My words are winged, My thoughts, grounded.

I had hoped I’d be completing this series by mid of March; and here I am, putting up only the second post. Got lost in so many things that even though I wanted to write, I couldn’t. Anyways, I hope that now I’ll be regularly posting and finish up the College Memoirs, atleast before this college life ends.

Here comes the second take: The BVCOE Campus

Calling the BVCOE premises a ‘campus’ would be more of an exaggeration, than a fact. In the words of certain Mr. Govil, situated in the peninsular land surrounded by the noisome Madipur, honeymoon location Jwala Heri and ever-bustling Peeragarhi on three sides, a brilliantly curved building flashing red titles claiming to name it ‘BHARATI VIDYAPEETH’S COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING’, we couldn’t have asked for anything more.

‘Magnificent!’ is the word uttered by hoards of ignorant youngsters when they come face-to-face with blue glasses on the front side for the very first time. I heard some people even get bewitched by it, or better, hypnotized! They enter and step on the world famous BVCOE ‘Hawa Mahal’, only to realize that they have already hit the end. What might seem from outside a set of beautifully interconnected architectural wonders (LOL), is actually a single building stretched from end-to-end.

Divided in 4 blocks, A, B, C & D, the College of Engineering is a perfect example of efficient space management. What with one room accomodating many different laboratories (7 at the last count: II, MT, P&H, PC, CPC, BMI, Robotics. Have I missed out anything?) in the Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, the efforts are truly praiseworthy. Yeah, you’re right, since I belong to ICE, I’m bound to talk about it. Unlike ECE, CSE & IT, EEE & ICE DO NOT have entire floors dedicated to them. They manage together on a single floor, 2 labs, 2.5 staff rooms and a HOD room each. Needless to say, they survive C-ORDEAL-LY.

This reminds me of the assumption we had made about both these respective departments, about them being the step-children of the college. Our thought process continued, unless Mr. DK gave a clarification it one fine day. ‘EEE is the step-child; We, ICE, are an illegitimate kid.’

Not wanting to digress further, i’ll come back to the topic. The campus! Leaving aside the size of the college and the laboratories and department-wise space allocation, we do have other landmarks in our college. Some exist even now, some have perished with time. Some belong to us, some dont. Lets quickly go through a short checklist:

• Building – Even after having just one building (4 discrete blocks) to our credit, we still cannot claim it to be completely belonging to us. BVICAM (the entire institute, and not just a part of it) claims a large chunk of the C block. So, we share our college with BVICAM.
• Canteen, or rather ‘Recreation Center‘ – 4 years and 4 canteenwaalas! None better than the other. The best thing that has happened so far is the creation of the chhoti/new/dry snacks canteen. Quieter with comparatively large fans to tables ratio, this is the place where we always manage to secure a table, no matter how much crowded it may be. Btw, we share this canteen with BVICAM & BVIMR.
• Library – Contrary to popular belief, this is NOT the place to get the work done. Suffocating and noisy, this is the place I’d prefer to go to only in energency, or, during IEEE seminars Again, we share the library with BVICAM.
• Photocopy Shop – Now this is a place each & every student is aware of. A one-stop shop for everything a student might ever need here. Also, one of the best managed sections of the entire college. ‘Aunty‘ runs it perfectly! But again, its not entirely ours; we share it with BVICAM & BVIMR
• Auditorium – This is something we do not share; we beg for it from IMR Surprisingly well developed and maintained.
• Hawa Mahal – THE Hang-out joint of BVCOE (& BVICAM ) Lazy days, entertaining evenings, light jokes, raucous laughter, serious discussions and what not, Hawa Mahal is a witness to all that happens inside the college building. It actually is an architectural surprise inside BVCOE. For me and my friends, the raised platform behind the ED Room holds all the charms of this place.
• Ground & Basketball Court – Ground’s the place which made the short-attendance letter reach my home during 2nd year. We’d bunk the 8:55 class, sit in the ground, get engrossed in so many things, that when we’d look at our watches later, it used to be somewhere close to 9:25 AM, leading to our unintentionally bunking off the 2nd class too. All this was before any restrictions were put on using it during college timings.
• Teela – Fondly remembering THE place to be, atleast for ICE Batch 2K10, if you know what I mean We still mourn over the loss.
• New Hawa Mahal – Built over the grace of the Teela, this spot has now gained the reputation of being another very sought-after hangout place to be. Personally, I do not find it nice, dont know why.
• ICE Garden – Also known as the R&D Lawn; but for me, it’ll always be the ICE Garden. No idea who coined this title, but it gives a sense of belongingness – atleast there’s some place in the entire college ICE can claim to be its own, if only figuratively. This place is a witness to some of the hardships we’ve been through in our respective lives at different times. It makes me remember all the sad times, and the moral support. Forgot to mention, the In-House training – Fond CCNA times
• Stairs outside the machine labs – Again one of our favourite places to sit. Some good and some not so good memories attached to it.
• 3rd Floor ICE Department Stairs – In fond memory of ‘The Times & Life of GENESIS’ A sure place to find someone from the team!
• Conference Room – People realize the importance of this room after working with IEEE, which in my case has been 4 long years and 4 festivals. The center of all the activity and decisions, a cool room (literally & figuratively) to be in.
• ICE HOD Room – Again in fond memory of ‘The Times & Life of Genesis’ I dont need think I need to elaborate further. Hold on, this room is also connected with my Minor Project, where I was declared a rude non-English speaking person, Moksha  – a score fetcher without real knowledge, Seema – someone who’s insulting The Air Force School after passing out of it, and Megha – I dont even remember
• Prof. Rahul Bahl’s Cabin - Anyone who knows about IEEE knows this is the place where people find me, or rather used to find me, until now, if not found in Conf. Room or God forbid, classes. Almost a permanent abode for people like me.

Ok, so this was neither quick, nor short; nor was it meant to be

3.5 years and these are all the places I could remember I hope I havent forgotten anything.

Haven’t typed so much in such short duration for a long time. My fingers need rest. So, I’m signing off