The END!!

Something’s that I have learnt in these three years changed me completely as a person.

Make the most of time while you still have it because life is too short wasting on stupid things. Just get up take that life of yours in your hand and play it with all your heart because in the end it’s your instrument to create the music you want to. 

Go all out and do whatever you feel like, sometimes people and sometimes you yourself will be thinking what the hell I am doing but then these are the moments that would be the milestones in time.

Give all your heart to your family and your friends, it does not matter what happens in future at-least you will know that you gave everything and it will set you free.

Friends are a rare gift that you earn. The wealth of person is not only in the bank balance but in the people that he has invested into. Never underestimate the importance of your friends in your life they are the one who define the person that you are.

Acknowledge people for no matter whatever small help they might have rendered it’s your way of counting your blessings.

In the end just be yourself. Do not run behind impressing anyone or proving a point to anyone. Do what you feel like with all your passion that's all you need.

This has become too philosophical for once but then this place will always hold a special place in my heart as it gave me so many beautiful things and made me the person that I am. Thanks IIT-Bombay.

Bye Bye and have fun!!!!!!

Lokpal revisited

Just saw the debate for Lokpal bill taking place in Loksabha today. It was a completely different experience. Different to the general perspective that politician are nonsensical and irresponsible lot it shocked me when they were quoting different sections and different articles of constitution and were having a mature debate (although for only a short time after which they came back to their general tactics). For that short time when they were behaving what i thought was proper it had me believe that if our politicians really work keeping welfare of people in mind and setting aside their differences it is very much possible to have the best laws without any uproar like the one caused by anna. I am for the India Aganist Corruption movement but as i stated in my earlier post i have my reservations. It has to be born in mind that Lokpal is not the end for the woes of this country it is just a beginning and the motive power for this would have to come from people of this country not from the political class. 

From the beginning of this agitation the support has only dwindled and the government has been successful in its tactics of letting the steam fizzle out from the general public. It has just dragged the issue because it knows that people will eventually get tired and like every other movement and agitation this will also go as just another uproar with some output which ended up without any substantial results.

I am not undermining the bill that was put up by government nor endorsing the one that has been hard pressed by anna and team because as i understood from todays debate that the intricacies in it are so difficult to understand that one wrong clause or one wrong step may lead to either a civil disorder or a complete collapse of the lokpal system itself. 

One clear point that was visible from every minister’s speech was that all they are interested in is the benefit of their particular party and the interest of the people of India comes second. They are so engrossed into keeping the power for themselves that they go to the extent of doing personal attacks. 

I am as hopeful as apprehensive about this law because as someone has said. "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"

Promise of a Season

Placement season is something which needs to be felt to be believed. A season of desperation, frustration, despair, joy and above all a season of promise. A promise to everyone that their dreams will be realized, that the reason for which they joined the institute will be brought to fulfillment. This promise is so over whelming that people become desperate till the season actually starts.

Only talk on the campus in month of November is placements. From campus newsletters to times of India the only talk is about coming placement season. This not only fills students with a promise but also a pressure for they have to actually perform. This is the time they have been waiting for, all POR's, all  extra-currics, all subjects and all grand CPI's find their culmination in this holy grail. Although for some this is just a plan B but then it’s important because your plan B has to be secure so that you can work fully on your plan A.

Once students start applying for jobs they start setting a kind of image in their mind about what type of job they would like to go for in which city and what package and all. As much helpful this is it’s also a sweet trap because you are never sure if the said company will select you for said profile at said location with the package you want. Safest way out is apply for whatever comes your way. This being the shortest way out may not leave you fully satisfied but then you can’t have everything that you desire (true for most of us).

The worst part of this season is to see really good and promising people to be left behind and not getting what they actually deserve. It is just a sad sight not only for friends but for everyone who knows them. 

The best part is to see people get placed and the joy on their face. Their expressions and reactions are something of pure joy. It’s really surreal to see people once they hear the big news. 

As rosy it may look but the other side of this season cannot be ignored because its is not a small number. For the students who carry on longer into the process face really difficult times. The feeling of getting up every morning to go for an interview and returning unplaced, the thought of failing in a written test or not clearing a group discussion are so terrorizing that it leaves few students resigned to the complete process and it becomes a daunting task to push them out of their pessimism.

