The IIT Transformation

Another light-hearted and humorous post(may be, lets see how it comes out); for some getaway off the exam and project tensions(needless to say - for others, not me personally....), and perhaps from some conflicts...

Disclaimers:

1. This post is not intended to hurt anyone; not an inch more than what they deserve and have developed - including the author himself.
2. This is a general trend analysis and .... ( hmm, anyway no one would take anything I write here seriously so no need of completing that with justifications and exceptions..)
3. Statistics on the other kind of population is not performed. This is a purely male-oriented and male-dominated post!! 

A picture says it all - and what better than the above picture showing the 'development' of an IITian over the course and stay.

The above pic clearly sums up a general trend; and the reasons for it are obvious - Food habits and more mental workout than physical exercise.Obviously there are exceptions - very energetic and fit kids, or genetic outliers; but this is a common scenario...

Details are probably insignificant here - whether it is the mess food or the canteen food, erratic eating habits or high carbs and fat diet; what strikes out is that the 'curve' happens to be one of the identifying factor of a well settled IITian!

I am a Stage-3 now; and yes - initially I did try some jogging stuff to curb the bulger, but of late became complacent. So, no jogging, no gymming(well, never tried - but was a mental exercise :D) - just worrying about the protruding tummy. Just wishing that Stage-4 wouldn't set in with all this laziness growing!!

So here is a notable 'benefit' of joining IIT ;-)

Before ending, one question:

What stage do you find yourself ???

3 days of LAN BAN

Finally experienced the terror that grips a whole lot of kids here at IIT - The LAN BAN !!!

Its not the snakes that crawl out occasionally or the rumored panthers in the neighboring woods that scare the people more - but its the after 12'o'clock No Internet period; which has earned quite a reputation as the Lan Ban...

This semester has been a - I don't know which one is appropriate word; fortunate or unfortunate - but lets say considerate in terms of the Lan Ban. Our wing had the privilege of being in the No-LanBan sector even after the stipulated period for placement and academic related reasons. So, we were the lucky chaps - and quite often the available connection was shared among the other hostel inmates via wireless connectivity. I am honored to have been a part of this social(in all senses of the word :D) service - albeit in a small scale..

It is no surprise that you can get a whole lot of internet addicts if you come to IITs - perhaps the largest numbers!! Sources indicate that many people go overnight to labs and libraries for 'work', with the internet connectivity as just an added 'benefit'...

I solemnly and completely belong to this category of internet addicts - only difference being that due to my laziness I do not go labs or library; and the No Lan Ban was a serving in a silver platter :D

So, the past three days were quite a surprise - and just when I was preparing myself to adjust to the new situation, its gone and back to the days of 24x7 internet...

I had a few plans - just like many others in my position - sleep early, wake up early, be more sincere and hardworking - err may be not.., etc etc.    

Now its back to square one. But now atleast I sleep off at 2 AM instead of 3 AM, which is quite an achievement :-)

So, much to the envy of my friends here at IIT, I had a fortunate run with the internet connectivity; though the utility of the same is questionable....

Oh - regular sleep time is here, or should I rejoice the return of No-LanBan a bit more ;-) ???

The travel back to Bombay

Another outdated post - more out of context than a recent one...
But I am in quite a mood to write stuff after writing an essay for the Philosophy course in the morning - and in lieu of that I might drift away and might not make sense in between..

This dates back to the first week of January - where I came back for my second semester; by train from Bangalore. It was by far my worst train experience - mainly due to the Snore Competition between the people occupying the compartment(Three months now, I can still recall the snores, if not their faces :D). Thanks to the noisy environs, I had to read a book through the journey - and well, not much luck there because I only had Revolution 2020 with me - Bad Read for a Bad Journey!

But on the bright side - I wasn't feeling homesick this time; I was actually longing for the sem to start. Though I hadn't particularly prepared for it in any sense; I was done with the long holidays. It seems like this cycle keeps going - when you have holidays, you want to work; and when you have work, you long for holidays(or may be its just me - I dont see anyone around here who shares this thought).

I had enough of trains this time - listening to the same set of songs over and over on my phone, crippling around trying to catch sleep or kill time in the upper berth, unscheduled stops when a Shatabdi crossed over, and a whole day of journey! I decided to mostly travel by buses then on, and have kept the decision until now. One mond boggling question - why dont upper berths have windows o_O ????

After a whole day journey I landed at Bandra - and there came the realization that you don't get autos from there. So I took a Taxi voluntarily for the first time - and it seemed like it roamed around half of Bombay before reaching IIT. On the way, I came across this place called Saki Naka; a name I believed was fictional - wonder what it means ?? The journey gave me a sort of 'I am filthy rich' feeling considering that it cost more than the cost of the train ticket for me to reach IIT!!

All that and I finally reached - only to realize that there was no orientation that was supposed to be, and I could have stayed back a day or two more. Back to the present - planning to come back to Bangalore for
two weeks or so - yet again with the resolution of spending time fruitfully...

Why did I decide to write all this now - I can account it for the constant procrastination and the longing for a proper rant post in my blog after many days :D
Sorry to eat up the time of some of you very busy people...

Non-dancer at a Party

Had been to what was probably my first party - one organised by our seniors for their placements; and got reaffirmed that I am definitely not a dance and party animal :D

There were a lot of my friends and not-so-much friends dancing around crazy to some of the most heard songs around(alas - had to hear the same songs that play at hostel with some DJing...) , and I stood there at some corner watching them - amused but never inspired to put a step...
I did have company though - not everyone goes out there to let go and dance ..
And yeah, a few of them did try to pull me in and make me dance - mostly by fiddling forcefully. It turned out to be a vain effort - for it seemed more a puppetry than dance :D

Of course - there were the two holy grails of parties - loud beat music and drinks(yes, methodically asked whether one prefers to have alcohol and was made available; with the list of those who wanted it..).
I tapped my footsteps to the music - the nearest I got to dance!!
And obviously - I did not drink...

Then what was my intention of going there ? - just to observe what happens at parties - stuff that I have usually seen in TV or movies. I saw what I typed just now - and it sounds totally lame :D
All through I only kept wondering - what makes all these people go berserk and - what they term - "have fun".
So here I am - back at my "kottige" and blogging about my doing nothing at a party, while the others are - welll - still partying...