Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Of Lost Times and Lab Slots
Picture this: Two people, moving in the opposite directions on the same road happen to bump into each other and start with the formalities. They are absolutely not related to each other but for the fact that they had been classmates in college twenty years ago. "Hey, how have you been? What are you doing now?" "I am fine. I am working in....... What about you?" "I am working in ......" "I did not expect to meet you like this." "Me too." "See you around then" "Yup! Good bye!" As they slowly drift apart, both of them can't help but wonder, "What is his freakin' name?"
I'm pretty sure this will happen to me. After having been in classroom with 110 students for over three years now, there are at least 60 of them with who I have not had a 'decent' conversation with for over a minute. It is not that I am an introvert or they are introverts. Almost every person I know in my college agrees with me. Despite many students in a class, out social interaction is highly limited. All of us tend to form groups and our own circle of friends and don’t venture beyond that.
The generation which I am proudly a part of is one which thinks it not courteous not ask for a treat on ones birthday, and not snatching a bag of chips from a good friend is sign of a person not having his priorities right. All of this does paint a rose tinted picture of a close-knit generation. At the same time, one has to remember that the geeks we are, we also use orkut to ask our neighbour if they are going to mess. Tech Savvy or not, we all do crave for a much closer correspondence. For instance, be it vicarious, we mail each other "hey, listen" and not "hey, read this".
In my first year in college, three of us (other freshers) were put in a room in our hostels. All of us wanted our privacy and we did not like this idea initially. To be honest, life seemed a lot more fun those days. There were no computers in our rooms as there were just too many people in there. Internet wasn't provided in our rooms then. When 2nd year came, almost all of us had computers and progressively out social interaction got confined to the hostel mess.
Even orkut really can't come to rescue. I find ample number of scraps that go, "What a relief from Chennai's hot climate, no?" If you ask me, talking about weather is indirectly saying, "We are left with nothing else to talk about buddy. I have given up trying to think about things to talk about. But ...I don't want to give up talking altogether." I honestly hope I don’t resort to weather predictions and global warming to bridge the communication gap.
By the end of my third year, a mega mess was built for all hostels to dine in a single place. As far as I have seen, this too hasn't helped in building a good interaction. Somehow, it in contrary to our disposition to smile or even acknowledge the presence of the person whom you are sharing a dining table with. Among some reasons given to start the mega mess, or Himalaya as it is called, two were to increase inter-hostel interaction and reduce rivalry after certain incidents in inter-hostel competition. Unfortunately, the former is not happening and I’m not sure about the latter.
The best conversations I have had with my class-mates have been in lab hours. Be it, dumb charades in Milling and Shaping workshop or endless debates on whose performance is worse in the tests. Being is fourth year now, we have no labs and all of us are engrossed, if I may use the word, in our rooms with our computers and the B-Tech Projects.
Still, we all do, desperately, if may add, to fit in. There are those nine point "the" ones who join orkut's 'iitm give-up junta' community. If there is one non existent quality in us that conquers all, it is humility. I don’t know why, it is a weakness in us to confess that we have done well in tests. I really don’t know what to believe when my friends' gtalk status message says "f***ed up" and they end up getting one of the highest scores. There are others who constantly use swears to "express" themselves. Those who think that’s cool, I have one piece of advice. When you call someone, please don’t couple 'b***nc**d' and 'saala'.
[PS: I started the post before the notice of reflections organising a GD tonite on "Social Interaction in IITM" was up on the notice board]
[PPS Don't try to fit in and say, "you have already started working on project, I haven't even started"]
I'm pretty sure this will happen to me. After having been in classroom with 110 students for over three years now, there are at least 60 of them with who I have not had a 'decent' conversation with for over a minute. It is not that I am an introvert or they are introverts. Almost every person I know in my college agrees with me. Despite many students in a class, out social interaction is highly limited. All of us tend to form groups and our own circle of friends and don’t venture beyond that.
The generation which I am proudly a part of is one which thinks it not courteous not ask for a treat on ones birthday, and not snatching a bag of chips from a good friend is sign of a person not having his priorities right. All of this does paint a rose tinted picture of a close-knit generation. At the same time, one has to remember that the geeks we are, we also use orkut to ask our neighbour if they are going to mess. Tech Savvy or not, we all do crave for a much closer correspondence. For instance, be it vicarious, we mail each other "hey, listen" and not "hey, read this".
In my first year in college, three of us (other freshers) were put in a room in our hostels. All of us wanted our privacy and we did not like this idea initially. To be honest, life seemed a lot more fun those days. There were no computers in our rooms as there were just too many people in there. Internet wasn't provided in our rooms then. When 2nd year came, almost all of us had computers and progressively out social interaction got confined to the hostel mess.
Even orkut really can't come to rescue. I find ample number of scraps that go, "What a relief from Chennai's hot climate, no?" If you ask me, talking about weather is indirectly saying, "We are left with nothing else to talk about buddy. I have given up trying to think about things to talk about. But ...I don't want to give up talking altogether." I honestly hope I don’t resort to weather predictions and global warming to bridge the communication gap.
