Amphetamine called Mumbai

Mumbai the city of dream's the city where everything else comes true, this city i must say has a peculiar thing in itself, its quite fast. Not quite fast lets say its very fast, speaking truly it runs at maddening speed, i have been there only for 3 months now and been out only a few time but some how this city has got into my blood, or can say got onto my nerves. Few signs of this, I walk unusually fast and get irritated at being late and now i like standing it does not worry, walking a distance of 15 minutes is not too difficult for me and that's usual part of my day. I do not know why everyone is Mumbai runs but they run somewhere, and they are always in some hurry. It's something you might get frustrated with at first and will get accustomed as time passes. It feels as if you have amphetamine and you are high. Cause suddenly you feel more lively and feel more energetic you like to pick up a fight and would feel like putting the whole world on fire (in positive sense of course). The confidence level of a person changes cause you are on your own out there. This city surely has got a personality of its own, its different, you have to get accustomed to it. The most stark difference of this can be felt on the main gate of the campus as soon as you step inside the atmosphere its quite serene and calm, the main gate is as if the boundary between two cities, you have to shift your gears quite literally if you wanna get out in the city. But that is something that some people may like and few many not, but that is the way this city runs.

A star status

Once you are into IIT one thing you get for free is attention and a star status, this term star status is the only thing which can define what is the feeling once you are into IIT, there are several privileges. I got a feel of this once when i was in train, there came a police constable for regular check up round and asked everyone to open up their bags, he asked what was their professions and all details, i was sleeping he woke me up and asked what did i do, i said i was a student and he asked from which college i replied IIT, he said sleep no need to open your bag. I said well this is something i have not felt ever before, it was quite astounding to me, but it was real. This got me to thinking means all right we have the privilege but along with that comes responsibility if people are giving us this status its because we mean something more we have the onus open us to prove to the world, we have to contribute and also to give back something to the society and country as a whole. The other day i was joking with my friend and we drew a conclusion "We can talk utter rubbish but still people will atleast give it a thought." Well that statement as a prima facie is quite humorous but underneath it has a sense of privilege along with responsibility attached to it. We now have the privilege of speaking things and expressing thoughts which people will listen to and would follow, its not that we did not have this thoughts before, its just that now it has a sense of authenticity and credibility because of the institution we are affiliated to. So whatever we convey should be with a sense of responsibility. We had this excellent professor, whenever we would ask him a question he said you are now designers you are going to design things you are going to decide in what manner the thing works and you are the god for that product or whatever it might me. Whenever he use to say that it use to get me thinking cause in a way he was right. It was the privilege for us to decide the manner something would work and the manner in which people or the end user is going to use it and the facilities we would be giving him it was some sort of a power you have but it brings responsibility cause now people trust that you are going to design things and products which are not only going to be reliable but are also going to make their live more comfortable. So along with having the power to decide how will people use a product you also have the responsibility of fulfilling all their needs from that product. Last experience i had was when i attended this Pre-Placement Talk by BCG. Well although i have two years to go before i attend one i just attended it for having some experience of what a PPT is like and the company is all about, one of their senior executives started in a quite peculiar way, he said that "right now their is no room in the entire world which has more potential than this room here" then he went to explain that "this room has atleast 10-15 CEO of mnc's 10-15 people who are going to lead some NGO and atleast 15-20 people who are going to be senior executives in BCG itself" this was quite an experience for me. Well those people out their have a perception that we are the best minds in the country and also in the world. With this privilege we have the responsibility to make it count, we have to prove that whatever perception they have has to maintained and enhanced further, its upto us now to prove that we really are the best minds in the world.

