My Digital Diary

First Day at Chaitanya Classes

24th March 2006, 5:00 A.M.

I woke up enthusiastically even without the need for an alarm (Which usually doesnt happen...Even if thunder strikes, i wont wake up at home). The story here is different...

I had a bath in cold water and got myself ready for the day. Since i had to move to the other hostel today morning, i packed all my stuff, and had my breakfast (typical kerala food....Puttu and Kadalai). After bidding goodbye to all my one-day roommates, i boarded the van in which food was going to the different Hostels in the Ambilikala Chain.

In five minutes time, I was at Keshavam, a pretty royal looking hostel! I noticed a Big Burly Guy on a table yapping something in Malayalam to another new admission. I was waiting outside with all my luggage..not knowing what to do. After quite a while, I kept my stuff temporarily in a room and went scouting about the place.....I was not farther than 1st floor i went that i had found Arjun.

Arjun is the guy who was my neighbour in Coimbatore. After his 10th, he left for calicut as his dad was transfered there. Seeing him after 2 years was just great. I couldnt talk to him at that moment, because he had just taken his bath, and was getting ready to have his breakfast and then leave for the Center and we were already getting late.

I accompanied them for breakfast (Though i didn't eat) and started talking to him about school and stuff....suddenly i heard a voice shouting at me "SAMSARIKYANDAA". I turned back and it was the burly warden. H e had just spoken something in Malayalam and i didnt understand....so i resumed my talk. As soon as i started talking again, he shouted the same thing again. Not knowing what it meant, I took it for "Shut up" and confessed to him that i didn't know malayalam. So the warden, explained to me that we were not supposed to talk while having breakfast.

After having breakfast, we went to the coaching center which was hardly 50 metres from this hostel. On the way Arjun introduced me to some of his friends namely Sameer (Who later became a really good friend of Mine), Two other arjuns, Amal, Prince and Adithya.

Enter Chaitanya Classes.....The whole place was so silent...its like a school with oversized class rooms....can seat around 110 students at a time! Well first day...I had to endure a lot of Malayalam. Me and my friends were alloted our class room (for the crash course). We were on room no. 4 and the place has total of 32 rooms! Whoa...thas like 3200 students under a single roof! Now...thats what i call studying atmosphere! Dont worry, the atmosphere doesnt last really long....cuz there were some brats from gulf who joined us later....ok now for the first classes....



Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The morning bell went. There was a small Malayalam song...couldnt follow a word in the beginning....later as the days passed on .... i memorized it! Each classroom has got its own speaker...through which the manager of the place gives instructions to us....

Hour 1: Chemitry sir enters...he is a really old guy by the name of Paul PaniKulam. He's got experience written all over his face....the way he takes the classes is simply amazing....Even for chem haters like me...it seemed to be one of my most looked forward classes!

Hour 2: Chem 2nd year, different teacher., byt the name Ramachandran....started off with a bang...Nuclear Chemistry...again the teacher was an old guy, around 82...having an experience of teaching about 55 years!!! Obviously he was a veteran in his field!

Hour 3: Maths...the subject i was very weak in my 11th...and thats excatly what we were dealing with! This teacher however was not alllllll that a grandpa looking guy...again great teacher in his subject!

Lunch: All of us went back to our hostels...and had steaming hot food....which was virtually uneatable! Only i had a large plate...large enough to spread the food on the plate... Everyone used to wonder what the hell i was doing...but later they envied my as they couldnt have their food as fast as me....too bad they couldnt ape me!

Back to Classes:

12:45 we're back in the classroom....and OMR's were being distributed. I knew that tests would be conducted daily…but I seriously didn’t expect a test on the opening day….
All of us received copies of question papers and we were given info on the OMR…the Do’s and the Donts. It was Physics/Chem…..it was not as easy as school, cuz I was stumped right away…as there were questions from the 11th standard( I didn’t study 11th properly  ). We received our marks and I got the marks as what I expected…175/430…….!@#$%


Now, the last two classes were Physics… My favourite subject! It was indeed a great experience again…learning from knowledgeable teachers. The last two hours went really fast…..and I was really supercharged, enthusiastic to go and study what had been taught on the first day!

At 5 sharp, we left for the hostels, had our evening refreshments. I played the role of Dhobi, washing the dresses of the previous day! By the time I am done, its time for evening prayers, again in Malayalam. After the prayers, we headed to our rooms….oh yea…I was finally allotted a room again with a few seniors….really very helpful people….The room was pretty Massive, with provision for 3 bunk-beds. I just started studying…and the bell rang….It was dinner time! The food was upto the expectations…..for the first day…(Eventually we started hating the food).

After dinner, we headed back to our rooms, and started studying from around 8:30 to around 1 AM. That’s the first time I have crossed the threshold 1 hour of continuous studying. Oh yea, there was a small breat at around 9:30 when we were served black coffee…to keep us awake throughout the night..(Later during my days here, it served as a drink that made me to sleep!!)

Thus, came to an end the first day at Thrissur…..a really memorable one, but the fun had just started…..I was yet to become better friends with my new friends!

posted by Mukunda @ 9/03/2006 04:09:00 AM