Today I happened to speak to someone from good old IIT days. This guy Yash, graduated from the bachelor's course in the same year as I did from MBA. After graduation he joined ITC, while I moved on in the banking domain. In IIT, we were introduced to each other by virtue of him having been the coordinator of the English Literary society before I was. I remember having interacted with him for a lot of reasons other than the ELS. One such was the protest on George Bush's visit to India, which I was almost dragged into because my beloved Prof. Rahul Varman had taken a lead on it. Anyone on campus knew that I could be lured into anything in which Prof. Varman was party. And I have strong reasons to believe that Prof. Varman knew that himself. Anyhow...that shall be a different piece of analysis...that requires more data and hence I shall refrain from doing....
Coming back to my telephonic conversation with Yash today. So far there have been several occassions when I resurrected contacts with some old pals from campus ( considering I have a habit of losing contact easily), but never did the experience feel so unique as it felt today. The primary reason for that was the industry in which Yash works - manufacturing!!
In today's world the manufacturing industry though has not lost importance but sure has lost mention. With the services sector booming, and India haing been labeled as the next big place for churning & exploiting human capital in an intellectual arena, the mention of the manufacturing industry seems to have thinned down. Not only that, with most of our generation(those with our kind of educational background) choosing the services sector over manufacturing (i guess the choice for most of us in our generation is pretty easy & obvious,looking at the abundant availability of jobs in this sphere) availability of people who could even give a fresh perspective on what the industry looks like & where it is heading towards is not ample. Looking at the dearth of such people, my conversation with Yash was rather refreshing.
Though the kind of problems that Yash mentioned existed with his job, were pretty much similar to what any youth of the services industry would also portray but the flavor & light in which he portrayed those experiences were unprecendented to my knowledge.
He mentioned about the level of excitement in his job during the inital days, when he was being trained & the process in which he was working was being established. He mentioned having reared the process right from having to buy the machinary, getting it installed, having it run, and then graduating into the mundanity of monitoring it. I dont think these sequence of activities are any different for anyone in the services sector. I myself have been in Bank of America since the inception of my process, and have seen the same steps happening in the flavor of 'services'.
He mentioned considering the option of doing an MBA in order to break the cycle of what he is currently doing. Very similar to what any engineer who has got into the cycle of software engineering would want to do. But the different flavor to his reasons for doing an MBA was the unavailability of ample jobs in the market, which is pretty understandable, considering that this sector is very mature in India, and place for today's youth who is constantly looking for a challenging role is scarce.
He mentioned about politics at work place, and I think the unanimity of that can be felt right from service to manufacturing to home as sectors. So nothing much to elaborate on that.
All in all, during the course of the conversation we came to a point wherein we said that though the problems that we both were talking about have similar underlying principles, another major problem that we have had is that after having spent time in IIT (me for 2 years & him for 4 years) our definition of intellectually challenging jobs had changed leaps & bounds. Which was also one reason why we were in the state of believing that our jobs have an element of mundanity. I confessed that my demand for intellectual challange had changed so much in the 2 years I spent at IIT & I wondered what it did to someone who spent 4 years there. To that Yash made a very unforgettable comment. He said " It wasnt about 2 or 4 years, It was all about the air we breathed. It was about the air of that place that made so much difference in the way we think & percieve challenges". I couldnt have agreed more!!
I told him that last week was MBA alumni meet at IITK, and I didnt go. One way I had convinced myself on not going was by asking myself whether I had achieved enough to go back & stand proudly in my alma mater. But the truth remains my alma mater doesnt ask me that, my alma mater is indiffferent to that, my alma mater is off the rat-race of assessing someone by their resume, their visiting card or their payslip...that is where I know that my alma-mater has more substance, and there is something about its air that makes it overlook so much in me and still consider me a part of it.
Even across sectors - manufacturing & services, there seemed to be unanimity on the fact that "There was something unusual in the air of IIT..."
Showing posts with label IIT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IIT. Show all posts
Monday, April 21, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Thanks Gaddu!!
"I love DD National!!", if my sms inbox reads a message like that, I know it can be no one other than Gaddu.
Rahul Gadahire, alias Gaddu was my batch mate in MBA at IITK. This guy is the most jovial yet wierdest person I have come across in my life. And what makes me conclude this about his character is his amazing habit of smsing the most out of the blue one-liners available on the face of the earth. Just the other day, he smsed me saying "main pak raha hun". Now the first reaction that anyone would have on recieveing such an sms from someone is to call up the person and cheer him up. Gaddu being a close friend of mine, I had enough reason to respond immediately. And guess what, when I called back all he could talk was in mono-syllables, and when I ran out of conversation, which was about 2 minutes after dialling in, the conversation boiled down to the mundanity of "aur bata". After a couple of aur batas, the choice was limited, so we hung up. This is typical of Gaddu, he usually is short of conversation, but mind you, he is an amazing listener. When he was in Mumbai (he shifted to Gurgaon a couple of months ago), any time i used to be frustrated and wanted to blurt out my frustration to someone, I knew he would just be a patient listener on the other side of the phone, or sometimes a mirror reflection away from me, on a breezy evening at Marine Drive. That guy has amazing capacity to listen, his silence shouldnot be mistaken for his dumbness, he does offer open-ended solutions/analyses of the problem at hand, once he listens to it all.
My camaraderie with Gaddu began during our placement season at IITK, when he was unplaced and needed someone to cheer him up. I am not too sure if I did ever cheer him up, but I did spend quite a lot of time with him then. Thereafter he got a job in Delhi & me in Mumbai. He, so very disliked Delhi that he just left the job in a couple of months & came to Mumbai to find a job(Mumbai is also his hometown). During the year (or little more) that he was here, we had great fun (all the wierd types). From walks on marine drive, to dinner at bade miyan- colaba, to running to catch local trains on a rainy monsoon evening at lower parel station (not to forget he was the one who first introduced me to the concept of using local trains in Mumbai, i must thank him for all the adeptness that i have developed in the same now).
But i guess, Delhi always had a soft-corner for him. So he is back there once again. But his wierd sms's just keep reminding me that he is there. The surprising part is the range of these sms's. From: "what is bounded rationality?" To: "tell me the name of some german movies to watch" and sometimes a PJ : "Dont read this sms, its very dirty...a white dog fell into a mud puddle...chhheee so dirty!!" I mean his sms's have this capacity to make u think for a moment, even though you may eventually ignore them in the long run.
