DAY 2

12^th Aug:

Day two started off early at the Boy’s hostel. I was woken up by 5:30 Am by the sounds around. I got out of my bed(A mat on de floor) around 6. I was surprised to see people busy studying and discussing. There was mayhem everywhere. Thank god I wasn’t in CSE/IT. We got ready by seven. The mess was serving some sort of dosa. I decided to stick to my regular diet of biscuits.

It was 8:15 Am and we had reached the entrance of amriteshwari hall. There was a large group of people already present there. They were busy signing some paper. We waited for it but were rushed into the hall. We got it later at the hall. The hall had a seating capacity of around 500 people. It was teeming with activity with people hustling around. The girls had already reached and were seated upfront .We picked a nice cozy place for ourselves. There were a few amritapuri studens sitting in front of us. They seemed to be all excited about the prospect of getting placed in HP. The air conditioning was perfect. It had multiple exits similar to a movie hall. All these clarified my doubts of why placements happen at Coimbatore!!

The interiors were well crafted with sound proof walls. The lighting was perfect and complemented the grand interiors. Around 200 people had come down to get themselves placed in HP. The stage was huge enough to make the person on stage feel important. But no one used the stage!!! Probably the HP guys wanted to be down to earth with us. The program kicked off at around 9. Surprisingly there was no customary lighting of lamp or prayer. At Bangalore every small program starts off with a prayer + lamp lighting. Some technical expert started off with introducing of his colleagues. A mix of HR managers and technical experts had come down from HP. After a morbid seminar about life,career etc at HP for 45 minutes, we were segregated into groups according to our preferred domain(C,C++,Java). A few IT people had taken Java. Majority of them went with C. I some how hated the printf,scanf lingo in C so I opted for C++. Ananth and sumukh went for C. Myself, smitha,deepthi & neha took C++. We sat close by just in case any copying was required.

There were some 5 sections spread over 2 and half hours. There was no negative marking. The first section was on programming ability. There were 15 questions to be answered in 20 minutes. We were supposed to determine the outputs based on the algorithms given. I guessed my way out. Next up was analytical ability. There were some basic questions like finding odd one out and stuff. Then came the areas which I had never ventured into. C and data structures was too tough to handle. OS and networking, I spent time only on networking. The final section was the domain paper (C++). I was tired of the barrage of questions. I marked a few answers. Then we were given another section called WET(Written English test) which tested the grammar and written skills. That brought the test to an end. It was 1 PM. Sachin had been calling me for the past half hour. I called up to enquire. He broke the news that college had shut down for ten days due to swine flu. I was surprised that we got 10 Days holidays all because of a flu outbreak. This was something I badly needed. A break from the boring college. The result of written test was going to be announced at 2 PM. We rushed to the mess. Had a sumptuous lunch and got back to the hall by 1:45 PM. 31 people were selected for the technical interview. 2(swami and sriram) from ECE Bangalore were selected. Now that we were done with the placement obligations we were free to further explore the campus. We decided to take a break and then venture out. We got back to hostel . Played UNO for some time. We had booked our return tickets for 13th morning , now we were thinking of leaving in the evening by bus as some of them felt there was nothing much to see over here. But we decided later to stay on and leave the next day as there was no hurry now that the college was shutdown. We regrouped at the cafeteria around 4. Sriram had come back from the interview. We enquired about the interview experience. The interviews were being held in a guest house and the interview room was a dining hall!! Myself, ananth and sumukh went to the welfare department to find out if we could arrange a bus for dropping us at the station next day. He asked us to get a letter from the placement officer . We came to know that he was in guest house. Enroute we came across some AWESOME sceneries!! We met swami on the way. He was rejected in the interview and he was leaving back home. We wished him luck and moved onto the guesthouse. The guesthouse itself was a grand one.

We managed to enter the guest house. There were a few CSE girls eagerly waiting for their friends result. The placement officer advised to go by auto instead of a college bus and if we wanted to get a college bus, we were supposed to write a letter listing out the names of people who want a drop. We realized that it was not a good option of going by college bus. The girls were going for a stroll. We decided to join them. Sumukh was tired and he needed some rest before he went for swimming in the evening. Myself and ananth went on towards the swimming pool .we met the girls midway. They were going to see the swimming pool. Boys weren’t allowed at that time so we got back to the cafeteria. Sumukh was waiting for us at the cafeteria. We spent sometime there. Most of them at hostel had already left for home. A few CSE guys were there for company. We went to the pool around 6:15 PM. The scenic backdrop was worth a million. I spent most my time admiring the beautiful surroundings while sumukh enjoyed a dip in the pool. The swimming pool closed by 7 and we were off to the mess for our final dinner at ettimadai. Post dinner we went for a walk to the main gate and enquired the guards about possible modes of transport to drop us at railway station the next day. We didn’t get any concrete information from the. We decided the safest bet was to arrange a private taxi. With help of a friends help we got a quails arranged for dropping. After that we got back near our hostel . After the long walk , we were tired . We sat under the tree near amriteshwari hall. After about half an hour chatter we got back to our rooms. We played UNO for sometime.Now that most of the rooms were free, I shifted to a separate room. We slept by around 11 PM.

ETTIMADAI trip!!

