I've decided I won't apologize for irregular posts any more. This is a part of who I am as a person (read: lazy) and I have accepted it as an inalienable piece of my character. Also, didn't JRR Tolkien have this to say of wizards, "A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to"? Any way, it's not like my posts come 5 months apart.
Oops!
To be fair, things have been hot at my end since April. I got into the Institute for Intense Moneymaking, Academically. It's supposed to be a Well-known Institute of Management In Western India. I suppose this begs two questions (of course it doesn't. It's a sentence. Sentences lack the sentience required to question my thinking. But let us actively ignore this diversion since not all of us are as mentally challenged as the author here).
Rephrasing: I suppose this decision of joining moneymaking classes is likely to generate a general sense of curiosity among the readership (all 3 of you), manifesting itself in two very likely questions: "Why did you join the Institute for Intense Moneymaking, that too right after college?" and "Why did you join the one in the West?". I'm happy to answer both of them for you.
I joined IIM because I did not want to leave college. Simultaneously, I wanted to get a feel for the corporate world that awaits me out of campus. I thought that this extension to my academic career might actually be good because I could utilize whatever academic zeal I have left inside of me to power through these two years. I shudder to think about how life here would have been once I had broken contact with studies. To answer the second question, I joined WIMWI because everyone told me it has the best "brand". Now if I really have to be branded, it makes sense going to where they do it the best.
After that shameless segue, let us get back to business. Today is the Independence Day for India. For the first time in my life, I did not feel anything special around me. For the first time in my life, I had only one person wishing me a Happy Independence Day. For the first time in my life, I see no one talking about this day. For the first time in my life, it seems, the thrill is gone (apologies to BB King).
I remember how big of a deal the 15th of August was when I was a child, with the tricolor waving over every house and vehicle in the neighbourhood, everyone around me smiling for some reason. Plus, my dad would be home for the day. Oh yes! It was a holiday for everyone I knew! Some years, I'd go to school for the Independence Day function and we'd have a great time with teachers and friends. There was a general sense of unity, a sense of community, and an unparalleled sense of hope. Hope that we could follow our dreams. Hope that society would get even better as time passes. Hope for the great things to come in life.
The general excitement for the Day continued through my undergraduate years, although there was a certain attenuation in the enthusiasm. We would gather in the hall quad and attend the flag hoisting ceremony, followed by a "special" breakfast in the mess. Things were pretty good even back then. This year, though, the absence of the said enthusiasm is striking. I didn't attend the flag-hoisting. Woke up at noon. There was no discussion about the date till I got a text at 8:18pm wishing me a Happy Independence Day.
The phrase set about a train of thought in my head which made me dig up this blog. I thought, what if the Independence Day was, indeed, never "Happy" to begin with? What if that neighbour setting up a flag on his roof was worried about paying back his debts? What if dad was thinking about how to solve the major breakdown in the plant waiting for him at work the next day? What if Nehru was thinking about Gandhiji's fast in Calcutta while speaking of trysts with destiny?
Could it be that my fondness for the Day came from a miscalculated sense of happiness due to nostalgia? That didn't seem right. Amid the grind and misery of adulthood, somehow that thought made me feel worse than usual. So, like any level headed individual, I refused to accept the most obvious answer and began to draw up another explanation for the lack of Independence-Dayness pervading my life.
I began by associating the great enthusiasm during childhood with the naivety of that age. Everything is lovely when all of your life is sorted out by others. Adulthood seems to have a knack of reducing per capita happiness, but that is true for everything in life, not just particular days (It isn't that bad, anyway, or we wouldn't have billions of adults on the planet). Thinking about it, the celebrations during college were decent as well, and worked well enough to stir us to singular bouts of patriotism and fiery debates over the course that this country is taking into the realm of future, if only for a single day.
What seems to have changed this year is the people that surround me. There is bound to be excessive entropy due to all of this shuffling that took place after the final year of college. I have a new crowd around, and the old friends of mine are also fighting hard to hit the ground running wherever they are. It makes sense that people will focus on their lives first, and the Day later. At least, this is what my theory suggested.
It was at this moment that I realized that while I was trying to make sense of this half baked, contrived line of thought, I was wasting my time and it had been long since I'd ingested food. So I came to my senses and recollected my thoughts. There are still a few people who took out time to wish me a Happy Independence Day. Okay, it was just the one person. But what matters is that she did message me, and when I realized this, it was enough for me to stop worrying unnecessarily.
I said to myself, it is a happy day. It is a time to celebrate. So what if there's considerably less excitement for it around you? Stop cribbing and be a one-man independence machine.
So here I am, after writing this long (and most probably incoherent) piece of gyaan for you. Be happy that you live in a nation which has the cheapest telecom services. So don't forget to wish your friends a Happy Independence Day the next year.
Some of them might appreciate it more than you'd think.
I began by associating the great enthusiasm during childhood with the naivety of that age. Everything is lovely when all of your life is sorted out by others. Adulthood seems to have a knack of reducing per capita happiness, but that is true for everything in life, not just particular days (It isn't that bad, anyway, or we wouldn't have billions of adults on the planet). Thinking about it, the celebrations during college were decent as well, and worked well enough to stir us to singular bouts of patriotism and fiery debates over the course that this country is taking into the realm of future, if only for a single day.
What seems to have changed this year is the people that surround me. There is bound to be excessive entropy due to all of this shuffling that took place after the final year of college. I have a new crowd around, and the old friends of mine are also fighting hard to hit the ground running wherever they are. It makes sense that people will focus on their lives first, and the Day later. At least, this is what my theory suggested.
It was at this moment that I realized that while I was trying to make sense of this half baked, contrived line of thought, I was wasting my time and it had been long since I'd ingested food. So I came to my senses and recollected my thoughts. There are still a few people who took out time to wish me a Happy Independence Day. Okay, it was just the one person. But what matters is that she did message me, and when I realized this, it was enough for me to stop worrying unnecessarily.
I said to myself, it is a happy day. It is a time to celebrate. So what if there's considerably less excitement for it around you? Stop cribbing and be a one-man independence machine.
So here I am, after writing this long (and most probably incoherent) piece of gyaan for you. Be happy that you live in a nation which has the cheapest telecom services. So don't forget to wish your friends a Happy Independence Day the next year.
Some of them might appreciate it more than you'd think.
