Summers (China, JNC), back to KGP, MS, OP, Recruitment, IC & midsems

Life IS hectic. When you start living it fully, it is rarely that you get a chance to document it. But when you do, the memories you recollect makes it yet another great experience!

At the start of the summers, I was sure I would get bored at some point of time. But AIESEC always surprises you. The internship I went through in Shanghai taught me a lot of things. My job role was to teach English and basic information about the environment and the World Expo that was happening there. I was working under the project "Hands on Expo, Hands on Love!" The fact that I got to experience Chinese culture along with personal development in Shanghai, Suzhou and Beijing is in many ways thanks to the AIESEC team there - Mango and Cami from AIESEC in Fudan University were very helpful :)

I visited a lot of place in and around Shanghai. You can always have a look through of some of the pics in my Flickr album - www.flickr.com/photos/theworldendstoday/. Living a Chinese lifestyle with other interns from around the world - Malaysia, Poland, Mexico, Indonesia, Russia - was a humbling experience. Of course, the fact that all of them were girls did help in the overall greatness of the experience.

Four weeks into the internship, I got news that the most awaited national conference of India is coming up a week prior to my ETD (does that exist? Expected time of departure.) from Shanghai. So, I cut short my trip and went directly to Silvassa near Mumbai for another great experience! Our Local Chapter in IIT Kharagpur won the prize for Best Virtual Platform Utilization. Since, I was also a part of the team that brought it for IIT Kharagpur, I was overwhelmed with joy! And of course, I made a lot of friends there. It is when we interact with others that we get to really know the extent of our achievements and shortcomings. When we see that youth across the country is working towards the same goal of creating experiences, your zeal to work increases automatically.

Some other things I did which may be noteworthy of mention :

• I went back to Mom (she would have come to kgp and killed me if I didn't) and bro. Their stay in Chennai was getting more settled which I noticed after Mom started going out to the city ON HER OWN!!! 
• I met a good friend from Bangalore - Mohsin who seemed horrified that he's now living in Chennai and studying in Trivandrum. 
• My results came out too. Ya, I had passed but my marks were, to the horror of my parents (mind you, only my parents), one of the lowest in my batch. 

BACK TO KGP!

Megnad Saha Hall of Residence

I wasn't sure what I was expecting but my flight back to Kolkata and the road trip to Kharagpur filled me with excitement of the year to come. It gave me a feeling of belonging when I saw the gate and the building that will play a major role in my future. But I guess that was just me forgetting what was in store for me. You see, classes hadn't started. Nor had the famous OP or Orientation Programme. I had known that my new hall of residence was gonna be Meghnad Saha Hall of Residence and I was sarcastic of the general notion that you will develop an attachment for the hall if you are in a senior hall and that your hall mates will be your best friends. But then, I hadn't gone through OP. OP started and soon, MS became a term that will be engraved on my grave. Classes started too, but I soon learned that classes are not really the one thing that holds a KGPian to KGP. Hall activities and Societies, and of course, LAN, is what gives the KGPian, the KGP feel. That was what I was missing in my holidays. I can't believe that I missed KGP in the 2.5 months I was away. No wonder, seniors cry at convocation. (I never really understood why, before) But hey, I'm only 1 year down the road. What would I know?! Even hardened KGPians (dual degree) cannot say with complete confidence that they know KGP. 

The Entire LC at Information Seminar

For me though, AIESEC will always be an integral part of my life in KGP.  I firmly believe in its ideals and want it to succeed in KGP. That was one of the reasons of my involvement in the Organizing Committee of the recruitment process in July/August. And man, was that a great experience! It was my turn to implement my belief that a member who believes in AIESEC will work for it. Time to transfer the "tempo". And we did. We organized the best recruitments ever in any society's history in Kharagpur. It was fun to give "fundae" to juniors who had no idea about KGP. I was wonderstruck at how ignorant of KGP I was when I first came here. But at the end, I am proud to have got such enthusiastic new recruits into AIESEC.

Classes included 2 department courses and 4 other courses. The good thing was that we didn't have any labs and thus most of our afternoons were free of classes. But then, that is also a bane. Cuz, then we have 6 exams to deal with at the end.

After another few weeks of class came the International Congress 2010 which I wanted to attend so badly. One of the reasons was that we were conducting it in India for only the second time! I got selected as the Organizing Committee member of one of the events along with Ankit Jain - India Night and I got the opportunity to present Indian culture to the delegates which consisted of member from 107 countries! Since,  we had one a nation-wide campaign by AIESEC India, we also got the chance to send 10 other delegates. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we took it!

