Hostel Life : My Early Experiences

Hello Everyone. Thank You for sending in positive reviews. Feels really nice to get good reviews when I'm starting out. Luckily i didn't get any negative reviews, but i welcome criticism too and I'll surely try to improve.


Before I start with the main topic, another brief introduction about me. I'm a shy person ( introvert might be more suitable ), I don't talk much, don't have too many friends and most of the time, I'm immersed in my own thoughts. I'm the kind of person who'd b shy to even say hi to someone if i meet them at the market ( so don't be offended by it :-P ). And also, I haven't lived in a hostel before, this is the first time I'm living away from my mom and dad and I'm really missing them.

The people who've never lived in a hostel before, don't be too excited, at least in the first few months you are really gonna miss your family. You may want to go away from them right now, but you'll realise later how important your family is.

"You realise something's value only after it's gone."

You will have to wash and dry and even fold your clothes! ( Laundry cannot always be trusted). You will have to wake up on time yourself, (koi aake pyar se nhi uthane wala :-P). You will have to clean the mess you create, make your bed, remember to carry your towel to the bathroom ( My friend forgot his towel :-P His roomie finally gave him the towel, after making him shout in the bathroom that he loves XYZ (some girl) ) and above all adjust to the mess food !!

And once you get used to these, you'll slowly but surely start enjoying your hostel life. You will make new friends ( and hopefully good ones ). You will be beaten up at 12 in the night on your birthday, and if you are lucky your friends might even give you a gift :-P. You will be eating Maggi and drinking coffee at crazy hours, playing loud music in your room ( till the warden gets to know about it ), making fun of each other to no end (which leads to fights sometimes), playing pranks on each other ( I have been locked in the room quite a few times. For some people its worse, their roomies lock them out of the room when they go to bathe. Imagine roaming around in a towel while its getting late for class ). Your parents won't be there to shout at you for watching too many movies. You and only you, will be in control of your life (isn't that what you always wanted? ).

By Saikat Sarkar (Personally taken by author) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

And when something goes wrong, your friends will support you. And that's when you will realize that you miss your family, that you would do anything just to go back to your mom. No matter how good your friends are, you will miss your parents, and your brothers and sisters. You will want to go back home and just switch on the ac and sleep with absolutely no worries. And thus your life will be, switching like AC ( Alternating Current ) between fun and happiness on one end and hardships at the other end.

Everyone is going to do some or the other crazy stuff ( even the nerds... according to our definition, studying for long periods of time is crazy stuff too :-P). Everyone will have a story to tell. Life as you know it will change. Your friends will be the biggest part of your life ( you are living with them 24 hours a day, cant get any bigger than that ). And you will have the freedom to do what you want. Just remember :

"With great freedom, comes greater responsibility"

Edited and Adapted from the spiderman movie.

Fresher's Robosoccer

Is this the first thing that came to your mind when you read the heading?

If yes, you'll probably be disappointed. This was our robot ( actually, it is better described as a truck or a battering ram) :

The Robosoccer event is organised by the Technology Robotix Society. It was the second fresher's event i participated in and our team stood second in a competition of almost 64 teams. ( Yes you heard it right, that ugly thing up there stood second !!).

The matches were held over the weekend and our bot had to be ready by Friday evening to get us registered. We started work on the bot on Thursday night after dinner, less than 24 hours before the deadline. Making the bot was the easy part, we just had to attach motors and tires to the frame. Making the circuit for the controller was the headache.

It was the first time we were soldering, and while we understood the circuit and how it was supposed to work, soldering things in place wasn't easy. And the circuit refused to work properly, even after countless adjustments and alterations. Finally we gave up on it the next evening, after working on it in turns for more than 10 hours!! This is the mess we created in 10 hours :


Deadlines however are meant to be extended, and we had time till Saturday evening 6:00 P.M. We made a new complete circuit, with all new stuff (extra expenditure), in less than half the time we spent on the old one. Everything was ready by noon on Saturday, when one of the four relays decided to stop working. We were in a complete mess now, without that relay, our bot could move forward, but not back, and turn left but not right. Somehow we managed to get the controller right with help from some friends ( Kshitij, Sandeep and Amlendu .. Thank You guys. We really appreciate your help. Couldn't have won without you).

Finally, match time. Our strategy was to hit and smash and push the opponents out of our way. Here's a sample in which we almost pushed the other bot out of the arena. ( This was a semifinal match ).

Unluckily we couldn't win the final, our opponent was as strong as us, so pushing would often lead to a stalemate. Anyway, we are happy to have come second. It was a fun (and seriously tiring) experience, we learned lots of stuff, hands-on experience. And it's nice when after all your hard work you win something.
Thanks to my teammates Sumeet ( He did all the controlling and the designing of the bot) and Aditya ( he worked on the wiring and the circuit, and also was present at the matches, and also controlled the bot a bit).

Actual robo-soccer picture by everyone's idle from berlin, germany (DSCF4250s  Uploaded by Mewtu) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

A Day of Our Life : What is it like to live at Kharagpur

Wondering what life is like at IIT Kharagpur ? Is it worth living in a boring village? The IIT's at Mumbai, Delhi, Madras and even Hyderabad may have much better surroundings but don't discriminate against KGPians. Our campus is our world and we have access to everything within the campus itself (except good food, particularly if you are a vegetarian :-P).
(Edit: Found a canteen yesterday that serves very tasty veg biryani. Also, Maggi is always available)

A typical day in our lives is something like this:

Every morning the hardest thing for us is to wake up on time. Normally we try to wake up at 8:00 for a class of 8:30. On many days however, we can reach class on time even if we wake up at 8:15 (Not an exaggeration). You can call it wonderful time management or our extreme laziness!!

