It is widely supposed that life goes on in a phasewise manner with one phase coming after another, bringing something new with it. So although each phase has a significance of its own, once it is passed, it is confined to the obcurities of some distant memories and imaginations. But this phase of my life was too long and too consequential to be metted out a similar treatment. These five years at IIT Kharagpur, including four years at Patel Hall have not just had some significance of their own, but have transformed me as a person as a whole. I guess its the same for anyone who comes here!
It would be quite a cliché to say that I never realized how these five years have passed in a whiff! But yes those are the very thoughts coming to my mind as I type some of the last words sitting in my room in Patel Hall. Yes, it does seem like yesterday, when a jubilant self of mine having qualified the “toughest competitive exam in the world” and beaming with utter confidence had arrived at this campus of Kharagpur. When I looked at my final grade card today, I just couldn’t imagine how and when did I complete so many courses! Ten semesters and over 60 grades to look at – that indeed had to be a big list. Although one enters here with a feeling of having conquered the world, it is very soon they realize that life has much more to offer and all of it is available right here in this campus. There would be lots and lots of things to learn here. Things that would make him a real and complete person in every regard. Of course, given that one makes full use of all those opportunities available here.
While I would have enjoying going on writing about my stay here, I better stop here and catch on with my packing. have a train to catch in sometime! So this is where my last post at Kgp ends.
Goodbye to all those whom I have known during the course of my stay here. Hope we remain in touch throughout the course of our lives as well and vindicate our belief of we all being a part of one big family!
The sorry state of affairs that the Bharatiya Janta Party finds itself in at the moment is in many ways a refelection of the past. Ten years ago, it was the same party that led by Atal Behari Vajpayee had come to power for a second term after leading a successful campaign to evict the infiltrators from the rugged terrains of Kargil. Most of us who in our school lives grew up with Vajpayee at the helm of the affairs, were definitely enchanted by his demeanor and oratory, not withstanding those long pauses. In many ways he appeared to be a natural leader of the country. But more than the country, his ability lied in keeping his own house in perfect order. He was the undisputed leader of his party and also successfully led a big coalition. Although Lalkrishna Advani had that stature within the party, his appeal definitely couldn’t go deep into the masses and he failed to build up an umbrella underneath which a formidable coalition could have existed. And that brings us to the basic question of leadership.
Politicians in India invariably fall into one of the three categories. First are the overtly ambitious ones who fail to recognize the authority of anyone above them and are determined to get to the top through any means. Then there are the opportunistic ones who are not driven by any ambition but are rather just committed to keeping their coffers filling in and can follow any path or ideal as long as they are kept satisfied. And then, the third cateory belongs to the enduring sycophantic ones who are happy with their own capacity, whatever that is and feel honoured in eulogizing the top bosses and dutifully carry out their orders.
The best way to distinguish between the two major political parties of the country would be to observe the fact while the BJP is full of the leaders of the first category, the Congress is full of the ones of the third category. The regional parties mostly comprise of the second category. This very distinction in the structure of the two parties has been the cause of their position as they stand now. As long as Vajpayee was the unquestioned leader, all the others worked in close co-operation that took the BJP to the unexpected heights in the 90’s. Now as the Vajpayee-Advani era nears a closure for the BJP, the fight of egos has already started spelling doom for the party. The problem is that no leader can claim to be more experienced or more qualified than any other.
This lies in sharp contrast to the Congress, a party which has had many able leader over the ages, but without pursuing an ambition of their own, they have regarded the word of the “leader” as the law. And the leader has always been someone from the “family” across the generations. However naive and inexperienced they have been, the party has been kept intact just because of this fact. A temporary phase of disintegration was quite apparent after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. While P V Narasimha Rao managed to keep his Prime Minsiter’s chair safe, after the loss of 1996 elections the clash for supremacy among Sitaram Keshri, Sharad Pawar and some other leader threatened to bring about doom for the Grand Old Party. It was not until a reluctant Sonia Gandhi assumed control that such fears were laid to rest.
