Bidding Adieu: Part II (a)

People... New bonds are formed!

Believe it or not! Before I came in here, I was this unseeming introvert. Probably, I still am, in certain ways. Earlier, I used to be quite a talker with my family. All that changed in IITK was - my family grew from 5 to around 500. :)

The first day, I can still recollect, came as a bit of a shocker as most of realised that seniors at IITK were not too different from the stereotypical "senior" we had heard of and feared. We were told about interaction period which stretched a little beyond the allotted time. My parents did stay over for 4-5 days and every evening I made sure they were nowhere near our hostel when the quad interactions started. I would say I, for one, was never made to do anything even close to being really embarrassing. I had never heard most of the cuss words and I had a hard time complying to demands of speaking those aloud. (Things might have changed now :P)

An amazing part in this period was the bulla sessions we (the bhais) had after the interaction had ended. Everyone had a story to tell. Our baap, Sandeep, would come and chat with us and nudging us to interact more freely with the seniors. I had a rather uneventful time till 15th August when we were supposed to be set free from the shackles of full sleeved shirts, lousy pants, no belts(!) and the compulsion of hanging around in the quad till 10 pm. The 'Y5 Kat Lo!' chants by Y6 and some audacity on my part in front of certain seniors ensured I had a long night after the freshers. However, I came out having made some new friends!

Talking of Bhais, we had, starting from Room 312, 2 Top: Saurabh, Razdan, NMJ, me, Sumit, Harlalka, Jhansi and Ashish. It was a heady mix. While saurabh and harlalka were the reticent people of the lot (initially), Jhansi had an opinion (a very traditional one :D) on everything, NMJ's language brought a smirk on our faces, Razdan was rarely seen in his room and Ashish, well, came up with some amazing hypothetical situations and his reactions to those were absolutely hilarious. Then there was this divide in our wing - people living on either side of the washrooms! Our end had Jeet, Dhesi, Sharad, Akash, Dodda, Anubhav and Sandeep who attained the status of pseudo-bhais very soon. I still remember when a 600-700 bucks treat at Hall 7 was considered a big thing. All of us used to take the Hall 7 Canteen by storm and pick up almost everything edible available on the counters... and then order the meal!

However, things changed and some of us moved to an entirely different group in 5 Bot (2nd year). This wing was a sea change from the one we were accustomed to. It was fun, though. There were Thakur, Chapu, Pelu, Chomu, Nagoo, Bhargav, Tammy, Sardar, Pant, Labroo, Raju and Sumit, Jeet, NMJ and me from the old lot. A major activity here was gaming - not one I indulged in - but was wont to listen about at length. So much so, that after a certain period, most of the wing talk became unintelligible to me :). Another enjoyable part was sitting in 152 (Pelu and Chomu's room) and having some awesome bulla sessions! The NMJ bashing after DOTA sessions was a treat to watch as well...

At the beginning of the second year, I happened to meet Garima during the freshers' preparation for MME Dept. I could say she was my first female acquaintance here and though I am sure she would be reading this... but this one's worth sharing : some of my wingmates went berserk the first time she called me. Such is the state of affairs at IITK! :D

As this post is majorly about meeting the people who went on to become an integral part of my life later, I would board a time warp to Antaragni' 07. It, I still maintain, was one of the best we ever saw with good enough competition, POTF and Atif. I still remember telling someone that seeing POTF made me think that the slogging for JEE had finally bore fruit. Here, at the POTF concert, if I remember well, I was introduced to the lot of Banerjee, Aviral, Avantika, Swetha and Sezal. Bong, ofcourse, I knew from the quizzing circuit. I would consider to be an important juncture in my life at IITK as it somehow factored in my ending up in another new wing in the 3rd year. Ofcourse, more importantly, some of these people are the closest of friends I have right now (I hope they don't differ on this! :)).