Proving you are worth it(IIT)

Well surviving IIT is one thing but proving you are worth is something you achieve not so simply. Even though you may have given the toughest technical exam but that's not just enough to earn the respect from the IIT faculties and also from the Under Grad students. You have to be exceptional along with being earthy, you have to keep aside your ego under the hood until and unless you are accepted as being one among them. Well this according to me is not that simple a task, you suffer from various feelings like inferiority complex, defensiveness or simply denial. One suffering from inferiority complex would have accepted that he is not as worthy of being into IIT as those who had cleared JEE and taken admission and when that happens as an defense mechanism he starts taunting them if they are not capable of doing something that he feels is easy. That is something which develops some kind of rudeness in your behavior and that keeps on increasing. Some people out-right deny that they are not as good as the Under Grad students, as per them they are either better-off or on par with them, but this as per me might not be true for everyone. Some people who have great achievements to their credit might proclaim that they are not as bad but many of us have not done what this people do here so its quite true that we might not be as good as many of them, i have used "many of them" intentionally because there are so many things done here that everyone has done some or other thing and the attitude that this guys have comes from there. I feel attitude is the thing which differentiates an IITian from other people, he is confident that he can achieve anything, this thing is fed into their brain since they enter, they are constantly told that because they are into IIT they should be acting so. They are conditioned in a manner wherein they are prepared to succeed i find this missing in the state level college's where you are constantly bogged down or else you are not provided with enough opportunity or else you are not shown the path to create opportunities, this people here are so much into extra-curricular activities that its obvious they will have different attitude and will have some arrogance cause its required if you have to lead or execute something which you feel is great. I feel the attitude they have is something which one should develop to succeed but it should not get to your head then you can do wonders. The Under Grad student's stay on the campus longer and their brain's are still receptive when they enter so they can be conditioned in the manner you want them to, but with post grad its completely different they are atleast 4 years older and already been through college so much of the part of their growing up is over, now its upto them to unlearn what is fixed in their mind and start learning new things. That is something which many of the student might not be comfortable with but that is the truth, other way being that at least open up your mind to new things and along with old ideas learn new things and new attitude that would help you to go a long way. I wish to prove down the line that "I am worth it(IIT)".

Surviving IIT!

Finally i settled down at IIT Bombay Design, although its been alomst two months since my last post but it can be justified by the title itself. Well getting into IIT is one part but staying and surviving it is quite different. Its like the famous quotation "after the winner is announced you can quite not differentiate between the winner and the runner's up". After getting here i realized the pain i would have to go through to prove that i can survive for 3 years. It was quite something, i will ask you few questions to give a feel of what i went through, Take 50 best nerd's from around the country and place them in one place what would you have? Then add to that the senior's who frighten them to study? I think now you can understand what i had to go through. It was one real experience but then it help's to push the bar upwards which is all that matters, so it was not as bad it was fun but also painful. The first thing you should remember after taking admission in IIT is that you are there for studies, well thats important because there is so much to do, so much extra that you could get involved that you might forget that you also have to study, so many competitions so many clubs so many groups so many sport activities. But then thats why its so famous the campus is always upbeat with one or the other activity its your volition when to step in and where to stop. One more reason why its so important to take care is because its a relative marking system and you have to be at least around the average to survive and in the initial days you are not sure of your position so it becomes difficult to judge how much study is enough, everyone is studying for 6 to 8 hours and then it becomes necessity instead of requirement that you study. So surviving IIT is also more about choices you make along with the amount of study you do.

