU exams “ but don’t think that studying from ishan books is a piece of cake…. You need to be a cryptologist far better than ROBERT LANGDON (if you have seen or read da vinci code or angels n daemons then only you can under stand me.. if you haven’t… than GO AND WATCH OR READ IT IDIOT you don’t know what you are missing in your life.. :D ) anyways coming back to the story.. These ishan books have so many spelling mistakes that you can pull your hair but cudnt make anything out of it.. Waise the best part is that if you are a good crammer than no need to worry. Just cram that wrong spelling and puke it on the paper… you‘ll just get as many marks as you wished to get.. :D.. I don’t remember the funny lines which we used to come across during studying from ishan else I would have quoted it for you.. And then there are certain subjects for which you can’t get the syllabus in any X Y Z books mentioned in the curriculum.. Yes there are some subjects for which even ishan can’t make books for. And that’s where the real problem arises and preparing for them becomes so frustrating that I have heard people saying “EVEN CHARLES BABBAGE OR EINSTEIN HIMSELF CAN”T ATTEMPT THAT PAPER” :D


Another interesting thing on which you all will agree is the system by which they fail you in exam and this is the most widespread story which I heard from many people that “KU wale parchi nikalte hain random ki kiski suppli deni h…” and I firmly believe in this fact. People who themselves know that they arenn’t gonna pass get pass with flying colors while so called toppers get compartments….. And then another fight is filling the forms for re evaluation and suplli exams. Even the thought of standing in the never ending queue of OBC bank for filling the fee still gives me goose bumps… I myself haven’t got supli by god’s grace but a side effect of being a day scholar is you got to do stuff for your friends and the hardest of them all is doing the admin work in KU in which a person feels that even MUSADDILAL from office office was better …  but that’s how it is. Coming back to suppli and re-eval, after winning the fight of OBC and getting the form deposit you have no guaranty to get the result on time. I have seen people giving their suppli exams and then they come to know that they were pass in re evaluation. Such is the in efficiency of this great university!!! Another example which I came across was when it costed someone much more than giving a supli exam… HIS CAREER.. A friend of mine from JMIT couldn’t sit for TCS placement drive because he had a compartment for which his re evaluation result was yet to come (which should have come at that time by the way but thanx to KU…) and after the placement scenario was over and the company recruited students in bulk …the result came and he was pass in that exam.. The poor chap is still jobless and doing a computer course in Delhi these days to fetch some job… and there are several such incidents….


And then there is the Result Branch and RE Evaluation branch for which I have no words to condemn their inefficiency. Now there are two ways of getting the work done in these departments. 1st one is the common man way in which they treat you like swines ,don’t listen to what you are saying infact they just ignore your presence.. I have witnessed this my self. We were standing and asking an official about some fault in a friend’s DMC but the gentleman proffered to do his job and ignored us completely. Ek baar to mujhe shak ho gaya that are we wearing the HARRY POTTER’S INVISIBILITY CLOAK or is that person deaf? But both were wrong. It was just that we were mango people (aam aadmi) and the 2nd way of getting things done is through an approach and I have seen the same man writing the application for my friend himself and even offering us sweets and water…. DOUBLE ENTERDRE ,JANUS FACED … there are several other instances to quote for eg hike in the fee of special exams and the drama which was created during SMCS re evaluation time… but I think aap bhavnaon ko samajh gaye honge.


Just a comparison with NIT. I ll say that great institutions are great because all there departments are great. I had some work in their adm block and I was treated really well even during their lunch time and I was envying their efficient administration. Anyways I ll stop writing now. Our batch mates have passed out so we will forget all the sufferings sooner or later but I wish KU administration improves and better staff and adequate facilities are provided to the upcoming batches along with proper curriculum for students…..

MY SCHOOL DAYS...(wrote this one in first yr..galat angrezi ke liye maafi chahunga...)