Another aspect of this guy's personality is that he manages express his concern in a very wierd form. I still remember when Sandy had got engaged, he called me up very concerned saying, "tujhe pata hai sandy kisse shaadi kar rahi hai? u know whom sandy is marrying?". I replied unperturbed, "ya, she told me, he works in wipro..." and i went on with all that sandy had told me about her would-be's profile. He just cut me short and said "do u know what his name is?". Then i was perturbed, I thought, probably she is marrying some big-shot, who has a big claim-to-fame, but i perhaps missed out on that detail. So i inquired. He replied "His name is Pulasta!"...my reaction was "who is he?". To which he said "Sandy's would-be husband". I was irritated. But before I could express it, he replied, "I asked Sandy what this name means, and she said it was Ravana's grandfather's name" He went on"pata nahi yaar wo kisse shaadi kar rahi hai...mujhe to chinta ho rahi hai...I am worried!!" My first reaction was a chuckle, not at the description of Pulasta's name, but the anxiety it had induced in Gaddu. Of course my next reaction had to be some words of solace for Gaddu, " Dont worry yaar, she will be just fine!!"...He said dejectedly " I hope so...". She sure is fine even after 4 months of marraige, as per the update from her side, yesterday. So I know I didnt console Gaddu in vain.
Of course Gaddu never went to Sandy's wedding to validate if she really was going to be fine. He claims that by policy he doesnt go to any of his girl friend's wedding(meaning his female friends' weddings). He tells me that he maynot even turn up for my wedding, unless its exceptionally convenient for him. I have told him that I have already granted him forgiveness for not making it to my wedding, so there is not compulsion to be there. I appreciate people's policy & philosophy, as long as they are candid about it. And thats why Gaddu & my friendship has worked a long time. We are just too candid...we never shun from saying "yaar tu mujhe paka raha hai/rahi hai."
As I write all this, i am reminded of another incident in the recent times in which a very excited Gaddu called me up. His words were " Hello shubham, do u know what is serendipity?" I was quite taken aback, i mean anyone who knows me well enough would know that I bear a reasonably good vocabulary of the English lanaguage, then why test me!! then I thought maybe since he doesnt have a dictionary with him, thats why he is asking me this...anyway just as I began to explain he blurted " guess what, I was just strolling down my street in Dwarka singing some songs, and I passed by this couple. Just when we crossed each other, the couple turned around and yelled 'Gaddu'"...ofcourse i had to ask " who were they?"...he said very casually " they were Neha & Amit"( Neha & Amit were also our batchmates at IITK).....ohhhh...i thought to myself...now i knew what serendipity means...cool...see Gaddu is such an amazing tutor too!!
Gaddu was close to quite a few people in IITK, another of whom was Gaddi - that was the epithet given to her because of Gaddu & her closeness on campus, which used to raise the brows of our batchmates. I must say Gaddu took Gaddi's epithet in the most sporting spirit, though Gaddi did complain once in a while. Everyone on campus knew, that there was nothing romantic between Gaddu & Gaddi, but just that the jingle of Gaddu & Gaddi ( together) sounded so melodious, that they were targets of some bantering. That was the cute part of Gaddu's personality.
All said & done, this guy is adorable for his sheer love for DD National, his love for movies of all genres & languages, his tendency to get pako-ed, his capacity to crack poor jokes, his concern, his tutoring, his contraversial association with Gaddi and most importantly his capacity to listen. Thanks Gaddu, for always being ready to lend me your ears!!
Rahul Gadahire, alias Gaddu was my batch mate in MBA at IITK. This guy is the most jovial yet wierdest person I have come across in my life. And what makes me conclude this about his character is his amazing habit of smsing the most out of the blue one-liners available on the face of the earth. Just the other day, he smsed me saying "main pak raha hun". Now the first reaction that anyone would have on recieveing such an sms from someone is to call up the person and cheer him up. Gaddu being a close friend of mine, I had enough reason to respond immediately. And guess what, when I called back all he could talk was in mono-syllables, and when I ran out of conversation, which was about 2 minutes after dialling in, the conversation boiled down to the mundanity of "aur bata". After a couple of aur batas, the choice was limited, so we hung up. This is typical of Gaddu, he usually is short of conversation, but mind you, he is an amazing listener. When he was in Mumbai (he shifted to Gurgaon a couple of months ago), any time i used to be frustrated and wanted to blurt out my frustration to someone, I knew he would just be a patient listener on the other side of the phone, or sometimes a mirror reflection away from me, on a breezy evening at Marine Drive. That guy has amazing capacity to listen, his silence shouldnot be mistaken for his dumbness, he does offer open-ended solutions/analyses of the problem at hand, once he listens to it all.
My camaraderie with Gaddu began during our placement season at IITK, when he was unplaced and needed someone to cheer him up. I am not too sure if I did ever cheer him up, but I did spend quite a lot of time with him then. Thereafter he got a job in Delhi & me in Mumbai. He, so very disliked Delhi that he just left the job in a couple of months & came to Mumbai to find a job(Mumbai is also his hometown). During the year (or little more) that he was here, we had great fun (all the wierd types). From walks on marine drive, to dinner at bade miyan- colaba, to running to catch local trains on a rainy monsoon evening at lower parel station (not to forget he was the one who first introduced me to the concept of using local trains in Mumbai, i must thank him for all the adeptness that i have developed in the same now).
But i guess, Delhi always had a soft-corner for him. So he is back there once again. But his wierd sms's just keep reminding me that he is there. The surprising part is the range of these sms's. From: "what is bounded rationality?" To: "tell me the name of some german movies to watch" and sometimes a PJ : "Dont read this sms, its very dirty...a white dog fell into a mud puddle...chhheee so dirty!!" I mean his sms's have this capacity to make u think for a moment, even though you may eventually ignore them in the long run.
Another aspect of this guy's personality is that he manages express his concern in a very wierd form. I still remember when Sandy had got engaged, he called me up very concerned saying, "tujhe pata hai sandy kisse shaadi kar rahi hai? u know whom sandy is marrying?". I replied unperturbed, "ya, she told me, he works in wipro..." and i went on with all that sandy had told me about her would-be's profile. He just cut me short and said "do u know what his name is?". Then i was perturbed, I thought, probably she is marrying some big-shot, who has a big claim-to-fame, but i perhaps missed out on that detail. So i inquired. He replied "His name is Pulasta!"...my reaction was "who is he?". To which he said "Sandy's would-be husband". I was irritated. But before I could express it, he replied, "I asked Sandy what this name means, and she said it was Ravana's grandfather's name" He went on"pata nahi yaar wo kisse shaadi kar rahi hai...mujhe to chinta ho rahi hai...I am worried!!" My first reaction was a chuckle, not at the description of Pulasta's name, but the anxiety it had induced in Gaddu. Of course my next reaction had to be some words of solace for Gaddu, " Dont worry yaar, she will be just fine!!"...He said dejectedly " I hope so...". She sure is fine even after 4 months of marraige, as per the update from her side, yesterday. So I know I didnt console Gaddu in vain.
Of course Gaddu never went to Sandy's wedding to validate if she really was going to be fine. He claims that by policy he doesnt go to any of his girl friend's wedding(meaning his female friends' weddings). He tells me that he maynot even turn up for my wedding, unless its exceptionally convenient for him. I have told him that I have already granted him forgiveness for not making it to my wedding, so there is not compulsion to be there. I appreciate people's policy & philosophy, as long as they are candid about it. And thats why Gaddu & my friendship has worked a long time. We are just too candid...we never shun from saying "yaar tu mujhe paka raha hai/rahi hai."
