Life Of Navin

College has been everything it promised to be, and more! It's been a brilliant experience, and it would be an understatement to say that I've grown, practically, professionally and spiritually in college, and will be taking home a tonne of awesome memories. One of the most interesting things about college was the sheer variety if people there. People from all different walks of life, from different backgrounds, with different dreams and ambitions, who've had an amazing amount of influence on the stuff I've done over the last few years. These are some of those people! :)

Damodar Dukle - The Godfather

*insert background track*

Classmate, Friend, Lab partner, Project Mate (multiple times infact) , Anime monkey, Water demon, 'Baka' of the nth order... These are just some of the avatars of Damodar "Damu" Dukle that I've had the pleasure of seeing over the past few years. He, alongside my Godmother (read on!), has been responsible for ensuring that I do the stuff that's expected to be done in order to survive this journey called 'Engineering'. He's one of the few people in class who gets as excited seeing code as I do! It's been awesome to go and be my crazy, brash, unedited self, knowing that at the end of the day, Damu has my back.

Random Fact: The water demon part is completely true. Damu drinks a gallon of water (atleast according to my rough estimates) on a daily basis. His hostel room has over 30 water bottles!

Prachi Naik Kurade - The Godmother

You get the idea...

Another person without whom college would have been way tougher to get through is also my candidate for Best Senior ever: Prachi! Since the 4th iteration of our college techfest, Technix, 2 years ago, it's been an honour to have her as a friend. Our college stories are as different as can be: She's a straight-A student, I'm not even close. She's super-fashion conscious, my dressing sense is 'alternative' (at best!). She's every teacher's pet, while I've rubbed quite a few the wrong way. But what can I say, opposites attract.. and thank god for that! She's made it her life's aim to ensure that I get through college. From lending textbooks and question papers, to her 'Idiot, study for your exams' phonecalls/messages that start 1-1.5 week before any exams, I'm glad to say, it's worked! I haven't really had any problems with understanding how an ideal college student should be thanks to her!

Random Fact: She gifted me Kane and Abel for my b'day last year. And till date it's been the finest book I've ever read! Do read it if you haven't! :)

Pranali Naik and Rohan Hodarkar - The Team

How I see the team! :)

College has been all about trying my hand out at a million different, completely random things that I would've never thought of doing otherwise, and one of the most important things I took upon was the Computer Students' Organisation (CURSOR). As CURSOR, we were representatives of the Computer department (and the students therein) of college. And nothing, of the completely amazing year we had, would've been possible without the 2 awesome people by my side: Rohan Hodarkar as Treasurer and Pranali Naik as an Executive Member. The kind of stuff we had to do, the number of people we had to speak to, the amazing amount of 'Jugaad' we did, the hours of lectures from our faculty advisor that we endured, everything was done hand in hand. We were like the core team of CURSOR, and I'm glad to have created a billion cherished memories of CURSOR along with these two! :)

Random Fact: Pranali told me and Rohan a 'deep dark secret' over a year ago, which till date neither of us has told anyone else! Also, Pranali has a 'fanpage' dedicated to her on Facebook, and Rohan is one of the admins. :P

Saumitra Yadav - The Brother

We're *slightly* older! :P

They say that family always comes first, and Saumitra "Saumy" Yadav is nothing short of a brother to me. Infact, it's not odd for us to address each other as "bhrata". One of the people who's been by my side through thick and thin, and seen me at my best as well as my worst. Through the last 3 years, it's been nothing short of a wild ride with this guy! The weekends spent alone in the hostels, the frequent trips to 'Santosh' for him to 'tantoss-ify' in between classes ( Inside Joke :) ), and having someone to talk to about all the stuff that happens in your life, that you can't really tell anyone other than a brother, it's truly been a wonderful couple of years having a strong shoulder walk alongside me through most (if not all) of the ridiculous plans I've come up with (and vice versa)! :)

Random Fact: Some of the best conversations I've had with Saumy are at the legendary 'Backzop'. So much so, that we actually have 'our table' there! :P

Sonal Rivonkar - The Twin

Y U NO BE GEMINI?

Every once in a while, you find a person who's humming the same song you've been thinking of all day, but how often do you find someone who shares your thoughts on a daily basis? Enter Sonal. How similar you ask? You name a field, and chances are we have similar tastes: Music? yes. Movies? yes. Philosophies? yes. How life has played out for us? Yeah, that too! Infact, even the things we dislike are more or less in sync! I really don't know how it started, but the phrase 'This same wavelength thing is freaky' has been used so many times (to describe the moment when we think/say the exact same thoughts), that it's a regular cliche now! One of the few minds as diabolical, demented and twisted as my own, Sonal has this amazing ability to make almost complete sense in situations where I'm in a complete fix. A companion for late night nonsensical conversations, One of the bakras who listens to my pathetically bad jokes, and a friend with whom I doubt I can ever get bored, Sonal's been all that and so much more! :)

Random Fact: One of the things Sonal almost completely lacks is an immune system or any decent sense of Hand-Eye Coordination. She's capable of injuring herself by *colliding* with air.... literally!

Nishkarsh Naik Khandekar - The 'Bhurgo'

No, he's not as cute...

College life started out pretty slow, but once the pace caught up, stuff got really serious, really soon. But there was one guy who was always there to keep me grounded, infact who took every opportunity to bring me back to reality (or simply swear at me) with his idiotic comments and that's Nishkarsh "Nikks" Khandekar. He lives a colorful life, and is one of the best graphic designers I personally know, designing many of the posters/banners/leaflets etc. for events I've organised, but also has a personal side- mission to 'marofy' me at every possible opportunity... and it's been my pleasure to return the favour! :P If Saumy is the Elder brother, then Nishkarsh is the younger idiot brother I've gotten to push around, and thankfully, neither of us has reached a point where we're going to admit that the other has had the last laugh! :)

Random Fact: The first girl Nikks had a crush on in college was the recipient of a very loving nickname from yours truly (because he wouldn't tell me her real name): 'Sl**Bunny' ... and though that was a long time ago, the name has stuck :)

The Gang

Teacher's viewpoint

PERIOD. I cannot really say anything about the gang and the stuff we did over the last 3 years (more so over the last  year and a half) because most of it is bound under codes of secrecy that'd put the Priory of Sion to shame! :P I do not think I can find words to express how awesome it's been to be part of the group who earned the nickname "The Gang" from our teachers in college. If it hadn't been for the gang, I doubt I'd have done half the things I've done in college. Pranali, Shilpa, Apurva, Sonal, Rohan, Saumy, Ankit, Bhagyesh and Anish.... and a special mention of 4909 (samajhne walon ke liye), it's been one helluva ride.... literally! :D

Random Fact: The songs Zombie by the Cranberries, Stereo Love by Edward Maya, Bedrock by Young Money and Dutty Love by Sean Kingston are surefire ways of putting anyone who was part of "the gang" into nostalgia mode! :)

College life is supposed to be the most interesting years of your life, and I'm proud to say that I've lived it to the fullest. As the curtains close, there's nothing else left to say but 'So long, and thanks for all the fish!' :)