Moving on...

Did you ever have to move on? Were you ever asked to get over somebody or something? Were you ever asked to forget something that in your recent occupied a large portion of your life? Did you ever fail, and in an attempt to recover from that failure and stand up to face the world, try to surgically remove all memories of that particular person or thing from your mind? Well, if your answer to any of these questions is an "yes", then you know what moving on is.

Well, for others, moving on is not that easy as is shown in series and movies. Consider a mild example. You are trying hard to get through an exam. You devote every single minute of every single day of say an year in its preparations. Then, on the final day, something goes wrong. That's when you try to move on, try to forget the failure and regain your motivation, for that's supposedly not the end of the world. Again, this is a very mild example, but even this moving on is not easy.

Consider another case. You like a girl. You have had a crush on her for, say, a long long time. All these years, all these days, that girl formed a large part of your life, influencing things as great as your decisions and your career to as minute as your handwriting! Then, one day, may be in desperation, you let her know your feelings. She responds saying that she has no such feelings for you and asks you to "get over" her. You take a full 24 hours to realize that the part of your life that influenced you to such a great extent for years does not exist any more, and you are left with the task of "moving on". I won't even try to describe the agony, for my knowledge of the language would fail to provide it justice.

But then, one day, you realize you have finally moved on, may be after a few months. And in this few months, you have had a variety of feelings. Sometimes, you have been frustrated at how worthless you are. At other times you felt confident that she was not right for you. Sometimes, you had been insanely angry at her. At other times, you been in love with her so much that you felt you could lay down your life for her. Sometimes, you wished you could be friends, very good friends, in the true spirit of friendship. At other times, you hoped never to see her again.

However, after finally moving on, you reach a stable state. You are neither angry, nor are you in love with her. You don't think yourself as worthless, neither do you think her below your standards. And as for friendship, she would be just like the scores of other friends you have, not your best friends, the "other" ones. Also, as a side effect perhaps, you form this skewed opinion about relations and commitments. All these appears to be bullshit, meaningless, time pass stuff. You don't even seem to remember how you got trapped into this stupid thing yourself. And as of the present day, you pledge to remain single forever, you pledge not to approach another girl professing your "love", you pledge to remain sensible and rational till the end of time.

Happy Diwali KGP

Students of IIT Kharagpur "celebrate" the festival of lights in a unique way. This day and a whole month leading up to it, they actually "prefer" to work behind the scenes, putting their engineering skills to use. In this process, apart from "enjoying" the preparation for the national festival, Diwali and bonding well with their hall mates, the students present the IIT community with some of the finest works of art, encompassing skill, perseverance, dedication, hard work along with insomnia and a total denunciation of self safety. The whole thing is officially known as illumination and is "lovingly" referred to as illu.

But then, there are this group of people who do not actually seem to support the concept of illumination. They are of an opinion that Diwali is a festival of light for every one. Why then do the poor students have to slave for an entire month just so that the frustrated professors of Kharagpur have something to enjoy on the Diwali evening? And then again, why should these poor people be forced to hide in the dark corners after the diyas are lit? And why on earth should these poor students have to arrange the entire finance for the whole event?

The pro-illu junta, however advocate their cause pretty strongly. Their reasons, whatever they may be, are generally filled with words like spirit, tempo, tradition and unity. However, they seem to blatantly overlook the fact that all the objectives that the costly dinosaur named Illumination achieves can actually be achieved at a much lower cost with much less labour. And needless to say, a very high share of the pro junta are the professors, the ones for whom its actually a win-win situation. Rumors have it that the erstwhile Dean of Student Affairs of the institute had threatened the student community of dire consequences if illu was scrapped. The threats included a total shut down of Spring Fest and Kshitij, the two annual fests organized by students.

Whatever the logic, whatever be the case, one fundamental truth cannot be denied. The students who work hard the entire semester deserve much more than what the present has to offer. Being drenched in oil completely, having suffered burns, having had cuts from the sharp metal wires, injuries from the careless rush, and finally hiding in the dark during the presentation - this is Diwali for IITians. The single most important day of the year, when every one in India wakes up with a smile, the IITians don't, because they never went to sleep for the past few days, some of them have even been working round the clock. The day when every single Indian pamper themselves, relax at home with their loved ones, the IITians work in the fields the entire day, perfecting the past month's work - and the strange faces turned friends in the past few months providing little consolation for being away from home. And lastly, in the evening, when every Indian wears new clothes and enjoy fancy dinner, these poor souls starve.

At the end, to make it even worse, the authorities assign the title of winners and losers to these people. For the lucky few who win, it is a belated Diwali, and for those who lose, it is yet another sleepless night, this one more painful than the last few.

Happy Diwali KGP!!