Saturday, April 26, 2008

Adios

I know this one would qualify as the third most common blog entry on the blogosphere. The commonest and the dumbest would be, "Why i have CHOSEN to be single" or a slight variation of it, which would be something like "My ideal boyfriend/girlfriend/valentine/partner/hubby". Finishing a very close second would be "How i spent my 'today' ". I still haven't blogged on either of them because they have continued to vex me. Words have eluded me whenever i sit down to blog on these topics. Frankly speaking, i am not logical or witty enough to falsely prove that i am single by choice and pretend that i am loving it. And forget 'today'! I hardly do anything in as long a time period(strictly by blogging standards) as a month which is worthy enough to deserve a blog entry. So, I am going to play safe and blog about my life over the last five years. College life that is- something which will end in the next few weeks, if everything goes according to plan and if my guide(professor) doesn't develop a sudden unwarranted affection for me. The best part about writing such a blog entry is that in case you run out of ideas, you can always take a tour of the blogosphere and use some catchy/sentimental pick up lines used by fellow bloggers without even being detected. Let me forewarn you. My college life is in NO way the stuff fairy tales are made up of. So if you are looking for something readable, look elsewhere!
So, like every normal guy, my college life started in my first year as a freshie. As a freshie, i did what most of the other guys did. Other than attending classes quite regularly, i remained confined to my room most of the time. I was mortally scared of my seniors without realising that they were equally scared, if not more, of the freshies. Later on, as my seniority rankings increased, i learned how ungrateful a job it is.
I learned to play table tennis and went on to become a champ in my own small group of people. I started dispensing fundaes and harboured dreams of playing in the inter IITs and thereby landing up a job with Schlumberger (which was the only real big company that i knew of then). You should pardon my lack of knowledge or awareness then. Hailing from a family full of doctors and civil servants, i was the only one who had chosen to enter uncharted waters. Alas! my table tennis dreams lasted only as long as i was a frog in the well. I wasn't bad at studies either. I did put in a decent amount of effort in academics. But the grades that i got somehow failed to reflect the efforts that i had been putting into my academics. And i am not writing this to sound funny or anything. Honestly, i did spend sufficient time studying but somehow always ended up screwing the exams. I am not getting into the gory details of my academic performance for quite obvious reasons.
Second year was no different from the first year. I still continued to behave like a freshie. The only welcome change was that i refused to remain confined to my room any longer. This meant that i moved around the city a lot. And the charm of Mumbai proved to be irresistible. The more i roamed around, stronger became the urge to get more of the city. I became promiscuous in the sense that i started moving around with different groups in the hope of seeing the city as much as possible. In that sense, it worked. Academics naturally took a backseat. Result was that my grades fell to abysmal depths. I flunked a course for the first time in my life. Strangely, i coped with it pretty well. My parents didn't.
Come third year and i wanted to do something different. I started the first ever newsletter of the department along with a few classmates. The newsletter did much better than expected. I started imagining doing a Richard Branson (For the uninitiated, Branson started off his career with a newsletter in his college and the rest is history). That remained an imagination but the newsletter is still going strong. Finally, i also decided to put an end to my promiscuity and stick to a particular group. The results were positive. Academically, i improved. I also got to know a few people who were interested in more than just the academic scene - the 'poltus'. This was the select group of people that stood in each and every election in the institute. If it weren't they, then their proteges stood for these elections. But, not many were bothered. The kind of apolitical institute that IIT is, nobody really gives a damn. On the brighter side, i also a learnt a few small tricks of the trade here and there.
Fourth year was possibly the most enjoyable of all. By now, the bonds of friendship with quite a lot of people had been cemented. I had loads of friends by then. Be it my department group, the institute newspaper Insight group, the hostel group or friends outside of iit. There was groupism everywhere :). But it was all for good! This meant, that now i had a group of some amazing people to look upto. I spent some of the best time of my life in their company. Whether it was going on a trek or a visit to some museum/sea or simply eating out. Or combined studies for that matter. For the first time in life, i did well in academics. I developed a couple of new hobbies. The number of friends outside of the campus also increased which helped me view things in a proper perspective. For example, i realised that we were lucky enough to have scraped through JEE and life outside of IIT would be much more tougher.
Final year has been pretty eventful in the sense that it had been pretty hectic to start off with. Initially, there was this novelty factor associated with the year long project and so i started off by working really hard on it. The sapping placement season came and went. Everyone (including me) got placed. We moved around even more than before. Post placement season life has become unbearably lukkha with hardly anything to do. But i am trying to savor it to the fullest. I know i would long for these days once the professional grind begins. I am just hoping Pune turns out to be atleast as good as Bombay or Delhi.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

my college life was as uneventful as yours, but experiences were very different.

Are you saying that you never dated a girl in the past five years ? :o

Anonymous said...

and yea, very well written. Along with maths, you are good in english too. That makes me jealous.

Anonymous said...