As I write all this, i am reminded of another incident in the recent times in which a very excited Gaddu called me up. His words were " Hello shubham, do u know what is serendipity?" I was quite taken aback, i mean anyone who knows me well enough would know that I bear a reasonably good vocabulary of the English lanaguage, then why test me!! then I thought maybe since he doesnt have a dictionary with him, thats why he is asking me this...anyway just as I began to explain he blurted " guess what, I was just strolling down my street in Dwarka singing some songs, and I passed by this couple. Just when we crossed each other, the couple turned around and yelled 'Gaddu'"...ofcourse i had to ask " who were they?"...he said very casually " they were Neha & Amit"( Neha & Amit were also our batchmates at IITK).....ohhhh...i thought to myself...now i knew what serendipity means...cool...see Gaddu is such an amazing tutor too!!
Gaddu was close to quite a few people in IITK, another of whom was Gaddi - that was the epithet given to her because of Gaddu & her closeness on campus, which used to raise the brows of our batchmates. I must say Gaddu took Gaddi's epithet in the most sporting spirit, though Gaddi did complain once in a while. Everyone on campus knew, that there was nothing romantic between Gaddu & Gaddi, but just that the jingle of Gaddu & Gaddi ( together) sounded so melodious, that they were targets of some bantering. That was the cute part of Gaddu's personality.
All said & done, this guy is adorable for his sheer love for DD National, his love for movies of all genres & languages, his tendency to get pako-ed, his capacity to crack poor jokes, his concern, his tutoring, his contraversial association with Gaddi and most importantly his capacity to listen. Thanks Gaddu, for always being ready to lend me your ears!!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
airs about AIR
<http://helloji.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/iit-insufferable-indian-tribe/>
please read the above article before proceeding to read my post....
This post has invited a lot of clamor in recent times. I had fun reading it & I had even more fun reading the comments( which are now 250+). All that has been said & argued upon has had immense entertainment value, and for those of you who didnt have the time to read all comments, you can atleast read the 26th one. Its my personal favorite!!
This post is in reference to the above post, and is directed to the author of the post that has created a clamor. To my readers, I would just like to mention that I donot intend to give cheap publicity to IITians. What I shall be writing is a personal opinion based on first-hand experience that I have had with this tribe which to some in good/bad( i am not too sure!!) humor appears to be insufferable.
Even before I begin this post I would like to tell u that I am not an IITian( here I go...so even non-iitians can begin their introduction in the unique style that u mentioned was attributed only to IITians). To elaborate a little more on that, let me tell u, i am not an IITian by virtue of never having cleared the JEE. I mean, I lived in IIT for two years( by virtue of being a post-graduate student therein), however, I would be over-rating myself if I were to call myself an IITian. The AIR that you very condescendingly mentioned in your post, has a lot to do with why IITians have so much airs about themselves (now I know that the AIR is indeed a pun...and rightly so!!). And since I didnt have an AIR, i refrain from having the air to call myself an IITian.
Now you would be wondering why someone who didnt even have an AIR is trying to defend members of this insufferable tribe ;) (just trying to imitate your language & talk in the same tone, but afsos thats just for show, I dont think the tribe deserves such a derogratory epithet... anyway....) . Reason for my coming to their defense is that even I was a JEE aspirant at one point of time, and my maiden attempt at it told me how difficult it is to get an AIR. I respect those who make it through, and appreicate those who atleast think they can make it there & i dont mind if they take a year or two off to do so. I never took any off, reason being simple, I never thought I had the substance, the intellect to make it there! And that is enough to judge how a true IITian is not only different from anyone else in terms of his intellectual ability but also his ability to believe that he is intellectually different. And to accentuate the point that I lacked the intellectual capability to make it there, even when I did get to an IIT, my JMET rank was worse than most campus residents' JEE ranks!!
To elaborate a little more on the AIR point: In my course of two years at IIT, I met several people who had beheld this pun-like feature (the AIR), and believe me each of them had more to them than just what it took to get that AIR. And when I say "more to them", I mean they had so much substance that you begin to question what exactly was the curriculum for JEE, that brought them in. To me IIT was an experience of meeting people whose substance could be attributed to a range of things, from their sheer simplicity of background to the way they conducted themselves. To illustrate this point I will mention a guy who if ever passed by a gorgeous girl would fail to get a second look, but if he displayed his public speaking to her, she would have no choice but drool over him. I know many would argue that such seemless public speakers are plenty in number, even outside IIT, then whats so special about him?...well, all I would say is to manage the diverse reaction from not getting a second look to having a girl drool over you...well thats something!! I met guys who came from backgrounds wherein they studied in lanterns (only the light of a lantern and not even a fan to respite the scorching heat) for the JEE; and if their deprivation of having not had ample air at the time of their preparation, reflects in the airs they have about their AIR... boy, its more deserved than anything!! The guy with the most dehaati Hindi having the most fluent English speaking girl of the campus as his girlfriend...boy, that happened at IIT!!
Ok, so that brings me to the sensitive issue of IITians stuttering and stammering in front of girls...to that I would say, your allegation is fair to some extent, but then again its baseless. Because had you been aware of the skewed ratios at IIT( they say it is as low as 1:20, and to top it all, even the fauna in my IIT consisted of more peacocks than peahens ;)), and the effects that it can have on guys in such an environment you wouldn't have made that comment. Vaise looking at your levels of inferiority complex, had you lived in that kind of an environment, you would begin to stammer & stutter even in front of a bitch (and there I mean...the female dog, the bitch!!). Once again, my hats-off to IITians, they can atleast fluently tell the bitches "I am an IITian!!"
As can be made out from the post, you sure are someone who never went to IIT, and dont even have the slightest inkling of what life in IIT is all about. I am glad that inspite of not being an IITian I will refrain from the juvenile felony that you have committed(to write a post which has very little backing in terms of facts or experiences both first-hand or vicarious). If you would have atleast been through that lifestyle, even as a non-IITian( as did I), you wouldn't have dared to write this. And I think largely the reason why you committed this crime and I didnt is...because I watched star wars at IIT...and I bet you didnt!!... ;) :)))
I think you were on the right track when you said that the real estate prices for an area which produces an IITian goes up. I am not too sure about the real estate prices but sure that non-IITians like me who live around IITians for two years can see their value go up in terms of taking the liberty to admonish the felony of ignorants like you!!
-thanks for giving me this opportunity!!
a non-IITian
please read the above article before proceeding to read my post....
This post has invited a lot of clamor in recent times. I had fun reading it & I had even more fun reading the comments( which are now 250+). All that has been said & argued upon has had immense entertainment value, and for those of you who didnt have the time to read all comments, you can atleast read the 26th one. Its my personal favorite!!
