Are IITs really worth it?

Millions of people aspire to join these prestigious institutions IITs in India. We all have slaved and slogged long hours to get into these dreamlands which have made every uncle and aunty its ardent devotees. But, was it all really worth it?

I am writing a post on my personal blog after what seems like a lifetime. I have been busy with other chores, course curriculum and personal and professional commitments. It is as if I almost stopped listening to the voice inside whenever it spoke about life's "general stuff". Too immersed in the competitive dogma of the institute, we often forget that we are independent and free people and can choose to live without following the doctrines of this false process of life.

Not more than a couple of months ago when I started building my Resume, a thought struck me. It has never left me since and I am pretty sure it is taking up an even larger and well defined form as we leave days behind. I read a lot, both on books and on web. I have got a varied variety of friends ranging from Army-men to journalists, from producers to lawyers. Everyone has their own set of stories as different individual but when you put them all together, you would find out that life isn't as difficult and harsh as it is portrayed here. Resume is heavily hyped and so is placements. Placement is merely a rendition of institute organized job opportunities which is not "it". There are tons of other stuff that a person can do and can hope for. Life doesn't end at IIT and neither does it begin here. It is a phase and it will go someday. One should make good use of this place for their learning curve but that's it. If someone tries to extract everything thrown at him from the institute, he is only doing what he is being asked to. That is not independence. One should be wise enough to properly think about the stuff that he wants to do and not regret later. I hate to say this but there is a lot of negativity in this place. Wherever you see, there is a false premise of highly increased expectations and a fixed set of jobs that a person can do and has to do. There is no getting out of this. But, this is where it gets tricky. They try to conform you into its set of rules that vanish once you are out of this place. Is there a way out of this without feeling left out?

My prime concern deals with the amounting tension and pressure around the work. Does improvement and advancement mean that we work longer hours, give up holidays and have life only on weekends filled with pressure due to work? Isn't life supposed to be full of merrymaking and living it on our own terms? What if I follow the same path, tried-and-tested over generations, only to find out it was wrong? What if I look back at this day and find out that my apprehensions about my future path were right and that I should have figured out my own way? Well, I think no one can answer these questions perfectly but on some or the other levels, we all know what's best for us. We are just not ready to listen to that inner voice called instinct.

IITs do teach us a lot and prepare us to earn a lot of money without a doubt. But the way things happen here and the way you are "supposed" to move in your life is worrisome. Are Finance-consultancy, IT-coding and core jobs the only set of jobs available? Are Masters, IAS and MBA the only set of directions one can move if he wants to do something other than a job at the moment? Is it really that difficult for us to get a job in this country or anywhere in the world? C'mon, we more than anyone else know we will definitely get hired by someone. We just need to know where to look for. If you don't want to try at all, you can always go for a coaching firm which pays a handsome salary with no burdens. If only this thought was made available to those people who have commited suicide! People feel that if they can't score well, they can't get placements and without it, there is nothing. No one goes around "duniya kya sochegi" concept anymore. We are way past it or so I would like to believe out of my experience. The issue here is that people don't know the right places to look for. World shouldn't be that difficult. IITs are very harsh at times and they keep making one's life revolve around itself since they first joined IIT coaching when they ought to be exploring themselves. Their whole universe surrounds around this place. So, when they find that they could not make it big here, they lose all hope and want to end their lives. Was it justified even a bit?

I think a job is only as good as the amount of satisfaction it provides. A person can earn well at a PSU and can learn even there. We should keep learning throughout our lives and not just at an institution. IITs create this innate feeling inside its residents that if it is not a job in a private firm, it is not a job and this is completely absurd. I am not debating good and bad between private and public but the very prejudice that people keep in their minds during their stay and beyond is nonsensical. I would reiterate, a job is only as good as the amount of satisfaction it provides. So, even if you work at a multinational as a fresher and earn a package of 12LPA, you wouldn't really be contributing anything huge. You will be asked to fill excel sheets and to make PPTs. And on top of that, you will be asked to complete these in very short times if you want that "promotion" or foreign trip to a newly opened branch. YOU CAN GET THOSE THINGS AT PSUs WITH VERY LESS PRESSURE. One just needs to have their priorities right and he can go well in their life. LIfe isn't really as difficult as it portrays itself to be. We just need to be on the lookout for what is right for us and we'll be fine.

