Of Mars and Spics
It's strange how organizations and institutions tie us up by just being there. When we join an organization, there is a sense of nervousness and fear about the whole thing. - New place, new people, new relationships and so on. You may start off by hating your hostel room or office cubicle. In due course of time, however, the very same places become the cosiest and the most comfortable ever. You start relating to the place and building an identity (naturally or otherwise) for yourself there. And yes, there is this phase when you might feel 'What am I doing here?' - I seem to be going nowhere. Though when the exit finally happens, there are mixed feelings again!
The stark grey stones of my institute failed to endear to me when I saw them for the first time. In fact, my first visit was highly disappointing! I felt the campus was too small, too randomly built and lacked any architectural design. I felt the hostel blocks were lifeless, the rooms where shady-max and the whole place - Just plain COLD - in every sense of the word. This was almost reinforced when I got the chance to join the institute. The greenery in the campus seemed only to me a brilliant facade to a dark, bleak interior. After 20 months, I can say I was not completely wrong. Surely not right either! There are times this place is teeming with life (from 9 pm to 2 am to be precise). An outsider will surely take some time to digest that. But sure as hell, there is a lot of time for yourself, You and you only - and it's you who decides how you use this time - A lot of my friends and cousins who've been here (or similar places) tell me '2 years just flew by - I dont know how it was so fast'. To me, it wasn't that fast. I've tried to savour (and at other times, digest) most of my time on the campus and have felt proper 2 years going away.
Yes, there are a lot of changes in the way I think about the campus today. It's surely quite big (100 acres in Bangalore), very well-designed and I love my room (in spite of the unceasing construction drone for the past 8 months). I was able to do a lot of things which I had stopped (or rather stalled) while I was working. My fancy for running a shop almost happened and I got to move closer to many music stalwarts. Not all is hunky-dory and I have my share of cribbings as well, though I choose not to trouble myself typing them out now :) I hear that the stone theme of the campus suits the Bangalore weather - so be it - In not more than 40 days, I'll leave this place - As in my previous post, this is a threshold and is quite exciting. For all the nervousness, butterflies in my stomach, told and untold stories :), happy and other moments, and more - this place is surely an EXPERIENCE.
Being in a new environment should be fun, - new place, new people, new relationships. Drawing a parallel, can this organization-safety net theory be extended to relations, institutions like marriages and jobs as well? People get into relations, go steady, there are good and bad times, and then there's a baaaaa...d and time, but we think, 'yeah.. that's ok.. I have to live with this.'... - NO, move on, there are other things that could be more exciting?! Very debatable - fits a Neeya Naana topic to a T! I can almost hear Gobinath shouting 'Indraya soozhnilayil, Kalyanam yenbathu arthamatrathaagi vittathaa?' - Ha ha... While extrapolating to marriage might be too far-fetched, sticking to bad jobs (or bad roles in good companies) sounds pretty ok an analogy!
Anyway, may L-21, EB 009 and the other halls in this insitute prosper, may there be more and bigger hostel rooms for the incoming batches - may there be more light at the end of the tunnel!
The stark grey stones of my institute failed to endear to me when I saw them for the first time. In fact, my first visit was highly disappointing! I felt the campus was too small, too randomly built and lacked any architectural design. I felt the hostel blocks were lifeless, the rooms where shady-max and the whole place - Just plain COLD - in every sense of the word. This was almost reinforced when I got the chance to join the institute. The greenery in the campus seemed only to me a brilliant facade to a dark, bleak interior. After 20 months, I can say I was not completely wrong. Surely not right either! There are times this place is teeming with life (from 9 pm to 2 am to be precise). An outsider will surely take some time to digest that. But sure as hell, there is a lot of time for yourself, You and you only - and it's you who decides how you use this time - A lot of my friends and cousins who've been here (or similar places) tell me '2 years just flew by - I dont know how it was so fast'. To me, it wasn't that fast. I've tried to savour (and at other times, digest) most of my time on the campus and have felt proper 2 years going away.
Yes, there are a lot of changes in the way I think about the campus today. It's surely quite big (100 acres in Bangalore), very well-designed and I love my room (in spite of the unceasing construction drone for the past 8 months). I was able to do a lot of things which I had stopped (or rather stalled) while I was working. My fancy for running a shop almost happened and I got to move closer to many music stalwarts. Not all is hunky-dory and I have my share of cribbings as well, though I choose not to trouble myself typing them out now :) I hear that the stone theme of the campus suits the Bangalore weather - so be it - In not more than 40 days, I'll leave this place - As in my previous post, this is a threshold and is quite exciting. For all the nervousness, butterflies in my stomach, told and untold stories :), happy and other moments, and more - this place is surely an EXPERIENCE.
Being in a new environment should be fun, - new place, new people, new relationships. Drawing a parallel, can this organization-safety net theory be extended to relations, institutions like marriages and jobs as well? People get into relations, go steady, there are good and bad times, and then there's a baaaaa...d and time, but we think, 'yeah.. that's ok.. I have to live with this.'... - NO, move on, there are other things that could be more exciting?! Very debatable - fits a Neeya Naana topic to a T! I can almost hear Gobinath shouting 'Indraya soozhnilayil, Kalyanam yenbathu arthamatrathaagi vittathaa?' - Ha ha... While extrapolating to marriage might be too far-fetched, sticking to bad jobs (or bad roles in good companies) sounds pretty ok an analogy!
Anyway, may L-21, EB 009 and the other halls in this insitute prosper, may there be more and bigger hostel rooms for the incoming batches - may there be more light at the end of the tunnel!
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