This post is in reference to the above post, and is directed to the author of the post that has created a clamor. To my readers, I would just like to mention that I donot intend to give cheap publicity to IITians. What I shall be writing is a personal opinion based on first-hand experience that I have had with this tribe which to some in good/bad( i am not too sure!!) humor appears to be insufferable.
Even before I begin this post I would like to tell u that I am not an IITian( here I go...so even non-iitians can begin their introduction in the unique style that u mentioned was attributed only to IITians). To elaborate a little more on that, let me tell u, i am not an IITian by virtue of never having cleared the JEE. I mean, I lived in IIT for two years( by virtue of being a post-graduate student therein), however, I would be over-rating myself if I were to call myself an IITian. The AIR that you very condescendingly mentioned in your post, has a lot to do with why IITians have so much airs about themselves (now I know that the AIR is indeed a pun...and rightly so!!). And since I didnt have an AIR, i refrain from having the air to call myself an IITian.
Now you would be wondering why someone who didnt even have an AIR is trying to defend members of this insufferable tribe ;) (just trying to imitate your language & talk in the same tone, but afsos thats just for show, I dont think the tribe deserves such a derogratory epithet... anyway....) . Reason for my coming to their defense is that even I was a JEE aspirant at one point of time, and my maiden attempt at it told me how difficult it is to get an AIR. I respect those who make it through, and appreicate those who atleast think they can make it there & i dont mind if they take a year or two off to do so. I never took any off, reason being simple, I never thought I had the substance, the intellect to make it there! And that is enough to judge how a true IITian is not only different from anyone else in terms of his intellectual ability but also his ability to believe that he is intellectually different. And to accentuate the point that I lacked the intellectual capability to make it there, even when I did get to an IIT, my JMET rank was worse than most campus residents' JEE ranks!!
To elaborate a little more on the AIR point: In my course of two years at IIT, I met several people who had beheld this pun-like feature (the AIR), and believe me each of them had more to them than just what it took to get that AIR. And when I say "more to them", I mean they had so much substance that you begin to question what exactly was the curriculum for JEE, that brought them in. To me IIT was an experience of meeting people whose substance could be attributed to a range of things, from their sheer simplicity of background to the way they conducted themselves. To illustrate this point I will mention a guy who if ever passed by a gorgeous girl would fail to get a second look, but if he displayed his public speaking to her, she would have no choice but drool over him. I know many would argue that such seemless public speakers are plenty in number, even outside IIT, then whats so special about him?...well, all I would say is to manage the diverse reaction from not getting a second look to having a girl drool over you...well thats something!! I met guys who came from backgrounds wherein they studied in lanterns (only the light of a lantern and not even a fan to respite the scorching heat) for the JEE; and if their deprivation of having not had ample air at the time of their preparation, reflects in the airs they have about their AIR... boy, its more deserved than anything!! The guy with the most dehaati Hindi having the most fluent English speaking girl of the campus as his girlfriend...boy, that happened at IIT!!
Ok, so that brings me to the sensitive issue of IITians stuttering and stammering in front of girls...to that I would say, your allegation is fair to some extent, but then again its baseless. Because had you been aware of the skewed ratios at IIT( they say it is as low as 1:20, and to top it all, even the fauna in my IIT consisted of more peacocks than peahens ;)), and the effects that it can have on guys in such an environment you wouldn't have made that comment. Vaise looking at your levels of inferiority complex, had you lived in that kind of an environment, you would begin to stammer & stutter even in front of a bitch (and there I mean...the female dog, the bitch!!). Once again, my hats-off to IITians, they can atleast fluently tell the bitches "I am an IITian!!"
As can be made out from the post, you sure are someone who never went to IIT, and dont even have the slightest inkling of what life in IIT is all about. I am glad that inspite of not being an IITian I will refrain from the juvenile felony that you have committed(to write a post which has very little backing in terms of facts or experiences both first-hand or vicarious). If you would have atleast been through that lifestyle, even as a non-IITian( as did I), you wouldn't have dared to write this. And I think largely the reason why you committed this crime and I didnt is...because I watched star wars at IIT...and I bet you didnt!!... ;) :)))
I think you were on the right track when you said that the real estate prices for an area which produces an IITian goes up. I am not too sure about the real estate prices but sure that non-IITians like me who live around IITians for two years can see their value go up in terms of taking the liberty to admonish the felony of ignorants like you!!
-thanks for giving me this opportunity!!
a non-IITian
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
An excuse to remember IIT days
I had a long look at my photo on this blog. Hey, I look pretty!! dont I??
This pic was clicked on the day of GH's Diwali function...now what was it called...I just forgot...I dont believe...has it been so long that I have started forgetting things at IIT...or was it that i never stayed there long enough to get used to the names...but anyway...that day was also the eve of my birthday. I still remember Neeraj having sponsored my birthday cake that we cut in the basky court that night. He just sponsored the cake, and never even came for a bite. The reason was evident when we all tasted the cake...it was far from great!!
Coming back to the pic...it was clicked by Arpit Srivastava..he was a third year b.tech student...whom I had scowled at, at the photo exhibition of antaragni. Reason being"I wasnt even clicked in a single photograph" ( Arpit was the photography club coordinator or something of the likes). Since I bandifully shouted at him, he agreed to click my snaps on some other occassion. To ensure that he doesnt procastinate the issue & get away with it, I told him to do it on the GH function (i am still not able to recall the name) and click my snaps. To that he replied that he wasnt invited. Now, I have this soft-corner for boys@IITK who didnt get a chance to attend these events at GH. So my first reaction was that I invited him over as my guest for the evening. So I had one more guest in the long list of guys whom I had already invited over. Occassions like the one I am talking about made girls in IITK really regret the skewed ratios. Because a girl had to invite several if not numerous boys, which ended up being an expensive affair. In case of the MBA girls, 7 of us were inviting the 40 boys of our class + some other personal guest, which in my case were Arpit & an alumni called Rajendu who was in campus for a visit at that time. Neeraj & Pathak were already invited by Urvashi ( they all belonged to the same deptt. - Civil). For the batch of 2006, it was famous that all notorious people on campus belonged to the Civil Engineering department- Urvashi completely lived up to it; and did I forget to mention that Neeraj & Pathak were the definitions of 'notorious people'!! More on the 2006 Civil Engineering deptt. some time later...
I could hear the gleeful thankyou from Arpit when I extended the invitation. He was pretty overwhelmed at the prospect of being in the midst of girls in GH. And for that, being someone's personal photographer was very little price to pay.
Arpit's first time at GH, was not so eventful, atleast thats what i felt! I dont know what the videoscope of his eyes had to say about the whole evening. He sure was at task, he had borrowed a digi-cam from somewhere, to make sure he justifies the cause of the invitation. He clicked me on several occassions throughout the evening, and everytime he would go 'clik' he would explain (read caveat), "photographs from digi-cams are never too good!!". By the end of it, I wanted to tell him that I wont mind taking the blame of bad photos on my average looks, but him blaming the digi-cam was something I wasnt really appreciating...anyhow I didnt tell him..because I thought he really was obliging me by clicking me when he could have well treated his visual senses to much more...