In classes many of us sleep, unless the professor is particularly good at teaching (the professors are extremely knowledgeable, but not all of them are excellent at teaching). At-least in the first year, you have to study most of the topics on your own ( or with friends :-P) , but then you are an IITian so it shouldn't be that much of a problem. Lab classes are taken much more seriously (and most of us will reach labs on time), because attendance is much more important at labs.

In the lunch break, unless you really love 'pathal' (i don't think anyone does) there is no real urgency to have lunch. After that classes again, and sleeping during classes again. Sleeping in a class is a very real thing here. Ive never slept in a class throughout my school life (except once, but that was only for 5 minutes after which the teacher woke me up ) but at KGP I've slept quite a few times. Sleeping is better i guess than chatting on Facebook (that's how i justify sleeping).

Life for us begins after classes end at 5:30. The biggest advantage that an IIT gives us is : " We can pursue our interests in whichever field we like ". You can go and play whichever sport you want, you can play musical instruments, sing, dance, attend lectures, swim, debate, code.....(this list is never ending). We have students who are good at each and every extra-curricular activity you can imagine. This is the best part of our college. You have to live here and see for yourself to believe it.

Going to sleep before 12 doesn't happen often. You can watch movies all night if you want. We have access to unlimited, but heavily restricted ( for which we have workarounds) internet access. Watching movies throughout the night with your friends = Lots of Fun. Some people play football in the hallways late into the night, others listen to music, play table tennis, hang out at their friend's room and study together. Forgot to mention, the night isn't only meant to enjoy, it is also the time to study, complete assignments, write reports for labs, go through lectures and drink coffee every once in a while (with friends obviously no fun alone :-P).

It obviously isn't all fun and games. We have to cope with lots of pressure too, but in the end IIT Kharagpur is one of the only colleges in the country where you can enjoy without having to step out of the campus. Being in Kharagpur has its advantages too ( I don't need to mention the disadvantages, they should be pretty obvious ).

IIT Main building image : By Ambuj Saxena (Own work) [CC-BY-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

Dropping a Year : No Problem

Anyone having these regrets?

• I should have studied a little more, I wasted too much time on the net.
• If only I had better opportunities like that other guy..
• If only I didn't have to go to school every day like the people in Kota :-P
• Everyone kept shouting at me so I couldn't study.
• I should have been an SC\ST :-P

For all the people living with these issues, who have taken admission in colleges who's names they had never heard of, or who are studying at home after somehow convincing their family that they'll give their best this time, remember, One entrance exam can never decide how intelligent, or in some cases, how foolish you are.

"Believe in your image of yourself and you'll be a winner, believe in someone else's image of you and you'll be doomed for life."

My own quote :-P

The biggest disadvantage/advantage of life is, it only flows one way, you can't go back. So it's better to look ahead. Make the best of whatever you have and above all, never listen to what others tell you. They don't know you or the sacrifices you made. No one understands you like you do. Give yourself a second chance and don't be too harsh on yourself.

If you have already taken admission at some college, but are not satisfied, factor two important things before you decide to answer exams again.

Case 1: If you are studying Electrical at a college like BIT Mesra, and next year you get Ocean Engineering at IIT KGP, stay at Mesra. Don't waste a year just to study an unheard of branch at a better college.

Case 2: If your college is so unpopular that even you did not know of its existence in class 12, answer the exams again and take whatever you get at a better place.

People often sacrifice the stream for a better college (read : for the iit tag) and realise too late that they have no interest in their chosen branch. Don't end up like this after dropping a year :

Source : Quora

If you've finally decided you'll give the exams again and are wondering where to start, try and follow these points.

1. If you have one full year, don't leave any topic. Don't repeat the mistakes you made last time.
2. If you have less time, start with the topics you never really could understand.
3. Keep studying organic chemistry once every few days (It demands constant and repetitive effort ).
4. For Maths, Physics and Physical Chemistry practice mostly questions (you already know some of the theory, questions will help you revise).
5. Try and solve at least single option questions from Arihant's New Pattern (Physics , Chemistry and Maths). These books are sufficient.
6. And from which topic should you start? Varies from person to person, 6 months before the exam, study what you are weak at. 2 months before the exam, concentrate on your strengths.
7. Imp: Don't waste too much time on trigo, many a times you can eliminate and guess the answer.
8. Be thorough in calculus (specially integration and differentiation { #double emphasis}).
9. In chemistry, practice physical and organic as regularly as you can and ignore inorganic as long as you can.
10. For physics, just practise questions from the book i mentioned earlier, you'll be revising the theory too by analysing the solutions at the back (That's what I did).
11. Practise is the only key to success.
12. There is no such thing as an important topic. All topics are important, question can be set from any topic. You just have to do your best.

All the Best. Keep yourself motivated.

(Note: A few points are repeated in different words. That has been done on purpose to lay special emphasis on those points.)