The Last Pilgrimage

It’s almost two months since I was officially declared an Engineer and almost a year since I have claimed to be one. But the feeling of having left DAIICT, my Alma mater still does not sink in. I have been wanting to write this post since the convocation, which was one hell of a meet, but somehow I could not gather so many thoughts and emotions into words at the time. I guess, these two months have given me the time to put my thought together in a more coherent manner. So here’s something for the readers through the lens of “nostalgia”.

The Inevitable

About a year ago, at this time, I was preparing for my BTP presentation. The time was ticking and for the first time I realized what ‘the inevitable’ is. Leaving the place, the room and the friends was always a distant possibility. But in those last few days it was a fact, something that could not be avoided. There would be friends whom probably, I would never meet again in my life. The whole culture that I had started to like would fade away, no more AOE, no more barging into friends rooms to just do timepass, no more certainty about things in life… But then, I guess after a point, I became numb. I just took days as they came and all the time hoping against hope that the dreaded day, when I and my friends leave, would not come. But time does not stop, and I had to leave. It was not emotional, surprisingly, but it did leave a big hole in my heart. A feeling of emptiness.

Not Immortal

We youngsters have a problem. We don’t realise that we are mere mortals. At least, I never thought about things from that angle. That was till I heard about that the demise of my batch-mate, while he was planning to go back home. My second myth shattered. Within days, I faced the two biggest realities of this world. First that you cannot do anything to avoid the inevitable and secondly, there is an end to everything, even you.

Not Indispensible

Life came a full circle when I went for the convocation. I expected it to be fun, meeting all those people and being the old self once again. I knew the time was less but nonetheless, we had all the plans to utilize every moment to the maximum. I reached DAIICT and we went to to all those restaurants we wanted, to feel like those “good old days”. The convocation was a wonderful time. Was just great to meet all those people again, recalling those moments that probably none of us could ever forget. But what struck me was that things had changed at DAIICT. There were new faces, I did not have my room; the place was not mine anymore. It was as if I was being told that I was just a part of the institute. If I go, there will always be someone to replace me. It was comforting, in some sense, that there would be juniors who would carry forward the things we had initiated. But there was also this sad feeling of not being a part of all the “action”. I guess life has its ways of teaching its lessons.

The Importance of Rituals

I was always fascinated by the rituals of marriage. I mean, didn’t they make the bride and the groom look rather stupid, walking around fire seven times and what not. Another ritual, which one of my professors found rather depressing, was the so called “ragging” of the juniors. In fact, our lives are so full of rituals that I sometimes wonder if the notion of culture has more to do with the creation of experiences and memories through the use of these rituals!

I was hit rather strongly with this realization  recently when the seniors in our college organized a symbolic puja before the most dreaded examination here. This was to be followed by a fresher’s party in a couple of days. These events, in isolation, do not really mean much. However, to a new student, these can actually create the difference. In fact, I think that rituals are solely responsible for the initiation of a person into something new, be it student life in college for a student during the ritual of ragging or be it the ritual of marriage initiating a boy/girl into the realm of manhood/womanhood. In this perspective, I think that rituals help clear the chaos that might otherwise result in such transitions. Hence, contrary to the popular beliefs, I think that rituals are a source of order rather than of chaos.