IIT Exam Entertainments

All the non-IITians, please refer to this link for some of the IITB lingo used in this post. Trust me. You'll need 'em. 

Oh boy! We are beating all the trends and stereotypes of IITians all through. We enjoy examinations like midsems and endsems with all our hearts. Not the examination to be specific, but for the very essence of being part of the R.G. There is one or the other confession pages that pop up receiving the highest data inflow, Facebook ever witnessed till then. Some of the other forms of midsem-masti (read midsem luhkkha) involves changing the profile pictures into favourite Pokemons or cartoons. They never fail to impress and entertain me and the entire IIT fraternity in the way of innovation.This Midsems (2014-Spring) too has been a part of innovation with students changing their profile names into famous celebrities with appropriate profile pictures and cover photos. The status updates from these profile are based on the normal people perception of these guys trending on social media for a long time now. There is an Alok Nath now who won't stop blessing people and would look for every possible chance for a Kanyadan. There is a Sachin Tendulkar who has made an announcement of returning to International Cricket. Then we have a bunch of other cricketers like Ishant Sharma, Aashish Nehra, etc. We have Arnab Goswami who keeps on asking questions to people claiming the question to be posed by the nation accompanying a tagline "The Nation Wants to Know". Then there are parody accounts of Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev, Bapu, a dozen of Anu Malik's, Kapil Sibal, Rajiv Gandhi, Narendra Modi and what not. On top of these, there is a parody account of Rahul Gand..., well Pappu, who whenever opens his mouth, talks about women empowerment, RTI and shit.

Pranav Mistry in TechFest

Hell yeah! We got Pranav Mistry in IIT-B for an interactive session. It was pleasant on the eyes to witness a man of that formidable skills and vision. He started by saying how he was standing in a line outside of the Convocation Hall 10 years ago to listen to one of the lecture series of TechFest and now he is on that part of the Convo. He is currently the head of Think Tank Team and Director of Research of Samsung. 

He talked about his approach for the various products he has designed. He then displayed one of them to us for real. He took out his android phone, opened his YouTube app and searched for TechFest, opened the video and did some gesture on the screen with his hand and put the device away. Now, he took his android tablet and made another similar gesture on this device and the same YouTube video started to play here. We were all amazed. He joked that his fingers were like his pen-drive and that he transferred the link and similar sorts. Later, he revealed that it was actually the mixed effort of camera and cloud storage. Camera detects face and as per the gesture, it sends the YouTube link to the person's cloud storage and later retrieves it back. 

He told about his other achievements, his IIT-B days and how he spent a good time with A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the then President of India, and how he managed to develop stuff right from scratch. It was all amazing to hear to him out. Thank You TechFest.

FRIENDS

It is no alien to anyone that all of us have many friends but good friends, very few. When these good friends move away from our life and are not that easily accessible as they used to be, we tend to get bulged with sorrow. It is just that most of us are not that good at handling the separation from social binds. I would call it INERTIA of society which often accepts an intrusion of an outsider but never wants to let any member escape. I have seen many of them in my lifetime till now and I must admit that I am very bad at handling them. I spent most of my childhood in Kolkata and had great friends there.Then I moved from Kolkata to Vijayawada(A.P.) and made many good friends there too. Then I moved from there as well and came to Mumbai. These transitions have been very difficult for me as I knew I won't be seeing many of those friends anymore soon. It has taken a while for me to adjust in Mumbai and I am again in the same condition. 

After having spent almost 2 and  a half years in IIT, I suddenly realized yesterday that some of my friends in the final year are nearing their end in IIT and will be here for merely 5-6 months. I am trying to avoid this fact but I seem to have gotten into the thought. It's getting very difficult for me to take away my mind from this. I know that we can't be permanent anywhere but it is the beauty of bonding that makes us believe that friends are permanent. I wonder how troubled I would feel once I am in my final year and all of us would move out of the campus. 

