The first

First day, first impression, first friends… They somehow don’t last too long. The only reason I’m even writing this is because Pramod insisted that I do. So here goes..

I’ve been to IIT-M loads of times before. The first, I remember was during my 10th std. I had gone with my Dad to pick up Vineeta. It was two days before a maths exam. As we drove trough, I was looking out for the deers. I thought the campus was very pretty (who doesn’t!!). My Dad pointed out the library hoping that I’ll get inspired by it! I probably just nodded and thought “how boring.. they probably don’t have books without pictures and conversations anyway”.

I’ve been there many times after that too – for Saarang, for numerous entrance exams conducted there, to meet a few professors there, etc.. But going there knowing that you’re gonna live there for the next two years and that everyone around you is your new college mate – that’s quite a different feeling!

We drove up with my mattress, bucket and bags packed into the back. Not a long drive – from Anna University to IIT. I looked into the trees as we drove down the Delhi avenue. (IIT-M was started as a collaboration between India and Germany. So, out of the two roads leading from the main gate to the Gajendra circle (the statue with the fountain and two elephants!) one is named Bonn avenue (the then capital city of Germany) and the other is named Delhi avenue (Delhi is the capital of India!)).

My dad gave me all this information as we drove in. We passed the rather crowded campus, lost our way twice and landed in the registration place 5 mins late. After registering, we went and bought a couple of locks and odomos (which turned out to be a waste since I haven’t seen a single mosquito in my 4 days there!).

Well, I was mainly sad that my holidays were now over! No more waking up at 11 in the morning, no more hogging chocolates, no more jobless golden days!!
And a LOT of apprehension – What if I didn’t make any new friends??!! What if they were all from the same college and knew each other previously and ignored me completely?! What if my MCC friends and my school friends meanwhile got too busy with their own lives and started ignoring me too?? What if my next two years are miserable beyond belief?? What if I’m bottom of my class??

The car pulled up in front of my hostel – Sharavati (the hostels there are names of rivers and the messes are names of mountain ranges!). We paid them the hostel fees and walked up with the luggage to my room.

My room – this deserves a whole para to itself! It’s a single room. Pretty spacious. One bed, one table, one chair, a big cupboard with top luggage shelves et al., a book rack and one of those mirrors which opens up and has compartments inside where you keep toothpastes/cosmetics/medicine/face wash. One tube light, one night lamp and a ceiling fan. Two windows - one through which you can see tidal park and another glazed one opening to the corridor.
But all this is the tame bit! What is spectacular about my room are the decorations on the walls! There are about twenty hand prints in different colours adorning the wall with names scribbled beside it and stupid senseless phrases written all over! It’s crazy!! And well, ugly. The handprints by themselves would’ve looked pretty, but the phrases alongside make them look uncouth! The place is a mess!
“Oh shit!”, “I thought, as I accompanied my dad back to the car, “what am I gonna do? Maybe I can paint it”.

Preoccupied, I hardly noticed my dad pulling out. Not tat it matters… home was a 47A away. Or a phone call to dad or Naren or Divvya away.

I walked back. The floor was empty. Not a good sign. I walked into my room to unpack. I messaged someone – I forgot who. Then I unpacked a bit. I tried cleaning my room and ended up making it twice as messy, and crashed into the bed!! Finally, I heard some noises outside – I found two of my classmates had moved in, borrowed a broom from one and newspaper from the other and continued making the room messier!

Finally, at 8 we went down for dinner. My first taste of IIT mess food – chapatti, rajma kurma, rice, sambar, salad, kelangu, buttermilk and banana! I actually liked it! I guess the IISc C mess had really taught me to appreciate food!!!

I came back and crashed.

That was my first day at IIT Madras.