My college absolutely rocked because…..of not just one good thing the institution did for us, but many. Located on the banks of the Mula-Mutha river, it boasted of a boat-club where the yearly Regatta intercollegiate competitions took place. I liked the vast campus with it’s ancient stone buildings and shady trees. I remember in particular, the following:

* The workshop department – we donned our blue overalls here and went about to try tin-smithy, black-smithy, metal-fitting, carpentry (!) and other such ‘Herculean’ tasks. Some feigned weakness or shed easy tears to get the brusque workers to do almost the entire task for them. A day-long welding session with a certain ‘Roll No. 3’ gave us swollen eyes (the other students in our batch had abandoned that task). The next day, R.N.3 and we went to class wearing dark glasses! I think this subject was almost a waste of time because never did I ever have to use any of the skills I learnt.

* The drawing hall – a large, bright room with tall windows and rows of tables. I loved the Graphics hour. Apart from the creativity, drawing gave us an opportunity to chat and catch up on happenings in our class. One year, ‘Traditional day’ coincided with our drawing class day and there we were, in sarees and kurta-pajamas and doing our worksheets. Drawing and other related subjects also included a few trips to the mountains at the town periphery for surveys and creating contour maps. I remember one home assignment where we were asked to draw home plans. I did mine after spending hours trying to add a lot of details to make the construction look beautiful. One guy had made a very funny floorplan - the W.C units were placed immediately at the entrance of his 'house'!

* Viva exam rooms – oral exams Used to be fun. We would attend the exams in pairs, usually set up according to the last names. One of the lecturers was notorious in making students cry during the exams. The same guy also failed the brightest students in the class and gave the dimmer ones good marks. “Come on. Recite the table-of-contents page of ….. book!”, he told my partner. His questions were usually about any unrelated, useless topic except actual technical stuff! Another girl started crying during her turn and got 75% in his exam! He probably had a boring family at home or derived some kind of sadistic pleasure from torturing students.

* Classrooms – most of the classrooms were in the tiered form, with wide benches and desks. We usually liked to sit in the fourth or fifth row and the ‘notorious’ guys occupied the rows at the very back of the classroom. I had this habit of laughing out aloud during the most serious times, which sometimes landed me in bad trouble. My friend and I once got unfairly kicked out during class, by the same Professor mentioned above. After class, he called us and gave us some unwanted advice about paying attention (to his boring lectures) and all, and I just could not suppress a giggle. I still remember the look on his face after seeing me laugh.

* Cafeteria – the riverside cafeteria was full during all hours. The place was open for all creatures great and small. Hungry dogs lapped up left over tea from cups left lying under the grimy tables. Crows hovered over the garden, hoping to get some crumbles. The boat-club was the venue for meetings and lively discussions. I so wanted to participate in the Regatta during the first year but because of the ‘Saatchya Aat Gharaat’ rule in our house, I had difficulty balancing all my activities.

* Students and Profs – Marathi-speaking students were a majority and the Professors sometimes reverted to Marathi while teaching. Groupism was rampant amongst the students. There were the regulars and the hostelites; girls and boys; rowdies and goodies; sincere ones and trouble-makers; Marathi speaking and cosmopolitans. Some were openly studious while others acted like they hated studying but I am sure they were no different about burning the midnight oil behind closed doors. Code words were widely used by the students. One Prof had thick, dark hair growing out of his ears and got a code name stamped on him; another Prof looked a cross between Gregory Peck and Christopher Reeve and was called 'Superman' and then there was that Prof who looked like a Devdas, with his sorry-looking beard and lanky frame and so on....

* Study tour – a misnomer, since these tours were usually sight-seeing tours. We had ours in the third year and I enjoyed the sixteen day trip. Adventures were plenty such as having lunch at a cheap roadside restaurant gave some of the boys stomach ache; spending the night at a dorm in Kodaikanal which seemed to have about ten geckos (and I was in one of the top bunks!); and some of the goody-goody boys getting into trouble after the prankster lads shaved off part of their moustaches while they slept, blissfully unaware of the mischief. The next day, we were amazed to see those unlucky guys walking about wearing heavy scarves that covered their faces - so what even if they were in cold Ooty! The only regret in the entire trip was the fact that the two lecturers accompanying us were really troublesome.

So many such wonderful (and plain) memories from my college, COEP! The four years passed by so quickly (although I still get dreams about being unable to complete the Final Year project work)! A part of COEP remains with me, still......