Next day was Deepshikha ( yes I remeber the name!! this was the Hall-2 diwali function, I also remember the name of the Hall-3 diwali function - it was Deepanjali). Since I had invited Arpit for the GH function, it was obligatory for him to invite me to his. So I was invited to Deepshikha. Now I really appreciated that because Arpit by virtue of being a hall 5 resident, wasnt entitled to invite me to deepshikha. However, his roots were hall-2, so he had asked one of his bachchas to arrange for a dinner coupon for me. Not that I had to feel so thankful, because even if he wouldnt have done that, Neeraj or Yash or someone would have taken me along, and have me have their dinner coupon( which they got by virtue of their executive member status in the Students' Gymkhana). Oh ok, so it wasnt Urvashi who had invited Neeraj & Pathak...tabhi main kahoon Urvashi itni dildaar kab ho gayi!!...One thing about Urvashi -She was quite a 'Lala', I mean not only by virtue of being Urvashi Srivastava, but also in the true sense of it...but I wont elaborate too much on that because I am one too...though not in the true sense!!
Anyway Deepshikha was far more entertaining than was the previous evening in GH. I had always heard in GH that Hall-2 skits are very famous (rather infamous) for their notorious content. Infact Urvashi had told me that in the first year the hall-2 guys had named some girls(Ruchera & Vindhya to be precise- who were the babes of 2006 batch) as part of their script. Also it was said that Vindhya had apparently walked out after seeing such a direct onslaught of her identity. Also there was quite a hype & hoopla about the whole thing, which had branded the hall-2 guys as being the more indecent lot of their batch. And as if that wasnt enough, Neeraj once told me that in the first year they had reared two puppies in hall 2, one of whom was called Vindhya & the other Ruchera. Of course Vindhya was Neeraj's favorite...I mean the puppy Vindhya ;), so I had heard more about Vindhya(pun-intended). So in the 2006 batch hall-3 guys had the 'decent nice guy' image. I guess that is where my prediliction for CMT (over Neeraj) had taken birth. I mean girls always prefer 'decent nice guys' so no matter whom they hang out with. Hall-3 guys always evoked in me 'more sense of respect'.
Since I had heard so much about the hall 2 skits, I was fancying the chance of being audience to one of them. And I must say the Hall-2 guys didnt disappoint me in terms of the content. I dont remember much of it, but I remember a boy in shorts(read underwear) & vest (he was a shaktimaan alias), who entered the scene, rotated on his feet yelling 'fak fak fak fak fak' ( pun-intended). That was just amazing!! I mean I was rolling with laughter, no matter how hard I tried to act like the decent GH junta. Arpit, who was sitting next to me during the course of the skit, I must say was then the most uncomfortable boy on earth. One because his experience in girl's company was limited, and two that too on an occassion when a boy would just want to be a pervert boy...... I am sure he was regretting having brought me along.
What made the evening even more memorable was that it was my Birthday, and just when we were heading for the dinner area, I heard an announcement that said "President Neeraj Kumar wishes the girls respresentative Shubham Nath a very happy birthday!!". My first reaction was shock, in front of a packed hall-2, that was the last thing I wanted lest I wanted rumours... My second reaction was this couldnt have been done by Neeraj, but before I begun to guess, the culprit confessed his crime - it was Haria's idea ( yes the games & sports secy, whose name was indiscriminantly used to describe someone's foolish behavior- "Arrey, tum Haria ho gaye ho kya!"). My last reaction, on this issue was, "its ok". And now when I look back my reaction is "a memorable birthday!!"
Not that today is my birthday....
Sometimes I think, I just need excuses to remember IIT days. So coming back to why I created this post, I mean the pic. That pic was clicked by Arpit Srivastava in VH ( when we went to drop Rajendu) on the day of....i have still not recalled the name of the function - but i guess everyone can live without it, now that the article is getting over!! Out of the 50 odd pics that he must have clicked that day, only two were worthy of maintaining in my pictures' folder. I mean Ankit had told me digi-cams never produce good pics...so that was ok ;) Out of the two pics, One is this one & the other is the thumbnail of my gtalk - Thanks Arpit!!
This pic was clicked on the day of GH's Diwali function...now what was it called...I just forgot...I dont believe...has it been so long that I have started forgetting things at IIT...or was it that i never stayed there long enough to get used to the names...but anyway...that day was also the eve of my birthday. I still remember Neeraj having sponsored my birthday cake that we cut in the basky court that night. He just sponsored the cake, and never even came for a bite. The reason was evident when we all tasted the cake...it was far from great!!
Coming back to the pic...it was clicked by Arpit Srivastava..he was a third year b.tech student...whom I had scowled at, at the photo exhibition of antaragni. Reason being"I wasnt even clicked in a single photograph" ( Arpit was the photography club coordinator or something of the likes). Since I bandifully shouted at him, he agreed to click my snaps on some other occassion. To ensure that he doesnt procastinate the issue & get away with it, I told him to do it on the GH function (i am still not able to recall the name) and click my snaps. To that he replied that he wasnt invited. Now, I have this soft-corner for boys@IITK who didnt get a chance to attend these events at GH. So my first reaction was that I invited him over as my guest for the evening. So I had one more guest in the long list of guys whom I had already invited over. Occassions like the one I am talking about made girls in IITK really regret the skewed ratios. Because a girl had to invite several if not numerous boys, which ended up being an expensive affair. In case of the MBA girls, 7 of us were inviting the 40 boys of our class + some other personal guest, which in my case were Arpit & an alumni called Rajendu who was in campus for a visit at that time. Neeraj & Pathak were already invited by Urvashi ( they all belonged to the same deptt. - Civil). For the batch of 2006, it was famous that all notorious people on campus belonged to the Civil Engineering department- Urvashi completely lived up to it; and did I forget to mention that Neeraj & Pathak were the definitions of 'notorious people'!! More on the 2006 Civil Engineering deptt. some time later...
I could hear the gleeful thankyou from Arpit when I extended the invitation. He was pretty overwhelmed at the prospect of being in the midst of girls in GH. And for that, being someone's personal photographer was very little price to pay.
Arpit's first time at GH, was not so eventful, atleast thats what i felt! I dont know what the videoscope of his eyes had to say about the whole evening. He sure was at task, he had borrowed a digi-cam from somewhere, to make sure he justifies the cause of the invitation. He clicked me on several occassions throughout the evening, and everytime he would go 'clik' he would explain (read caveat), "photographs from digi-cams are never too good!!". By the end of it, I wanted to tell him that I wont mind taking the blame of bad photos on my average looks, but him blaming the digi-cam was something I wasnt really appreciating...anyhow I didnt tell him..because I thought he really was obliging me by clicking me when he could have well treated his visual senses to much more...