Last return

I was returning back home, it was the end of my journey. I had been to places and seen the sights i could have never thought of travelling. I was feeling relieved along with a sense of nostalgia, i do not know why but i was feeling a void. It was as if something great was coming to an end. Although my body was tired my brain wanted to carry on, somehow i liked the whole travel. I started off at noon, one thing i must set straight at this point is that the people of Guwahati are really very warm and helping i shall continue this in other posts, i reached the airport quite early had lunch and was waiting for my flight. All sort of thoughts were filling up my mind, i was feeling excited at the thought of reaching home and also was happy that i had my first admission after such a long journey. I relaxed on the airport for 2 hours and then my flight came in, i must admit the atmosphere at the airport is magnetic, light breeze with drizzle and mountains in the distance with orange coloured clouds is very scenic. Boarded the flight and had a window seat, it was a time to reflect upon what all i had been through. The time passed on very smoothly with several thought cluttering up the top space. Reached Delhi and moved to terminal 1-d for last time in my journey, the place was upbeat with lots of activity. I made my way to the counter only to find that my stay at the terminal was extended due to delay in the flight but it was not painful given the fact that it was my last leg of the journey. I passed the time on the terminal just resting and killing the time. Finally i boarded the flight and what i noticed was really shocking. The sits were very uncomfortable and not even reclining, they were like the seats that we have in our state transport buses. To my luck i again was endowed with a window seat and this time the sight i was going to see was really enchanting. The flight took off and i slept because of extreme wear out that i had been through but the hostess woke me up for having my dinner, i resisted cause i did not feel like eating and just wanted water but she forcefully feed me. Somehow i gulped the food and watched outside the window and saw some shimmering lights down beneath, as we were passing above various cities it was really worth it to see the beautifully lit cities down beneath. The horizon was dotted with several such jewels, it was dark and you can clearly see the boundaries of the city and how it slowly merged into the wilderness. Their was a small streak of light connecting two cities, it was the highway which passed from one city to another. Small vehicles were also visible with their lights. It was really enchanting to see those jewels embedded over the black fabric of night. Reached my destination at 01:00 in the night and it was too late to find any public transit systems to reach home. I decided to go for a cab, hired a cab and we started off at 1:15 a.m. It was already 12 hours or more since i was travelling but i was not at all tired as i knew this was last hour of my great journey, the cab driver turned on his music, it was a typical driver's music (those who have travelled in buses or have been to any of the highway restaurant might know this for sure). The cab was going swiftly through the night. I cannot exactly describe the feeling that i was going through at that point of time but it was a mixture of nostalgia, relief and achievement. This feeling cannot be categorically put into words but it can only be felt. Reached home at 2:30 in the morning and went to sleep directly, it was one of the most peaceful sleep i had in long time. All the things i had seen and felt during my journey were in my heart but still it felt light. My long cherished dream had been completed. Finally i was an IITian.

"One man's disgust is other man's food"

The title shall be justified as i go along. Boarded the cab and i was moving towards the campus, i passed through the settlements which were overwhelmed by greenery. The place is having a constant war with nature, the greenery as if trying to take over every bit of land it finds, even the building's seems to be taken over by them. I must admit, here nature rules. You cannot fight with it, you have to learn to live with it, either you live with it or you leave(this statement shall be understood in more depth as we move along). The place is very close to nature, untamed vegetation everywhere, planned and controlled vegetation is very less. After few kilometers i reached Brahmaputra bridge, the river is the largest flowing water body i have seen. Somewhere in distance two branches mixing and making one large body. It makes everything else look small, its so huge that it takes few minutes to cross it in a car. Whosoever sees it for the first time is surely going to fall in love and be terrified at the same time. This was my second grand encounter in a single day. After few minutes i crossed across and reached the campus. I must admit the campus is one of the best guarded i have seen. As always my search for my hostel started, good thing was that we were already informed about the hostel we had to go. I reached my hostel and straight to my room. Tired as i was, i slept for few hours. Slowly night came in and i decided to go around but there stood my first surprise, i wont call it a pleasant surprise by any means, it was an insect (if you can call a 3 or 4 inch long fleshy roach as insect), so big that it could swallow lizards. It was something similar to roach, it was really annoying, it could fly and would go down the doors and get into rooms. It was something i had never seen in my life and may be thats the reason i was frightened at first sight. Although i managed to get accustomed of its presence around me, i was still not comfortable with one of those things getting into my room. For first night none of those came in and my night went peacefully. Second day i went around the campus, its really nice, as i just mentioned about the vegetation, similarly here too the vegetation is wild, actually it cannot be tamed given the area of the campus. The area is so large that it hits you directly in the face. The architecture of the campus is really nice. Its designed in a beautiful way. Second day passed by and then came the most horrifying night i had, i was sleeping and the "insects" i was talking about came into my room, total 4 of them. I was sleeping peacefully and suddenly i heard something near my ear and to my disbelief it was sitting next to me. I was so much horrified that i felt like leaving the room and running away, but in middle of this unkown place you have but one choice and that is to fight. I somehow managed to get one after another every single one of them out and then stuffed my door with polythene bags so as to restrict their entry. It was one bad experience i would not like to have again. That night itself during dinner time when i was going around i saw one person carrying few of them in a polythene, i thought he was carrying them so that he can dispose off them somewhere else. I inquired and then i got one of the most unusual answers i can get. He said they eat it. It was really startling to know that one man's disgust is other man's food. But that was true. Next day i took a flight to home.

