The summer of ’93 was an important period in my life. It was during those days I went thru a tedious, monotonous and highly boring exercise. It was called as higher secondary exams. Engineering entrance that followed was somewhat tolerant towards me. At least I didn’t have to memorize pages and pages of theories, formulas and equations.
The effort paid off when I got an admit card from CIT. I didn’t have a clue about what was in store for me for the next four years. The last thing I wanted to do was a repeat of the summer exercise.
On an August day, I landed in CIT campus. The auditorium where the admission process and orientation took place was spacious and well maintained. I wasn’t so excited by the campus because my high school campus at TVS Lakshmi was similar to CIT campus sans the hostels.
I was anxious and looking forward to my very first lecture. The classrooms were big and there were lots of new faces - some sober, some anxious and some awestruck!
As months rolled by, I slowly but surely became a part of the institution. Though it started as a sailboat, life at CIT cruised along like a speedboat.
The best thing about the CIT is the freedom that it offers to its denizens. It is the place that teaches how to make a life rather than how to make a living. It is just not the freedom; there are many outlets to express oneself as a person. There are numerous clubs and organizations that you can be a part of. For instance, NSS for community service, Rotaract for shaping your organizational skills, NCC for the service minded, Blood cell for voluntary service and sports teams for popular games like cricket, hockey and soccer. All of them are very active through out the academic year. Rotaract club of CIT is one of the most active in Coimbatore district. Apart from these organizations, each branch has their own association that conducts events like tech lecture, symposiums etc.
There are clubs for arts, music, film, debate, tamil language, quiz etc. There is even a dedicated group for trekking that organizes treks in and around Nilgiri hills.
Shristi, the college magazine provides an avenue to express your thoughts, musings and ramblings. There is a special section for cartoon and caricature too! If you want to express your literary skills in Tamil language, you can do that too! Ilamparavai offers an avenue to showcase your kadhai, kavidhai and katturai skills! Students manage all the clubs and its finances! Staffs just play an advisory role.
CIT story isn’t complete without mentioning its flagship cultural event - HARMONY! The fun starts with a call for logo, invitation and T-Shirt design. Students walk the nook and corner of Coimbatore and surroundings to collect sponsorships in hundreds of thousands. All these hard work result in three days of pure, unadulterated fun! As a host institution we don’t participate and we bring in neutral judges for most of the events. There are various events and thousands in prize money; all up for grabs at Harmony - CIT’s showpiece event. Because of the quality and sheer competitiveness, Harmony is one of the well-known college festivals in Tamil Nadu!
It’s amazing that with all these activities CITians manage to get some time to study too! They do it pretty well since most of them gets recruited on campus. Some prefer to do higher studies in India and some travel abroad for Masters! The placement cell does a wonderful job of interacting with the industries and bringing them for campus recruitment.
CIT is more than an engineering college. It is a place where you learn what life is! A place where boys become men! CIT hostel is a whole different world! Probably some other CITian can write a review about hostel life!
After all, that summer of ’93 was well spent. If that can lead to four years of life’s choicest and finest lessons at an institution like CIT, I can endure many summers like that!
To get a detailed info about CIT, visit https://cit-india.org
(An alumni site maintained by a group headed by an alumnus, Mr. Palani kumar)