Next day was Deepshikha ( yes I remeber the name!! this was the Hall-2 diwali function, I also remember the name of the Hall-3 diwali function - it was Deepanjali). Since I had invited Arpit for the GH function, it was obligatory for him to invite me to his. So I was invited to Deepshikha. Now I really appreciated that because Arpit by virtue of being a hall 5 resident, wasnt entitled to invite me to deepshikha. However, his roots were hall-2, so he had asked one of his bachchas to arrange for a dinner coupon for me. Not that I had to feel so thankful, because even if he wouldnt have done that, Neeraj or Yash or someone would have taken me along, and have me have their dinner coupon( which they got by virtue of their executive member status in the Students' Gymkhana). Oh ok, so it wasnt Urvashi who had invited Neeraj & Pathak...tabhi main kahoon Urvashi itni dildaar kab ho gayi!!...One thing about Urvashi -She was quite a 'Lala', I mean not only by virtue of being Urvashi Srivastava, but also in the true sense of it...but I wont elaborate too much on that because I am one too...though not in the true sense!!
Anyway Deepshikha was far more entertaining than was the previous evening in GH. I had always heard in GH that Hall-2 skits are very famous (rather infamous) for their notorious content. Infact Urvashi had told me that in the first year the hall-2 guys had named some girls(Ruchera & Vindhya to be precise- who were the babes of 2006 batch) as part of their script. Also it was said that Vindhya had apparently walked out after seeing such a direct onslaught of her identity. Also there was quite a hype & hoopla about the whole thing, which had branded the hall-2 guys as being the more indecent lot of their batch. And as if that wasnt enough, Neeraj once told me that in the first year they had reared two puppies in hall 2, one of whom was called Vindhya & the other Ruchera. Of course Vindhya was Neeraj's favorite...I mean the puppy Vindhya ;), so I had heard more about Vindhya(pun-intended). So in the 2006 batch hall-3 guys had the 'decent nice guy' image. I guess that is where my prediliction for CMT (over Neeraj) had taken birth. I mean girls always prefer 'decent nice guys' so no matter whom they hang out with. Hall-3 guys always evoked in me 'more sense of respect'.
Since I had heard so much about the hall 2 skits, I was fancying the chance of being audience to one of them. And I must say the Hall-2 guys didnt disappoint me in terms of the content. I dont remember much of it, but I remember a boy in shorts(read underwear) & vest (he was a shaktimaan alias), who entered the scene, rotated on his feet yelling 'fak fak fak fak fak' ( pun-intended). That was just amazing!! I mean I was rolling with laughter, no matter how hard I tried to act like the decent GH junta. Arpit, who was sitting next to me during the course of the skit, I must say was then the most uncomfortable boy on earth. One because his experience in girl's company was limited, and two that too on an occassion when a boy would just want to be a pervert boy...... I am sure he was regretting having brought me along.
What made the evening even more memorable was that it was my Birthday, and just when we were heading for the dinner area, I heard an announcement that said "President Neeraj Kumar wishes the girls respresentative Shubham Nath a very happy birthday!!". My first reaction was shock, in front of a packed hall-2, that was the last thing I wanted lest I wanted rumours... My second reaction was this couldnt have been done by Neeraj, but before I begun to guess, the culprit confessed his crime - it was Haria's idea ( yes the games & sports secy, whose name was indiscriminantly used to describe someone's foolish behavior- "Arrey, tum Haria ho gaye ho kya!"). My last reaction, on this issue was, "its ok". And now when I look back my reaction is "a memorable birthday!!"
Not that today is my birthday....
Sometimes I think, I just need excuses to remember IIT days. So coming back to why I created this post, I mean the pic. That pic was clicked by Arpit Srivastava in VH ( when we went to drop Rajendu) on the day of....i have still not recalled the name of the function - but i guess everyone can live without it, now that the article is getting over!! Out of the 50 odd pics that he must have clicked that day, only two were worthy of maintaining in my pictures' folder. I mean Ankit had told me digi-cams never produce good pics...so that was ok ;) Out of the two pics, One is this one & the other is the thumbnail of my gtalk - Thanks Arpit!!
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Valmiki Jayanti @IITK
The write-up includes certain objectionble content, which maynot be suitable for people under-18 years. Reader discretion is warranted!
An idle sunday afternoon often muddles up thoughts of various kinds in your mind, some of these might be deep & provoking while others just reminiscence of times you cherished. While some reminescences could be painful ( but that doesnt mean I cry; I am a grown up girl, remember!), the ones which were fun never fail to put a smile back on my face. One such fun incident from my second year at IITK flashed across my mind today.
Late in the evening (not so late by IITK standards though), around 10 pm the gymkhana senate meeting got over. I was part of the meeting by virtue of being the girls repesentative (for those of you who dont know, since girls in IITK are a minority community they get a special quota representation in the students' governance body- the students gymkhana). While walking out of the meeting, some of us decided to catch up with coffee at the academic area nescafe. The cultural secretary Pathak and the president Neeraj, who were then great pals of mine decided to join me for the same.
As the farewells were being bid I heard one gentleman (atleast thats what I thought about him till then) shout out to all others( all of whom there were men, except me!), "aaj valmiki jayanti ka samaroh hai, bhoolna mat!". What followed were a few giggles & promises " haan haan, nahi bhoolenge!". I was quite dumbfounded on having learnt that there seemed to be a high profile cultural program on campus, the posters of which I had missed. 'Never mind!' I thought, since pathak - the cultural secretary was going for a cup of coffeee with me, I could always find out!!
Pathak & I began to walk towards the academic area, while Neeraj who had got stuck with some junta ( nothing new for those who knew Neeraj, and hung about with him) promised to join soon.
On my way to the academic area, I inquired from Pathak what the samaroh was all about. Pathak very non-chalantly described it as a cultural program that took place in Naankari, once every year on the occassion of Valmiki Jayanti. Since Pathak himself was wearing a smirk & I had already heard the other guys in SAC giggle about it, I was convinced that there was more to it; and of course I was determined to find out!
Here I will like to describe a little problem that I have in me- if you describe something to me in straight n simple words, no matter how indecent that maybe I will accept it without any further inquiries or suspicion, but the moment you try n fob me in words, you have just stimulated my inquisition cells. So here I was interviewing Pathak for the rest of the details & hence the complete story.
On asking him what kind of a program it was going to be, he just fended it by saying that its gonna be some dance prepared by the local inhabitants of Naankari village. Ok! I knew the keyword here was 'Dance'. So the inquiry went a step further, "all the guys seemed pretty excited about the dance, so who is the dancer going to be?". "I am not too sure!" said Pathak. I knew he was more than sure, but that jerk-n-half wouldnt let it out to me. So I said "seems like its gonna be fun, can I please join u guys for it?" At this, Pathak was completely taken aback, he gave me one of those expressions " do u have any clue, what you are talking about!" and i gave him back one of those looks "perhaps I do, but I want to hear it straight from you!". when he saw that expression he started his fobbing tactics "dekhiye Shubham, wo na.... ladkiyon ki jaane ki jagah nahi hai". To that I knew all I had to ask was "why, why & why?" till the time I had got a satisfactory answer. But Pathak, in matters of speaking straight is a hard nut to crack . In situations where he knows that his image of a 'decent nice guy' is under threatening, he would just beat around the bush till eternity or till someone came to his rescue!!
