Jan 8th, 2008
My undergrad college is located in the famous Juhu area of Mumbai and is one of the best commerce colleges in the country… Narsee Monjee or NM as known to all. I actually happened to be there a couple of days ago – went to the office for some work…. I reached during lunch time and was given a comfortable sofa to sit… and wait… Now that itself was a change from the time I went to school… The entire school is now airconditioned and granite flooring etc..
Apologies for me interchanging school and college… the problem is that my Indian learnings have been conditioned by my American learnings and now I am like a scrambled brain or a scrambled egg… or scrambled something…
I happened to over hear… purposely or not is left for you to decide… and come on you guys always keep seeing things – who is doing what and what not and with whom… and I don’t have a hint of what’s happening… so why can’t I over hear? a few students impatiently or nervously waiting for their oral / viva exam to happen in the next few minutes… “I want to get this done with… what kind of questions is he going to ask… what a 100 mark presentation … “ and likes…
Suddenly I was transformed back to my undergrad days… those huge classrooms with 130 students… a classsize of 1200 plus… everyday coming to school… deciding whether to attend lectures or sit in the famous Mithibai canteen… whether I was cool enough to impress people or why did that girl talk more to my friend and not to me… etc… how a professor was sooooo boring… and how a professor was cute… : ) and how do I crack my next accounting exam… and eco was my favourite… and I hated theory subjects… the integration of the derivative confused me… and Bhatia sir and Jiwani sir were exact opposites that both taught equally well and still were diametrically against each other…
So anyways those were fun days… entering a new world… figuring out freedom and other things first hand…and slowly learning the ropes of life… It was also particularly challenging for me as I had started losing my eyesight at that time… and as a young boy with disparit vision I did not really know where life was headed…
I had my few friends to be with and became an invisible man for the rest of the world… I knew of those cool people around me… but don’t think out of those 1200 people anyone even knows me… or did then… coz I became this weird guy who would not talk to anyone… not smile… sometime fall down… run into people… “what a jerk”… or was i? I was only losing my eyesight gradually and could not see things or people… but how could I explain this to my friends who I wanted to be like or even behave like… or copy… how… as a young man how could I accept or tell the world that I was different and less in some way... Those days still give me goose bumps… it was something undescribable…
I actually blank out or have erased a lot of my memories from that period… literally 4 years of my life… as I did not make any friends… and did not really get to know people… never did justice in studies to my abilities… and it was all so weird…
So back to the present… I was remembering about all those wonderful but sad days and was wondering where all those superstars I went to college with would be now and how I missed knowing some wonderful people…
Anyways the lunch time was over and I was called and a well hearted individual of the staff gave me things that I needed in 5 minutes… That’s my NM college for you…
Then I left to go to a super stud college in South Mumbai’s Churchgate area – its called S….. (full name left out for obvious reasons : ) ) … same work… no lunch time this time… and guess what the wait was 1 hour and 25 minutes. Were they busy? Nopes… did they need that much time… nopes… were there a lot of people? Nopes…. So what was the problem… Well this college that is known to be Mumbai’s cool south Mumbai hub was quite a government office full of red tape and ridiculously unfriendly staff… oops… well being honest as usual… I personally don’t understand what adds to the coolness of this college… this silly and hopeless staff I guess who could not figure out some glue to give me or a stamp – each taking 30 minutes where in it should have taken like 30 seconds really… but then what the heck… it’s the place where students think they are sent from South Mumbai… (heaven I mean)… lol… (I am going to be killed for this one : )
Talking of colleges, I managed to meet up with my friends on the Incredible India Trek from Wharton… they all were down in Mumbai after a grueling few days in Delhi and Rajasthan… and guess what they were fascinated and overwhelmed… I was sure that India cannot be described in words and all of their experiences definitely confirm this… They had a great time and I must congratulate the organizers of this trek- Sanjeev, Charishma, Deepti and John – they did a great job… and all Indians chipped in, in some way or the other… So a bunch of Wharton students are going back – experiencing this paradox first hand- I guess more confused than before… but definitely appreciative of what they saw and experienced…
It was great meeting these friends of mine… I have realized how I already miss my Wharton friends… and how I was soooo happy to meet them… I cannot believe that we will graduate this May... but well well… Life goes on…
Jan 8th, 2008
My undergrad college is located in the famous Juhu area of Mumbai and is one of the best commerce colleges in the country… Narsee Monjee or NM as known to all. I actually happened to be there a couple of days ago – went to the office for some work…. I reached during lunch time and was given a comfortable sofa to sit… and wait… Now that itself was a change from the time I went to school… The entire school is now airconditioned and granite flooring etc..
