Life is all about experiences and
what we experience makes us an authentic version of ourselves. It reflects in
our thoughts, behaviors and personalities. In each and every community people
with different experiences interact and develop a culture. Sometimes they adopt
the existing culture and sometimes they are the reason that culture changes.
NED University of Engineering & Technology is a community that has evolved
over the years. This community is getting bigger and mature over the years. And
this article is a reflection of NED experience between 2004 and 2007.
NED University at that time had a
lot of sub communities and each and every student joined the community they fit
well in. Most of the students used to spend a lot of time with their class
fellows and department fellows. Since that was natural therefore no one had to
do a lot of efforts to be part of it. The position in each class was based on
one’s behavior and NEDianz were really good and competitive peers. In general
norms, it was more exciting being a back bencher, bunking classes when
possible, ragging in start of the year, rallies in the end of the year and
preparation for exams during the preparation period that lasted over a month. Out
of 12 months just a couple of months were hard and the rest were stress free
months for the ones who were there for the survival only. The survival tips
were provided by the seniors during the ragging period.
The most interesting part of the
experience in 2004-07 was communication, it was unique and no other generation
of NED has faced that yet. A couple of people in our class had cell phones at
that time. We started an MSN account for our batch where everyone was added as a
friend. Anyone could login and do chat with the rest of the class or add them
their personal account. There were a couple of computer labs in Mechanical and
Electrical departments that were open until 10PM for students. Each student had
to pay a fee via voucher and use the internet account charged per hour. One
person could login to multiple computer and pay higher price per hour. There
were always some guys that never charged their accounts and always asked other
people to login so that they can browse internet. In order to make new friends
MIRC chat rooms or Yahoo messenger chat rooms were used. The most popular chat
rooms were for CIS and BCIT. Where people were using a lot of fake names to
interact and then add people on MSN messenger. This was pretty much the life in
2004. You attend some classes, sleep in the afternoon and spend evenings in
these chat rooms.
Later on Telenor and Warid were
launched in Pakistan and it became so easy to own a cell phone number. There
were packages for sms that we took and started chatting in the classrooms,
forwarding jokes and share other important news with the fellow students. The
MSN messenger was still in use, but people used to prefer to talk all night via
their night packages.
Another social media network
became a very big hit at that time. It was called Orkut. There were a lot of groups
in Orkut. Newly admitted students started chatting with the seniors even before
joining the university. People were sharing pictures in their albums and the
students were spending lot of time at Orkut. Later on it was banned in many
departments at NED and people switched back to cell phones.
Let’s talk a little about the
boring part, the academics, .It was
annual examination system. The most relaxed one. Except a few students majority
of the students were survivors. The aim was to pass out with the batch mates. During
the year we were trying hard to get good sessional marks. Some teachers were
very generous and did not ask much for giving away good marks. But some of them
ask you to become a scholar in that course in order to score a few marks. In
each year there were a couple of courses that asked for a lot of work and there
were a few courses that were easy to pass. The peak business season for the
photostate shop (specially Raza) was before the preparation leaves. In each
class room there were a couple of students who did the clerical work of writing
down each and every word told by the teachers. And then their notebooks were
borrowed for copying by the rest of the class. In every friend circle there was
one person who used to prepare everything for the exams and then help the back
benchers to figure out about passing the exams. These people were angels for
the remaining class. And there is no doubt that if these angels were not there,
there might have been very few engineers graduating from NED.
The fun part of academics was practical
as well. There were 1-2 days for these workshops and we had a lot of free time
during those days. This free time was killed at the Gym, canteens or at the hostel
watching movies. Going to gymnasium made some students become a part of the university
teams. And due to the university games many students went for traveling to Punjab
and NWFP. We did not win many medals though.
If someone ask an NEDian about
their best time at the university. They will for sure talk about the rallies at
the end of the year. There were a lot of rallies where BE used to wear different
colored dresses by the whole department. Valentine’s Day, Independence Day,
black day, yellow day, white day, cheap day, color day, blue day or birthdays
were the occasions when used to get together and make a lot of noise. Each and
every department made a lot of slogans. The students used to print their
T-shirt with their department’s name. And they used to scream until they are
out of their voice. The very last few days were very emotional when students
talk about last four years. They give each other autographs and write on each
other’s dresses. Many of them started to cry, realizing that these days are not
going to return.
After these rallies, one of the
key memories is annual dinners, picnics and the convocation dinners. These were
the occasions where the students cannot recognize their class fellows. Everyone
used to dress up so well. And there were some crappy digital cameras owned by a
few people that we used to gather the pictures in USBs after the dinner. For
sure we do not have many pictures and videos like the way people have these days
due to the smart phones. There were much more talks and drama at that time as
compared to today’s annual dinners.
For sure I can write a whole book
on NED experience. But I would like to conclude on “Once an NEDian, always an
NEDian”. It is a priceless experience that cannot be undone or redone.