Some of the things that happened during the later half of the second year are best left unwritten :P. Though, as mentioned in my previous note, it was a golden period in our team's quizzing graph. Oh! We met some more people... being part of the Prof Shows teams in Techkriti and Megabucks. It was an amazingly fun-filled experience working with Divya Goel, Kanchan and Govil. Met 'Strings- the band', Feeding the Fish and Niladri! Really, in terms of celebrities on campus, this year was a cracker!

I also joined Dr. Anish Upadhyaya's lab in the winter of '07. Met some nice people including Saurabh, Shobhit, Pritha, Garima Joshi and Divya (who went on to become my summer project partner). I stayed over in the summer of '08 for a project and inspite of the scorching heat, it was a memorable time. A highlight being the trip to water park, lucknow where I displayed my incredible skills of drowning in water merely 3 feet deep :D.

I regret that I don't have Utkarsh's ability and uncanny knack for detail. And moreover, I can't really remember how I "met" UT. Guess it was a gradual strengthening of the QC bond! With this, I'll sign off this post, having reached half time in this whopping journey called IITK...

Bidding Adieu: Part 1

I had thought of writing reminiscences from the past 4 years long back. What held me all this while was the fear of accepting the truth that the end is actually near. However, I guess it is high time we all accept the obvious and I would like to pen down everything while it is still fresh.

A more immediate occurrence that prompted me to get down to write was the informal announcement of the new Vox Populi editors yesterday, coupled with the 'last' Quiz Club Meet. These two institutions, if I may say, have been very close to my heart during my stay here. While I made certain attempts, some successful and others not so much, to give my contributions to these, the relationship was much more of a boon to me than to these clubs. I believe that my love for these clubs is borne out of the fact that somehow my identity in IITK was deeply intertwined to these establishments.

I cannot remember how many times I have fumed with rage when somebody dismissed Vox and its importance, how many times I have fought against the 'glam' clubs because I thought they were trying to overshadow the QC. Somewhere deep down, I fought because any such attack was very personal to me. Remembering the feeling I had when I held the first Vox edition published under our editorship still brings a smile to my face. It might sound a li'l gay but I, sort of, realized why people are so glad to hold their new-born babies.

Quizzing had been passion for me before I came to Kanpur. It was a strange and pleasant coincidence that 2 of my Bhais formed a team with me. I remember when Razdan suggested the name "Satanic Output" in the Fresher's Quiz and I thought this guy is from some other planet! I think we did quite well and the name stuck and gladly so :D. I probably haven't said this ever 'cause it sounds a bit gay :D but here it is: Razdan ke saath ek team mein quizzing ka maza kuch aur tha... Quizzing will never be the same without you! Maybe one day, some day, we'll be back and who knows, we might be real pros then! :) NMJ was also a delight and our team wouldn't have been the same without his dazzling literature and mythology answers. On a lighter note, it wouldn't have been the same without him shouting and verbally regretting every missed answer! :) And yeah, we couldn't have found better competitors than Hopelessly Hapless (Bong, UT n Venky). Remember how Bong's team and ours was at loggerheads all the time :D... Even long before the QC had the completely awesome gang we had now, I was pretty glad in this little nutty world of our own...

Ok, I don't think I have all the time and space in the world to recount every single incident that forms my memories of Vox n QC but here r some of them in a nutshell:

Vox: 1st article- An interview with Dr. Sanjay Mittal, Some ME reviews here n there, Hoshing n Madhusudan, Dainik Gadar, the tr8 by Satrah & Co., Layouting with Mohunta, MDM, Paro n Sulla; Working with Sak, Murgi n Rashmitha; working on the layout with Raza n Azam Bhai; worrying about distribution right in the midst of the endsems

QC: Fresher's Quiz, Being volley n Secy with Sripath, Nihilanth selection in 1st yr, Sunil and then Sameer, Techkriti Quiz by Barry, Megabucks Biz Quiz in 2nd yr, Infosys Quiz, Tata Crucible TV Appearance :), Being the Coordi, Hanging out at CCC or Hall 4 after the QC meets, Interacting with the bachchas n panji, bhaskar, amritha...

I might have forgotten or inadvertantly skipped some other events which I will definitely recount in the forthcoming posts. Till then, here's me thinking of the good ol' days!