Apologies for me interchanging school and college… the problem is that my Indian learnings have been conditioned by my American learnings and now I am like a scrambled brain or a scrambled egg… or scrambled something…
I happened to over hear… purposely or not is left for you to decide… and come on you guys always keep seeing things – who is doing what and what not and with whom… and I don’t have a hint of what’s happening… so why can’t I over hear? a few students impatiently or nervously waiting for their oral / viva exam to happen in the next few minutes… “I want to get this done with… what kind of questions is he going to ask… what a 100 mark presentation … “ and likes…
Suddenly I was transformed back to my undergrad days… those huge classrooms with 130 students… a classsize of 1200 plus… everyday coming to school… deciding whether to attend lectures or sit in the famous Mithibai canteen… whether I was cool enough to impress people or why did that girl talk more to my friend and not to me… etc… how a professor was sooooo boring… and how a professor was cute… : ) and how do I crack my next accounting exam… and eco was my favourite… and I hated theory subjects… the integration of the derivative confused me… and Bhatia sir and Jiwani sir were exact opposites that both taught equally well and still were diametrically against each other…
So anyways those were fun days… entering a new world… figuring out freedom and other things first hand…and slowly learning the ropes of life… It was also particularly challenging for me as I had started losing my eyesight at that time… and as a young boy with disparit vision I did not really know where life was headed…
I had my few friends to be with and became an invisible man for the rest of the world… I knew of those cool people around me… but don’t think out of those 1200 people anyone even knows me… or did then… coz I became this weird guy who would not talk to anyone… not smile… sometime fall down… run into people… “what a jerk”… or was i? I was only losing my eyesight gradually and could not see things or people… but how could I explain this to my friends who I wanted to be like or even behave like… or copy… how… as a young man how could I accept or tell the world that I was different and less in some way... Those days still give me goose bumps… it was something undescribable…
I actually blank out or have erased a lot of my memories from that period… literally 4 years of my life… as I did not make any friends… and did not really get to know people… never did justice in studies to my abilities… and it was all so weird…
So back to the present… I was remembering about all those wonderful but sad days and was wondering where all those superstars I went to college with would be now and how I missed knowing some wonderful people…
Anyways the lunch time was over and I was called and a well hearted individual of the staff gave me things that I needed in 5 minutes… That’s my NM college for you…
Then I left to go to a super stud college in South Mumbai’s Churchgate area – its called S….. (full name left out for obvious reasons : ) ) … same work… no lunch time this time… and guess what the wait was 1 hour and 25 minutes. Were they busy? Nopes… did they need that much time… nopes… were there a lot of people? Nopes…. So what was the problem… Well this college that is known to be Mumbai’s cool south Mumbai hub was quite a government office full of red tape and ridiculously unfriendly staff… oops… well being honest as usual… I personally don’t understand what adds to the coolness of this college… this silly and hopeless staff I guess who could not figure out some glue to give me or a stamp – each taking 30 minutes where in it should have taken like 30 seconds really… but then what the heck… it’s the place where students think they are sent from South Mumbai… (heaven I mean)… lol… (I am going to be killed for this one : )
Talking of colleges, I managed to meet up with my friends on the Incredible India Trek from Wharton… they all were down in Mumbai after a grueling few days in Delhi and Rajasthan… and guess what they were fascinated and overwhelmed… I was sure that India cannot be described in words and all of their experiences definitely confirm this… They had a great time and I must congratulate the organizers of this trek- Sanjeev, Charishma, Deepti and John – they did a great job… and all Indians chipped in, in some way or the other… So a bunch of Wharton students are going back – experiencing this paradox first hand- I guess more confused than before… but definitely appreciative of what they saw and experienced…
It was great meeting these friends of mine… I have realized how I already miss my Wharton friends… and how I was soooo happy to meet them… I cannot believe that we will graduate this May... but well well… Life goes on…
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