Back to My Alma Mater

VRCE/VNIT Adm. Block

Alma mater is Latin for "nourishing mother". It was used in ancient Rome as a title for the mother goddess, and in Medieval Christianity for the Virgin Mary.It also was the motto of the oldest university in the west, the University of Bologna in Italy and today has come to stand for the college/school that one attended.

So there I was back @ my Alma Mater.. VRCE, Nagpur . oops sorry its called VNIT,Nagpur.. a place where i spent four of the best years of my life.

It has been almost 5 years since I graduated and had been to VRCE only once after that.. that was 3 years back.. when there were folks whom I knew still in college.. but 5 years is like a whole generation in any Engg college.. there was not a soul that I knew in the college.. the places that were once so familiar now look so alien and strange..

Well time was not the only factor to blame.. the entire campus looks all spruced up.. the roads r wider n neater.. gardens n lawns all over the place .. new buildings n hostels..






Garden at the erstwhile Y junction

Luckily the weekend I was there also happened to be the college fest, Aarohi Finale, attended the Dancing n Singing finals.. the whole event was a lot watered down from what used to happen in our times (Never thot i wud be using this phrase so early in my life!!).. but the spirit still the same.. and oh yeah the barrier separate the ladies n guys .. still very much there!!


Good Ol' VBD sponsoring Aarohi

There are lotsa things abt the college that have changed over the last few years..

• The name itself.. its called VNIT now.. not VRCE
• Its a deemed university .. yipee freedom from Nagpur University!!
• You no longer have a Principal.. the post is called Director now.. a case of Old Wine in New Bottle!!
• All degrees and mark sheets awarded by VNIT.. no more Kochade signed mark lists!!
• Results out in less than a week!! .. no more rumour mongering and late nite trips to newspaper offices!!
• Near 100% attendance in classes!! .. Wonder how I wud hv survived this!!
• The most amazing and incredible change of them all... final years studying for smthing called a "class test"!!! Most of us hardly studied for even sessionals n just abt managed the uni. exams!!
• Every guy n girl in campus owns a cell phone.. the hostel common phones r sadly lying there all covered in layers of dust.. In fact free sim cards n mobile connections were being distributed as prizes during Aarohi..
  
• Students with comps n laptops in almost every room in the hostel..
• removal of NU quota in VNIT.. REC/NITs have a 50% quota for the home state, but VRCE had this strange rule where 95% of the Maharshtra seats were reserved for guys from the Nagpur Uni. area .. this led to almost 50% of the students being day scholars during our times (there I go again!!) .. but now with this system removed, most of the seats in Maharashtra get filled by students frm Mumbai n Pune..
  
• The above has led to hostels being jam packed and the number of day-schis coming down!!
• New and longer menu @ the canteen..



• Hospital beds in our Ol' Dispensary
• ATM @ the SBI Branch
  
• Kerala quota reduced from 7 to 3!! :(

But whatever may change there r smthings that r forever ...
the spirit among the students..
the life in hostels..
the food in the mess ..
n that feeling of being a collegian .. the King of the World!!
Pretty much like what Aamir Khan says in Rang De basanti ..

"College ke gate ke is paar hum life ko nachate hain.. aur us paar life humko nachati hain"!!

Well have to get back to dancing to lifes tunes now!!