Curtains down

It's almost time to say adieu to the wonderful pampering life at IIT Madras (I just hope so... the MTP review is still pending). I still remember the day I entered the SAC at IITM for some (dis)orientation, nervous of what was in store for me, feeling low amidst a set of "unearthly" mortals, who I had wrongly thought, would know nothing but cramming day in and day out.

I feel I have lived each day that passed, to its maximum. In fact, I feel like going back in time to every single dawn that I slept through, every single dusk that I played through and every single night I stayed up with coffee, just to relive that experience. Mind-blowing indeed!

It is tough to digest that life, from its fullest sense, will sooner or later, turn into mere existence. The days ahead would pass off, hereafter, till the grave, in running behind money and other people in life, for someone else's or something else's sake. These golden days, where almost everything (except studies), was done for its own sake, shall never return. It is a nostalgic feeling that should come at every moment of separation, just to keep one 'human' enough.

Of all my activities and inactivities at IITM, what I have enjoyed beyond exemplification, is all the cricket I have learnt, thanks to each and every member of the cricket team that I have met in these two years. The picture above (my favourite) should convey beyond elaboration, the joy we experienced in being with each other and playing together. The shot is from IIT Bombay, where we had met for the Inter-IIT sports meet. Being known in another IIT as none else but just a member of a rival contingent (we were the mighty "maddus"), walking around the campus with the same, unwashed overcoat for all those days of stay, proud of wearing the IITM logo on the chest, living in cold-war conditions, etc. are experiences in the superlative.

Anyway, life pulls one out of shelters and with one good kick on the butt, sends him flying into the wide, mad, competitive, intimidating world. Spirits are high in premonition of what lies ahead, with a touch of grief from the separation to come. I just hope I live up to the expectations of my family and friends, the society, the country and the world at large. I am coming! :-)