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The first time that I was left agape at the uniqueness of IIT Madras was the moment that I entered the campus. The temperature suddenly appeared to have dropped by about 2 degrees against the hot outside world of Chennai. IIT campus is a beautiful place, not only does it nurture the ambitions of hundreds of youngsters but is also a haven for some species who cannot survive in the outside world. Full of deers, birds and natural wild greenery, it can easily be a hot picnic spot if only the IIT lawmakers permitted it. A natural lake in the interior is a serene spot which I myself was unaware of till I decided to explore the wilder parts of the campus. Just in case you think I was describing a jungle, the campus of IIT Madras has 30 buildings which house the various departments, the biggest library in Chennai, a computer center, a students activites center, a high quality swimming pool, a stadium, several sports grounds, several places of worship, a hospital, schools for the children of inmates and last but not the least, twelve hostels which house some weird people and named after various rivers of India. Such were the characteristics of this great place which remained a home for me for four years.
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Every year, 400 teenage students realize their dreams at IIT Madras. There is something common about all of them and that is the fact that for the previous 2 years, they would have led rather ascetic lives, very much shut off to how other teenagers were enjoying their lives. Because of this and the fact that they were going to lead their lives with more or less similar souls, there is a danger of them getting isolated. Perhaps this is why the IITM management thought of Mardi Gras (name got changed recently), a cultural festival where the IITian gets to meet normal people from the real world.
Quizzes and exams haunt the student right from the first semester. Many of them realize that these are going to be an essential part of their daily life and soon start finding shortcuts to be able to devote time to other activities of their life. The most popular one is xeroxing notes of the still "undiluted" minds just before the quiz. These undiluted minds have even stranger characteristics. Being immune to temptations of all sorts, they run to the class before time to be able to sit right on the first row. Many of them find it disturbing that the library closes as early as midnight.
However, despite the differences in the diluted and the undiluted souls, there are two things that make an IITian a class apart from the non-iitian. 1. Hawai chappals: Be it the library or the bathroom or the classroom or an extra-mural lecture, the IITian's footware doesn't change. The IITian scoffs at those who think it is somewhat informal. 2.IITM Lingo: The language of the IITian is the most unique feature of the IITian. A person new to the system may find it a mockery of the English language, but the IITian doesn't care.
The messes in the IITM hostels are another part of the rigorous training which equip the IITian to be able to eat any food in the world. Quark(an in-campus food joint) and Tarams(another food joint outside the campus, close to the hostels) soon became our saviours.
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One of my fondest memories of IITM is the Open Air Theatre. Every Saturday 8:00 pm was the time one would find only the bookworms in the hostels. Even if the movie is known to be bad, we would walk all the way from the hostel for this 2 hour relaxation under the sky. Though the price for the movies was unbelievably cheap (Rs.36 (90 cents) per year for 52 movies), most of the movies were quite good.
Holi and Diwali were the two festivals celebrated most enthusiastically by the IIT junta. Water was scarce in IIT Madras, so after the holi celebrations, IIT would arrange for us a bus to the beach to shed our colours. Diwali's inter hostel rocket fights were fun but grew dangerous after a while and so the authorities banned it.
The annual hostel days are probably the only time you would find the IITians getting emotional, well not all of them but certainly those celebrating it for the last time. Oh yes, there were the farewell parties too. And the silver jubilee reunion each year where we got to meet the grey-haired ex-IITians who left this place 25 years back. All of them had the same message for those still enjoying the privileges of the IIT campus - These are your best days, never will you experience a life more enjoyable than this. (How true!)
Today, if I were to meet any of my pals from there, we can't help saying - Those were the days...Yes, those were the days!..Our two year arduous preparation for the JEE was more than worth it.
The Official Webpage of IIT Madras. Not really as serious a webpage as you might expect.
The unofficial homepage of IIT Madras
