My first two years in college

There is nothing in the following that will be of interest to anyone except yours truly. I am merely checking out how much I am censoring myself! I do not think this would lead to any kind of catharsis. Yet ...

The first year of my college was spent at a University of Madras affiliated college, Academic Year 1970-71, trying to get my Pre-University certificate (PUC) to make me eligible for a degree course leading to a Bachelor of Science degree, also from the University of Madras. I was not thinking of going to any other university as that would have imposed heavy financial burden on my family.

I was forced to take Hindi as my First Language and the Second Language was, of course, English. Tamizh was also offered in the college but it got less than step-motherly treatment from me and my family.

Yes, in my school days I had studied Hindi for about two years. Why did I stress studied? Because, I learnt almost nothing. I was told that as a member of a Forward Caste I better look out for opportunities outside of my state of domicile, preferably going north.

That year, I spent perhaps 70-80% of time on learning by rote what my Hindi teacher dictated to us as class notes. I committed every word of those notes to memory. In the process, my Hindi grammar improved, but nothing else. By the way, in any language I take to its grammar with enthusiasm more than I do the other parts – prose and poetry; that last, I hate vehemently. Hence, I “studied,” instead of “learnt”.

Obviously my efforts in the other subjects suffered. I did not even know what “logarithm” was, what it helped us with and how. I ended up with almost mediocre grade in the university examinations. Over confidence perhaps, but I screwed up answers to questions that were at the tip of my fingers. Even to this day, I cannot put my finger on anything specific.

I was under the thumb of my parents and had visited the college canteen, a thatched hut, perhaps twice in the whole year; made me deficient in social kills, I now understand.

Anyways, I got the opportunity to enter an academic institution in the engineering stream.

Switching midstream – had been advised not to do and I am not big on following advice – I went from a local yokel to starting to mingle with social and academic elites. And, I was ragged bigly; what sounds now funny, I did not even know I was being ragged! So, in a subjective way, I was not ragged at all! Silver lining in the cloud!

In the first year, I had four other hostel wing-mates who spoke Thamizh, all of them with a distinct Palakkad accent. And, I was a misfit on that count also. But, the others sort of took me under their wings and we formed a closely knit group.

The first year class was divided into two groups and two sections in each group. The academic scheduling was distinct for each group, including in the regular tests conducted through the semester – three of them for each subject and seven subjects. It was raining tests or assignments/homework/drawing, every waking hour.

I was in one group – thanks to my proficiency in English grammar – and the other four in the other group. That made for difficulties in keeping the group together, coordinating study times, and more importantly, for leisure activities. Being in the minority, I had to cede control of the group activity.

In the cultural festival, the first time I was hearing about such a thing, I somehow broke away from the group and attended many sessions – I was unbelievably bold, just to attend!

To end the long story, I broke 70% academically in both the semesters and was the topper in our group, much to everyone’s surprise, including mine. I must mention here that the first ever grade I got was 'F' - this was in mathematics. A very auspicious start for my academic career in engineering! 

Judge my performance in the first semester from that start. 

The first time I felt that, perhaps I did belong in the institution – a big jump from what I felt two years earlier.

I will pause now and I will write about the subsequent years in college, up to graduation.

Raghuram Ekambaram