LIFE AND ENGINEERING

It was 2008, second week of July when the new batch of to be manufactured engineers arrived in VIT, but we had no idea we would actually learn and grow here. Well, not all of us learnt engineering but we all did learn a lot about people, friends and life itself. Perhaps we all can agree that no matter how exhausting and frustrating that IT assignment was in second semester, or how impossible it seemed to learn Math from Vijayaragavan in the first, we did overcome all that. We are not gonna miss our college, but the elements that made it up. Our friends, the areas of the campus and hostels and the times we spent doing what seemed bakchodi then but one of the most memorable and precious parts of our lives now.

During the orientation I was told that my classes would be held at SJT. And it turned out be some task to find it. There were no boards leading to it, nor did anybody I asked for directions knew where it was. There wasn’t even a proper road or footpath back then due to the ongoing construction. The tunnel was just a dream back then for the boys in L block. But curse and yell was all we could do and boy, we did add some new words to our vocabulary!

Then came the labs. I hated the chemistry one, but it was Physics that made me walk out of one of the lab exams with just my name on the paper. And that did teach me a lesson. No matter how badly you screw your CATs (no pun intended) a night’s study before the term-end is all it takes to a C, given that the examiner is not hammered. As for the chemistry lab, I had to take it up twice because of the irrational rule which made it compulsory to do your lab too if you failed theory. Yeah, that reminds me, VIT taught me what failure feels like. Not once or twice, but I got to learn that lesson five fucking times.

We accepted the fact that our batch has been a bunch of guinea pigs since school. We became the first batch of FFCS or which was also known as FCFS till recently when our juniors defied boundaries (literally) by sleeping in academic buildings. But enough about them. According to FFCS we couldn’t register a subject unless we study its prerequisite. And we all know this rules was never broken, neither in the third semester nor in the sixth.

But all that has passed and so have we. What didn’t kill us made us stronger. After living in Vellore, the place with only three seasons, hot, hotter and hottest, we can live anywhere in the world, take in all the tormenting and come out smiling. We don’t need an official CR to lead us, we can and have stepped up for ourselves and one of our teachers would even testify. Engineering was never our priority. No course ever is. We came together to learn to live and co-exist and now it’s gonna be hard to exist without each other, but we’re engineers, there’s no stopping us. Even lord Ram needed one of our types.

So, let’s get those cams out and also ourselves and try reliving those four years because it’s been a wonderful journey. We may have not learnt what engineering was supposed to teach us but we surely have learnt what life did.

A STUDENT'S KRYPTONITE

I spent four years trying to understand the significance of treating students as lambs and teachers as shepherds. Well, corrupted shepherds of course. And what I understood is that there's nothing to understand. Authorities may continue to speculate modern classrooms as ancient ashrams but that doesn't change the fact that teachers today are no Valmikis or Vyass and no student is an Eklavya or an Aruni. There are exceptions of course and in such cases, the speculative student-teacher relationship need not be enforced; it builds up by itself.

It just feels wrong when a teacher repeats what the books say but behaves as if it's their own hard work of million years, by yelling and mocking students. Whatever happened to, "learning is a two way concept" and "teaching is learning twice".

A teacher's entry in a classroom has become synonymous for dozing time for me. He/she is like an agent armed with notes, mostly digital these days, an authority and the most powerful weapon, the attendance register. No matter how hard you're hit by the sleep bullet, you have to cut off your eye lids or risk being killed by shortage of attendance, a student's Kryptonite. Wouldn't it be a lot better if teachers and students were more like friends? Because c'mon, we all have that one teacher who we all know, including himself/herself, needs more tutorship than his/her students. And the true, learned teachers might become the best friends we ever had with their moral support and guidance.

If colleges really want to create intelligent and independent professionals, how about some independence from the learning stage. Sure we'll screw up but it's the screwing up today that helps you make up a "screwed-up"less future. 

IMMORTAL - II

Rest, don't sleep when tired

Burn, don't die when pyred
Not the ones to give up challenges
But the one to take up are admired

Bleed, don't plead when bruised
Learn, don't cry when used
You may get cut, get stuck in a rut
But you're strong enough to come out amused

Prepare, not scared when storms you see
No matter how big the challenge, don't flee
Leave a mark behind, before death you find
And I promise, immortal you will be

Link to Immortal - I

आँखों में झील

रात के अंधियारे में

सन्नाटा जब छाता है
आँखों में सजी झील से
कुछ नीर कम हो जाता है

मूँद कर आंखें जो रोकूँ इसे
आँखों का बाँध टूट जाता है
गंगोत्री अश्कों की प्यार में
ऑंखें नहीं दिल बन जाता है

जो घर था खुशियों का
हर बूँद में वो पल है
जलता है अब आग सा
एक परी का महल है


उस नीर के सूख जाने पे
काश दिल में प्यार भी सूख जाये
आँखों में सजी झील से
कुछ और नीर ना कम हो पाए 

CHANGE

All we need is a change sometimes
A break, a void from our daily crimes

When the stinking carcass of love
That we didn't deserve
Rots amidst lacerated hearts
Look within your soul
Abusing a gifted control
Perhaps there still lie purer parts

On no food we feed
Driven by our greed
Wealth the new deity in Godtown
With betrayal the new blood
Killing is a cud
We do it easy, with no frown

But karma is a bitch
Pushes you into a ditch
Like a buffoon you start to wonder
What went wrong
It was merry all along
And you blame Him for your blunder

But our soul has a sinless side
Something we all like to hide
If only we uncap its shine
Acknowledge the beauty so sublime
Because all we need is a change sometimes
A break, a void from our daily crimes