Analyzing My Teenage After Turning 20 (part 3)

Part 3: Engineering College

Age 18:

12th std got over. The results of all entrance exams were out. Everyone got into a new race. The race of securing a college seat. First, through CET I got admission to Don Bosco (Mechanical). I attended it for a day. That place is a fucking prison. Also, I didn’t find mech to be as cool as it had been in my brain. Then after cap rounds, I got an admission in K.J.Somaiya college (ExTc). If you are not a Gujrati then securing an admission in K.J.Somaiya is a micro pat on the back. My brother is in BITS so this wasn’t much of a celebration…it was just ‘meh’.

K.J.Somaiya is the most college college you will find in Mumbai. The campus is huge. There’s grounds, amphitheater, gardens and….girls. That’s because the campus has arts and commerce colleges as well. The Engineering building is filled with testosterone. The first day as I went in through the college gate it was nothing short of a movie college. There should have been a camera with an OTS (over the shoulder) shot following me. It was damn cool. I was a little bummed when no one danced on ‘Munda Kukkad Kamaal Da’ as I entered….but it’s okay…I can let one mistake slide.

College was on. I was 18. So I did what any college going 6ft tall 18-year-old does, I joined a gym. Sitting at home for 2 years had made me a fatfuck. I worked hard and shed around 12–13 kgs in 6 months while gaining muscle at the same time. Some days they would call the police because I would kill my workout. Once you start going to the gym you can’t imagine a lifestyle without it. Sure, its exhausting and demands discipline but it’s kind of addictive. When you start noticing the initial pops of a muscle on your body, or this new control you have over your deltoids (back muscles) it is nothing less than ‘magical’. I didn’t know you can have a muscle layer over your shins…until I had it. Also, in a world where boys are sitting around liking cat pictures on Instagram, it seems like the maximum amount of manshit one can possibly pull off.

I started reading and writing again. I started my own blog on Medium and my Instagram author page ( authorva.s ). I read a lot of books that year. My interest inclined towards biographies and non-fiction more than fiction books.

In the first semester of Engineering, I decided I am gonna relaxxx. And relaxxx I did. I did not get a good GPA that semester. But I was tired of studying then. So it didn’t matter much. I thought whats there to feel bad about? I did not study and I got an average GPA. That’s good. I would have felt bad if I HAD studied and gotten an average GPA.

I made great new friends in college. Tejas, who believes physical relationships shall exist only after marriage. Purav, who says he had a girlfriend in school but we don’t quite believe him. Aashutosh, who just cannot score less than 9 GPA even if he tries. Sharath, who travels 6 hrs everyday to attend college (idk why). Harshal, is the only guy I know who might pick Robert Downey Jr over Scarlett Johansson. Tanish…ha vo toh chutya hai. There are many more: Jay, Bhavya, Darshan, Arka, Manthan, Ritwik, Praharsh and so on. No worries, I will tag all of them.

In the second semester, I decided to take studies seriously again. I also got my drivers license. I also met a girl…online. IKR. An entire campus filled with girls still I wanna go online. So I started talking with this girl. She did not live in Mumbai. She used to but now she had moved out to attend college in another state. Suddenly, I found myself extra motivated in the gym. Having the ‘attraction from opposite gender’ as a motivating factor in your workout is not a bad thing…just don’t let it be the only factor.

The semester ended. I met the girl. I liked her. Her eyes were beautiful. Now I can write a lot around this but I will keep it short (read my book…when I write one). If you have been following this series then you will know that I am a hardcore Hindu nationalist. In this case, things seemed to match up. She was Hindu (check) and our political ideas matched (check check).

The second-semester result was good. I got an internship at a startup. Tanish was my colleague now. I also got WFH content writing work who would pay me (the startup internship was unpaid). I started going out with my school friends again (Adit, Arpan, Oscar, Peuju) . I also started learning how to ride a bike (with gears).

