The serious lack of something to write, paired against an uncontrollable urge to post something on my blog, eventually led to this post. I’m behaving a tad like A R Rahman, recycling old posts to make my blog appear updated, but then who cares? No better way to beat a pathetic working day.As a footnote, this qualifies as my oldest bit of creative writing, dated 27th Nov 2004.

Chronicles of an Ex-Raitian

Ah. welll..all things have humble beginnings..so does my blog. I had an inclination to include this on my website itself, but then changed over to here as an afterthought.Thought long and hard about what to write, when it struck me that i could write something on every ex-RAITIAN’s fave topic, RAIT bitching!Here
are a few experiences in RAIT I had. I may have missed out on many..but I guess I have highlighted the most important events in my life(????) at RAIT.

First year Engineering:-
1. No matter how much you scored in HSC, or how good in Maths you were, Applied Mathematics 1 paper is always fuckall!And yeah, must remember, half brained semi intelligent nitwits ( RAIT vernac profs) are the ultimate authority, when it comes to submitting assignments. And no matter how wellyou did in Maths 1, you always flunked (Me, Nevil, Guga)
2. 50% of your class almost always gets almost always 1 kt or more. If you are wondering about the rest of the 50%, 50% of them got a drop, and the rest, aaah! well, they left RAIT for a better college.
3. As a rule, applied chemistry and applied physics assignments must be over 25 pages long!If they are shorter, dont be happy, you have had it in your term work.
4. It is not blasphemy to score more in your Mechanics-II term work than in Theory ( example is Me. theory-17/100, term work - 23/25)
5. Coming for CP practicals, waking at 7am, taking the 7.20 train in the morning is not considered an excuse by the dumbass called the labass!(whoa! rhyming!!!) for reaching the 8am practicals at 8.05am
6. Cigarettes were called Pencils in Annas canteen.
7. Anna’s Nimbupaani rocked.
8. All good looking girls, if any, were already going around.
9. It takes one week to stamp a Railway concession form.
10. It was suicide to enter the canteen alone.
11. I attended my last ever Maths lecture.
12. A flimsy file and 60 sheets of below quality paper costed Rs.40.
13. There was no electricity in college every Friday, but there would be practicals scheduled for that day.

Second Year Engineering:-
1. Half your friends from FE never made it here, and the ones who made it definitely did after a dozen changes in rules as a consequence of a ‘Morcha’.
2. Engineering Materials & Components was a FUCKALL subject and a certain guy scored 80/100 in it ( Guess who?He went on to become IEEE chair in final year)
3. Half the Profs in SE were, expectedly, as incompetent as the First year profs. (Definitely quite some exceptions to this)
4. Exams can get postponed a day before they start.
5. The concept of ‘Student Sympathy’ was unknown in RAIT and it still is.
6. Our principal was just a puppet in the hands of…
7. It took me and Guga just two days to design the Horizon 2002 website, and took the college two weeks to tell us they had no webspace.
8. Most of the ‘Nikammas’ of the Electronics Branch were in D div.
9. It was possible to sign for six lectures at one time, without sitting even for one of them.
10. The guys who did what was said above in statement 9, were the biggest losers, because attendance did not matter even a BIT in RAIT( I can vouch for that)
11. Anna’s Nimbupaani still rocked.
12. Desperate attempts at spoken English by our profs had to be thoroughly honoured.
13. I had pending Kts of all the 4 semesters till then, when I gave my 4th semester exams.
14. It STILL took one week to renew a railway concession.
15. Me and Nevil stole a 32mb Ram chip from college, only to realise it did not work.
16. There STILL was no electricity in college every Friday, but still there were practicals scheduled.
17. We finally passed the Maths 1 paper after 4 attempts.

Third Year Engineering:-
1. Fee’s for TE had to paid in April itself for a term start in August, so that these f****** could get profit from the interest on the fees too!
2. The FE batch sucked, and quite a few people were cutting grass on RAITs cricket ground because some FE prick complained about ragging.
3. Electromagnetic Waves and Fields was the most PATHETIC subject anyone could ever study.The only solcace was to study Magnetic and Optical Communication later, which I later realised, was WORSE.
4. A certain female Maharashtrian professor who stayed across the college, enjoyed calling guys “EH!!BOY!!!”, and used every oppurtunity she got to screw the case of every guy or girl she taught.
5. The donuts in Blue Rock Cafe went from bad to pathetic.
6. We had to, weirdly enough, register for the 6th semester, and had to produce our first year Fee receipt for that.
7. It STILL BLOODY took one week for a railway concession.
8. The same flimsy file was now smaller in size and the sheets were still the same, but now costed Rs.50.
9. A live Rat was hanging above the Engineering Canteen and was the object of everyones attention( Sorry, I have lost it).
10. There was a museum in college for no apparent reason.
11. We got used to not having electricity in college on Fridays and started taking the day off.
12. Jagga quit drinking.
13. We wanted to get out of RAIT, as soon as we could.
14. I came to know who my Mathematics prof in 2nd year was.

Final Year Engineering:-
1. RAIT became strict about attendance (LOL!LOL!LOL!LOL!LOL!LOL!)
2. We never went for the project on project days( Actually, we almost never did)
3. Our DC prof was feared by everyone for more than a single reason.
4. I got sloshed after drinking Vodka,two days after my GRE and to the day, cannot drink Vodka.
5. I was finally giving only 1 semester papers, which meant I had no pending Kts.
6. Our principal caught a guy running half naked completely drunk in college on the Freshers Night.
7. The concept of Rich Westernites evolved.
8. It still took one week, Yeah , you are right, for a railway concession. Only now, you could pay Rs.200 to Sutar and get it done in a day.
9. We finally began to realise that we would part ways at the end of the year, after enduring so much together.
10. There was a new breed of RAIT profs who would act tough with us, though we cared four fu***.
11. Nevil, Gargi and me were ripped apart into shreds in the 7th Semester project viva.(Prof. NST Sai and Prof. Purnima Talwai). I have no idea how we still managed to score 43/50 (This was on New years Day)
12. A certain laboratory in college had enclosed cabins for a certain female Professor mentioned above and a male counterpart ( No one from outside could see anything)
13. Guga got hit by some Ghaatis on the last day of Horizon.
14. We did not have a rock show during Horizon for some od forsaken crappy excuse by the management.
15. Almost everyone cried on BE Farewell.
16. The last paper of Engineering was a worthy parting gift, symbolising the shit hole called engineering in Mumbai University.
17. It dawned upon us, that no matter how pathetic RAIT was, we would all miss each other, for the sheer time we spent together. Every moment I spent there would be cherished.
18. It was common realisation that people were Engineers despite the Education system, not due to the system.
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