The IITK top 5 series: activities

spent part of the day reading "Five Point Someone" and as a result have been feeling rather nostalgic. Moreover I have been having this itch to write something about IIT life since sometime which has intensified manifolds now. Since I cannot write a novel on my 4 years just yet, here is some pastime :). I hope this will also evoke some responses from the small readership that my blog enjoys.

So following is the list of top 5 activities that I enjoyed during IIT and which I will always miss (an important criteria is that it is not possible to indulge in these activities after IIT due to one reason or another):

5. Hindi Extempore: In fact this will include most of the HLS events. They were an absolute bliss to both participate and organize. The excellent guys with whom I got to do all those fun things made it really enjoyable. Shloke, pali, ambar, nitya, golu, bihari, vv, khare, anuj, pksb, jaya, duggi, sushobhan, pushpi, saurabh, tiwari, pathak, biyani,aashu and so many others whose names I have missed, u all rock big time :D

4. Programming contests with my team : me,gs and sesh were "Redcode Warriors". Sesh hated this name but had to give in to the solid technical background that the name enjoys :). We managed to come 2nd in almost every major contest that mattered. Now that is what I call consistency but u need a heart of stone to bear the fruits of such remarkable consistency. However with a true sportsman like sesh and cool guy like gs around, I never really felt the sting.

3. Elections : Easily the most exciting part of any democracy. I consider it a duty of every member of a democracy to participate actively in elections. Now elections in outside society can be both expensive and dangerous but on campus, they were a lot of fun and a real learning experience. It is one of those things that makes men out of boys as u learn to stand up for those u believe are right, for ur friends and most of all for urself. I did it all, won them, lost them, conducted them, fought them, watched them and voted in them. But even today they never stop fascinating me.

2. Orientation Period : or I should say the first 2-3 weeks of every odd semester. There is something about receiving those new faces at the reception desk that gives me a high. I spent almost 2 days without sleep sitting at reception desk in my 3rd year. Of course the following 2 weeks were also very entertaining but with the attitude of administration, I think the glorious days of senior junior interaction are almost over. Another aspect of orientation period are my 12 bachchas and the ever growing family that has followed thereafter. I love u all :)

1. Working in galaxy (specially the first year): If u'll ask my batchmates to draw up this list, this will be the entry that will occur at top in majority of lists. Unfortunately nobody can be told what galaxy is, one has to see it for himself. But those were easily some of the best days that I spent in IITK.

Honorable mention goes to the now extinct nightly parades to hall 3 quad, treasure hunts (me and gs and always on foot), the short lived but fondly remembered iitk.gymkhana.jabberwocky, PTT assignment (I started some of them after the deadline) and ofcourse the 24 hours lib :)