Just when I had pestered Pathak enough, Neeraj biked into the academic area, to join us for the coffee which he had promised us both. An irritated Pathak, on having failed to satiate my inquisition of their coveted Valmiki Jayanti samaroh, decided to blurt out the situation through & through to Neeraj. Neeraj began to laugh & Pathak joined him too. Poor me, had to wait till the two of them had done with their laughing. Neeraj, though not a very direct person himself, thought directness was the only way he could have avoided any more questions that could have embaressed both Pathak & himself. He told me that since Naankari isnt such a safe place to go to & since some of the dancers could well be hookers, it is hence not advisable for me to go. Now see, it was that simple, but if only Pathak understood the importance of 'simplicity as a virtue !'
So I went back to the hostel, having left them both to plan the rest of their evening. Of course I waited all evening thereafter, till I thought would be the appropraite time to call up Neeraj & find out about the proceedings of the samaroh...
what?? u thought I would leave it only at a point of knowing what might happen at the samaroh, and wouldnt delve into what actually happened!...rubbish!!
So a little after 1 am, I called up Neeraj, "so gaye the kya??", and he answered "nahi, bus sone ja raha tha!". Liar!
For those of you who dont know, a little piece of information about Neeraj. This guy was famous in the campus as a big liar, he was believed to be an amazing manipulator of words, and he was of course quite big a politician (a lot of b.tech students hated him for his political acumen owing to which he ousted CMT-the har-dil-aziz & my-dil-aziz too ;) candidate, for the post of President of student's gymkhana). But in the midst of all this negative imagery, he had managed to portray himself as someone who would never lie/manipulate/politicize lest it does good to someone else. Anyway, those are just euphemisms of defending: just as a pagal would never concede to the fact that he is a pagal; a liar would never concede to the fact that he is a liar. Pretty natural & justified too!!
Coming back to my phone call to Neeraj, I began to dig out the details. He told me that two prostitutes from Naankari village namely Komal & Kesar were protagnists of the show. I asked him more about the proceedings, he described not in so much detail, but he did repeatedly mention that Kesar danced pretty well. I could make out that he had developed some soft-corner for Kesar ;). So I asked him what kind of songs were playing. He told me that Kesar's dance on Kajra re was pretty good. And what followed was a 10 minute long amorous description of what an excellent dancer Kesar was. On the lighter side I wanted to add, " should we ask Pathak to make her the dance club coordinator of IITK". But his heart-touching description of the woman & her dance didnt permit me to make fun of anything. I must confess he described it more decently than a prostitute in any walk of life can be described. I dont know if he really meant it or was he just using Pathak's tactics of maintaining his image as a 'decent nice guy'.
Whatever it maybe, but I must say IITK guys have this knack of making even the gravest act of perversion sound like a noble deed of patronage.
Hats off to them!!...the JEE surely judges something successfully! ;)
An idle sunday afternoon often muddles up thoughts of various kinds in your mind, some of these might be deep & provoking while others just reminiscence of times you cherished. While some reminescences could be painful ( but that doesnt mean I cry; I am a grown up girl, remember!), the ones which were fun never fail to put a smile back on my face. One such fun incident from my second year at IITK flashed across my mind today.
Late in the evening (not so late by IITK standards though), around 10 pm the gymkhana senate meeting got over. I was part of the meeting by virtue of being the girls repesentative (for those of you who dont know, since girls in IITK are a minority community they get a special quota representation in the students' governance body- the students gymkhana). While walking out of the meeting, some of us decided to catch up with coffee at the academic area nescafe. The cultural secretary Pathak and the president Neeraj, who were then great pals of mine decided to join me for the same.
As the farewells were being bid I heard one gentleman (atleast thats what I thought about him till then) shout out to all others( all of whom there were men, except me!), "aaj valmiki jayanti ka samaroh hai, bhoolna mat!". What followed were a few giggles & promises " haan haan, nahi bhoolenge!". I was quite dumbfounded on having learnt that there seemed to be a high profile cultural program on campus, the posters of which I had missed. 'Never mind!' I thought, since pathak - the cultural secretary was going for a cup of coffeee with me, I could always find out!!
Pathak & I began to walk towards the academic area, while Neeraj who had got stuck with some junta ( nothing new for those who knew Neeraj, and hung about with him) promised to join soon.
On my way to the academic area, I inquired from Pathak what the samaroh was all about. Pathak very non-chalantly described it as a cultural program that took place in Naankari, once every year on the occassion of Valmiki Jayanti. Since Pathak himself was wearing a smirk & I had already heard the other guys in SAC giggle about it, I was convinced that there was more to it; and of course I was determined to find out!
Here I will like to describe a little problem that I have in me- if you describe something to me in straight n simple words, no matter how indecent that maybe I will accept it without any further inquiries or suspicion, but the moment you try n fob me in words, you have just stimulated my inquisition cells. So here I was interviewing Pathak for the rest of the details & hence the complete story.
On asking him what kind of a program it was going to be, he just fended it by saying that its gonna be some dance prepared by the local inhabitants of Naankari village. Ok! I knew the keyword here was 'Dance'. So the inquiry went a step further, "all the guys seemed pretty excited about the dance, so who is the dancer going to be?". "I am not too sure!" said Pathak. I knew he was more than sure, but that jerk-n-half wouldnt let it out to me. So I said "seems like its gonna be fun, can I please join u guys for it?" At this, Pathak was completely taken aback, he gave me one of those expressions " do u have any clue, what you are talking about!" and i gave him back one of those looks "perhaps I do, but I want to hear it straight from you!". when he saw that expression he started his fobbing tactics "dekhiye Shubham, wo na.... ladkiyon ki jaane ki jagah nahi hai". To that I knew all I had to ask was "why, why & why?" till the time I had got a satisfactory answer. But Pathak, in matters of speaking straight is a hard nut to crack . In situations where he knows that his image of a 'decent nice guy' is under threatening, he would just beat around the bush till eternity or till someone came to his rescue!!
Just when I had pestered Pathak enough, Neeraj biked into the academic area, to join us for the coffee which he had promised us both. An irritated Pathak, on having failed to satiate my inquisition of their coveted Valmiki Jayanti samaroh, decided to blurt out the situation through & through to Neeraj. Neeraj began to laugh & Pathak joined him too. Poor me, had to wait till the two of them had done with their laughing. Neeraj, though not a very direct person himself, thought directness was the only way he could have avoided any more questions that could have embaressed both Pathak & himself. He told me that since Naankari isnt such a safe place to go to & since some of the dancers could well be hookers, it is hence not advisable for me to go. Now see, it was that simple, but if only Pathak understood the importance of 'simplicity as a virtue !'
