Reliving the good times

When I crossed the railway tracks that separate the campus of IIT Kharagpur from the outside world, I felt a sudden urge to look back for the final time. I resisted that urge, because I knew that if I looked back there would be a sudden gush of the memories gone by – charcoal sketches of friendship, bonding and living. I had never even imagined that I would get to live a life like that again – a life secluded from the outside world, cocooned in comfort and contentment.

After six years I get that niggling feeling of a déjà-vu in the making, older (definitely), wiser (maybe) and with an unyielding zest for life. It has hardly been a month since all of us of the CO2012 got back to college but if you were to walk around the campus at any time of the day (and night) you will witness animated conversations, back-slapping and mirth amongst people who were complete strangers until recently. That is what campus life does to you – it cuts you off from the rest of the world and leaves you emotionally dependent on the person next to you. The whirlwind pace of the course leaves you with little time to think of the world and shapes an eco-system in itself.

It is true that life is not as innocent as it was when you were twenty. The encounters with moments of grey may be far more and also more complex to deal with – but then that is what growing up is all about isn't it? It is up to you to discern the black and the white in those moments and maintain your sanity.

The 'firsts' of our lives are always memorable – your first school, your first college, your first job and your first love. The seconds usually turn out to be more life-shaping. You learn from the flaws of the first and ensure that they do not enter the ambit of the “seconds”. From memorable, you try to make them more enjoyable because at the back of your mind, you always know one thing – there might be a First Life and there might be a Second one… but if you want a Third One... then you have lost out on a lot in life.

Shreerang Godbole , Class of 2012

 

We’ve been ruined, for life!!

Yes Folks, we have! Hello and welcome to another not so exciting article from me. This time we shall talk about more things that you might care about, without actually asking any of you what it is that you care about. Of course, I shall spend some time questioning my assumption whether anyone even reads the articles I spend many many many hours writing.
Honestly, if you are reading this article and would like to hear about some stuff on campus life or anything else you think I will be able to update you on, please click here and answer two questions. There is a bonus area when you get to the end of the questions, which can be utilised to abuse me.
Back to the point.

MBA has ruined us.
“Why?’ You ask. When people start counting the marginal benefits of walking to the Rec Centre, you know why. Here are some more examples.

Before
Now

It's not worth it.

Opportunity cost is too high.

You won't win that argument.

No equilibrium in that game.

Anybody can do that.

Entry barriers are too low.

After the first 5 mugs, it's all the same.

Diminishing returns to alcohol consumption.

Party done, let's get dinner.

Party done, need some breakfast.

You socialise too much.

Stop networking.

Let's form teams and start playing.

Let’s sell franchises and then ask the owners to bid for teams.

Let's play monopoly.

Lets pay Rs. 4,67,000 to play sports with our batch mates.

I'm not happy with that.

MR not = MC in that.

ooooooh… snake. Looks awesome.

What’s up roomie? Just don't bite me.


To top it all off, some of us have just returned from the X-Men movie (yes, we are relaxing after the mid-terms, don’t judge us) and we can relate to what the mutants were going through. We wannabe MBAs!


Slave markets

The ISL player auction is coming up! I’m going to be auctioned to the highest bidder, and then I get to play sports for their entertainment and profit. I’ve also been told that they can whip me if I don’t show up or lose a match – All this for a T-shirt. MR = MC?

The auctions were fun though. At first I was convinced this ISL was some Markstrat type world where you play with pretend money. Some other people who joined in the middle of the auction were sure they were still talking in 10K amounts. All in all, a kitty of Rs. 18 lakh for 4 teams. What really surprised me – some of the team owners have not been spotted at the Rec Center even once, not even after winning the bids.

Honour Code

The rumours have begun. And I played the unfortunate part in spreading them further. “Did you hear about those 7 guys who did their DMOP assignment together? All of them got mails from the Honour code committee”….. Yes, that is exactly what people need, more opinions to confuse the day lights out of them. 7 people doing DMOP –  that is like 10 people trying to share a cigarette – it’s bound to kill you, but slowly.

Dishonor Code

Nothing much to say here, just thought it would be a cool heading after honour code.


TLAs
ISB, ELP, ISL, ILS, SV4, LRC, ALC, CAC, CAS, L&D…. The genius in me has spotted another trend.

Hey, no! I saw it first! It doesn’t matter if you noticed it when you were part of Class of 2006, you didn’t write about it, did you?!

What is our connection to IBM? Why do we love TLAs (three letter acronyms) so much? Can we pull of a “You can never get fired for hiring from ISB?”

Note: if you didn’t get that joke, read up on IBM and TLA, especially the AMD joke.


Club Formations

Yes, it has happened. We now have professional club presidents, who are now trying to get the core teams, and also the mailing lists. After a long gap, I’m receiving mails which I actually want to read, but for some reason, each person puts a “sorry for spam” tag on every mail. And the guy who mails about losing his badminton racquet cover doesn’t bother apologising.

Academics
Aaaah….ermm… I really should write more about this area.

We are not happy with our performance. There are people who got scolded by their mums for getting bad scores. The average age of my batch is 27, I hear.

Once again, do fill in the form I’ve linked. Good night folks.

Dheeraj Chintala Reddy, Class of 2012