Promises! We make it and we break it. This New Year too
began with a lot of hopes and a lot of a promises which are already breaking
faster than they were even made. 2013 was a year full of memories. Some of
these memories were outrageously fantastic and a few were ridiculously heart
breaking. The period beginning with the 2013 New Year celebrations to
Alcheringa 2013 is a time that passes swiftly with a new semester to begin
with. With the acceptance of the US visa, followed by a crazy 36 hours delayed
journey to the States it was exciting all the way. I am glad to have listened
to my senior’s advice and finished off my GRE and TOEFL in the summers of 2013
itself. With the US joy ride over and done and a PhD offer in hand I was ready
for the pseudo-penultimate semester to begin. I call it pseudo because to my
surprise I got through the Heritage Erasmus Mundus Exchange program for Ecole
Centrale de Nantes in France. The penultimate semester turned out to be my last
semester at IIT Guwahati. After getting the news it was as though I went
through those great phases of realization as stated in various scriptures.
Firstly, I had to sink in the feeling of being accepted to the program.
Secondly it was to calm myself down after being titillated every other second
thinking about Europe. I then realized it was my last semester in college and
then it was the phase of convincing myself that I wanted to accept it. Phew!
What a joy ride it had been! I thought I was all done and then there was the
whole duolingo experience of learning French and oh! It is fun to learn a
foreign language. The Kolkata French consulate experience was also amazing
where being an Erasmus mundus scholar was nothing less than being from MIT.
Finally I was set to go back to Pune having consumed half of December in the
paper work and formalities to be out of college! On a bittersweet note I landed
to Pune only in a few days to realize it was a 9.91 spi this time. Damn! I
could never be a perfect 10 in college! Had it in my checklist. Was terribly
upset but well it was my all-time highest so that was a consolation. Also, moti
always says the best of the things unexpectedly. I was as usual cribbing about
my spi and she told me “there is much more to you than being a 10 pointer!” I don’t
know if she said it casually or what but there was so much weight in it. I
convinced myself of what an ass I am and I got back to normalcy :P I then got
to attend the Indo-US conference organized by TCS on ICME thanks to my Purdue
Prof. It was a great experience too. New Year’s Eve has been the most special
and I don’t think it will ever be this special again. As this year proceeds a
lot of relations will fade away and a whole lot more are gonna spring up.
Amidst all of these there are a few bonds which I dearly wish, hope and expect
are for life and won’t break ever. I wish the promise of constancy remains. With
the Schengen visa, an accommodation after a lot of pain and a ticket to France
I am all set to experience the European way of life! Before that, a small trip
to Kuwait where after 2 long years I will meet dad and bro. A lot of surprises
in store for me for sure, hoping for the best. Alvida India, Assalawalekum
Kuwait!!
