A Bangalore Chronicle!


It was January the first and while the whole world was hungover after ushering in 2014 by staying up late & partying their brains out, we, 300 students of SIES Graduate School of Technology (GST), Nerul tried our best to reach Chathrapati Shivaji Terminus by 8 o’clock from different corners of Mumbai. Or on a narrower aspect, while we hurried to catch the train on time, some of our colleagues remained at home, building their most disastrous regret in life: a five-day industrial visit to Bangalore!

A trip always has to start with a bang and no wonder, this one chose not to differ. After few initial glitches about the tickets (the reason which I have kept for later, so as not to deflect from expressing my most emotive memories), we talked, laughed, and danced our way to the clean city or India’s Silicon Valley, Bangalore. Sorry, I wouldn’t use Bengaluru for undisclosed reasons.

The wayfaring started with the boarding of train from CST at 7am. It was well coordinated with the help of escorts and volunteers. Every single update of the day’s schedule was informed to all the students via SMS. Special visits to ISKON temple, Brigade road, Cubbon Park, VishveswaraiyyaMuseum and UBCT were also arranged as a part of the industrial visit. There was an ecstatic performance by the impromptu theatre group named Yours Truly. On the whole, the trip was a worthwhile experience. (Manasi Iyer, a Printing & Packaging Tech. student)

The evenings usually were for light events. We visited the huge ISKCON temple and stood for minutes in front of the whole façade, dumbfounded every single time we blinked. Shopping (mostly window-shopping, to be honest), eating, sight-seeing are all one thing and what we saw on the last day at Bangalore was another. A local impromptu theatre group called Yours Truly held us spellbound with their theatrics. They released their fabulous repertoire one after other and we sat there with rapt attention. The best thing about it was that it was a mutual performance: we threw few words at them and they enacted it, with sheer diligence. The seminar hall of J P Cordial was abuzz with roars of laughter. Even the teachers joined us. Some of us previously had some exposure of theater, but this was extraordinary and when I ask people what is the most memorable thing from our trip now, after five months since the IV, they find themselves in a dilemma between this and the industrial visits at ISRO, Coca Cola, NGO Goonj, L&T, Gecko Tag & Sami Labs.

The trip started off with a cramped journey in the train because most of us were in the waiting list. That was a disappointing start. After the wearisome train journey, we reached the hotel in de luxe buses. We were all vivacious on the first sight of Bangalore! The hotel rooms added to our delight. Some of the beautiful places that I liked touring were the ISKCON temple and the Museum. Also, the UB City Mall and the street shopping were absolutely enjoyable. How I wish we got to spend more time there. This trip would positively be in the list of things I will remember my college life with. (Vishakha Nara, a Computer Engineering student)

There are people (which includes me) who always fret over the smallest things and the moment we arrived in Bangalore, rumors started looming around about the hotel that had been chosen for our stay. We got into six luxury buses to reach the hotel. Lo and behold, the hotel, J P Cordial swept these people off their feet and they were the ones who rushed for the best rooms. Fortunately, all rooms were the bees’ knees, although the idea of keeping the girls and boys on different floors made me sad. The gameplan for rest of the second day was to attend seminars by technology companies. The fact that most of us forgot that it was an IV trip is ironical.

A local start-up called Lumos started with its seminar. Gandharv Bakshi, founder, gave excellent tips and while he was actually talking Electronics, we could relate. Students of other steams, meanwhile visited their respective companies. Did I mention that the food we had before the seminar worked charmingly well? The reason I say that is because even if we devour on the nicest cuisines in town during college, the lectures after the break always has the capability to doze even the brightest students off, but in here we were so engrossed into what the speaker had to say, that I found many hearing about the corporate world’s social network LinkedIn for the first time. That effective was the opening seminar.

I was piqued by the large display of information at the Vishvesharaiyya Museum and I remember how some of the nerds enjoyed that specific visit more than how the few enthusiasts enjoyed the metro train travel.

I don’t need to mention those tiny things we took pleasure in while on the trip. Few love stories came out in the open, we saw teachers in an all-together different airs and most importantly, we received the much-needed exposure that would matter when we graduate. I had never heard of Lumos or Purple Squirrel Eduventures before but now both of them are two of the few companies I follow in the digital space.

Now, about the initial glitch: while many of us started deriding the organizers for discrepancies in the tickets, we finally figured out that it was the train’s Ticket Checker and few irresponsible students without ID cards who were to be blamed. Although, some us of didn’t have seat reservations and many complained about the inconvenience that it caused while travelling and sleeping. But what the trip had in store of us in the following days cancelled out all the distress.

PS: This specific post was produced for Purple Squirrel Eduventures, by demand from their PR team, but was possibly rejected due to its wildly honest and genuine chronicling of the industrial visit.

Compiled, with love from Nivedita Sarma & Prerna Tripathi.


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