“Do you like your school days?”….if asked from a school going boy/gal, the answer to this question will be and should be “NO”.
But if you ask the same question from a college student like me what’ll be the answer??? No points for guessing guys, the obvious answer will be “YES, YUP, YEAH!!!” and why not, it is human tendency to value time and things when they are gone. So after getting in college I cherish and miss my school days and want the time to turn back…….
I completed the 15 years of my schooling in 5 different schools and the last 2 were my favorite. I did my nursery and kindergarten in a small school “St. Mamu Public School” which was near our house in Hisar….let me tell you one thing. Though I wasn’t able to crack IIT or even NIT, I dare say that I was a brilliant student in my school time. Above 95%, getting 1st or 2nd position in class and mostly my competitors used to be girls!! And we used to fight like anything!! Over even half marks. We shifted to Faridabad and I went to Gita Convent School where I did my 1st and 2nd. I don’t remember much about that time but I got my first academic scholarship there by scoring highest %age in all the 8 sections of 1st and 2nd and got Rs 600/- scholarship twice(though the greedy school authority didn’t give the 2nd one as I changed the school in 3rd std). …then I joined St. Albans Fbd. I spent 2yrs there and took part in various extra curricular activities also. My closest competitor was a Rajasthani girl and we used to hate each other and always wanted to dominate (I recon she was very pretty though…but this is the verdict of an 18yrs old guy and not a small kid of 3rd std). After that we came to Kurukshetra, where the best part of my schooling starts….
My house was in sector-7 and the nearby school was “Greenfield Public School”. It was a new a school as it was its 2nd year. Though now it is one of the best schools in the city, that time it was only up to class 7. I was admitted there in class 5 by a mock interview.
FIRST DAY IN NEW SCHOOL….
My school was at walking distance from my place and I remember my mother came along to drop me. It was a small class where hardly 10students could sit, and that’s because there were only 7 students in that class last year and I was the 8th one….5 boys and 3 girls. I used to laugh at this small strength as earlier I used to study in a class of 35-40 students but now I think it was due to this small strength that we enjoyed a lot there and teachers used to give special attention to each and every student…..coming back to the story….. I entered that small and empty classroom and put my bag on a desk when I was startled by a voice ”That row is for girls dude” I tried to hide my embarrassment and put my bag in the other row and turned back to meet my first friend in the new school-“Vipul”. He introduced me to rest of my 6 classmates- Ankur, Karan, Manmeet, Priyanka, Swati and Shrutika. The last two are still my classmates in UIET. We all gathered for the morning assembly. After prayers I was shocked to find that some roll no’s were being called on stage and mine was there too….I went on the stage with a trembling heart and found that all these students had to speak something on the mike. A 5th grade student came to know the real meaning of stage fear for the first time. I recited a poem on the microphone with a semi confident approach. But when I heard the applause from everyone including teachers and Principal, I felt relieved and my stage fear was gone forever. Later in 4 yrs till I stayed in that school, stage became a 2nd classroom for me….speaking daily news and thoughts, quizzes, debates, declamations and a lot more. I even conducted the stage for school’s annual function and that was a memorable experience. Coming back to academics, here also my competitors were girls (I think girls don’t have anything to do but study and study and create problems for ‘Abhinav’). So Priyanka, Swati and Shrutika all of them were fierce competitors and we always had a quarrel whenever the class tests or terminal answer sheets were distributed. We were more interested in deducting other person’s marks rather than looking into our own answer sheets. But that was fun and we have a great laugh whenever we remember that time. Smriti, Isha, Garima were the new names added to the list as we went to 6th,7th&8th std. me and other boys used to enjoy a lot in making fun of girls in class or during skating classes. We did participate in various cultural programs which were presented in the school functions and even in ‘Dronacharya’ stadium during 15th august and 26th January. I was a part of the ‘Jhanki’ competition on 26th January when our school won the consecutive 3yr running trophy. Coming to extra curricular activities like painting, craft, chart making, quizzes etc I won various prizes at school and district level.
