Rajalakshmi Engineering College

The drive out to Thandalam takes a bit of time, depending on the traffic leaving the city, but once you get to Rajalakshmi Nagar, you know you are in the right spot. Rajalakshmi Engineering College is a big place, spread out with different blocks for various departments. It is not like being in the middle of a crowded town; there is more space here, though it gets very hot in the afternoons. You can see students walking back and forth between the labs and the classrooms, usually looking a bit tired from their morning lectures. We have the usual college sights—rows of buses parked in the lot, a canteen that smells like fried food and sambar, and notice boards covered in old flyers. The grass in Rajalakshmi Nagar is not always perfectly green, especially in the dry season, but it is a place where people actually spend time. We spend our days dealing with the usual stuff like broken projectors, noisy fans, and making sure there is enough chalk or markers for the day. It is a very practical environment. There is no big corporate vibe here; it feels more like a small village of its own once you step through the gates of Thandalam. People know each other, and you often see the same faces every morning at the gate. It is just a regular engineering college doing its thing out in the sun, away from the main hustle of the central city streets.