From a town to a city ..... A journey of a student

Night outs have become a habit in IIM Bangalore for last two weeks. As most of the classes in this semester are only after lunch break, almost everyday I go to sleep at around 4:30 / 5 am. And this has helped me to visualize that every campus has its own lifestyle. And thus IIM Bangalore is far far different than IIT Kharagpur.

The thing I like the most in IIMB is the weather. Believe me, it's awesome. After living 22 years in the sweaty Bengal, the last month at Bangalore was indescribable. It was amazing to get 22*C temperature on 30th May when the whole country is burning. And you really have to get something to wrap you while sleeping at dawn. For a lazy guy like me, it's really tempting. The second thing I should appreciate about this place is its campus. The campus is not so big, but the architecture of the academic blocks is awesome. And being a past civil engineer, this stone architecture of the campus attracts me a lot. The hostel, the gardens, the playground, the buildings and the road, everything is well maintained here. So, in terms of staying, IIM Bangalore is perfect.

But what I miss here at IIM Bangalore is life. I don't know what is about to come, but this one month stay is not so attractive to me. Kharagpur, even being 100km away from the main city, has its charm, what IIM Bangalore lacks. We used to hear in our first year @KGP that when all world go to sleep, IIT KGP wakes up. And that is actually true. You shall find the hangouts crowded all the day. And even at 5am if you feel hungry, Cheddi (uncle) will be there to serve you with his lots of variety: Tinku, Delta, Mohile etc. Forget about variety, even you do not get fried maggi in IIMB. Lets do not talk much about costs also. And, I don't know what happens on exam weeks, but at a normal night, perhaps you can count with your single hand the number of people awake. People can ask that they have classes from 8am, how can they stay awake till late night. But you know what, we also had classes in IIT, and that too from 7:30am. Still we used to live our life, night-life.

One more thing I do not find here is the depth of culture. May be because of its huge student community, IIT KGP has a very enriched culture that IIM lacks. “Arambh” is one of the important occasions here, but believe me, the performance was not of the level of a normal undergraduate college in any city. There was too much show off, but in deep it was too empty. Guys with no basic knowledge about dramatics and acting were doing mimes. I really discourage this type of show offs in cultural activities. I am really waiting for “UNMAD”, the main cultural festival of IIMB. Hope I'll get to see or shall make myself involved to produce some better performance at that time. Actually the student life at IIMB is so busy and competitive that you do not get time to fulfill your cultural appetite. And with such a low variety of profiles, where 90% of students come from engineering background, it is pretty much obvious that the cultural output will not be up to the mark, which is the case for IIMB. I do not have played much in my college life, so really can't compare between the two institutions in terms of sports and games. But I appreciate the infrastructure provided for sports, which is far better than IIT KGP.

Obviously, four long years in Kharagpur may make me biased towards IIT. May be only after my five years stay in Bangalore, I shall be able to comment rightly about this institution. But at the deep of my heart, I still feel, Kharagpur was much more lively than this prestigious management institute of the Silicon City of India.

Looking back for a while

In 2005, when I joined my engg college, I had no idea about internet. Yahoo gave me the opportunity to peep into this vast world by providing me a little space to store my e-mails which were very rare to me at that time. Slowly I came to know about yahoo messenger, rediff, hi5 etc in a few months. I can very well remember, my very first friend in internet world was Hina Dixit, a senior from some other engg college, who is in contact with me till now.

Google and Orkut came much later, only in my second year. Even then I did not have my own comp, and had to borrow timeslots from others to use their computer. But still, internet was a huge attraction for me. Blogging, chatting and orkuting were a daily habit for me. Fortunately that changed my life also. And today wherever I am, it is only because of a very rare magical moment that came into my life some 3 years and 9 months back. And gtalk and orkut had become a part of my life till then.

Time passed, as I left my college, joined a job, quit the job, got admission in a graduate school, but gtalk and orkut are still indispensible to me. But, now a day, a few other websites is attracting me a lot. Facebook with its huge store of games and applications has made me fully concentrated towards it. Initially I was a bit biased towards Orkut as I have lots of memories with it. But really Orkut is no competition for FB. And truly speaking, I am addicted with Mafiawars. During my late night studies, like today, when I fell fatigue and try to refresh my mind, I click on the most visited website shown in Chrome, and it is FB. And a few minutes browsing give me enough entertainment to get the energy to go back to my work.