Friends are like the most vital part of life in the institute. We discuss everything from Politics, Studies, TV Series, Movies, Bollywood, Hollywood and "Comedy Nights with Kapil". We fight with one another, yet hold each other's back. We crack joke on a friend and then follows the epic one liner "Babaji ka thullu". The importance of a friend is realized in almost every thing we do here like proxy, gaming and TREAT. The random chit chats at room, Counter Strike, night whatsapp-ing, morning "gm" messages, Gmail texts and fb messenger are an important part of us. Mann, we know how to make use of all the gadgets and techies we are surrounded by as long as we have the backing of the strong godfather NETMON. We share a look when a hot girl passes in front of us and the short discussion that follows is what charges us. We all have that friend who studies everything for the quiz beforehand but when asked about the syllabus, he contracts his eyebrows and exclaims "Kal quiz hai??". We are never gonna get this kind of fraternity anywhere else and as life goes on, we get incorporated in our own worlds and gradually all of these are just available in our sweet memories to cherish. I don't know how to end this post so, I would go with the trial and tested method, a quote.

A person who truly believes that copying in an exam is wrong and yet agrees to show his answers to a friend, is a true friend. :P

- HARSH ANKUR

Truth Alone Prevails

The very words that define India on the government bills and documents are the above-stated ones, SATYA MEVA JAYATE. This has been the national motto of INDIA for a long time now and anyone with any connection with India is aware of the words. This drags the interest of any individual towards the moral values and the ethnicity of our existence that builds up the Indian society which is however criticized to not being followed in the modern India.
The other area that our mind points to, on hearing the words “Satya Meva Jayate” is the popular talk show by the same name that aired on Star TV network and on Doordarshan last year. The program targeted many social problems and outcast the very importance of humanity and the abuse to it done by many citizens across India.
I got an opportunity to attend a lecture by Mrs. Swati Bhatkal, the co-director of “Satya Meva Jayate” organized by my team in IIT Bombay. She explained many difficulties which their team had to face while covering and planning the show which includes the security of the persons showing up on the TV and many more. She said that even the poorest of the people offered them tea and requested to have a meal at their inn. This showed that the notion of “Mehman Bhagwan Hota Hai” , i.e., “God resides inside Guests'” is still prevalent in our society India. She took us through the cases she dealt with which includes a bold woman by the name Manju. She had been a victim of attempt to murder in her infant age by her father just because she was a girl. She now runs an NGO in the Haryana and Punjab area of India which deals with fighting against female foeticide and creating awareness about the same.
Eagerly waiting for season 2 of Satya Meva Jayate.

Hope!!!

“We wouldn’t make it I fear”, muttered Hemant who was in the cab along with me and a fellow intern, Sahil at Kota from our institute IIT Bombay. It’s probably the most terrible traffic jam, one could find in his life in Mumbai. We started an hour and a half ago and had to crawl through the roads from my institute to Borivali station. We could make only to the half in the first hour and were left with another dozen of kilometers to cover amidst the heavy traffic. Dad started calling and I was clueless of what to speak out as this had never happened before to any of us to have missed a train; it was a good experience though chasing all the way through the incoming buzz of passengers in the station carrying heavy suitcases and a backpack carrying the most precious possession of a college student – LAPTOP. I kept my fingers crossed all through the journey. I started counting 120 secs reverse while on a halt at the traffic lights in order to compensate for the exponentially increasing heartbeat frequency. Now, we were left with 5 more kilometers to be covered in 7 remaining minutes. I hurriedly made a call to the Indian Railways IVRS and went along with the instructions expecting to get a good news about the train being late. I had no idea as to what response I was about to receive from the machine sitting on the other end of the phone and guess what, “Mumbai se Jaipur jaane wali gadi 10 minute late hai.” We all shouted with glee and the driver gave a cherishing smile which soon got abducted by his high level concentration while driving the car. Mann, I respect the dedication with which he was driving. We soon started retaining our hopes which was almost lost and here we were again, right in the mid of a traffic, this was of a short duration though. I kept my patience and the driver soon drove us to the station. We jumped out of the cab and gunned towards the rear hood of the cab to unbuckle it, took our luggage out and made our way to platform 2, the usual place for our train. I started moving towards the platform and what did I see, the train has already caught up speed. It all came with a strike and there we were again-helpless!!. I looked high up in the sky and suddenly the coach-display LED caught my attention which displayed a different train no. from ours. We hurriedly enquired about the correct platform for our train and learned that it had been diverted to platform four for this day. We once again lifted our suitcases and BOLT!!!… We reached to the skywalk and there it gave us a sigh of relief to find that the train hadn’t yet arrived. We reached the platform, waited for the train, got up and here I am writing this blog.
Sayonara