Hi I am Gopi, I am from Lakkavarapukota which is in Vizianagarm district. I would like to share some of my memorable experiences in 21st Century Gurukulam through this magazine. I completed my graduation in March 2007, One day my friend called me and he told about PRITACET, when I heard about this course, I like it and decided to join in this PGDIT (Post Graduation Diploma in Information Technology) course. I wrote entrance and I got 49th rank in PRITACET. At that time, I hoped that this course would change my future. I joined in this Gurukulam on 24th October 2007, I spent a year here.

        I entered the 21st century gurukulam with enthusiasm, on that day I had to speak in English to tell about me. At that time I felt nervous to speak in front of my friends. First one week, we had only classroom sessions. I felt comfortable during all the sessions. During those sessions our mentors taught us English and Mathematics. Second week, I felt quite embarrassed because I had to operate computer for first time. From second day onwards everything is normal for me, but schedule is quite hectic, slowly habituated to this schedule i.e., 5.30 AM to 10.00PM, where we had only few hours break during that schedule. After some days our seniors invited us for interaction, we thought that, it would be a ragging session for us. But it wasn’t a ragging session, our seniors encouraged us to speak in English and they asked about us. After some days, our physical director conducted games between seniors and juniors to improve relationship between juniors and seniors. We played volleyball and cricket, juniors won the volley ball match where as seniors won the cricket match. As days passed on, the day came which we are awaiting for, that is 6th November Gurukulam Foundation Day. On that occasion my seniors gave fresher’s party with delicious dinner. As part of Foundation Day, our meeting was presided over by then Vice Chancellor of Andhra University L.Venugopala Reddy garu. After some days, two of our friends got jobs and they left the course and some of us left the course because of busy schedule.

        We wrote preparatory exams, every one passed in those exams with good percentage. We 34 members eligible for PGDIT. After some days our seniors wrote exams and went to IIIT for interviews. We gave farewell to them by serving delicious dinner. After that, some more friends joined with us who transferred from other gurukulam centers. They are very good in all aspects and mingled with us very quickly. Some senior students came here to learn some extra courses. Until their course completed they stayed with us, we treated them as our early seniors.

        During this year I had learnt so many concepts because of internet facility and learning by doing methodology. Our mentors guide us not only in academic skills but also helped in building interpersonal skills like leadership skills, discipline, courage, secular outlook and sportsmanship. Even though my friends and I came here from different places, we don’t have indifferences among ourselves. We have been celebrating birthday parties of our friends and mentors since we came here. I like this gurukulam very much because it’s like a big joint family for us. On the other hand gurukulam also has some drawbacks; those are, we have been exposed to different kinds of courses, we are unable to learn any course completely because of less duration. In my opinion it is better to increase duration of PGDIT course.