I can’t believe I am sitting and writing a concluding blog
for my IITG life. These days have passed so swiftly that it has left me
bewildered like the elderly who try to cope up the rapidly transforming
technology. Phew! Treading down the memory lane just broadens my smile ear to
ear. What an undergraduate life it has been!
In my freshmen year I had to deal with a wide range of
labels. Spanning from a ghissu to a dassu I am just very glad that I truly
did not give any weightage to any of it. I know most of the college guys
reading this will give an eye roll in the most ludicrous manner possible but
the truth is that people do not like to listen to a lecture. No matter how true
it might be it’s sometimes better to be quiet. My incessant questions about
aims and ambitions and goals and future life and so on and so forth were
straight away dismissed without the slightest of thought or consideration. This
was the case with the masses however then there were a couple of people who
were ready to talk. Talk about all the topics they really wanted to and it was obvious
that I got really close to them.
I guess every college student will have a story of their own
with the basic elements more or less the same. These elements include an
awesome hostel, the world’s best lobby, a lot of acquaintances, a few good
friends, a crush or two and one or two closest buddies on whom you can count on
anytime and anywhere. My college life included all of this too. In the end I am
glad to have at least three names that spontaneously come to my mind when I
think about true friends and I am grateful that I was able to find them.
IIT Guwahati is an eclectic combination of peers. You will
find here every kind of student (or professor for that matter) that you can
imagine. You need to be strong headed. You need to know what you are getting
into and be consciously aware of all the actions and their implications. Well
frankly this task is easy for most of us. Being aware. The problem is to be
aware and to act on it. Most of the
people I observed in this college were very talented and extremely smart. The
problem with most of them was their laziness coupled with the college stigma of
being a ghissu. People just did not
want to be associated with an obvious label. As for me, I hardly cared about
stereotypes or demeaning lingos which were just a cheap attempt by losers to
anchor down the flying spirits reaching towards their goals.
Frankly, in the first half of my freshmen year I was nothing
but ungrateful. I was whining and cribbing about the place, the peers, my not
so awesome JEE rank, the fact that I was away from two of my closest friends
and most importantly whining because I was not happy with myself. I had
categorically decided that there is nothing that I will learn or take away from
this place. Having thought about IIT Bombay as the archetype of the
undergraduate engineering college since the beginning of JEE preparation, being
in IIT Guwahati did not really boost my confidence.
So what did I take away from this place? Now when I look
back and connect the dots, I realize that IIT Guwahati has silently helped me
turn into a person that I could not have expected to become if I was in that
dream college. With deep introspection I thought about this question and I had
to just look at myself and realize that the answer was very simple. The answer
was me. IIT Guwahati gave me an identity. An identity of an awesome (machau ) senior for a really average and
relatively okay person like me. That which I know would not have been possible
in Bombay. With every other person there getting admits and internships in the
dream universities, a KAIST intern would have been hardly counted as an
achievement. I am not comparing anyone or anything, neither am I talking about mediocrity.
I just know it for a fact that I would have developed an inferiority complex
which is the last thing I would have wanted in my undergraduate life. The kind
of boost and energy (positive and negative) you receive from peers in IITG is
life changing. You just need to be with the right people at the right time and
I am glad I was able to do that wisely. All these external factors strengthened
my internal desire of being associated with academia and slowly I transformed
into someone who became self-sufficient in developing enough confidence and
surplus enthusiasm while pursuing various tasks and really doing what I like
and vice versa. This interwoven fabric of many reasons ultimately supports my
decision of pursuing graduate school as well.
Getting through the Heritage Erasmus Mundus Exchange Program
was totally unexpected. I definitely wanted it and that is the reason that I
had applied as well but I felt as if I would not get it. I was probably just
trying to be real. Getting to know the results brought a wave of joy followed
by the tides of realization. I wish I could have been a part of the final
semester or the finale season as some call it but I guess I have to come to
terms with the current situation. It’s like playing the role of the supporting
actor who gets killed a season before and the actor can just hope that the
character is dearly missed.
I would conclude by mentioning that IIT Guwahati gave me a
thousand reasons to hate it but then it also gave me a few overpowering reasons
vetoing in its favour. It made me realize the fact that everyone is fucked up
in some way or the other in life, but who is cribbing and who is happy is
decided by what matters to them and what they choose to act on. I am glad I
acted well.
