Memories of Manipal

Here’s something i wrote for the college magazine this year. Wonder whether it got published though. I was asked to write something that captured my years at Manipal.

“My four years in Manipal have been nothing short of a crazy roller coaster ride. From late night screaming in 5th block, to playing Command and Conquer on LAN in 7th block, talking about life in MIT is never complete without talking about life in MIT Hostels. The experience of living in MIT Hostels is one that you will remember and cherish for the rest of your life. In first year, when you are a freshie, the first few days in hostel are spent in introducing yourself to others and attending intro sessions in random rooms. It takes a while to find your set of friends and as I discovered, I found the perfect gang only at the end of the first year. At the end of the first year, there is a crazy rush to find the best rooms to move into in 2nd year, and for us that was 7th Block. Life in 7th block was great fun. Time was spent setting up LANs, ultra late night BC sessions, and gaming that would pass the hours very fast. Waking up in the morning would be quite difficult, and as a result, most of us would miss the first few classes of the day, everyday.

Being in E&C, attendance was never an issue. Proxy groups would operate throughout the benches, silently and swiftly giving proxy attendance to their friends who couldn’t make it to class. People would take turns coming to class. In class, most of my time was spent in the 2nd last and last benches with my friends. If the teacher was worth listening to, I would take notes and pay a lot of attention in class. If he was not, then time would be spent playing cows n bulls or some other fun activity that would not involve anything academic. Class hours were also used efficiently by those in E&C to copy assignments and complete lab journals.

After class hours or during free hours, the rest of Manipal would be explored in order to satiate our hungry stomachs. From MR to Vikram’s, Basil to Prax, there was not one restaurant in Manipal that wasn’t explored. Prax Burgers was the staple diet of everybody during exams and during all those lazy days when going out was not an option. God Bless Prax!

Now I am at the end of my 4 years in Manipal and I cannot begin to comprehend how life will change. Now responsibilities are more and I cannot live as carefree a life as I have lived in Manipal. I can hope and wish that my time at Manipal never ends but time waits for nobody and life moves on. I will miss all the crazy parties during placement season where there would almost be a party thrown by someone or the other every weekend. I will miss the back bencher’s association of E&C Section B where every class was not just a lecture but much much more. Of all that I miss, I will miss living in Manipal, where I have learnt that life is about having fun and as long as that is there, life’s always worth living.”