11th Aug '09:

It was 4:30 Am and we were all set to leave from hostel.

We got the college people to provide us a bus to drop us at the station. It came at a cost of 750 bucks. Kudos to the college that can’t even provide a free drop to its students. We were stopped at the main gate by the great amritian guards. We were supposed to furnish our gate passes to get ourselves out of this ultra high secure zone. We wasted around 10-15 mins in the wasteful excercise. We reached station by 5:45 AM. Our coach was D4. If it hadn’t been for the 8 point cut off, half off D4 would have been occupied by ECE .But now we were reduced down to a trickle. Luckily we got good seats with huge leg space. The trained chugged off on time. Neha got on at cantonement to make it a perfect ten from ece b . The girls occupied seats of some other passengers and we had to do some reengineering of seats. Myself,sumukh and ananth took the three seats on the other side and swami decided to give company to IT guys(Thankfully).

The weather was perfect for a day journey. The train left the Bangalore by 7 AM. In half an hour we had crossed over to tamil nadu and my cell had to change networks from Vodafone to BPL. Thanks to MSCs and BS, it went off smoothly. Much to my chagrin people started studying for placements. I had no option but to follow suit. After some half an hour of fighting out with the placement stuff, I gave up. I knew this wasn’t my cup of tea.

After three hours of survival on half a litre of water, I got bread omlett for break fast. By the time I finished my breakfast,hosur had arrived. The temperature increased a level and I had to do away with my jacket. Smitha started teaching some data structure stuff . I tried giving it an ear, but it wasn’t of much help. It was time for me to start zapping . I took my place at the door and set de music rolling. The wind gushing through the face was a heavenly feeling and there was no better place to get that then at the door.

Then came the ghat section where the train started curling around like a snake. The view out was wonderful. I tried out taking snaps of the train curling(Ananth’s idea). Met with some success J. It was 10 and a few people dozed off. I got bored at D4. I went for a stroll till S7. It was some 5-6 coa ches away. By 10:30, we had reached Salem. The boys got down for a sip of sprite. The train halted for some 20 minutes over there.

We were in dilemma on how to go to ettimadai from coimbatore. There were two passengers available. One at 2 and other at 4:40. It all depended on when we would reach Coimbatore. We reached Coimbatore by 1:45 PM. I was damn sure we would not be able to catch the 2 pm train as we had to get the tickets and again run back to the platform. However we gave it a try. Fortunately we got the tickets in time(thanks to Nishant-CSE) and we rushed back to platform. The train had still not come to the station. But seeing the crowd on platform , I sensed that our journey to ettimadai won’t be smooth. The train arrived after ten minutes. People started rushing into the bogies. Very soon the bogies near us filled up. Myself and ananth were left out. We got into another bogie which was thankfully far less crowded than the one others got into. We managed to find place for our bags and I got my rightful place near the door. We enquired the people around about ettimadai station. It was a new experience travelling in a packed passenger train. After 45 minutes of journey, we were there at ettimadai. The platform was too short to accommodate our train. We got down and were clueless about where to go. People started finding their own paths and moving forward. I thought people who had been there before(part of cricket teams) would know the route . But I was wrong . We asked an old man and he gave us the right route. Ananth took along a part of class(madhura,shilpa,neha ) and went on a trek to college.We tread along the railway track for around five minutes and we arrived at the main gate. There was a huge hoarding inviting some scholar from US. I was surprised to find the hoarding there as I didn’t expect a person of such high stature to come by a passenger train. Later I realized that the road actually leads to the main road. There was printed list of people who had registered for HP placement at main gate. We signed at the designated place and we were told our hostel names. The girls were allotted mythreyi hostel and boys were allotted nachikethas. Myself and sumukh went on towards our hostel. Enroute we passed through the majestic saraswathi statue and entrance to the main building . The statue was bigger than our micro controller lab!!! There was a small pond and a bridge over it.It was a perfect fairy tale setting. Ananth was still finding his way out along with his followers. We got a room for ourselves and refreshed. We waited for around 15 minutes for ananth. He came after 25 minutes. Luckily he got a single room accommodation.

We regrouped at the cafeteria. The cafeteria was out of stock. We had to wait for half hour to get a ghee roast. The food was not all that great at the café. We left the cafeteria by 6. Sumukh was tired and opted to go back to room for a nap. Swami went off to meet his ettimadai mates. I wanted to go for a stroll. Though ananth was tired after his trek,I forced him to come along. Deepthi and pradeeptha joined us and we went around exploring the scenic campus. Everything was so well planned out over there completely in contrast with the Bangalore campus. The hills overlooking the campus were at its best during the sunset. We walked around till 7 and then got back to our hostels. The food was ready at the mess.

The dinner comprised of kerala parota,some curry and a tasty fruit salad. Post dinner we went for stroll in the main academic block. Though it looked grand and pompous on the outer, the interiors weren’t all that great. Back at hostel,we played UNO till 11. There was news coming in that swine flu had hit amrita Bangalore and college may be shutdown. Shutting down of college seemed a distant thought at that time.

At the girls hostel, ECE galz were robbed off a good night sleep by their CS and IT counterparts. CS and IT were out with all their material and slogging of all night for the battle tomorrow.