I was never an ambitious person or a dreamer, call it destiny or divine conspiracy, the way I got into engineering made me realize that I'm in for something big! I found my first love in computers when I was in my early teens and had decided that my career is going to be based on it as well! all said and done, born in a family of engineers I also embarked on the journey to make it to the IIT's. India's most prestigious institutes. Parallely in my school days I started to explore the mysterious world of computers. I slowly learnt how to solve problems in computers be it hardware related or software related. Believe me it's really simple to solve them if you are confident that nothing would go wrong and you are a good googler. Slowly I learnt to make good use of the internet too. In my school I took Informatics in my 12th and I got exposed to programming through Visual Basic. I wrote my entrances and faltered badly in most of them. Those were my worst days with uncertainty looming on my future. Then started the phenomena which I coined "The Divine Conspiracy".
Dad got me an admission in an institute which was like 3 years old and got the course EEE. I cried and said I wanted computers and ppl assured like you can do additional courses and stuff and there's lot of computers in EEE. But it was planned otherwise. I wrote an entrance to a 5 Year Course as M.Sc in Software Engineering, at Coimbatore Institute of Technology and as luck will have it's way I got into the 5 general seats available. Finally joined in the hostel and gave the fees and decided it was my destiny a final jolt came.. If you've got bored reading till here believe me the next part is action packed!
Some days later I get a call from a friend saying Amrita Institute is having counseling for engineering. My dad was totally against it as I'd already got an admission. Still a very close family of ours took the initiative and acted like the good Samaritans for me. Any how dad said ok go and have a picnic and come. Without any original certificates, without any money for fees I went for the counseling along with aunty. We reach the plush Coimbatore campus ettimadai. It sure was beautiful and I still regret of not studying there. Now as we were without any originals or the money the guard at the entrance gate told us to get out! We some how convinced him that we have attested Photostats and he lets us go inside. Once inside we get a briefing of the procedure and then we were told to submit the fees and the certificates. This time round we persuade another guy inside and tell him that we have is Photostats and will give the originals once I get an admission, he says ok you can but give fees amount! And then we tell him like sorry sir we didn't bring that too can you just show us as what seat is being offered and then we'll arrange the fees, he politely and then sternly said "Please Get out!". It was so humiliating and frustrating but then we spoke to uncle and he arranged for the fees. I still remember standing there outside and saying let's go back no need for engineering here and things like that. Somehow another 3 hours pass and we get the draft ready. Then around 12 pm we get inside get ourselves registered and to my horror the rank after me had already been called! We rush to the conference hall and we're made to sit right on the seat. People around protest but all gets adjusted. Now I could feel some rush in my body. There was some force around. I looked on the board which was full of green and red boxes. Ettimadai had IT and Instrumentation available for me. A place called Amritapuri had all the seats available and so was Bangalore. I was told before that Bangalore should be on the last preference. And due to the circumstances I particularly needed CSE alone. Thus I booked a seat for CSE in the campus situated in Amritapuri. Voila! I was an engineer suddenly a Computer Science Engineering Student! I felt proud and elated. I felt like screaming on top of the world, I was one among the equals. But then I asked around as where is Amritapuri. No body had a clue, but by the time I got out someone just passed a comment I think it's in Kerala! Gulp! All the dreams came to a standstill for a good time quantum. I'd thought Amritapuri will be a beautiful place, like an island, huge water body around etc. but then I heard more about it and more my heart kept sinking inside. The feeling of being away from home was less troubling than the feeling of staying for good 4 years with mallus. My gang in Coimbatore was full of mallus and I knew how they function. Personally I didn't put them on top of my preference list. But as I said this was all the part of divine conspiracy. I called up dad, he came down we talked and got to know that it's where AMMA's international headquarters are and it's a growing place. I'd made up my mind that I'll be going there come what may. Dad had kept his fingers crossed and told me to visit the place once. I went to kollam with my friend john who happened to get mechanical in ettimadai, now a topper there, it was a pleasant experience. I learnt that mobiles and laptops were banned. Through out our 4 years we'll be sharing the room with 4 people, that time I did regret that but now I love it! The food was pretty bad and it was a blessing in disguise as I could shed a lot of weight. So finally I come back and tell dad that I'm moving! The opening delays 3 times and final time 9th august 2005, I board the train (6 hours late) to college, my journey towards realizing the unknown had begun...
