Have I changed? - 2

Like I said in my previous post, going to college has been the best phase in life. I told to myself that I was going to be in contrast with how I was at school. During the first year, people generally are still in the hang-over of being at school, that too just out of studying very hard for the 12th grade exams, they continued the same. Not the case with me though. Never studied  during the semester, thinking I could catch up during study holidays. Never studied during study holidays, as I went home, enjoyed my time there, thinking I could catch up the day before the exam. I wasn't too serious the day before exams either. Since I hated to see the whole hostel studying, I used to flip the pages of the book for sometime and go to sleep early. Non-exam days I was invariably the last person to go to sleep at night, exam days, I was the first. The days when the results would be announced were nightmares. I would take an oath before I saw the results, that I would study well hence-forth, once I saw I passed, I would forget all about the oath.

If it was not for the room-mate of 4years I had, I would have been done for. She came from a Tamil-medium background, but the way she picked up was beyond my imagination. She used to be really regular at catching up with everyday lessons and completing assignments. The best part is the enormous patience that she had, to deal with me. She made me study even though I gave her a tough time. I almost never read the book, I managed to pass only listening her read. I owe my engineering degree certificate to her, big time :)

I was in the EEE dept, which was the most-strict dept then. Any mis-conduct took a toll on your internal marks. Since those 20 marks meant a lot to me for obvious reasons, I had to make sure I didnt upset my lecturers, but despite my efforts, I did get caught a lot of times, for not taking down notes in class, for bunking classes, for making fun of a lecturer 'cos she didnt give me enough marks for a test I wrote well and much more. The funniest/irritating thing about being a EEEian gal, is the lab costume. You have to wear a saree and a coat on top. To this date, I dont know the reason behind such a worst dress code for a lab class.

I hated to study for my internal assessment test, and wrote the answers in a sheet of paper and took it to the class, so I could copy. Once, for a Physics test, I was so lazy to copy during the test, that the previous night, I  prepared an answer sheet and just attached it with my test paper. The irony - I attached answers for questions that werent asked for and was even awarded marks for it. I used to hang-out a lot with CSC gals than with EEE gals, as they were more fun to be with for me. Our week-end lunches outside, the mess food(though not-so-tasty), the midnight-tea during exams, the late-night talks, the travel from Karaikudi to Chennai, the never-ending-useless-conversations on the stone benches, vada/bajji wala, the canteen pooris, Pillayaarpatti temple, CECRI, and lots more....

School to college, lotsa changes and I loved them. More than a major attitudinal change from one of a serious attitude to a casual attitude, it had a lot to do with independence and living life on my own terms. There was no looking-over-the-shoulder by parents and I did what "I" felt was right. I never took anything seriously, until it was time for campus interviews.

The next 5years after college saw me in the corporate world, but nothing much changed in me. It was just work-home-work most of the time, being money-independent was a good feel. 9years back there was a big change and some small changes here and there, but then were there changes after that?

Watch out!