Hey, aren't u Suruchi's brother?
I was her class fellow during my school days :):)
Just now came across your blog. Absolutely brilliant! :):) Liked this post of yours in particular. I am also about to graduate from my college and feeling pretty sad about loosing the friends that i had made during my 3 years stay at my college - its not as famous as the IIT :( :(
I liked a lot of other blog entries that you have made like the one where u have described living with your grandparents. My favoirite post will be the frankenstein's entry.. funny and touching at the same time. Cannot wait to read more of what u write.
take care
tah-dah
Shivangi

Yashika Totlani Khanna said...

Pune as good as Delhi or Bombay??? Bah! I suggest you dont cherish that hope too much. Next... the unassumed humour remains intact. You even go one step ahead to do, what, a indrajit hizra on blogspot? :p

'Losing my virginity' did you good n made it possible for u to draw richard kinda comparisons. Cool.

Overall... slightly cheeky post that sufficiently holds the attention n makes sure we, the readers, dont ditch it midway. If at all... im glad u found a topic to keep ur blog alive with. This place was dying :P

Psychochan said...

what a nice way of ending the blog-post drought!I like how methodically you have summed up the years, and yet it is fairly obvious there's so much more that you're going away with... the post manages to say that in such an endearing way! good boy!!!

arunabh said...

@anuradha
I find your question pretty tricky. It all depends on how you define a date. Going by the traditional definition, i am not really sure :P
Keep visiting :)

@shivangi
Yupso! I sure am Suruchi's brother. And she sends her hiyis to you :)
Loosing out on close friends, bad naa?
Thanks for the praises :)

arunabh said...

@Yashika
Bad news in that case :(
I hope that atleast Goa doesn't disappoint you like Pune did. Go Goa!!
Indrajit "Hizra"? Do you know what "Hizra" means? Why i always thought that he was Indrajit Hazra :P But your entire comment is actually very p(h)unny if you understand what i mean.
Keep visiting :)

@Deepti
I know i am now getting all emotional about leaving IIT :( I have gained a lot, also lost a few things and learnt a few things that i shouldn't have. But in the end, the 5 years stay was worth it :)
Keep visiting :)

H said...

Heh .. I finally got around to reading your blog :)
Just went through most of the archives .. you've got some good stuff here :) I especially liked the laughter-inducing sentences nestled into semi-serious posts.

Good luck for the summer and in Pune .. I'm subscribed now so won't lose touch hopefully.

Anonymous said...

ahem ahem..
wht struck me most bout this post ws the introduction. It took me some time to digest tht. So, u are sayin that u aint single by choice, righto?
Now shud i take tht as your humility or modesty or whateva? Cuz u wud be lying to me if u told me tht there wasn't peoples who were interested in ya?? Arunabh, puhhlease ! :D
Or is thr more than meets the eye? ;)
Ok, now i shall move on to read the rest of this post :)
~ruchika

Anonymous said...

Very nicely written da :)


Ashutosh

arunabh said...

@Hidayath
Hey, nice to see you here :) After that facebook appear-disappear episode, i was really wondering when i would get to hear from you next. Thanks for the really nice comment and for the wishes too. Hope Wisconsin treats you well :)
Keep visiting.

@Ruchika
Honestly, i expect people to comment on the entire post and not get stuck up with the intro. I would have altered the intro a bit if i had known something like this is going to happen. Anyways, point taken. Now you can read the rest of the post in peace. Cheerio :)
Keep visiting.

@Ashutosh
Thanks da.
Keep visiting.

exclusively_me said...

oh dear!! its been a long , long time....

all that matters said...

Ok, I am guilty of writing an entry of "what I want in my man"... And, I guess I also referred to my singledom but I also do remember righting that it is not that a happy state. ;)

Loved the post, reminded me of my last days in college... Life ain't the same now and it was definitely better back then...

And ya, good luck!!!

arunabh said...

@Priyanka
Long long time indeed. And i am assuming that there was a hidden pun as well??
Keep visiting :)

@all that matters
Oh yes!! I do remember reading and commenting on that one. Also, i remember your not quite liking the singledom. So, its nice that there is atleast somewhere we can 'see eye to eye' I cannot help noticing the pun :P
5 years in college and i saw loads of my friends loosing that 'single' status. So that one 'controversial' line in this post was also based on my inability to convert my status. So, please, no offences meant :)
Keep visiting :)

SaiK said...

bottomline: your acads improved thanks to us (me) :P

dreamy said...

your post really really makes me want to go to Bombay!

arunabh said...

@sai
bottomline: I made the 'us' you are boasting about possible :P
Keep visiting:)

@dreamy
Ohh sure, come to Mumbai. Be my guest :D
On a serious note, Mumbai is actually a fabulous place.. an absolute must-see :)
Keep visiting:)

Anonymous said...

i am down on my knees and praying that i get through some institute in bombay and no i don't hate delhi
just that it doesn't have beaches

kika said...

nice post...
it pretty much forces the reader to keep reading, i guess...
so ur the intelligent one, getting into IIT and all, huh?
pretty good...neat!

Arunima Prasad said...

I was really delighted to see my little bro metamorphose in to a writer(ok, without letting my sisterly pride make any overstatements), the most exquisite thing about ur writing, i have felt, is your keen observation and the lilting, subtle humour which pervades your writings everytime.Nourish it,i feel that is a precious asset.