This season holds as much despair as promise but that’s the way life is you will have ups and downs, the point is to carry on.

Placement Team: IPT

There are two perspectives among general population about being a placement team member.

1- They get the perks and they have personal contact with companies so they get placed easily.

2- They are a group of cranky people who are working for other people for no specific reason.

I would go ahead and endorse the second one but people may have their own version that will fit into one of the two categories. The overall sense is either aw or disgust for an IPT member. 

In this team which slowly turns into a close group of friends there are some talented and super talented who should not only be respected but revered for their passion, dedication, .... several things. It becomes such a good learning experience looking at all this promising people working hard around you, no-one is payed, it’s a voluntary activity still people spend majority of their time on this.

When people start cooperating at every level without any distinction or difference you know that you will deliver, when the overall mood of the team is of trust and jubilant you know you are into something sacred. When you see one team member supporting other to achieve something big and people start taking up responsibilities for which they were never accountable you know it’s turning into something big.

It’s still mid-way and might be a premature but after first few grueling days starting at Day zero you start to see people mature, from subdued to confident and from i to us. They stand up to the challenges because they know that they have people standing behind them who will catch them when the falter. It’s such a great feeling to be a part of something like this. 

The best part of being an IPT member is when you finally disclose the result to someone, especially when you already know how much it means to them. This feeling is almost blissful.

Being a part of IPT is not only fulfilling but also an enormous learning experience. You get to experience so much it becomes very very satisfying. 

We still have Phase-II to carry on but I am positive that it would be as good as Phase-I

India Against Corruption!!!!--???

Disclaimer(Alert ) = Serious Post tending towards philosophy.

A great uprising. People say that after freedom fight for the first time such a fervor has been seen in people of our country. Mood was no different in campus. Marches, human-chains and fasts. A great scene of social awakening. To make the stand clear i also am against corruption, well who want. This is converted into fad. So let’s introspect for a minute what exactly is corruption? It is what the politicians and people in government do something like hoarding money, abuse of power and.... all the wrong things. Good definition. Okay so we are the victims, we are the people suffering from corruption so the other person is corrupt and not us. But what really does the "US" consist of. Us is the common man, us is the person who wakes up every morning to work because he knows he just can’t sit and enjoy the day for making the ends meet or may be because his boss will be furious if he does not turn up. ‘Us’ is the person who opens his shop every day and sells good. ‘Us’ is everywhere then who is them. Until a police or a ticket checker does not put on his uniform he is a part of ‘US’ and as soon as he does he has become them. This could be fare but going a bit deeper it does not seem totally correct. Something is wrong... What if we were in the place of that policemen whose salary is less than a fresh graduate from a college and whose daughter is pushing him for buying a new dress and his son wants a new bike, he wants them to have the best of the world but just because he was stuck in a job which he thought would be good he just can no longer afford to provide them a good standard of living. Wait may be i am justifying corruption, no i am not i just want to show the deeper issue in considering a bill passed shall wipe-out all the corruption in the country. Issue is not about our will to act we surely will act and stop paying bribes and do whatever it takes on our part. But it is not an economical issue its more of a social issue and even worst a psychological issue. I throw a question at you, let say you are stuck on a platform without a ticket, no train ticket no platform ticket nothing whatsoever. Your parents, your friends, your girlfriend or say someone important is waiting for you and this is the last train. The queue is long, very long. Train is about to leave in 5 minutes. Will you board it or leave it?? Whatever your answer would be i know the temptation of boarding is something very hard to resist. Eventually some of you may return but you would be heartbroken. For those who boarded the train would tap your own shoulder for pulling off a great adventure of travelling without ticket. One more question, how many of you will present yourself to the Ticket checker on your own and ask him to penalize you for what you have done. Even worst you are short on cash and he tells by law you need to be handed over to police on next station. So you boarding train was a utterly useless and worse decision than returning. How are you feeling now? Seems very real situation, one that would have happen to someone around you. Mostly people would have got off passing down few bucks. Some people have eventually made it a practice to travel this way, leave alone travelling people have made corruption a part of life. This people are common people in and around us, this people are you and me. They are part of this system. Okay so i have proved the cliché point that we are the part of this corrupt system. It’s we who have to change to stop it from happening but what if you knew that the ticket checker needed that extra sum of money from you because he wanted to pay fees for his children school and he has someone seriously ill home and he is low on income. Now what? This is turning out to be a tough test. The issue is not about corruption it’s about the state of affairs. It’s about so many inter connected things that just concentrating on one and leaving others to take care of themselves will result in an utter failure of one system or other. See this is not as simple as it sounds. Now let’s get to one very subtle point which has been harassing me ever since this corruption struggle started.