Now a Funny Incident
One day some girls told me that another girl of my class had a crush on me. I was very annoyed with her and felt a bit tensed and shameful that whole week (gosh!! How idiot I was that time…..but kids are kids, they always have problem with girls). I didn’t talk with that gal till they assured me that there is nothing like that in her mind now. (Gosh that gal is now in Jaipur and both of us haven’t talked about that incident since that day. There’s a saying that opportunities are never lost, someone else grabs them and I think she is quite happy with her mate now)Anyways life moves on…..till 8th std. my competitors did a hell lot of efforts to come 1st in class but it was always me who won the race. I remember how my mom used to take a box of sweets to school before even knowing the result…those 4yrs were the best of my school life.
As Gita Niketan was considered to be the best school for 9th onwards so I took admission there. And the first day in this school too was amazing. From a normal so called English medium school, I entered into a school of Indian culture. There was a ‘hawan’ for the new students after the assembly which had 2 ‘Sanskrit’ prayers. (For all international readers, hawan is a ritual in India where we sit around fire and pray while putting some holy material in the fire) And it took me some time to adjust with the language for e.g. - ‘Savdhan-Vishram’ instead of ‘Stand at ease-Attention’ and ‘Bhaiya-Bahen’ for ‘boys and gals’. But I was lucky to know more about Indian culture in last 4yrs of my schooling.
Man!!!!! Again I went off track…coming back to the 1st day….during ‘hawan’ I met several students who told me that all the top rankers are admitted in 9th c and as I got a major 98% in 8th std so I was sure to get ‘C’ section. But I found my name in section ‘B’ which was a hostler section and was reserved for boys as hostlers were considered as the most notorious students. Thus my academic competition with girls ended in 9th and continued till 12thstd. There were just 4 day scholars including me in that section. We were frightened as the hostlers were unfriendly in the starting. We gave an application to Principal for changing our sections but were told that they had equally divided the top rankers in all 4 sections. So we should try to adjust and thank god we didn’t change the section as after 2-3 days all the hostlers became my friends and we enjoyed a lot during 9th and 10th std.
Once me and my friend were caught making moustaches in a girl’s photograph published in school magazine during social studies period. We were taken to headmistress’s office and I tell you that was a horrible experience. It was a small room where hardly 3 persons could sit but as ‘apna to bad luck hi kharab hai’ (due to my bad luck) that day almost all the lady teachers were sitting there and giving nasty looks to two new and innocent students….one teacher had seen me conducting stage on annual function in previous school as the whole program was live telecasted on the local cable channel. She said ‘I didn’t expect such thing from you’…and tears ran from my eyes…
After that I didn’t get indulged in any such incident. But that doesn’t mean I stopped having fun…we used to eat our lunch sitting on the last bench just before the recess when our English teacher was teaching literature.
Achievement- I used to have extra classes in hostel for the HTSE exam, and that too was an interesting phase of my school life. We used to have classes till 7:30 in the evening during winters ant it was really dark when I reached home by 8. But all the hard work paid as I cleared HTSE and NTSE and now I am an NTSE scholar. (NTSE-National Talent Search Examination). I went to Chattisgarh for attending the national level vidya bharti quiz competition with my team after winning the state and north zone at Rohtak and New Delhi respectively. We had a great time there but unfortunately we lost and came 4th. Still we managed to sneak through the teachers and went for ‘Harry Potter and the goblet of fire’ without being noticed by teachers and girls. And our journey back to Kurukshetra too was amazing. ’36 hours in the general compartment of a train’. Man it was a horrible experience!!!! I got 93% and 88% marks in 10th and 12th board exams respectively……
There were several more interesting things in my school life but it’s not possible to pen down each and every incident of the 15 most important years of your life!!!! So I stop writing here…..
I hope I was able to take you back to your school days…..


Abhinav Vashisht