May 25’ 2010 15:45 P.M., Vellore, Tamil Nadu:
I saw a group of boys and girls laughing over something. I couldn’t help it any longer. I went up to them and said, “You guys planning to become engineers?”
“Yes. Why?”, a dude among them asked.
“Think again! Because this”, I said pointing towards my own self, “is what an engineer looks like.” Sun-burns all over my face, melting each second with heat and sweat and with a degree in hand, I left the college forever.
The final review was fine. Both my internal and external examiner were very nice and the college management very helpful and understanding with everything. I presented a very compact but interactive PPT and they looked happy. An easy picture to everything except…
The temperature at Vellore was touching 45 degree Celsius. It is impossible to explain just in words how I walked carrying a laptop, 3 reports and folder from K-block to Main building and then back fetch the presentation, Main building to SJT then back because I didn’t take internal’s signature then back to SJT and from there to K-block and then back to Main gate to fetch my train to Bangalore for which I didn’t have the reservation.
Now only the people from VIT can realize the logistics of the distance between MB and SJT and K-block in the heat of Vellore. I didn’t have the chance to say good-bye to anyone. Not even to my few friends who were there at that time. I didn’t get the chance to say good-bye to my home for 4-years, my college, my VIT. I didn’t have the chance to reflect all the wonderful time I had had there.
I am in the train to Bangalore standing for the rest of the journey, looking outside at the setting sun and thinking…Did I, after all this time, emerge victorious as an engineer? And I answer myself…Only time will tell.
