Its 08:06 in the morning. After having to fight with myself over the issue whether to attend this class or not, I have managed to reach here quite early. The blackboard stained with white chalk lines made me realize how all my past classes had been complete waste. Two years have passed and I still wonder, what has IIT taught me? With assignments and projects, minors and majors, looping around our lives here, it has killed that desire for knowledge, the desire that we had engraved in our minds, before we came at this place. And while I sit under the roof of III LT4, I ponder what this place has actually taught us.
Lesson-I-To make the most of our opportunities
Life is too short to miss the opportunities that it offers. The people here have seemed to grab on to this concept a little too much. They will never miss the opportunity to rob you off that one thing you pleasure in my mess. The not-so daily pastry that seems to be your one good reason to pay homage to the mess, is the most coveted commodity here. And then while you cry on the dinner table, they’ll make a victim out of someone else. You simply sit there in disgust, thinking of that invincible plan of getting “Your Precious” back; meanwhile you realize that it had already been devoured by some devils, half of it falling on the ground adding another blow to your already victimized state. And then you realize the reason of being such a loser in front of everyone. You had an opportunity earlier in the night, when you had seen a plate, completely unattended, with the pastry in the middle, glistening, as if inviting you to take hold of it. And you simply laughed it away thinking, I have mine, I am happy with one—a perfect lesson for all you people who had laughed their opportunities away, never thinking about the dark times that so very certainly follow.
Lesson-II-Doors would open for you whenever you want them to open
I stand outside a guy’s room, with a door between me and my lab report; I had forgotten to get it from his room last night. Already late for the class, each passing second reminded me of the professor’s fury the last time I was late for the class when I reached at 2’o clock in a 1’o clock class. It was burning like hell on that summer day, everyone had obediently already left for the class on time and I was standing alone outside the room noticing the strange pattern of the movement of the ants nearby. And then as if under a trance, my right hand wandered off to the latch above the door, and “Lo and Behold!!” I found the key, the key that opened the gate, the key for clearing the hurdles that were obscuring my determination to arrive on time in the class. I took my lab report and ran down the alley, with rooms on both sides, and suddenly it dawned to me how all the pleasures of other rooms await me, with another set of doors standing guard against me and my pleasure. And as I had known, I slipped my hand again to the latch of somebody else’s room, and I found the key.
In the evening, when I returned after successfully getting a tick against my name in the attendance list, I saw a group of people complaining about some theft of pens and food items from their rooms. I passed through them, smirking at the benefits of a new lesson learnt.
Lesson-III-Lead a Philanthropic life
The one good thing I learnt here was how balanced life becomes when you stay at hostel. Almost never is there any shortage of anything you need, be it a comb, toothpaste or money. Talking about money, this place gives me a feel of a Stock Market, full of share buyers and sellers. Its like a miniature corporate world, symbolized as a hostel. Whenever anybody is short of money, there is always one or the other who will be having a bit extra and would lend you that. Though the market remains bullish for most part of the year, with equal number of money seekers and money givers, the ratio sometimes tips off and at that the hostel experiences a bearish season, with people searching for that small bit of money in each room, thefts galore, this time is certainly very encouraging for the mess people. With people swooping in to the mess forcefully, the butlers get more number of people to torture with there inexplicably yuckkkkky food!!
Another example of the benefits of choosing this lifestyle here, are the life saving proxies. Look, you admit these things before you read on:-
1) You cannot even think of attending all 75% lectures by yourself, you need help.
2) Well, that’s about it for now……
We, engineers (as we are acknowledged nowadays) can make some impossible tasks possible. We can make a man go ahead in future, we can travel to moon, we have the revolutionized the world from what earlier was a Stone Age, but damned we cannot attend lectures. It has inherited in our blood for so many centuries now. All modern day discoveries have been more of an accident than a consequence of a degree in a science field. You cannot survive in IIT if you don’t get help here; you’ll obvious flunk in more than one course if it is not for the proxies. And for someone to proxy for you, you need to return the favor by “proxying” his attendance. It is a simple favor barter system again. Important lesson this one.
Lesson-IV-Patience is the key, never Lose hope of what you aspire
www.orkut.com---the most visited site in the IIT server. Ironically though, with the IIT server refusing to delay even the login page to appear in about an hour. But to orkut, you’ll need to wait. Have patience, keep a book handy or play something in your computer or may be even study, while the page arrives. Don’t lose hope though; the page would definitely arrive even if you have to wait the whole night. Its not like a hope that you get when you get money out of ATM. I have for one seem to be highly optimistic about the case that the money that the ATM pouts out would be more than what I typed, I immediately check for this case. Alas, as much firm my hope was, the more delinquent the result always is. But IIT’s server would never allow you to give up. It would make you sit and wait for its arrival, because it has never offended your request before no matter how late.
Another example would be during the times when our minors are going on. As is always the case you are completely unaware of the course. You see two class-going fellows and they are discussing about some “Hypermetropy of the Metaphysical Cabismatic Tomography” and your mind thinking about the last day meal at Rajender Da Dhaba, you simply want to give up. It’s already midnight and all you know about the exam tomorrow is the time and place of its commencement. The lesson here is not to crunch under this crunchy situation. Believe in yourself and work hard…..ahmm…not just work hard, work intelligently. Don’t think if you could ever swallow the oceanic syllabus, just keep yourself awake and attentive. Remember that:”Rome can be built in a day”. Even Britney Spears could write and choreograph an entire song in a single class session. (Oops, I did it again…you need to watch this video)
Well, as hard as our professors would want us to grab on to what they teach, all of us know, they haven’t tried hard enough. Its 08:55, time to finish the article, I am currently acting to show my professor that I am listening to what he is saying, nodding frequently(As said by a famous fishmonger:” The more the nodding, the more the understanding.”), though everything he says is escaping me. I today realized that I can sleep with my eyes open. I look on the roof; I am confused whether this room is III-LT4 or IV-LT3. Meanwhile, my class has ended, Bye!!
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