India is economically very diverse country. Few people live in conditions where getting potable water and one time of food is impossible while others stay in apartments so large to be called as palaces and have sumptuous meals cooked in mineral waters. Wait.... i am talking like a communist here but no i believe in democracy and i trust that’s the way ahead. What my point is that we pay extra money for getting services and comfort while there are fellow beings that are living in a pathetic state. Just because we have money to buy those comforts and it is legal to buy them because it is not called corruption it is called capitalism. What if putting up AC in your house was illegal because it takes up too much electricity and there are areas where we do not have enough power supply. What if maintaining a swimming pool in summer was illegal because there was not enough water for people to drink in some part of country. What if during your birthday bash it was illegal to waste food because someone somewhere was sleeping tonight without having dinner because he could not afford to have it. Just because you can afford to do it does not mean you should. I again seem to be taking up a very rubbish topic in a very different post. But just step back and think. Think about the people below poverty line in our country. For them we are the corrupt people just consuming all the resources and making it difficult for them to sustain every single day. What’s the difference between a politician who wants extra comfort because of his power and us who want to have special treatment because we have extra money? Corruption is not then an issue of them it’s an issue about ‘US’. It’s us who are not just a party to it but a whole and sole part of it. 

Think about it??

Season of Farewell

Its hard but times come when you have to bid farewell for reasons out of your control and all you can do is stand and wonder at this recursive cycle. Its sometimes hard to accept but this is the way of the life. You cannot hold onto things forever, you just have to be happy that you had the chance to spend few great moments together. Moments which were priceless and moments which you would never forget. As friends leave with their hearts heavy in grief and their mind filled with memories it becomes so exceedingly clear that the last two years have just flown by like a gust of wind across your face and all you can do is to try to feel that breeze for one last time. Its not that we are not going to stay in contact or its the last time we meet its just that the life we had of fun, enjoyment and frolic has come to end. People going for job will be lost into the hustle and bustle of their daily lives and then they will get involved in their own small personal world and then their will be times that these memories will only remain the last retreat. Sometimes it seems harsh but you cannot avoid it, its not the first time that i have come across something like this. This has happened before with other friends as well and at that time too it was harsh but these are things which still leave you numb. Only wish and feeling in my heart right now is that they should go and reach great heights in whatever they endeavour to do. For me the student life still continues and have one more year to go before i bid farewell to this campus, but for others.

Happy Journey.....!!!!!

Valfi

Valedictory function as they call is called VALFI in IIT lingo. This is the most important part for someone who is going to leave the campus. This is the time when everyone whom you have harrased or have treated badly is going to come at you all guns blazing and is going to tear you down to pieces to show what you really are. This is where all your friends will grill you for anything that you have done during your stay at institute. This function reveals the true identity of what you are to your friends and to you as well. Everyone chips in to add a detail or two and although it is garnished with lots of spices its underlying theme is to make you aware of what you are as a person. As most of our close friends are going to graduate this year me and my friend who have one more year to go decided to have it this year itself cause they know much about us. May be sometimes more than what we know of ourself. Now you may see this seems a very regular stuff but the details shared here cannot be shared beyond it. Me and my friend had a quote to say about it "Things which are shared and revealed in Valfi remain in Valfi". Certain details are too lewd and personal to share beyond that forum but everybody just let their defences down for that one day and pour their hearts out. Mind you all this is recorded on camera and given to everyone as a token to remember(so you can watch it with special permission). It marks as a reminder to everyone that no matter how much they fool the world outside their are a few people who know their little secrets and what they are. This in a way strengthens your bond with your friends cause you know that you can trust upon them no matter what and that they will be their standing by you on any given day. It is something you should do with your friends from all circles once in a lifetime so that you can share things that you generally wouldn't.