While the Congress claims that it has many youth leaders, it is hard to find a single youth leader within its ranks who has risen without any family backing. In principle BJP may whine about the dynastic policy within the Congress, the truth is that this very policy has helped the latter avoid any infighting and put forth some “young” faces. Might be that BJP needs to realize soon that principles and ideals don’t work in Indian politics. If one has to go through all the rigors of grass root level politics before claiming the role of a popular leader, he or she doesn’t exactly remain young. Lucky for the youth champions like Rahul Gandhi, Milind Deora, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot that they had their parliamentary berths waiting for them even before they knew anything about it. And too bad for BJP that Vajpayee was a bachelor and Advani’s daughter is a mediaperson, quite aloof from politics!
As I come to the end of it, that is the stay in the Patel Hall of Residence, I must say that instead of getting emotional, I am getting rather retrospective -- about all these days, the vastly satisfying and enriching experience that this stay has been. And as I look back, I definitely have a lot of moments to recollect, some nice and some unfortunate but all of them to cherish for sure. It is very true what they say – “You enter a boy here, and you leave having become a man.”
Patel Hall to me has been what others might call a celebration of life. I don’t know why, but so very often during the last four years, the best and the happiest moments for me have been those when Patel Hall has excelled in a certain field. This began right on the first day of my association with this Hall, when after the hall allotment in our first year, on the day of the tea-party, we had a march all along the way from the Netaji to Patel holding aloft the Sports GC that the hall had won that year. More than anything, it was an indication of many more of such occasions to come during the course of my stay here in the coming years. And this very much turned out to be a reality as the days went by. Some of the biggest moments that I can recall when we had lots to celebrate were the prizes in Illumination and Rangoli in 2nd year, silvers in athletics in 2nd and 3rd years, “matki-phod” of VS after illu in 3rd year, the election victory in 3rd year, the English drams performance in 4th year, a number of golds in sports and the subsequent GC in the 4th year, golds in Eastern groups in 4th year and in choreo in 5th year… well these were just some of the big moments.
While we at Patel have always considered ourselves to be a complete unit and have stood for one another whenever the need has arose, the one occasion when this fact came to the fore was during the unfortunate chaos at the beginning of my 3rd year when the whole 2nd batch year had to be sent off to a different hall. While the solidarity the hall showed then was phenomenal, the way the alumni of the hall grouped together and pressurized the administration, also established the fact that the spirit of a Patelian doesn’t wane a bit even after leaving this place.
As I pass out, there have been certain issues which I have observed over these last few years and would like to convey to my juniors and to the coming batches. As the new batches come, they are enthused with all the tempo and it is really heartening to see them doing all that it takes to carry forward the traditions of the hall and in some way or the other trying to contribute towards the hall’s cause. But at times I have been dismayed by the changing attitude in the senior years. While I totally agree with the fact that we are all here to build careers and need to give due importance to our academics, let us not forget that we are here to gain much more than what is written in those books and what is taught in those lectures. And for all those who dream to make it big in life someday, the Hall is very much a starting platform towards such a dream. The hall is a “tool” through which you can exhibit and utilize all your talent and thereby also getting an opportunity to learn about your strengths and weaknesses which definitely will go a long way in preparing you for your professional lives. One can show forth his qualities in numerous ways in the hall. To give some examples, by being a part of the teams discussing various strategies, sitting through the meetings deciding the validity of various budgets, taking leadership roles in various capacities, doing all you can to get your own problems solved like the ones regarding mess, maintenance etc. The very essence of life here is being able to grow up so as to take care of oneself in every possible way. IIT Kharagpur provides a great platform for all this, and not making use of it would be to let go off a unique opportunity of a lifetime. I have met various alumni in the recent times and all have stressed upon this point – the “real life” doesn’t begin after Kgp, but to a large extent it does while staying at Kgp itself. The logic of “time getting wasted” for say working for illu or cheering the Hall in an event is as foolhardy as it can be.Its well-known that how much time the Kgpians spend in their studies and other seemingly “important” stuff.
Well, all this was just for those who need a proper justification for coming out of their rooms and possibly devoting some time for the hall which they would have anyway spent loitering around. But above all this, I have always enjoyed working in big or small groups in the company of thoroughly dedicated people working towards a common goal. When I look back at my life at Kgp, the best memories I have are not the ones sitting in the classes or working in the labs, but sitting with all the people on the Patel Hall flagpost during the Illu nights or giving those enormous tempo shouts.
