Joys of reading

I was recently reading The Gift by Cecelia Ahern during my flight from Bombay to Udaipur. I had lately developed a tendency to skim through novels, without caring about the long and seemingly boring details about a house, person's appearance, inconsequential conversations etc. I read only those parts carefully that were required to get to know the plot, others seemed a waste of time. No wonder, I was ditching midway most of the novels I started.

Maybe the Internet Attention Deficit Disorder had caught me. The compulsive urge to press Ctrl+Tab or to check if your facebook wall has some more updates or to browse aimlessly for some more time; shifting your attention from one thing to another at such a fast pace that nothing really gets registered on your mind.

But reading The Gift was a completely different experience. After a long time, I was actually reading. It is not the story of a novel, but the small details that make reading it such a wonderful experience. Unless, you feel like you have visited a new place, met new people and lived a whole new experience, you haven't completely read a novel. This particular novel begins by saying it is about a person who during the course of this story discovers himself. It ends by saying that particular person was not the protege, but the reader himself!

Summer Internship @ IBM Research Lab

I can either write about my project and bore you with technical details or simply write about my experiences beyond the project in Delhi. I will for obvious reasons choose the latter, also because that part is more dear to me.

For the first time I was working in a company. The atmosphere was different from my previous internship - lot many people to interact with, very friendly people - you could almost sense the corporate atmosphere where developing a network is highly essential for professional growth. But behind this corporate outlook was a very human touch. My interaction was not just limited to the large groups of interns with diverse backgrounds, but to the very friendly employees as well. There were interns from across the world, spanning universities such as CMU, Rice University, Wright State University, various IITs, IIITs and many more. There were different kinds of people - the extroverts, the silent ones, the geeks, the treat-seekers, the treat-givers, the always serious ones and many many more types. We had formed a really close group and looked forward to the frequent treats, weekend outings and movie shows. The daily tea breaks often extended from 30 min break to 2 hours by our long chats and TT matches. I made some great friends and hope that we stay in contact in times to come. An IBM Summer intern'11 reunion would be legendary.

Besides the interns, the employees too were amazing. There was a lady from Watson Research Lab who had come to Delhi for a six-months visit. In this small time, she had started a noble work of teaching the slum children living next to our office. She gathered a group of IBM employees, and taught the kids and their parents twice a week. I too went with her - the affection that the kids had for her and that she had for the kids was humbling. She brought them gifts, took them for movies and taught them with dedication in spite of the language barrier.

The employees there were very helpful - be it helping me with my essays or helping me select my BTP topic - they were eager to help. There was so much to learn from those highly experienced and knowledgeable researchers.

IBM organized a lunch party with mentors and other researchers, the hilarious chai with dude session (imitating the Koffee with Karan interview style), the enlightening talk by the IBM India Research Director, Manish Gupta and the fun-filled outings to Fun-n-food village, movie show and a mall. This summer was in-all a memorable experience.

Halfway down the lane

(Written right after my second year in iit)
Two years into IIT, the dream place for millions of people, who can do just next to anything to get in here! But strange, we IITians don't ever realize this (atleast I don't). We are all so busy with our own "IIT problems" - grades, PoR etc. that we just don't feel the thrill which one should feel to be in this place. Well, to be frank, these two years were quite disoriented for me, I didn't know where I was heading. I took up every possible activity which interested me even a lil bit - dancing, debating, tech and elec workshops, coding contests, physics project, TF, MI, TT, Lawn Tennis. I was trying my hands at everything and was ditching those at even a faster pace. Well, the reason was simple, I didn't know what I wanted out of my life. (I doubt if I still know). But anyways, looking at the positive side of this chaos, one thing I learnt for sure, which we learn from every damn thing in this world - EXPERIENCE.
Sometimes we expect so much out of life that we don't see the small pleasures that define life, the sweet unforgettable moments get replaced by some stupid things in your mind, which 10 years down the line won't matter at all.
Truly, the best part of my IIT life so far is not any damn grade or any PoR, but my friends and the awesome max time that I have spent with them. Its here that I learnt to share my thoughts and my life with others and I realized that it is really awesome to truly live your life with others. All those gossiping, talks about life, dreams, crushes, laughing, crying together make me so nostalgic.
Its here that I have had some of the most extreme experiences, which I had never thought would happen to me! Really extreme - there were times when I was happy max, and at other times I was shattered. And I can't thank my family and friends more for sharing all those moments with me, it is at these times that you realize the importance of people who are part and parcel of your life, whom you take for granted, cause they are with you everyday. But isn't this life? living life to the fullest - experiencing both sides of life fully!
Things that I wish to change in the next two years - do things that i really love to do, instead of trying everything out, find out my passion in life ( I read it somewhere that college is the place to discover why have you been sent to this planet), try and defeat the IIT-madras TT team!! (losing against them in the finals since two years wasn't pleasing at all) and above all try and live every moment of my next two years as fully as possible, spend more time with my friends and spend more "me time"- doing the things that I love -reading novel, writing diary..

The Blank Paper

A blank paper. It is scary because of its enormous potential to sway on any side in any magnitude. It can take form of anything imaginable - a beautiful poem, a love letter or a death note. You can even crumple it and throw it in a dustbin, it won't say anything, but you will regret missing the experience of writing. You can write your story on it, or your ideas about future or the shortcomings or celebration of your past; it is your call and it has always been. But never copy paste from someone else's paper, your paper will lose its potential and shine. It is honest; like a mirror it is a true reflection of your thoughts. It has strength, you can even write hard on it; almost making a hole through; but it will resist the pen's strong impression even if it appears to tear apart any moment. You may even choose to write lightly, swaying in the breeze. Like I said it is your call, it has always been. No way of writing is wrong or right; it is just a way of writing, what is important is that you write. You may write in passionate red, or cool blue, or bright yellow, peaceful white, dusky grey or secretive black. What is important is that you write on it, experience how it feels to write. Remember that you are writing in pen, what you write cannot be erased, but the paper is infinitely long. But you may write as much as you wish, nobody will stop you from writing. It is your birth right. It is patient, it won't mind what you write on it, it won't complain if you write hard or write in a color it doesn't like, it will stay there silently, just watching you write. So keep writing, just write with all your passion and give it whatever form you want to give!

Fear

Awesome lines from the movie - Coach Carter

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, but our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not all the darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world; there was nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were all meant to shine as children do; its not just in some of us, its in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people the permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."