Another one!

Ya rite, the midsems do get the best out of you..

Once there was a little schmuck,
On his right thumb he did suck.
He lived in the city of liverpool,
Went to the most prestigious school,
Where, he failed, and was indefinitely stuck.

And you thought I would end the rhyming with ... :D

Limerick!

Thanks to my friend and fellow "Vox Populi" editor Rashmitha, I have been inspired to write limericks too. The following is my first attempt. I hope I am not punished for plagiarizing the rhyme scheme (and yeah well somewhat the pattern too)...

There was once a guy called Luke,
He was heir to the throne of Duke.
One day he breached the Royal line,
And gulped three bottle-fulls of wine,
All he could do that night was puke.
And if you are reading this you know that it's really time you wished me luck for my mid-semester exams starting on Monday! :D

Valentine's Day - 2010

The love bells ring, one's sorrows ebb,
Approaches, the 'solemn' 14th of Feb.
So here I am, writing this verse,
Hark! All ye ladies, and all ye sirs.

Excited you will be, if you've got a date,
If you've got none, then set up the bait.
'The chicks always like the bad guys', they say,
Be the nice guy 'n' go lonely on V-Day.

...

I could not find the words or theme to continue this poem. Maybe one day, someday I will. Till then it shall lie here for the record.

Beginning of the end...

My apologies! I guess that is too stilted a title for what I am about to write. Today was the first day of classes for my last semester at IITK. So, obviously, this is quite a moment for me.

It began, more or less, like other semesters till date have begun; with the slight exception that I was supposed to try out some courses and see if I would like to take those up. Till now, it has always been very easy and proper with all courses pre-registered. But well, seems like it is not too bad an experience.

However, our attempts at convincing some profs for their courses met some ill-fate in the morning itself, when one of the profs was found to be on a pretty long leave. Hence, one "rather easy-looking" course was eliminated. The second encounter was more amusing and less disappointing.

It was the class for "Topics in Indian Philosophy". We were all seated by the time the bell rang. Also present was a chubby looking guy who was every bit like a student except that he wasn't! He was actually the instructor. He began proceedings and belted out quite a lot of sanskrit jargon, most of which was rather intimidating, and in an uncharacteristic english accent. What was more surprising that he began his boardwork with a "shri" symbol on top! Some character that... altho it seemed like a nice course, so I will take it presuming he accepts me. :D

In the afternoon session, one instructor forgot he had a class and chose to absent himself. Things got worse when a bunch of 'idiots' went and called him from his office. He, obviously, was totally befuddled and somehow managed to teach for the next 30-35 mins, much to our dismay.

All in all, it was quite amazing to see everybody in the academic area. We might not see too much of this... ever. Guess all of us have to move on. Just like this year, and the last, and the next too.

On this note, here wishing a very very happy new year to anybody who's reading this... which kinda amounts to like 1-2 ppl. So I might as well use FB & gtalk for that!

Amen!

Just another 'PoU'm

This semester, there was a choice of course,
I chose, alas, The Physics of Universe.

The earth (for all intents and purposes) was a sphere,
So were the marks, and that gave me the scare.

The class, it seemed, begun at dawn,
The prof's eyes met mine, and I stifled a yawn.

Crammed up 'astronomical' figures, I wonder why?
Galileo was confusing, so was Tycho Brahe!

I swept the azimuth, and climbed up the pole,
Burst in a 'nova, and became a black hole.

The mids, the end-sem sped by like light,
The magical 25 percent was still out of sight.

"You'll fail only if you deserve to", the professor proclaimed,
The hopes and dreams of hundreds was drained.

He'll fail me, He'll fail me not, there were rumours galore,
I'd had so much of it, I wanted no more.

Sprang up in no time, the placements and CAT,
The fear of an 'F' pinned us to the mat.

We could whine, we could explain, we could cuss,
But there seemed no way we could "Ask the Pankaz!".

But God hears our prayers, he's surely not deaf,
I now have a 'Z' and an 'S', but, it seems, no 'F'.