“Pyaar me Banda apni limit pushhh karta hai bhai.” — Zakir Khan

Everything seems to be going great right? SIKE

Age 19:

My birthday is on June 25. Till the end of July ‘age 19’ was great. It was like a one-month long acid trip. The internship was kinda okay tho. You remember the girl I told you about? She was good. Our Hindu Nationalist ideas matched. We would spend a lot of time discussing how saffron is the best color ever. She went back to college (in another state). Then, something bad happened. She started eating beef! See, now I have always believed :

“Log burein nahi hotey, halaat burein hotey hai.” -some idealist Bollywood movie

It's okay, I have seen people change their belief systems. What's astonishing is that she didn’t even tell me. For some time I thought she still worships the saffron color but she was busy enjoying beef. Also, she changed her belief system pretty quick. I took her just 2–3 weeks to change her taste palette.

But then one day Neha Dhupia came on air and told me “ITS HER CHOICE”. Well, that’s great, just a heads up would have been appreciated. What disappointed me the most is that the beef quality she was consuming was pretty mediocre. Again, I agree, everyone has their own taste, but if you are gonna disrespect me like that at least do it with some good quality beef. (Haha, I sound like a mob boss)

So now I found out that I had a lot of free time. So what did I do? Study? Haha, no. I joined my college literature club as a content developer. But then I realized, with time I also have pain. So I got interested in Hindi/Urdu literature. The way they express oceans of thoughts in two lines is insane. I believe its a superpower. I started writing Hindi one-liners. Some of them were good, the rest were excellent. When you have a lot to say you find a channel. Some people talk with their loved ones, some paint, some travel, some call their dog Preeti, etc. I had an Instagram account. If you look at the initial posts of authorva.s, they are stories, that was before ‘beef fiasco’. After that, I just started posting one-liners. I wanted to say a lot and didn’t have the energy to write stories.

There are a lot of unreleased ones. Some of them are very cheesy. WiNtEr Is CoLdEr WhEn YoU aRe AlOnE.

But on the brighter side, because of her, I learned how to ride a bike (you haven’t lived if you haven’t changed a Royal Enfield’s gear from 4 to 5. I call it ‘the give’), I learned how to express myself in less no. of lines. She also taught me how, when, and in what all conditions ‘long-distance’ works.

“Pyaar ka pata nahi, par ladkiyon se gyaan bohot mila hai.”

-Anonyauthorvamous

I know in this entire series I haven’t talked about the opposite gender freely but rather in a metaphorical sense. Also, I tend to use humor in the things that matter the most to me. I only talked about the things that did not go well because I feel there is no comedy in victory.

“Mana ki tumko ishq ka tajurba bhi kam nahi,
Humne bhi baagh mein hain Kai titliya udai.”
-Zakir khan

It was during this pAiNfUl time, that I went on a one night trip with my school friends (Adit, Arpan, Oscar, Peuju) to an undisclosed location. Now, I will give you a life lesson: …alcohol is bad…smoking is also bad….for health…par kaun kambakht bardasht karne ke liye peeta hai! (jk)

Life lesson 2: the fact that popular media has to portray smoking as 'cool' itself doesn’t make it cool.

Also the startup I worked for…it did not work.

I went for debate competitions this year. A debate competition is basically a bunch of confident teenagers fighting on world issues over which they have no control. It’s fun tho. I learned a lot. I made good friends like Shruti, Parth, Sudiksha, Esha, Nidhi, Kanksha, Somrick, Meethil, Moenuddin. Abhishek taught me debating like a big brother.

This year I learned that expectation is the root of all sorrow. If you message someone and EXPECT them to reply…you are at fault. If you call someone and EXPECT them to pick up…you are at fault. If you EXPECT humans to behave like humans…you are at fault macha. To eradicate sorrow one shall train themselves to eliminate the most human feeling ever: expectation.

Meanwhile, CAA NRC happened, Muslims were in danger. Then Corona happened, everyone was in danger. In the lockdown, I started Dot Lit. It’s a youth media blogsite( https://www.dotlit.net/ ). Follow us on Instagram: Dot_Lit

I also started my own YouTube channel where I make funny book Reviews: Atharva Sangle

Yep, that’s how the year ended, with the hope of a brighter future and 50 YouTube subscribers. :)

Copper play button dispatched. Keep liking keep supporting guys. Thankyou for reading till here :)