Surviving Manipal…The College Part Of It!

 I remember the day I came here…I was excited..but nervous too…(courtesy the stories of ragging that one invariably comes across

before joining college)…Everything was different here…The people, the language.. the food.. even the way things worked here…and the Anatomy dissection class on the first day didn’t help in any way to make me feel welcome…I almost thought of telling my father to take me back…but then I thought, Did I come here to go back?No.

I knew I was staying…I just didn’t know how to survive in this place..Four years have passed and I’m still alive…How did I do it? I don’t have a definite answer…However, what I do know is that when we’re talking about college life in Manipal it’s not just the freshman year that is hard…Manipal is a place that keeps testing you… Attendance… Internals… Friendship… Food.. The list is unending…

The first few months of college are quite crucial for a student…It’s that time when you don’t know anyone…and it’s the face value that counts…The time when you have to ‘choose’ friends…The time when knowingly or unknowingly you choose the course that you’re going to follow for the times to come…It is always wise to take your time to know people…Be friendly but DO NOT over do it…Also, just because you feel you want to be friends with someone doesn’t mean you do things that you don’t believe in…keep it simple, silly;)

Also, know what is required of you as a student…Because things like attendance and internals matter more than it seems like…and before you may realize, it will be too late…So, it doesn’t matter what you do during lectures(you do know that I’m not talking about the professors here,right?) JUST ATTEND THE CLASS!!..Because as they say, your drinks(I’m not gonna tell you which ones:P) taste so much better when you do not have backs and attendance issues to worry about…so, party hard and study harder…that’s the mantra for a happy college life anywhere..

Spend some time with yourself…This might sound funny but you never know when it’s Manipal…Today you have a lot of friends…Tomorrow you might be alone…And the one person who is going to be with you through all this is YOU…So, get the right shoes on and take to whatever you really wanted to do and never got the time for it..be it a match of basketball, or a sweaty salsa session…

It is highly advisable to take a break from studies n once in a while…join clubs and societies…explore the hang out places, play some sport…learn music or take dance classes. Remember, COLLEGE IS WHERE YOU HAVE THE TIME TO LEARN NEW THINGS AND EVEN IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS…

EAT RIGHT!!… Being a glutton that I am…my complaints during the first two years was the food here…chapatis that were uncooked and gravy that was same for chicken, paneer and even beetroot(Yes,Beetroot!)Find places that serve food that suits your palate…because as they say “Anima sana in corpore sano” (A sound mind resides in a sound body.)

FORGET WHAT THE NATION IS DOING…This is specially for times when there’s a festival.Even if there is a National bandh …you’re not getting a holiday.(It’s an International Campus you see…)..and the “icing on this cake” is when you can only hear the fireworks show(or for that matter “Dhol Baje“) going on at Greens as you are mugging up for an exam on the next day…Sometimes you’re just bound to feel that you’re so far away from all of what’s going on back home that it’s almost like you’re in some other country…

GOSSIP…oops…I mean do not gossip …things that you have or have not said/heard/seen…reach you as something that sometimes is so grossly blown out of proportion that you can only laugh at it…It’s thus best to stay away from such things that might harm people or spoil relationships..It would sure save you from unnecessary trouble..

Every person in Manipal,at one point or the other, says that he/she wants to run away from here,that the place is getting to them…From what I’ve seen, in times like these it helps to have someone from outside your college…your sibling or a school friend you’re really close to…someone with whom you can have a heart-to-heart…where you can just speak things and take it out of your system!

The last and most important thing to remember… Keep your expectations to the bare minimum… Because it hurts only when that someone you counted on didn’t act the way you expected them to…