PSG College of Technology

Motivated by my fellow blogger writing about her college, I thought I will write about my college and hostel days for the next alphabet of the BlogchatterA2Z challenge as well! 🙂 I studied in PSG College of Technology which is in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. It is going to be 29 years since we graduated and it is still nice to look back at those days fondly! 🙂

My college:

There are numerous reputed engineering college in Coimbatore(like CIT, GCT and more) but PSG College of Technology was the only one that was called as “Tech”. I did my schooling in Coimbatore so, my parents were fairly aware of the colleges there and my father liked PSG Tech very much. My father was always my life’s architect and whatever he said, I did! 🙂 I got through the entrance and got into PSG College of Technology(not easy to get in, even then) – a college that he always preferred for his daughters.

I did B.E. in Computer Science and Engineering and we were the third batch of Computer Science and Engineering students(called shortly as, CSE)(it is a strange luck that I always end up studying the subjects that are just introduced and start rocking the world later! 🙂 – this happened to my Masters degree as well)

The teachers themselves were still equipping themselves with the knowledge and the way to form the syllabus. What were the subjects to be included as part of the curriculum? Who had the qualification to teach them? What labs should be included? Thinking about it – I think this might have been some of the thoughts that might have shaped the B.E.(CSE) curriculum batch of 1993.

It is still amazing, that the syllabus that was formed then and the way it was taught, stands good till today(Of course, there are many things that we can learn only in a job) I have to give it all the Professors who made sure that we were equipped with the correct academic skills to the best of their abilities. Whether it was Compilers, Operating systems, the C programming language, CAD, they taught us everything to the best of their abilities and times.

The tuition fees were the cheapest for my college too – we paid 200 Rs a semester then and that was a total of 1600 Rs for my entire engineering education! 🙂 Of course, not all colleges were that cheap and private engineering colleges were more expensive.

Hostel life:

Now, moving onto the fun part of college life which of course has to be the hostel life! 🙂 There were only two ladies hostels in PSG Tech then. They were the LH block and the E block.

I was in LH block for 2 years and E block for 2 years. Five of us used to share a room in LH block(yes! :)) I did have wonderful room mates and it was always a pleasant chaos all the time if I remember correctly! 🙂 There is never a dull moment from the time we get up to the time we go to bed. E block residents had a maximum of 2 room mates and final year students were allocated a single room then.

In order to reach the LH and E blocks, we had to cross the MH or the Mens Hostel – so you can imagine how that would go!! 🙂

The morning rush with five of us in the room is something that cannot be described in words! 🙂 There was no instant hot water available for showers in the morning. Water had to be heated using a immersion heater. Anytime, we tried to use the immersion heater the power would trip causing a lot of exciting screams and yells! 🙂 After all, classes began for all at 8:30 in the morning and we all had to eat our breakfast, take a shower and rush out by then.

There were no washing machines either, so most of us would be using the washing area with the washing stone to wash our clothes along with amazing chatting sessions!! 🙂 (the Dhobi used to come though) (P.S: Have you used the washing stone in your life? 🙂 )

Now, Tamil Nadu is a conservative state even today and Tech was even more conservative way back then(which was one reason why my father liked it so much) Girls had to wear churidhar with dupattas(mandatory) or saris. Chennai girls were more Westernized and might have felt like toeing the line but I think the dupatta rule was firmly put in place for 1st year girls. And there was no concept of girls going to boys hostels and no boys can come to girls hostels either!! 😉 (in fact, it was an amazing privilege for any boy to enter the girls hostel for any important meeting with the warden!! :))

Girls had to be inside the hostel by 6:00 p.m. and the security was firm on that. Anybody stepping in late were neatly taken to the Warden’s room for a good hearing! 🙂

Walking into the mess with our plates and glasses, waiting in queue for ‘dosa’ and trying to eat the tech bullets(idlis :)) in the morning are some interesting mess food memories! 🙂 Non-vegetarian dishes occasionally came in and desserts also peeped in once in a while, if I remember right.

There were amazing study marathons just before the exam and we would do all-nighters before the exam(which I teach my children never to do now! :)) Many of us would study till 3 or 4 in the morning, sleep for a few hours and then rush to do the exam and then come back and then sleep the entire afternoon!! (amazing isn’t it? :))

The comments, the non-stop talks till 2 or 3 at night during weekends, the dress ups, the teachings, the yelling, the screaming, the confusion – I miss it all, 29 years later!! 🙂

Tech was the place, I learnt that one could party all day but still be a good student and get good grades!

Maybe all the talk about the hostel life would not be complete without me mentioning our travel up and down for our vacations. My parents were in Chennai and I had to travel to Chennai by train for my vacations. The train was filled with students from all the Coimbatore colleges travelling home for vacations. Blue Mountain and Cheran Express were the two popular trains and they were young and pretty with college buzz! 🙂 Once we bumped into two of our seniors in the train and they were very polite and nice and I remember the conversation till this date!! 🙂

There are million other memories of PSG Tech and the good college and hostel life. Some are of course censored and 🙂 others are etched in our memories of all of us! Safe to say that all of us who did B.E(Computer Science) then, are still in the field and doing very well. Many completed their Master’s and some did their PhDs as well and we are still keeping with the tech advancements of today! 🙂

Here’s to happy learning and happy college memories! 🙂

I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z by Blogchatter