Bhaiya, IIT tak kitna paisa loge? (Bhaiya, how much will you take upto IIT?)
The auto-rickshaw driver gave a strange look at the young guy! All of a sudden, the guy realized that the city received him with a pinch of salt, and all his YouTube video explorations vanished in the warm and unfamiliar Mumbai road! Trying his level best to keep all his strangeness to himself under the newly bought sunglasses, he went inside the auto without asking anything else. The auto driver pulled the meter down and asked, “Sahar me naya ho kya Bhaiya?” (Are you new in the city?)
Yes, this is how the city received me. From the busy Mumbai road to the lonely campus lanes, from the tricolor traffic signals to the evergreen hostel lawns, from the late-night walks to the early morning classes, each moment has been an exploration, each day a new journey. We all start our campus life with new hope to learn, to explore, and to enjoy. As the new LDAP Id and password become a part of our life, gradually, we start looking for all those unknown terrains of thoughts and activities scattered everywhere in the campus: from cultural grandiose to tech festivals; from hostel gala dinners to enthralling sports activities; from new machines in the lab to those new hopes for a better future. IIT Bombay; inside the city of dreams, we are the ever-blooming flower that keeps growing and glowing each day.
The first thing that will grapple your attention the most in IIT Bombay is its openness and acceptance of every new thing around it. From day one you will encounter it at the hostel gates, playground, departmental offices, and most notably in the course work classes where we all are new to each other, yet part of the same journey ahead. It is almost like going back to those early school days of making friends and gradually getting to know each other more and more. From those free coffees at the Shiru cafe to the fighting over hot bhature on Sunday lunch, it’s a new journey of togetherness, a new venture of being with each other.
As we all become a part of this new world, it brings before us a host of opportunities beyond the strict academic routines. The mantra to a happy campus life is making friends and secondly, keeping an open eye for new things to explore. From all those unexecuted plans to many more unthought occurring, it will take you through several ups and downs of life but trust me; you will get to know yourself in a new garb at each passing corner. The eleven cultural genres, the eighteen elegant hostels, the numerous departments, the world-class gymnasium, student activity centers, cafeteria to the tinkerer' lab, it's a myriad of spectacle brought before your eyes where you want to cherish every bit of it. However, walking along the infinity corridor with your supervisor or friends can be an infinite expansion of knowledge too. As the mounting pressure of course work daunted my head initially, I realized the need for a detox and joined the culturals to explore myself beyond academics. The late-night practices at the open auditorium and those parathas from the hostel canteen are a smooth start of balancing between the academics and beyond-academic activities. The weekend conferences, the insightful speech from eminent personalities across the globe, and those free snacks at the end are enough to make your day happy and happening to express to your loved ones. Nevertheless, jumping in the blue watered swimming pool and trying your level best not to embarrass yourself with your poor swimming techniques can be a good evening adventure too.
However, research is a passionate rollercoaster that never lets you settle in, and probably, that is the best part of it. The acceptance of it and enjoying each and every ups and down along the journey has been the way of being there effortlessly for me. The piling up of new messages in the webmail is a repository of possibilities that I also neglected initially but gradually realized how it opens you up to the new worlds sprouting at different corners of IIT Bombay. The conferences, projects, events, talks, and collaborations are brought into a close view of our digital screen to explore beyond what we already have. Going beyond my own departmental programs, peeping into all those collective IIT events or other interdisciplinary workshops, and taking courses not restricted to my subject areas have been the best way of expanding horizons of knowledge. You get to know new people in the process, new ideas, and eventually, that might turn up to a new knowledge arena where you find your safe and happy harbor for the future. But you have to browse through all those different offerings to get a reach of it. That's the beauty of being together, that's the beauty of being in an IIT. Academics, culture, and sports are brought under one umbrella, and you have to choose to make the best of your time. As research is the most significant and critical part of this, appreciating myself for every little step forward has been the best way to be there, and have an equilibrium. Well, the long hours of TA duty and all those tiresome tasks of checking TA exam copies are entirely a different ballgame. The best way to balance is to have an excellent professional relationship with the instructor and a bad mobile network on your phone! Or in the best case, you can be among those 'good for nothing' guys who are best for their own work only! I know I am going to get more TA duties after this!
Doing a Ph.D. is a tough choice. Starting from that frightening birth year in the class 10th certificate making you realize your age, to all those growing responsibilities hovering over your head, to even those judging relatives looking at you with wrinkled eyes, - these all make it way more challenging than what it actually is. It is a journey where time is fast as well as slow on occasions. So, learning different skills and nurturing them with love, care, and passion is a way of dealing with all those times of nonsense. Where somebody learns guitar, some make robots, some find the self in social work, and somebody like me finds a life on the theatre stage: we all are explorers where some of us find new land, somebody doesn't, but we all have our own stories of the journey to share. We live with them, we connect them with our past, and we carry them forward.
By the end of the first semester at IITB, I realized the clumsiness that writ large within me and neither lets me do good at coursework nor explore anything else. Finding out something around the larger research work that keeps on motivating me has been a gift of the moment. It's okay not to know what exactly one wants to do, but exploring different possible things is the best way to move forward. Coursework will be there, TA duties will be there, there will be days of meaninglessness, but all will be pages of that big volume, called LIFE.
That day I accepted my newness to the city, learned the auto meter rules of Mumbai, and saw the city through the eyes of rickshaw wale bhaiya. We exchanged numbers, and I became his permanent passenger, and he- my city travel guide! As you enter a city, the city gradually enters into you. As you enter an institution, the institution gradually resides within you.
But now, this is a very tough time we all are going through. Whereas the campus is struggling hard with the growing COVID crisis, we all are struggling with our online classes and other issues. But hope always prevails here. As the auto wale bhaiya is waiting to give me a happy ride again, the campus is also eagerly waiting to welcome new students!
N: B- When you come to Mumbai, make sure you don't ask for the auto fare. It runs on meter.
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