Thus, as the time passed and as I grew up for last 5 years since 2005, my tastes and habits of internet usage changed. Time has shown me the path of making myself contemporary. But still I miss YM badly. I miss the red background of YM, and the erotic sound of the “Buzz”. I miss the yellow one and the sound of the breeze. I miss those old and great emotions, laughing and jumping and crying and kissing all the time. Really, whatever change comes in the modern social networking habits, I still love and will love those sweet old days of YM of about three years back.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Modirar mithey gandho mise chilo rater akashe,
Swimming pool er nil joler pase aagun jaliyechilo keu keu,
Modhyo rater nidrahin asokto chokhe
mridu mondo bataser choya
enke diye jachilo
na cherna kono ondho akorshoner alpona.
Noro narir matal payer dolay
mete uthechilo dance floor
chena ganer tale tale.
Mete uthechilo oora
Odhbhut kono ek mottotay
Akash jure awaj uthechilo sei ratey,
“Happy New Year”

Aamio chilam.
Sei nil rater ahohane sara diye
kothao hoyto aamio khuje nichilam
obhinondon aar ushnota.
Tai ses rate jokhon ghum ghum chokhe ghore firechilam
mon ta jeno urchilo furfur kore,
naki ghore ferar dak sunchilam bar bar.
Aamio chilam sei mottoay,
Sokoler sathe.

Ghore ferar pothey
Hotat e garir kach theke chokh porlo rastay
Sekhaneo jolche aagun
10 degree tapmatrar asambhab sit katate
khor kuto kagoj er joro kore aagun lagiyeche keu
Aar ses rater nibhu nibhu aagun er pase suye aache se
Ke oo? Kea ache suye?
Ghum chokh mele dekhlam
Rastar dhare kukre suye thaka loktar porone
khali ekta half pant
Urdhango sompurno nogno.
Kalo pither ulongo artonad e
na pawar nirmom hahakar!
Kintu ki odhbhut shanti oi ghumonto du chokhe!!
Ki odhbhut byathao!!

Egiye gelo gari,
Miliye gelo drisho ta janlar kach theke….

Aamio chilam sekhane,
Bhalobasar sei ratey,
Amio giola miliyechilam sokoler sathe,
“Happy New Year”

Dilemma

I was in class IV, I guess, when, for the first time I was asked about what I want to be in my life. It was an English class and our teacher gave us to write an essay on it. I remember well, I wanted to be a bus driver. I was a blind fan of the driver of my school bus who used to drive it in narrow lanes of my town in a very high speed. I never knew that there are functions of accelerator and brakes also. But the rotating action of steering used to make me so excited that I never let my friends to sit in the first seat in the driver’s cabin.

I was a good business planner from my childhood. I cannot remember the exact age, may be in class VII or VIII, when I made a business plan of stationary products, mainly exercise books. I calculated all the pre-functioning expenditures, labour wages, maintenance charges and transportation charges etc, though I never knew the technical terms at that age. And after all these, I found that I can make a good profit of Rs. 1 lakh every month (obviously before any tax …. had no idea about taxes at that time). Alas! The idea did not turned out to be good later.

After my 10^th board exams results I stopped thinking. I was sailing with the waves and never knew what I should do. I studied in the best school in West Bengal. I cracked entrance exams of prestigious engineering institutes. And I found myself celebrated by lots of people around me, my friends, their parents, some girls etc. I enjoyed it, for the first time in my life; I enjoyed every bit of the praises I used to get at that time. And I stopped studying. I started to hate my subject, my institution, its professionalism. I became passionate about dramatics and elocution; I loved NSS Camps, sleepless nights with friends, late night canteens and lots of other things that a studious and careerist guy should avoid. In the mean time I felt in love also. And in these waves of dreams and passions, unknowingly, I got my coveted degree of B.Tech in a subject that I do not know even a little bit. And then I got a job also. I left my home dreaming to be responsible by doing a job and making a career for me.

But really, even after externally being very successful in my life, I do not know what I really want. I am not sure whether I want to be an engineer or a manager or something else. I am not sure what actually I am looking for in my life. I feel jealous for those children I see in this tribal area of Chattisgarh, where I work. They play all day long, they learn from the nature. They know which tree gives sweet fruits, which stream has good water. They learn how to grow foods in a rocky land and where to sale them. Their parents earn a very few money, they eat, drink, sleep and sing. Poverty, malnutrition, lack of education and medical facilities are their problems. But they really do not care much about those things. They are living happily and will live in their own society and culture. They know what they want. I, even being a graduate engineer from one of the best engineering colleges of India, does not know why I am doing this, and what do I really want.

Do you know what you want in life?