This time for a change I am not going to give a movie review because for me the movie is awesome and I could connect with the movie. This time I am just going to tell how I got connected with the movie. When I was in school I didn’t know what I want to become in life. Infact I was never even in the list of top 10 students in the school. I opted maths because I loved doing calculation. It was like a believe that a student opting maths has to do engineering. So I also went by this believe and gave all engineering entrance exam after my 12th. Luck was on my side and I cleared the entrance exam of BIT Mesra.
Before I tell my experience about BIT. Let me tell you one thing no one in my school would have ever thought that I can write such long posts. Now let me proceed to my college days. The 4 years I spent in college was fun. Now let me tell you how I got connected with the movie. The movie shows a suicide scene and I am reminded of students who took drugs because they could not bear the pressure of studies. This reminds me of students who died because of an overdose of drugs.
It was a shock to me to know that korex (the whitener) is used as drugs. I don’t know how could someone drink such a thing. But then I guess when the pressure created by college, family and society to excel in studies is so high that in this stress one takes up a path of self-destruction. Everyone has the same stress and pressure as those who committed suicide have.
But I was more like Rancho (Aamir Khan) shown in the movie. I never took the stress of excelling in college but just getting the knowledge. I was allotted Civil Branch which most people in those day didn’t want to study. Like others I also wished to change my branch and study computer science or information technology. But I was not that lucky to have ample grades for a branch change. I am thankful that my branch didn’t change because it was fun to learn about the things built around us. Fun to learn how a house is made, how foundation is given to a bridge, how a dome is designed.
I remember it was third semester and our classes had just started. The physics professor which we had got was pathetic and everyone would make fun of the way he taught. I never liked sitting in the front and as usual I was sitting just before the seat of boys. On the last seat boys were passing comments and I started smiling hearing those comments. The very moment the professor saw me and asked me to go out. I simply picked my notebook and left the class. But believe me if someone else (especially a girl) would have been there then that person would have said a sorry and tried to attend the class. Though at the end that professor tried to make my attendance short and I had to go to his chamber and beg to him to give me attendance but then if he was a good teacher everyone would have enjoyed his class.
What he taught was nothing new and it was more of the bookish knowledge which he gave to the students. I was not the kind of student who could memorise books. If I could do that then history would have been my favourite subject and I would have been an archaeologist. :-P Hope this history leasons are with some outing and students are shown various places and from there they learn about the subject.
Anyways I am no one to change the Indian education system. But definitely I can be myself. In fourth semester there were only 9 of us in Civil branch. Now people can understand how much popular was this branch at that time. But whatever be the case it will always be an evergreen branch because never ever construction will stop and never ever infrastructure development will take a backseat. :-P
In fourth semester one of my professors, Balram Singh (we call him Balu), gave us a problem to solve. I just looking at others then he asked me to solve the problem. But I said to him until and unless I don’t read this topic I wont be able to solve the question. He didn’t know what to say and just left the class. After that in the evening I referred to his notes and solved the question. His notes were very good. After that time I would always prepare the topic well in advance. And we would have a lot of debate in the class. Others would get bored but I liked his class. That semester I got highest marks in his subject. In the coming future also we had the same relation. And when I didn’t go to class he didn’t take a class and I had full attendance in his subjects.
My attitude to learn the course and not actually mug it up was also appreciated by one more professor, Sudeshna Mam. She was my professor in Steel Design and one day in a lab she called me up. She asked me to sit next to her. I was tensed as to what I have I done. But the thing she asked me has been one of the best moments in my life. She asked me how can she improve as a professor and what other students find bad in her. As a professor she is really good. She has a very good knowledge of topic and she waits for every student to finish the sum and if someone is stuck somewhere she tries to help the student solve the question. Atleast till the time I was in BIT she used to do that. But only thing is that she is a little strict and if one is 5 mins late then she would not allow people to come inside the class. But after our chit chat her strictness was lessened. I don’t know whether it was only with our batch or other batches were also lucky. But if one was drinking water from the water cooler she didn’t ask the person to leave the class. One of my friends doing Mtech from BIT was telling that Sudeshna mam still remembers me. :-)
Infact we had a survey camp in the college. It happens after fifth semester during winters for 10 days. Where on field we do an actual survey of the field and understand the landscape of field. Students are divided in groups and asked to do a survey of the field. This is one of the best things for Civil Engineering students in BIT Mesra. Infact no construction can start without a survey and having 10 days exclusively for survey is awesome. Its similar to having industrial training of one month during summer vacation.
Also the project I did in my final year was something to learn about. I along with my project group learnt how the soil behaviour changes with increasing proportion of cement being mixed in it. Our project was different and something new. Though we had to do a lot of manipulations but still we learnt a lot.
I wish to watch the movie again it was definitely a walk down the past. Much better than the novel 5 point someone which I read.
