College Life...........

There wouldn't be an end to discussions that one has on their experiences and memories of LIFE @ IIT. Or to be more general their college life. It is celebrated, cherished by all and for ages. What sets it apart from this long journey of life, it its distinctiveness. 

It is distinct because of its rich social life. It is distinct because of our friends and teachers. It is distinct because of the joyful and fun situations that we have been and that we chose to be. And finally it is distinct because hardly people have that kind of charm in them later.

People who know that I am still in college, would wonder why he is describing this as something long lost. Well I agree with them, but what I am trying to, is to raise few important questions that might find some meaning here..... Life @ IIT. I prefer to call it a true social life. Why? We play, we dance, we party, we sing, we study, we act, we beat, we get beaten, we watch, we listen, we fight, we facebook, we gmail, we tease, we cry. we laugh...all facets of life packed into this small period of life.

And what is even more special with IIT is the opportunities that it provides to grow. Pick your interest, there is a group already working towards it and if not there people willing to join you. Say you wanna break a record, there will be hundreds supporting and participating. Call for a protest, there are thousands ready to march, shout and stand for hours together. Share your idea, there will be scores of peers, professors willing to guide you. Life here is heaven until you realise or miss it.

Why all the charm and liveliness goes behind the curtain once you step out of this world? Why the pursuit of happiness after college life is so unhappy? Why people become so pressured, depressed and life so challenging that people loose all the solace? Why people become so self centered? My description of college life given above might be too juicy for some. But,

Life here has its own dark times. We have quizzes, project submissions, presentations, interviews, intern's. It isn't that we don't have competition here. We have one of the best minds in country competing. The difference is that here, there are people who are supporting you, willing to give a helping hand, ready to share and care. Why is it absent outside? We do have a great share of sad times, we get scolded by parents, GF's, we get rejected by girls(boys), professors, staff. But then it isn't same outside, as we have people(actually loads) willing to guide us and help us out. 

Few might shout, "You do not have responsibility!!". I disagree. We have as much responsibility as anyone can. We have to study, we have to get good interns, we need to get fat pay packages, we need to care our friends, family and maintain relationships. All these might sound silly, but how different are they from what we all do later. We take care of children, we maintain relationships, we work to get good salary, we take care of family, friends. What I am pointing to is the difference in approach and conditions that surroundings provide.

These observations point out to the fact that we essentially loose our social life as I describe it above, when we go out in to the so called "real world". As if it isn't so now. Many people end up being self-centered, loosing friends, not knowing neighbors, always looking in terms of  'I, my, me, mine'. If it is that all those that trouble us in "real world" don't trouble us in college life. They do. We too are at times self-centered, at times competitive but then these are not the guiding principles. We live here in a dynamic balance of private and social life, a balance in competition and co-operation, a balance in love and hate.

This dynamism and balance is absent outside, its too one-sided. Where does the fault lie? I feel it is in social structures, the behavior that people develop and  that "cities" groom. This isn't the case in places rich in social life, like villages, IIT's etc. One should question, reason out if technology and the modern model of capitalist development are the causes. Their stress on individualism, competition, efficiency and standardization, I feel is the cause....

This is the aim of my article, to point out to the ills of the so called modern yet self-destructing society. Question, Reason, Argue, Discuss........and ACT

With love,

Vishnu Vardhan