The Indian College Experience

We keep hearing the term ‘The new normal’.

The other day I was on a drive with my friends when we realised we are the only batch in our college who have actually been to college. The only ones who have attended an actual class. The only ones who know how much a coffee costs in the canteen.

For us NMIMS students,the only batch who has seen what the 80% attendance rule actually is and can do to you. With all these thoughts popping up in my head I just knew I had to share them, share my experience, hear your expectations and try to portray the difference between offline and online college.

Bollywood and Hollywood movies have portrayed college to be the best time of our lives, From Main hoon na, to Student of the Year. College is about new experiences and meeting new people, finding love and most importantly learning about what you like.

In offline college if you attended a class there was not an option of muting the professor,or switching off your camera and sleeping. Nothing can replace physical teaching, the atmosphere of sitting in a class. Some days you felt motivated to study so you sat in the front, when you felt like joshing around, you sat with the backbenchers. Moreover, no one compels you to attend lectures, your parents might compel you in online lectures, but out there, you have to choose when to attend and manage your own attendance.

Every person you talk to will tell you how college shaped their personality.I feel like ranting everytime I realise that potentially the best phase of my life has gone locked up at home.I and probably every other NMIMS kid will remember missing a class cause you decided to get a coffee from the canteen on the other end of the 7th floor. I remember sitting on the windy staircase with my friends and talking to Dsouza Uncle. I remember going to Anand Dosa everyday straight for a week and trying a new thing everyday. I remember Mithibai canteen and their Chinese platter and the bakery maggi and pasta. I remember rushing up the stairs or fighting with people for a lift to run up 7 floors as the professor won't let anyone in late.

Imagine if they call us back now, We left college as the junior batch and we’ll enter again as the senior most batch. Whether it be NMIMS or any other college, every Third Year student in India right now has a college canteen memory, they have a memory of meeting people from new and different backgrounds, getting close to people you never thought you will even interact with. Every student who has gone to college remembers the college events, the standup comedians that come, the random music show(Local Train for us) that's free for you, the competition days, the dressing up in traditional attire cause why not?

All that said and done, there is a big advantage to online college and yes, you guessed it right, its online exams. Cheating is not possible in offline exams, but somehow or the other in online exams students figure out a way.

If college opens,be prepared to grind it out as Whatsapp,Google and your typing speed won’t be the most important things for an exam anymore. A lot of people called me and asked me,“what's college actually like?” “Is there really an attendance issue?” My advice for all those going to college for the first time is- College is whatever you want it to be, all you gotta do is interact with people, understand and respect the different cultural beliefs of people, PARTY as much as you can, and lastly do not forget to study.

Unless you actually thought that college is like how it's shown in Student of the Year and you can party everyday and top the college. I would leave you with this, The spike in your GPA vs A potential lifetime of memories. I know my answer: what's yours?