Life at DoMS

When you wait for it to come, well, it is a lifetime of expectations and assumptions.The thing is, when it comes, you are not aware that you are in middle of it. You just carry on, hazed and dazed, through the course of events. It is only when it has passed on do you get to reflect on it. Life at DoMS, IIT Madras is so very much about the journey, rather than the destination. Should one choose to make the journey, one will be at a loss being at the centre of all the things to do all around and all the more unavailability of time.

Now starting from where it all began-I am standing outside my hostel room and staffs from the hostel warden’s office are wielding iron rods in front of me! Quite a way to welcome a freshie! Actually no, they were trying to break the door lock because they lost the key!

I had just arrived in Chennai one hour back. As the Auto Rickshaw had swerved along the jungle path inside the IIT Madras campus, the sightings of spotted deer and blackbucks had conveyed a very beautiful welcome note (more so when compared with legendary pricing policies of Chennai auto services!).

The lock was broken. As I sat in my room I knew for sure next days would be exciting. I took a cue from the initiation I guess! What I couldn’t guess was that I would have little time to be in that room afterwards.

Next few days remained pretty much blurred for us. Yes, blurred! Because we had to squeeze in so many things in one day that everyone wanted earth to rotate a little slower.24 hours a day just was not enough! Second day morning the HoD gave welcome speech with all the teachers present. We got to know our teachers. After that all of us got to know each other. Well, actually we played a game for that! And the real fun started later that night from 10.Its a Simple thing called Role play and we were assigned roles by the seniors. But one had to see to believe how people made the whole show a laugh riot! It takes time to earn nicknames in schools and colleges. In our case, we got ourselves nicknames out of that one single show! Next day started at 5-30am for us with campus tour. The 650 acres campus was something to behold! It still is, even to this day. Every now and then, a new nook of the forest, a new bend of the road, a new view of the lake that is discovered leaves one spellbound with its serenity. Really, from the initial days to this day, the ‘WOW’ factor has never subsided.

Next we had a chance to interact with alumni from the first batch. The interaction was very enriching to say the least. We got to know a lot about industry and the institute as well. After the re-union lunch, came the real surprise-we had to give presentations to our seniors starting at 10pm.We struggled a lot to market products those would never exist. And laughed heartily at the struggle! Of course at that time we laughed little less, being the tired, sleepless bunch we were at that time.

Today when I write this, I have already spent quite a few months in campus, made quite a lot of friends, bombed even more number of exams and attended some wild midnight parties. My days here have ranged from skipping breakfast day after day to almost being in a food coma by the grace of awesome chettinad cuisine! I have attended brilliant, eye-opening lectures given by industry bigwigs. I have also slept like a baby sometimes in the morning class after doing some group assignment that went on till 5 am. But, I guess the real thing is to be able to laugh at all the pressure, to be able to appreciate the new, the odd. And I have done that. I have done that in each passing moment. My awesome neighbours in hostel have helped me in that. My awesome classmates, teachers and seniors are helping me in that. The lush green forest ,the lakeside, the two fighting blackbucks in front of hostel, the night-outs, the group assignments turning into group chats, the surprise quizzes, the market surveys-everything enrich me and make me realize that I could enjoy being so much and doing so much! These all are my life now.

And I love every bit of it.