So I went back to the hostel, having left them both to plan the rest of their evening. Of course I waited all evening thereafter, till I thought would be the appropraite time to call up Neeraj & find out about the proceedings of the samaroh...
what?? u thought I would leave it only at a point of knowing what might happen at the samaroh, and wouldnt delve into what actually happened!...rubbish!!
So a little after 1 am, I called up Neeraj, "so gaye the kya??", and he answered "nahi, bus sone ja raha tha!". Liar!
For those of you who dont know, a little piece of information about Neeraj. This guy was famous in the campus as a big liar, he was believed to be an amazing manipulator of words, and he was of course quite big a politician (a lot of b.tech students hated him for his political acumen owing to which he ousted CMT-the har-dil-aziz & my-dil-aziz too ;) candidate, for the post of President of student's gymkhana). But in the midst of all this negative imagery, he had managed to portray himself as someone who would never lie/manipulate/politicize lest it does good to someone else. Anyway, those are just euphemisms of defending: just as a pagal would never concede to the fact that he is a pagal; a liar would never concede to the fact that he is a liar. Pretty natural & justified too!!
Coming back to my phone call to Neeraj, I began to dig out the details. He told me that two prostitutes from Naankari village namely Komal & Kesar were protagnists of the show. I asked him more about the proceedings, he described not in so much detail, but he did repeatedly mention that Kesar danced pretty well. I could make out that he had developed some soft-corner for Kesar ;). So I asked him what kind of songs were playing. He told me that Kesar's dance on Kajra re was pretty good. And what followed was a 10 minute long amorous description of what an excellent dancer Kesar was. On the lighter side I wanted to add, " should we ask Pathak to make her the dance club coordinator of IITK". But his heart-touching description of the woman & her dance didnt permit me to make fun of anything. I must confess he described it more decently than a prostitute in any walk of life can be described. I dont know if he really meant it or was he just using Pathak's tactics of maintaining his image as a 'decent nice guy'.
Whatever it maybe, but I must say IITK guys have this knack of making even the gravest act of perversion sound like a noble deed of patronage.
Hats off to them!!...the JEE surely judges something successfully! ;)
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Sex, Guys & IIT days
Was remembering IIT days once again....the 2years just flew by... but the memories they have left me with will probably last a life time...i guess thats the peculiar thing about good times...they seem to get over before you realise they were good...and once over, you are left behind with reminiscence...
The most standing out memories of IIT are the ones that have to do with gender dynamics. I think there is a lot of awareness amongst general public about the skewed sex ratio in IITs. IITK in my times was no exception. Infact guys in IIT would not only complain about the general paucity of 'womenfolk' but also their quality in general. Though a lot of girls in IIT are going to hate me for making this public in writing, but i cant resist sharing what Yash- my batchmate in MBA, once commented with reference to girls in IIT. He said "There are only two species in this world, where the male is more beautiful than the female. One is the peacocks & the other is IITians". Now this pithy reflects two things about gender dynamics in IIT, one being very obvious and the other being the arrogance & audacity an average IIT male develops. From whatever experiences I have with the opposite sex in general, I know that men categorize women on the basis of beauty as follows: One set of women being 'beautiful' & the other 'very beautiful'. So an IIT guy claiming that in their specie IIT boys in general are more beautiful than IIT girls is indeed an arrogant & audacious claim. Nevertheless, women in IIT just grow upto live with such remarks , no matter how audacious they are.
I happened to meet Neha ( another batchmate of mine from MBA) on the weekend that went by. While remembering our MBA days, I talked about this comment from Yash, and to most people's surprise, both of us rolled with laughter thereafter. I can tell my reasons for feeling so tickled, and I assume Neha's was no different. I still am chuckling while I write this, I dont know what makes the IIT guys feel so frustrated about not having beautiful women all around them. It not only has to do with IITians but the male specie in general. Their need to have beauty around them seems to be so pressing that Neha & I couldnt resist laughing at the very thought of them living in paucity of the same. I mean look at us girls who lived in IIT, with water water all around but not a drop to drink. If Neha & I were to begin complaining, we could well get frustrated about the guy who Neha looked blankly at when he tried to impress her by talking about exotic financial derivatives, or the guy who attempted a pass at me by expressing his desire of learning how to communicate effectively in English language( thank God i could read his ulterior motives because had I accepted him as a student I would have forgotten English myself).
All I mean to say is that while the dearth & low quality of girls in IIT is quite evident, the abudant availability of the other sex doesnt ensure a reasonable qualityof the same. However, considering that the 'more beautiful sex' of the IIT specie clamors, I cant resist sympathizing with them...
sorry guys...you got to live with this one!! ;)
The most standing out memories of IIT are the ones that have to do with gender dynamics. I think there is a lot of awareness amongst general public about the skewed sex ratio in IITs. IITK in my times was no exception. Infact guys in IIT would not only complain about the general paucity of 'womenfolk' but also their quality in general. Though a lot of girls in IIT are going to hate me for making this public in writing, but i cant resist sharing what Yash- my batchmate in MBA, once commented with reference to girls in IIT. He said "There are only two species in this world, where the male is more beautiful than the female. One is the peacocks & the other is IITians". Now this pithy reflects two things about gender dynamics in IIT, one being very obvious and the other being the arrogance & audacity an average IIT male develops. From whatever experiences I have with the opposite sex in general, I know that men categorize women on the basis of beauty as follows: One set of women being 'beautiful' & the other 'very beautiful'. So an IIT guy claiming that in their specie IIT boys in general are more beautiful than IIT girls is indeed an arrogant & audacious claim. Nevertheless, women in IIT just grow upto live with such remarks , no matter how audacious they are.
I happened to meet Neha ( another batchmate of mine from MBA) on the weekend that went by. While remembering our MBA days, I talked about this comment from Yash, and to most people's surprise, both of us rolled with laughter thereafter. I can tell my reasons for feeling so tickled, and I assume Neha's was no different. I still am chuckling while I write this, I dont know what makes the IIT guys feel so frustrated about not having beautiful women all around them. It not only has to do with IITians but the male specie in general. Their need to have beauty around them seems to be so pressing that Neha & I couldnt resist laughing at the very thought of them living in paucity of the same. I mean look at us girls who lived in IIT, with water water all around but not a drop to drink. If Neha & I were to begin complaining, we could well get frustrated about the guy who Neha looked blankly at when he tried to impress her by talking about exotic financial derivatives, or the guy who attempted a pass at me by expressing his desire of learning how to communicate effectively in English language( thank God i could read his ulterior motives because had I accepted him as a student I would have forgotten English myself).
All I mean to say is that while the dearth & low quality of girls in IIT is quite evident, the abudant availability of the other sex doesnt ensure a reasonable qualityof the same. However, considering that the 'more beautiful sex' of the IIT specie clamors, I cant resist sympathizing with them...
sorry guys...you got to live with this one!! ;)
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