Au Revoir

As I write this, time slips by and another years draws to a close and its time to bid farewell to yet another batch of passing out engineers. But this time it is different, it is my own batch that is passing out. Those set of people with whom I entered this alma mater 4 years back. Looking back, 4 years seem to be so far back and yet I never realized how time has been passing by and here I stand with my companions at crossroads. We have to move on, onto different paths. One set has to move ahead and carve out a new life for them. The others have to stay behind and spend one more year in Kharagpur, fighting it out alone, without most of their companions.

It has been a long journey. Entering the institute as JEE entrants, fresh and jubilant after our success at the country’s most prestigious examination, the hectic schedules and tough life here at the IIT Kharagpur campus took a short time in bringing us down to ground zero. Long lines at telephone booths, in the mess, at railway counters, no e-mail access, hot humid weather, strenuous classes and labs started taking their toll and it brought us out of our shells much earlier than we had imagined. It was like we had been marooned on an island and all we had were the people around us. Thus started the forming of life long ties, bonds that will last a life time no matter how we are and where we are.

Bidding farewell has never been easy for me. And this is perhaps going to be the most difficult one. In these 4 years spent together we have shared so much and to such an extent that it seems impossible to imagine the other person not being there for me from now on. We have shared our happiness, anxieties, sorrows, thrills, infatuations, things hidden in the deepest corner of the heart, our best kept secrets till date. We have shared moments of love, pain, affection and hatred. There have been drenched moments – drenched in rain, tears, drunken revelry. There have been other moments of extreme rivalry, candidness, vocal revelations, extreme agitation and others of profound silence. There have been moments of strong glares, voicing slang, heated exchanges, violent contacts and those of handshakes and tight hugs. There have been moments of sweat and night outs, illuminated and colored moments, moments of dejection and loss and moments of victory, glory and pride. There have been religious moments and philosophical moments as well. We have been comrades in the field of academics, sports, extra-curricular and above all in life. There have been high and low patches but we have always bounced back to prove friendship stands beyond anything and everything else.

But things are going to be different from now on. Kharagpur will feel empty without you people. For all of us who are being left behind, 5th year will be more of an exile. I wish we had passed out with you people. It would have made the separation less painful by sparing us from being haunted by memories. Whenever we’ll visit the places we have been to together, it will remind us of things we had done, moments we had shared and the time we had spent. A year without you in Kharagpur is going to be tough friends!

Anyway life has to go on. As a door closes, a new one opens. I wish that all of you approach this new door in your life with strength and courage and unleash your true potential. I on behalf of all the 4th years wish you guys and girls a very happy and satisfying life ahead. We’ll miss you a lot. Au revoir.

on the GATE to heaven

well..life has been very very hectic of late. and life has changed a lot. there is lottttsssss to pen down but still don't have much of time. am dying to get back to the blog. i guess i'll do that pretty soon. But what lies ahead is GATE tomorrow. I just hope that i can clear it. Its important for me but to be frank i am not very prepared. anyway still hoping for the best :)

Memories and Chai

I cherish the memories of the years I have spent since my birth – memories both sweet and bitter, memories of having gained a lot and having lost in equal measure, memories of time spent together with family and friends and of time spent in loneliness, craving for company, memories of growing up and facing the world.

Some of these memories are in the form of a motion picture, a continuous series of events down to every detail, which I have played in my head so many times that they won’t be forgotten in a hurry. Whenever I get time, I can peacefully sit down with a cup of tea and depending on my mood play back memories from my archive – feel drawn into that situation, analyze my feelings, stop, rewind, play and try imagining what would have happened if I had behaved differently or had done something else, what possibilities in life have I ruined just because of that action or those words. On the other hand there are other memories which are just spikes. As in I remember just moments from the entire incidents. Some memories are meant to be just moments : first crush, first proposal, first kiss, having seen a rainbow, having topped, having made a pet, etc etc.

Tea has this magical effect of getting me nostalgic. I have spent hours over tea ruminating. I feel I can never be alone. Though I am initially very apprehensive of how things would turn out when I am alone, I always settle down to a peaceful life all by myself, content with my memories and thought process even if it means not talking to anyone (beyond necessary talk) for days at stretch. I don’t know whether this is a defense mechanism or a symptom of being weird but I just love this thing about me – enjoying the process of life, knowing how you are shaping your life, what you have become because of the choices you made years back. After all it is the journey that is more important than the destination. Isn’t it?

The bespectacled's world!!!

"In Italy, women use specs as a style accessory, whether they need them or not - research has found that countless fashion-conscious Italians with perfect eyesight buy frames with plain glass. In Germany, bespectacled men were generally perceived to be intelligent and successful, whereas the typical British male saw glasses as a blow to his masculinity, perhaps remembering the harsh lessons of the school playground, where children with deficient eyesight were - and still are - bullied and mocked for having 'four eyes'. British women, too, felt glasses were not a great boost to their femininity." What ever the fashion trend may be, one thing is for sure that a major chunk of humanity can not do without specs today.

Four eyes? What role do the extra pair have to play in a bespectacled man's world. I think they mean the world to him. They determine exactly how he percieves life around him. It is only through this extra pair of eyes can he use his sense of vision and therefore it is extremely important that the vision he gets is as close to real as possible. For this it is important that he keeps his glasses clean.

Nothing puts me off more in a person than unclean glasses. It reflects sheer carelessness on part of the person besides showing his lack of interest in his surroundings and in the beauty of creation around him. Such ppl live in a virtual world made mirky by their glasses. What a huge price to pay for so trivial a thing. Wearing clean glasses should be of utmost importance to bespectacled people. So next time u wear an unclean glass, just think about what u r losing!!!

A post at last

Well, this has been long due. I had signed up for this blogspot way back in September last year but cud not get myself to posting untill now. I some how still prefer the old pen and diary method of recording thoughts!!! But I guess I'll try out this method too. The name of the Blogspot is 'Reflections' is exactly what these posts are. These are my views, my reflections on the things I come across in life, my thoughts and my beliefs. I write them here primarily for myself. But people who come across it and want to comment are welcome.

The posts will include some excerpts from my diary as well as new incidents in my life as they occur. I hope I can keep up the tempo of posting here rather than reverting back to my pen and diary method.

Do let me know about how you feel about all this.