Expectations Vs. Reality

As we all know, “Amity is the leading education group of India with over 1,00,000 students studying across 1000 acres of hi-tech campus.” My decision of coming to Amity was very vague. I did not know anything about the university, I had never heard of it either. A friend of mine suggested Amity, when I asked him about reputed private colleges in India. The website was very catchy and praised Amity University like its one the best. I made one of the most critical and important decision of my life in a rush. My parents have always been very supportive of me and on discussing with them, they agreed to send me to India for my studies. After coming to India, I thought “how bad could it be?” The answer to that is bad!

I was expecting a really good infrastructure, which was upto my expectations. The classes, the hostel rooms, food court, etc all of that was as expected. Then came the reality, when I had to go to my class. I was kicked out of my first class on the first day. I cried like a little baby because I felt very out of the place and home sick. As weeks passed by, I realized I do not belong here and I decided to leave. But that couldn’t happen as my mother clearly objected quitting from anything I take up. Weeks passed by and things started getting better, as I made some awesome friends. I was given so much love and care from everyone around, besides the teachers. The first and the second semester were very bad, as the teachers thought I was a cheater, a student who didn’t want to study or attend classes. But the truth was that they were very partial. So what if I didn’t sit in the front and nod to everything they had to say. I am not a student who will pretend to be nice to a teacher just because they grade us. I did not understand the language, the subject, their way of teaching, and specially the reason of copying something from an already typed lab file to a self-made/noted lab file. This way I lost interest in the classes, and barely attended them. The result of my ignorance towards classes and the language and communication barriers between the teachers and me, was that I flunked two of my subjects and barely passed the rest of them.

After this failure I realized I need to get my agenda straight and do what I am here for, ie study. Starting second semester and till present date I have had almost full attendance and no backlogs. My CGPA has really improved and I am doing well with my academics. With time I started sinking in the reality and it has made me stronger.

Besides the academics, I also participated in the annual sports meet, famously known as “sangathan” which was all in all a very good experience.

I have been through really good times and a few really bad times in Amity. Hostel life here in amity can be tough with all the restrictions and trust issues they have here. But it had made me really strong and adaptable to situation I am not used to. I have learnt how to eat bad tasting food, lie, and most importantly do my own chores.

I had thought of Amity as a really “cool” and “chilled-out” place and it turned to be just the opposite. There are restrictions on going out of the college during the day hours if you are a hosteller, restrictions on the type of clothes to wear, how to hang out with the opposite sex and a few others.

I would like to wrap up this experience by saying that there was good and bad both. I learnt many things here that I possibly couldn’t have anywhere else. Even though this place is more commercial than “non-profit” I have accepted it as my own and will make it proud. I will try to make the best out of the education I have got here and make something of myself.

By-

Mandeep Bhatia

A2325110003

mbhatia1917@gmail.com