Mr. Agrim Bari is an undergraduate student in the Electrical Engineering Department from the Y15 batch. Scroll down to pore over his adventures at IITK .
I reckon the days of the past as we leave, and now looking back, I think it was just this simple thing. I believed that the dreamer and the worker are naturally symbiotic and that is in each one of us. You have to realize the ‘fullness of being’ by the equal strands of dreamer and doer.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” the pioneering personal computer revolutionist Steve Jobs proclaimed through the floors of Stanford.
‘Yes ma, the class finally ended at 1 am and yes, I was not sleeping in the class’: When you try to think how different would your last class be from the normal mind numbing ones, what comes to your mind? Well, I can strike this one out, since it’s a reality for me now. But, aren’t people supposed to sleep at that time? Through the semester, the professor sailed with us through the islands of sleepy faces to lost faces to upset faces. The journey was the same, just that the people sailing were different. But, we, the students always had something to laugh for in his class. We made fun about him rushing towards the gate when a mischievous student was trying to trap us all in and screaming not to lock us. The classroom would roar with laughter when he cracked jokes about his graduation days, about an exam where the options made more sense than the questions.
‘Har ek friend zaroori hota hai’: We hold ourselves back from sharing our worries, stresses, anxieties, and fears of being seen as weak. It certainly goes away when the sheaths of our personality are shattered by the constant touches of friendship. One achieves a new level of vulnerability. Our emotions are valued here. We can be more authentic selves with these people, rather than emotionless automatons interacting. Besides that, I have been on a lot of trips with my friends, which supposedly all of you should be doing too in these four years. Since these are the moments, you will cherish when you are looking back at them years down the line. I remember my vacations, not because I went with a group of people I knew already but the fact that how little I knew about them even though we were part of the same team or same wing. Maybe this is what real friendship means. We say we are close to someone but, can we say we know that person? This very uncertainty makes us infinite beings, and so should we enjoy their infinity. There are many folds to their personality, which never stop revealing, but during this process, we learn to connect and bond with each other.
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” often attributed to GEORGE BERNARD SHAW. Although, it’s doubtful he ever said it.
Some wise guy once told me, “Present your introduction in the form of a story in the interview it will help them connect the dots on your resume.” Stories right from the beginning of our life, starting from our grandparents telling us stories of their life to the stories we read in the books have occupied most of our learning adventure. Thus as it comes, this forms the best way of communication with friends, professors, or a new person. They always become a way of bridging the gap between two individuals. We make efforts to spice up our stories only wanting to be understood by people around us. So, the next time you feel shy about how to begin, think in terms of a story. Develop your storytelling skill, and you will get comfortable around people.
‘You’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you’re never as bad as they say when you lose’: What would happen if you prepared very well for your dream company but, you couldn’t get in? Whom should we blame: luck? Interviewer? Yourself? Bad Judgement? The hard-learned answer is none. Remember this one thing that all of you will be very successful ten years down the line, in turn; you would have been able to prove your mettle by having studied in this institute. This journey is no less than a roller coaster ride. Here you can only go high if you believe in yourself and endeavour to touch the sky. What you will learn out there would matter rather than what company name you would endorse after your campus placement. Failure is a pathway to success and should only be perceived like that. I believe that failure is a journey rich in knowledge and experience. If you lose your heart, talk to people who believe in you. Believe in yourself as your parents, your well-wishers, your close friends, and I do :D. But, don’t forget to dream, because, “The boy who never built a castle in the air will never build one on earth.”
‘Yeh bakaiti hota kya hai?‘: It is said that if you want to understand an unfamiliar culture, it’s a good idea to learn its language. The way people talk about the world tells you a lot about their values, beliefs, and customs like something as simple as ‘chill hai’ to ‘bakait and chaapu.’ First of its kind, that I witnessed here and has now become an indispensable part of my life, so dive in and let it hit you and your family :P.
‘Han yaar maza toh bahut aaya yeh char saal’: As I think of it now, when I will be leaving this campus in a few days, I have realized that why people become nostalgic. There was so much of free time here that we often had to fill it with other things. If not, we for sure, ended up scrolling Facebook or browsing on YouTube or joining a random ‘bulla’ session. Secondly, we had the freedom to leave and opt for a different thing if one per se didn’t satisfy our infinity. So go ahead and make these lifelong memories.
‘Yes, I failed EDT’: The one thing that I am taking with me while leaving this campus is ‘failure is the sinew that connects success.’ No matter what your background is, you can be just as successful as your peer. I have examples to quote for the same, me being the first I know. What I have realized is that at some point, you will fall, but you have to get up and fight because there still can be a happy ending. If not then, we all know ‘Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost!’
(A believer)
Edited by Avisha
