The last one

I fondly remember a conversation I had recently with two of my friends about what the future held for us. It was mundane. We complained about how bad the traffic on the road would be, how we’d have to start learning financial planning, how we’d have to burden responsibilities of a family soon how this one month might just be the last time we’d ever have to raise our hand to a “Never have I ever” session. Somehow this unnervingly hot place had become home.

But how did that happen? My story is quite different from what most would expect. I came here with essentially my closest friends in school – right in the comfort zone. It turned out that these people were just fragments of a spectrum of individuals I was about to meet. I staved off socializing with total strangers, until our clubs and varying interests turned these friends into strangers. Along the way, my social circle constantly refreshed itself with every team I joined and every decision I made. Concurrently, a rewiring of the workings of the world as whole took place. Feeds showed me that the scary senior could also be a friend. In fact, I surprised myself by clearing their inductions, where I’m surrounded by the well-read, the talented and at times the eccentric.

Until this point in time I “resided” at Chennai while “studying” in Trichy. Misfortune found its way to me as I lost my father midway through my 3rd year. Inadvertently, this new friends’ circle and club activity at NIT-T helped me find my way to a new normal that I now call home.

Now to juxtapose that with somebody who cried himself to sleep 4 years ago because of the realization that he wasn’t home on his bed anymore. It is funny how perspective can change everything- even home.

This institution has changed in that time as well – impressively growing its infrastructure and altering its academic program for the best. Students are often found spoilt for choice when deciding the kind of interests they can pursue here. Feeds has itself changed from being an informant to attempting to be a reforming entity.

So, what does this seemingly sure-footed senior have to tell you in the end? Surely, after many a philosophical tirade I must have uncovered something about life? The truth is I don’t know. And that I believe is what it means to be a student.

All that I can do as a reprise is thank everybody who was there through difficulty and thank those who weren’t there as well – for showing me what difficulty was.

– Abhinav Ramachandran