The first few days @ helL

There are some points in life; call them moments, scenarios or events when one is given to think whether the course of life is tailored. Stepping out of the Gorakhpur Express on the 2nd of June with the mercury hitting 45C was one such moment.

In my opinion, life is a perfectly balanced equation consisting of a well defined set of variables. I always try to relate an event with the scenarios preceding it, if something does not make sense, you have the universal balancing co-efficient to add to it - luck

I had a childhood which some would call individualistic, my parents have often been chided for giving rise to a loose cannon. Not many kids I know were allowed to come home anytime in the night when they were six years old. I started this paragraph with 'I had a childhood' does that mean I am a child no more. Are the smattering of grey hair on top having their say??

On the 6th of June, I had gone to Charbaugh station to bid goodbye to mum when I got a call from Chennai about my final semester results, I am now officially Praveen Dwarakanath B.Tech. Pride is a word that is often used in a negative tone. Down south, it is no big deal if you are an engineer, they come a dime a dozen(they do cost slightly more these days). Only I know what that parchment with a blue stamp and the signature or a person who never knew me means. The basis for obtaining degrees are marks in various theory courses and laboratories which mainly test your ability to cram and to an extent your IQ, what is the weight given to one's EQ?. What is a degree anyways? Is it a license to practice a profession? A paper which advertises your capabilities? A basic requirement these days to get married?. Why is it that I always feel a tinge of pride when I stand up on the ragging wells in Hostel 11 and announce "I am Praveen Dwarakanath. I am a Computer Science Engineer from SRM Chennai" fully aware that my audience has a pedigree that I can never match.

In my first class at helL I distinctly remember Prof.Sushil Kumar cautioning us against becoming highly individualistic. I guess what he meant was that people stop interacting among themselves and start spending too much time behind the yellow wooden doors of the hostels. The irony came in his next sentence "keep it in the back of your mind that not all who get in here, get out with a diploma". Geez mate we are talking about people who score a 99 percentile in CAT. Am I going spend more time with my books than under the sun? Will I get to spend two years of my life here? Only time will tell.

The course at helL is fully residential and the hostels are divided into two types The city and The slums. Hostels 1-8 are called slums and 9-13 form the city. The hostels themselves are huge two-storied buildings that are meant to jail the best of india. The confinement is never physical, there are no timings, restrictions or anything that can be put in black and white. It is just a feeling, one that initiates a sense of guilt and foreboding everytime you step out for a non academic purpose.