By the end of my third year, a mega mess was built for all hostels to dine in a single place. As far as I have seen, this too hasn't helped in building a good interaction. Somehow, it in contrary to our disposition to smile or even acknowledge the presence of the person whom you are sharing a dining table with. Among some reasons given to start the mega mess, or Himalaya as it is called, two were to increase inter-hostel interaction and reduce rivalry after certain incidents in inter-hostel competition. Unfortunately, the former is not happening and I’m not sure about the latter.
The best conversations I have had with my class-mates have been in lab hours. Be it, dumb charades in Milling and Shaping workshop or endless debates on whose performance is worse in the tests. Being is fourth year now, we have no labs and all of us are engrossed, if I may use the word, in our rooms with our computers and the B-Tech Projects.
Still, we all do, desperately, if may add, to fit in. There are those nine point "the" ones who join orkut's 'iitm give-up junta' community. If there is one non existent quality in us that conquers all, it is humility. I don’t know why, it is a weakness in us to confess that we have done well in tests. I really don’t know what to believe when my friends' gtalk status message says "f***ed up" and they end up getting one of the highest scores. There are others who constantly use swears to "express" themselves. Those who think that’s cool, I have one piece of advice. When you call someone, please don’t couple 'b***nc**d' and 'saala'.
[PS: I started the post before the notice of reflections organising a GD tonite on "Social Interaction in IITM" was up on the notice board]
[PPS Don't try to fit in and say, "you have already started working on project, I haven't even started"]
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Strongly agree about that 60 thingie.Hmm my score might not be that high {maybe due to my being a gult!ok no regionalism here).it is very sad to note that we havent had 'decent' conv with many of our classmates!!And I am pretty sure that I dont know the names of all students of A batch ,particularly the first 15!! surely not something to be proud of :(
nice post man.
lotsa truth in most of what you said.
thanks a fucking lot for you advice on saala b***ch*d. will remember that when i put hindi swear word status messages.
and my BTP is mostly experimental work. not sitting in front of comp! :P
lotsa truth in most of what you said.
thanks a fucking lot for you advice on saala b***ch*d. will remember that when i put hindi swear word status messages.
and my BTP is mostly experimental work. not sitting in front of comp! :P
# posted by 
: Tue Sep 19, 05:26:00 AM 2006
: Tue Sep 19, 05:26:00 AM 2006
I'm sorry bout writing this but the stuff you have written reflects solely the life that YOU are living in IITM for the past 3 years. You have to talk to people to get to know them man. Not generally crib about why no one is talking to me. So chill and get a life. Get out of the nutshell man.
Adios Amigo!
Adios Amigo!
# posted by : Tue Sep 19, 05:31:00 AM 2006
: Tue Sep 19, 05:31:00 AM 2006
Hmmm, i hope you dont get a lot oh hate mail for this. If there is one thing I have realized inlife is that people dont like to be shown up for what they really are and like living in their own world.
It is true that interaction is very less and well it has to do with the fact that people are from various backgrounds and not all people can fit in well with each other.
The incident you mentioned may happen to me, but i wont know the name because i know only his nick and not his real name.....
AND WHATS WRONG WITH TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER. In chennai, it is a huge factor. It gets freaking hot here and haunts you all through the day, of course it is a thing that will come up in conversations.
It is true that interaction is very less and well it has to do with the fact that people are from various backgrounds and not all people can fit in well with each other.
The incident you mentioned may happen to me, but i wont know the name because i know only his nick and not his real name.....
AND WHATS WRONG WITH TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER. In chennai, it is a huge factor. It gets freaking hot here and haunts you all through the day, of course it is a thing that will come up in conversations.
@rajeev: same here with B batch ...
@naresh: experimental sound interesting .. but not my cup of tea
@mahesh: i was going through orkut during hols and that was the only conversation between not-so-close junta ... close friends had a lot more to say. found it funny...thats it. and yeah i did not want to talk about regionalism.
@anon:
1.
three people above have said that there is a problem. you are denying it. that's the biggest mistake that one can commit when there is a problem. it seems that you have life and all, i am sure you are an exception to the general iitm community.
2.
>Not generally crib about why no one is talking to me.
i am cribbing about why everyone is not talking to anyone ... not just me. it everyone's problem ... dont deny that.
*******
3. You are telling me that I dont talk to people, that I should get out of the nutshell, that I should get a life and that I should interact.
Why are you anonymous???
*******
PS: i hope you wont resort to being personal in argument as i haven't
@naresh: experimental sound interesting .. but not my cup of tea
@mahesh: i was going through orkut during hols and that was the only conversation between not-so-close junta ... close friends had a lot more to say. found it funny...thats it. and yeah i did not want to talk about regionalism.
@anon:
1.
three people above have said that there is a problem. you are denying it. that's the biggest mistake that one can commit when there is a problem. it seems that you have life and all, i am sure you are an exception to the general iitm community.
2.
>Not generally crib about why no one is talking to me.
i am cribbing about why everyone is not talking to anyone ... not just me. it everyone's problem ... dont deny that.