To talk about the changes that the hall has been through over these years, the hall’s position in the soc-cult front is nothing short of a dream saga which I have seen being unfolded right in front of me. And I only hope that things only get better in the coming years. Sports also have got just better over the years and the GCs in the last two years have been a mere cakewalk. Illumination not being held in my final year was a major disappointment and I sincerely hope that things will be normal next year onwards. While opinions regarding Illu will always remain varied, it will always have a special place in my heart. I am pretty sure I am going to miss those continuous night-outs trying to give proper shapes to the figures on the chatais. And I have always kept telling that the feeling that is generated by a 23 feet high chatai being lighted by the whole hall together can’t be likened to any other.
Well, I have decided not to take any individual names here, my concern being that I’ll always miss out on several other names. But as a whole the stay at Patel would have never been the same without the seniors who guided us during the initial phases and then went on to become some of the closest friends. And then the juniors who provided their full support in whatever decisions and steps we have taken during this period. My batchmates have been obviously the ones with whom I have shared this journey in its entirety, but apart from them we have been pretty close to our senior and junior batches as well – this being a remarkable feature of Patel Hall. I am extremely confident that the bonds which we have built here will stay as intact over the later years if our lives as well.
Well, the debate will keep raging on – Was Slumdog worth the hype and all the awards. Yes, undoubtedly there have been better films made in Bollywood itself. And of course, A R Rahman has composed many many memorable soulful numbers over the years and Jai Ho might just be one of them. And more importantly, the Oscar is by no means the only benchmark to judge a quality cinema or music.
But just the fact that this glory for Slumdog Millionaire puts India so very definitevely on the world cinema radar is enough for this nation to stand up and rejoice. India in spite of being the country which produces highest number of movies by far, has so far failed to make a mark on the global level, not because of the quality but mainly because of its lack of association with the bigger names and studios of the world. This win for Slumdog is definitely going to inspire the movie-makers in India to promote their movies at a much larger world-stage and hope to bring to the Indian cinema the recognition that it deserves.
In India, the movies are mostly all about the stars. It is definitely sad because there are a huge number of crew involved in coming up with a successful movie. And yet, all people talk about are the lead actors and sometimes the director, producer, music composer, singer of the movie. That’s why the Oscar for Resul Pookutty for best sound-mixing is all the more significant. In a place where the technicians have mostly been the unsung heroes of the films, this should be something for them to cheer about.
Life is small for adventures, they say. And the mundane and rather hectic life so far had provided little opportunity for adventures. But then came up a crazy idea and it didn’t take us long before we were on our way – to Sankarpur and Digha, the most popular beaches of West Bengal. Going to a beach is no adventure of course, but it definitely qualifies as one when you decide to go there cycling – Sankarpur is a cool 115 kms from the IIT Khargapur campus. Some called us crazy while others prayed for our well-being, but the 8 of us set out within one day of coming up with the plan.
We got up campus early in the morning and by the time all of us got ready and left the campus it was 5 AM. Google Maps helped with the route, which was drawn on paper. We had expected to move at around 10-12 km/hr. But following the milestones, I found out that we were covering up each kilometre in around 3 minutes – that is 20 km/hr. But since we were not cycling non-stop, we were not going to make it in 6 hours flat. We took stops for water, tea, glucose etc and once for lunch.
The journey can be divided into 5 major parts:
Kharagpur-Narayangarh (20 km) – on NH 60 , across the serene villages and fields and a rather mild traffic.
Narayangarh-Belda (25 km) – NH 60 continues but it is more wider now and it was a real pleasure to pass through it. We covered this stretch pretty fast without feeling much about it.
Belda-Egra (30 km) - Here we left the NH and passed through some forests and some busy small towns in between. The day was getting hotter, so we had to take a good number of stops here. The road is still quite though. We had our lunch at a fairly good restaurant just before Egra town. The owner was too overwhelmed with 8 IITians cycling upto his place all the way from Kharagpur. He took nice care of us and also helped us with the routes ahead to Sankarpur and Digha.
Egra-Ramnagar (30 km) – This part of the journey was the most tiresome of the lot. A major part of the road is in very bad shape and we had to absorb shocks all through. It was afternoon by now and the sun didn’t help our cause either.