No, those aren't KGP girls. How can they be??

And of course, then came the next round of exams as promised by IIT KGP. Mid Sems were around the corner and we started the strenuous task of trying to study what we didn't for the last 2 months in 2 weeks. Admittedly, I did better especially due to the threat from my parents of allowing no other activity (read AIESEC) if I didn't maintain an agreeable mark range. (my grade point had dropped to 7.16)

So overall, I couldn't have hoped for a better 8 months. (Or maybe if I had gone as OC for NLDS 2010 which is going on now)

Thank you 2010!

Exams Galore

At last I got a reprieve to write something in my blog! The last 3 days were directly from hell. I had a PDS lab test (ok.. not exactly hell there) followed by Engg Drawing and Math, the next day and Phy lab test (purely hell) today. I still got phy test day after... but then again its day after. (I'm sure its pretty much this attitude of mine that made hell - ya i DO know it but it takes a lot to implement it)

Anyhow, the world wide web doesn't need to know the procrastination of a teen - its just too common! Ok where was I?? Well, I don't seem to remember much of what I have not told about earlier but if I do remember I'll tell along the way! Now, almost everyone's in exam fever.. I said almost cuz i know i am not! We were playing badminton just a few minutes back. Its weird really... Exams are one thing that brings all IITians together. Boys love it greatly cuz they get a genuine reason to talk to gals and gals love it cuz they don't have to show off anymore to get boys attention! ;) Ok jokes apart, it really makes more than half the students more social partly cuz they like telling each other who has studied the least and appear cool, partly cuz they really haven't studied anything and feel it would be good to have the company of those who are like him/herself, and also partly cuz they know that socialising is wasting time and time ain't precious... (ya i know.. i am going lame - must be the subconscious tension of exams - if you meet me now you wouldn't find a livelier person!!)

Speaking of gals, did i tell you that this place is a heaven for them?? The ratio's like 1:20... Really frustrating for me. I was thinking of having some fun after coming here.. I guess I'll just have to wait till the despos try their luck. ;) But anyway its good to have them as friends. They are usually very helpful. USUALLY - mind you. There's this gal in my section who only thinks of her.. She haven't got any friends either. I mean its just the first 3-4 months and basically everyone's your friend at the moment - how DID she manage to alienate herself so fast?? If she was a maggu, I would have understood but she ain't getting the top marks either! phew.. An exact opposite to her and one of her only 'friends' is this hyperactive (in a good way) and friendly gal! But she ain't so good in pds.. I would have been happy to help but she isn't asking much after the first time. Ya I DID try to teach two gals, programming. Was fun in a way. But this other gal wasn't really interested in learning! ;) Ok that's too much already.. If you wanna know more, contact me. I got elders listening on to this blog!

The internet is soooooo helpful to keep in touch. The best thing i like about it is the social websites. FB, twitter and orkut are everyday activities already. Having internet and lan connection directly to the room had to lead to this. But i don't regret this. I don't think i would have got in touch with my old pal Ashutosh any way else. He's in Toronto now and we just got in touch after SIX YEARS!! We were best friends for six years before that!! I do blame myself for not continuing contact then but i was also an idiot then and a gr8 maggu. The biggest lesson I have learnt in life is that without friends, life is hell. You have to shut your mouth and that is something i have learnt to live without. I give the credit of that to my two years in Bangalore. My friends Saketh, Suhail and Mohsin taught me that studying isn't everything. If it wasn't for Saketh's constant bickering about the system (i miss what he did best - shout at the principal), and Suhail's and Mohsin's indifference, I wouldn't be the super - active guy i am now. But i am digressing off the main topic.. Oh by the way my efforts to publicise my blog are slowly paying off.. Thank you twitter, fb, gtalk, linkedin and wherever else i have mentioned my blog!! (i have already started forgetting!)

Well back to classes.. So the first sem is about to reach its close by next week... The highlights have been PDS and Mechanics. I would really miss PDS.. I am thinking of using the video library available over the lan to continue studying programming and web designing. I am guessing we will continue with mechanics in the second yr - so not so sad abt that.. it IS really interesting. Math could have been interesting in the hands of a gud prof but i guess i just havta mug it up along with physics.. Physics is even worse actually.. I mite even have a backlog in it if i dont study. The tv shows and movies over dc are just too overpowering in attractiveness!! :D Don't worry i am not about to fail! (that's what everyone says around here but many do fail the first exams)

That's all for now. I'll probably give you good news after the exams which get over on 26th. I got NCC camp after that.. Did i tell you about ncc?? oh well.. later! a bientot!