*******
3. You are telling me that I dont talk to people, that I should get out of the nutshell, that I should get a life and that I should interact.
Why are you anonymous???
*******
PS: i hope you wont resort to being personal in argument as i haven't
well whatever u have ritten is a known fact.......but have u thought of ne method of getting back those good old days??? i feel the post cud have been even better if u cud have thought of n posted as to how we can increase social interaction.
# posted by : Tue Sep 19, 10:58:00 AM 2006
: Tue Sep 19, 10:58:00 AM 2006
I will disagree with you here...
I think we interact quite as freely now. Yeah our rooms are a little diffused and all, I do not get to talk to makala or Chameli as often as before, but the distances are not that large either.
About having arguements and discussions, I think, present day people do not feel strongly about anything to be able to talk about it. I think that makes us indifferent to most of the things that can be generally discussed, the things left, to talk about are then the things that you have in common, which you share with only a few. Otherwise well you are stuck talking about the weather, metaphorically, you are talking about some crap like this prof sucks.
It is when we discuss and share our knowledge that we have good interaction. For instance- All of us seem to read the newspaper, how many discussed our views on the pope or Vande Mataram with others? every time you try to start, people will say, let them do what ever they want, let the world go to hell, how does it matter?
As for forming little little groups, I think that is inevitable, we are a promiscuous group, this is bound to happen. But well, we should be open to discussion with all.
I think we interact quite as freely now. Yeah our rooms are a little diffused and all, I do not get to talk to makala or Chameli as often as before, but the distances are not that large either.
About having arguements and discussions, I think, present day people do not feel strongly about anything to be able to talk about it. I think that makes us indifferent to most of the things that can be generally discussed, the things left, to talk about are then the things that you have in common, which you share with only a few. Otherwise well you are stuck talking about the weather, metaphorically, you are talking about some crap like this prof sucks.
It is when we discuss and share our knowledge that we have good interaction. For instance- All of us seem to read the newspaper, how many discussed our views on the pope or Vande Mataram with others? every time you try to start, people will say, let them do what ever they want, let the world go to hell, how does it matter?
As for forming little little groups, I think that is inevitable, we are a promiscuous group, this is bound to happen. But well, we should be open to discussion with all.
Talking about the weather is better than not talking at all. If someone comes to you and talks to you about the weather, you should not think that they cant think of anything else to talk to you about. Trust me, weather is one of the best ways to start up any conversation. Its the simplest way. Perhaps the guy just wanted to talk to you man, whatever it may be. Dont blame him for choosing a topic that YOU find stale. Your argument is inherently flawed, kid, and shows your own personal opinion or maybe the desperation for a chat on topics that you think are "cool".
Next time I meet you, trust me, I am gonna talk about the weather.
Next time I meet you, trust me, I am gonna talk about the weather.
The generation which I am proudly a part of is one which thinks it not courteous not ask for a treat on ones birthday, and not snatching a bag of chips from a good friend is sign of a person not having his priorities right.......
This is bull.
At the same time, one has to remember that the geeks we are, we also use orkut to ask our neighbour if they are going to mess....
You generalize too much, Shankin.
Though I agree with the first year thing. Those days were lot more fun.
This is bull.
At the same time, one has to remember that the geeks we are, we also use orkut to ask our neighbour if they are going to mess....
You generalize too much, Shankin.
Though I agree with the first year thing. Those days were lot more fun.
i have mixed opinions for the post. On the face of it, i feel how true is ur post on many parts and also there is a second thought which says, is it exaggeration or too much of sadness in life. I think i am more tending to belive in the former and accept ur views in most places.
to read such a senti post on a rather dull day is all the more morale unboosting ;)
to read such a senti post on a rather dull day is all the more morale unboosting ;)
something i realised.
the same topic, if brought up in a conversation wouldn't have lasted this long.
we, sad as it might sound, are a mouthshut generation.
the Generation TexT.
the same topic, if brought up in a conversation wouldn't have lasted this long.
we, sad as it might sound, are a mouthshut generation.
the Generation TexT.
heh! what it means for a net-junkie like me to be out of touch and contact with the online world - due to a range of reasons for over a month now is just too frustrating to even speak abt - but then by and by - it also forced me to rediscover a life outside of work and the net:)
Kickass post for the follwoing reasons:
1. Nice freshie recollections.
2. Hit the nail on the head on the lab slot fart - we have this lab THIS (yes 7th) sem where we have to do some 30 titrations ( I Know... sniff sniff)... so I can still relate to this point.
2. TOTALLY agree on the fitting in part. Ironically the "pseuder" they are the more they are prone to this phenomenon.
Phew! Sorry this is the comments page and not my blog.
Thanks!
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1. Nice freshie recollections.
2. Hit the nail on the head on the lab slot fart - we have this lab THIS (yes 7th) sem where we have to do some 30 titrations ( I Know... sniff sniff)... so I can still relate to this point.
2. TOTALLY agree on the fitting in part. Ironically the "pseuder" they are the more they are prone to this phenomenon.
Phew! Sorry this is the comments page and not my blog.
Thanks!
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