Palur Chronicles : "First Day Jitters at Palur Hills"

11 years gone, and still counting! The first day jitters still remain the same.

As I sit down today reminiscing about the good old engineering days, all the memories seem to brush past like a whiff of fresh air. It seems like yesterday, when we had first stepped into the magnificent campus of our engineering college at Palur Hills.

Boarded on bright yellow college buses, we noticed the sprawling campus from the national highway. This was going to be our second home, for the next 4 years of our lifetime. Since the college was situated in the outskirts of the city, the most feasible means of transport was college bus. Almost the whole batch had arrived in buses that day. As it was a first day for freshers, numerous buses were queued up in the lane, leading to the front gate of the college. Small snacking outlets (famously called “gumtis”) were lined up on both sides of the lane. As our buses entered through the gate, we could see the backyard of a huge 5-storey white building. This was called the “Lecture Hall Complex”, more popularly known as LHC. There were benches in front of that building, underneath a canopy of huge trees. As we stepped out of our respective buses, we observed that the campus was bustling with activity. There was an uncanny sense of excitement in the air. So many new faces – seniors as well as peers, all in one go!

Girls were all dressed up in fresh new clothes, styled in the most ancient possible ways, so as to avoid any form of attention from the prying eyes of our seniors. We were specifically asked to wear cotton salwar suits, with cotton dupattas neatly folded and draped in a V shape, almost in the lines of school uniforms. Luckily, our hairstyles were spared! Boys were at their boring best, with neatly tucked in formal shirts and trousers. Luckily, they were not asked to sport ties, which would have completed their ensemble.

With that common gleam in all our eyes, we walked past our fellow seniors, seated comfortably in the campus lawns, and headed towards our induction hall. The induction programme was organised in another massive brick-red building (now adorned with aesthetically designed glass tiles). This beautiful building, against the backdrop of the heavenly Palur Hills, was called the “Galleria”. After the induction, we all were grouped into 5 sections, based on our roll numbers. Referring to the daily class time-table handed out to us, we started looking for our respective class rooms and our first class for the day.