Ramnagar-Sankarpur (5 km) – This was the final leg of the journey. We were tired but just kept going on until we reached the beach at 4 PM – The feeling was awesome.
We went to the beach straightaway, with our cycles right into the sea and spent the rest if the evening there. After the dinner we had a good night’s sleep at a hotel very near the beach and then we rammed our cycles right into the water once again in the morning. After spending around two hours in water we found a fishermen’s boat. On our request, they took us deep into the sea.
Around noon, we left for Digha, which is another 12 kms from Shankarpur. While the rest were too tired and spent their time having lunch, I went to the Digha beach as well and chilled myself off. Digha i far more crowded and understandably quite dirty. Contrastingly, Sankarpur was absolutely quiet and clean. As if we had the whole stretch of sand and the sea just for ourselves. We did make the most of it… of course having cycles helped as we could cover the full stretch of the Sankarpur beach, sometimes riding inside the water itself!
All in all, it was an experience for a lifetime. Now we can recount this experience when we come back in one of those Alumni Meets, just like a bunch of alumni of 1984 batch did this time!
For a long time, I have been thinking over the role of spirituality in our lives and have tried to ascertain my own spiritual path. Religion has always occurred to me nothing more than just a way of life, wherein a certain set of rules are followed which might vary from one another. It is not these rules over which I have pondered, but over the ultimate goal which these lead to. Some religious scriptures and leaders might define those set of rules, but not the goal. People following the same religion can have widely different purposes for following it. At the same time, people following different religions can have a similar purpose. In this way, I have always felt that spirituality for a person is not a matter of his or her religion, but very much a matter of his or her own self.
I spent my childhood in Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Narendrapur, a school which prided itself in following some well-defined religious tenets. We had a half-an hour prayer session every morning and evening. Huge expenditures were made on commemorating the birth anniversaries of the religious leaders with whom the institution is associated. This is just an example of how religion has dominated the minds of people over the ages and over the places. Particularly in a country like India, where there is an overt paucity of basic resources of life for the people, the expenditures carried out in the name of religion are bound to raise questions.
The obvious question kept coming in my mind over the pertinence of these principles. Whom are we trying to satisfy by praying day and night? And through all these ostentations, are we gaining anything as an individual or as a society? At times I really feel sorry for the poor people who don’t have enough resources to get two meals a day still spend some money seeking the blessings of some deities. And raising these questions by no means is a badge of atheism.
All this questions have so far been a part of my quest for divinity. I have realized that irrespective of the path undertaken, the ambition is to attain a certain sense of peace and happiness. And this has to be achieved staying within the realm of all the worldliness. It is neither pragmatic nor logical to go into this quest through asceticism. There are various other responsibilities which need to be taken care of at the same time.
Somewhere inside we all have that glowing light, which has a certain meaning when looked upon with regards to what life is and to what role we are destined to play in this world. We often fail to realize this and go after certain ideals which we believe will lead us to a certain supreme being. It is more rational to seek that supremacy which lies very much within us.
Arvind Adiga’s winning the Booker Prize this year is nothing new to establish the fact that Indians have arrived on the world stage. There have been many others in the past and recent times who through their achievements in various fields have already helped establish this fact quite firmly. There have been the great leaders and the great minds in the past. And in recent times the job has been better done by the more glamorous and colorful ones. Yes, the whole purpose of those “India Parades” in New York City and London is to bring India closer to the western world. Simply put, to make India “known” to the world.
But what India are they presenting to the world anyway? Yes, that question needs to be delved deeper into – What India? Is India represented by those beautiful actresses and dancers and beauty queens, or by the numerous super-rich CEOs and founders of big corporate houses, or by the wonderful tourist spots which is a big source of foreign exchange? This is where the role of Adiga’s Booker winning novel The White Tiger is so important and so different. Its not just another of those achievenments by another of those Indians over which the fame-starved nation can rejoice and over which Mr Adiga can command all the fanfare and media-publicity.
The importance of his achievement lies in presenting the real India to the world. The India which those living on the streets see. The India which those working as drivers and servants of the big people experience. The India which is being eaten up by those from very within. The India which needs to fight many battles against the enemies which are within its own territories.