Terminal 1-D

Well as i have already said this was on of the most painful experiences of my life. After getting down at Delhi we took a cab and reached this place called as terminal 1-D. By now i had been here at least a few times to know its layout quite well, but this time things were different. It was 00:00 in the night, i had 5 hours to go for my flight and i am not accustomed to late night outs or any late night parties so it was like an acid test for me to pass these 5 hours. To our advantage we reached early enough to find few benches unoccupied also as my friend and me were not feeling well we had to find place to rest else . . . So we managed to get seats on bench. The benches, i must admit, are really not as comfortable as they look. I have sat on these benches before for hours but sleeping on them is not my cup of tea. I tried every single position you can imagine in a chair, i tried my legs up on the front chair, on my bag, even on the seat next to me. I tried sleeping upright and sinked in also tried to sleep with the bag in my lap but all tries failed. I was feeling like Mr.Bean, trying all the silly moves that i can. All the veils of shame or disgrace had fallen amidst the primitive urge to sleep. Finally i decided lets not sleep, this being a bold decision as i never ever had a sleepless night. Even during my college days i never slept later than 00:30 p.m. But my friend who was already sick and in a dire condition took a rather unimaginable decision. He was going to sleep on the floor. Here on India's most swanky airport my friend pulled out his sheet, laid it down kept his bag as pillow and slept. I was shocked, not as much by what he did but by the irony that when in condition like this nothing seems inept, i was comparing the situation with the condition of poor people who have to sleep on platforms, its not as if they like it, its because they do not have any other option(we shall come to this soul searching in separate posts as this itself is quite a large topic to discuss here). So as i had already decided not to sleep i went in search of tea so as to fool my natural cycle that i already have had enough sleep and lets start a new day. I had my tea went around the terminal so as to freshen up. It was 3 o'clock in the morning when one of the staffer came so as to guide us towards the check-in. She woke up my friend and was insisting him to move, i compared it with what the guards do with those poor people who have taken refuge in the crevices in the platforms. So finally at 3:30 we moved towards the check-in and we were inside. Rested for few hours and decided to have tea and snacks (breakfast if you may call it so) at 4:30 in the morning as my flight was scheduled at 5:25. Looking over the beautiful air stirps with atleast a few dozen aircrafts waiting for the next day to began i was sipping over my coffee and having my sandwich. It was time i left for my next and preferably last frontier it was Guwahati. I parted from my friend and moved towards flight. I was drowsy but still managed to board the flight and like all other times i was terrified by the thought of not having a seat or sharing the same seat number with someone else, well it did not happen this time. The flight took off early in the morning with the sun not completly out and the early morning haze still settling down. I was really tired. I slept as soon as the flight took off and the hostess started her daily chores. Somewhere middle in the flight i don't remember where i woke up suddenly, to my luck i had been endowed with a window seat, the white clouds were beneath us and somewhere in distance i saw one of the most beautiful view i ever held in my eyes. I was looking at Himalaya's (if i have not mistaken!), the Grandeur of those mountains is so magnanimous that it fills you with aw alongwith a sense of being trivial. Trust me i have never seen such a thing in my life, i doubt i will see something like that again. It was as if my jaw dropped to my feet. I was trying all i can to keep on looking at them, its just magnificent. Somehow coming out of the lure i reached Guwahati, the place is a heaven truely, although i did not realize it at that time but today thinking of that place i feel its really so. I landed amidst fog and drizzle, it was quite soothing to enter this atmosphere. I felt a light breeze across my face which was both cold and wet. Its really one of experience, lush green fields around the airport. I came out of the airport and boarded a cab to my destination.