Chocolates of sem 4...

So, I come to the end of semester four! Now is the time to rejoice, go home and recharge my capacitors, enjoy, travel places and have fun. Also, because I always have a pair of eyes in my stomach, ideally though, this is the time for some looking-back, and introspection. A time to ask myself, "How did I live my life in this chunk of an academic segment?". A good thing that IIT does is, it partitions a year's time into 4 logical time partitions. Calls for 4 introspections in 12 months. Sounds good.

This semester will remain in my EPROM memory for quite a long time. I have had some real "moments" of my life, experiences unique of their kind, and all of them have been joyful and gracious. This day, I know the frequencies that my mind is composed of. Atleast the fundamental ones. It has been a journey of self-discovery. A bigger discovery though is of the way how my mind resonates with the things outside it. Sometimes, a whimsical thought that I give to such experiences, tells me that things are not external. There is no separation between internal and the external. Nature has set common frequencies, but somehow the human mind, thanks to its immese complexity, hides intellegently from itself the frequencies it is made of. Before I drag my mind out, this vicious chain of thought does not end before concluding that the human mind is programmed to be the way it is, and it is possible for it to free itself and see itself. I don't understand the language of reasoning. So in the logical sphere, my deductions may be wrong. But this semester has given those little eyes sitting inside my stomach enough sight to dance to the tune of mysterious notes of an "external world". Cryptic language, it may look that I am using, I would say, yes it is for the simple reason that I am not good at reasoning such experiences!

And what else? I remember another day when it was raining when I came out of the CLT at about 8:30 pm. I had just spent moments with a lady who I guess understood the "cryptic language" of the inside and the outside. Mrs. Sudha Murthy has been an inspiration to me since my high school days. "Philanthropy", I remember she said, " is what a life is incomplete without." I still remember the way I tried to understand her when she spoke about the joy of giving. It did not make much sense to me at that time. Now I see that there isn't anything that is "mine". There is no external as such. This realization, as I said before, came as a momentary impulse and that was the only thing I knew was true for a moment. Felt like I found the ultimate answer. It was momentary. Traces still reside though. This goes down as another reason why this semester has been full of "moments". A right time to feel fresh a 'pat-on-the-back' to Infosys. A single enterprise has done such good to the nation. Employment on one hand, global respect for India on another, and philanthropy on yet another. When enterprises set nation building as a goal, this is ideally how they should go about it. A salute to Infosys and Infosys Foundation. I have seen Sudha Murthy more closely at work though. A major part of her work has been in the North-Karnataka region. She once presided over the annual day function of my school. She gave handsome scholarships to Board toppers that day. More recently, a junior at my PU College bagged Rank 1 in State CET, but he was not confident of meeting the expenses of an engineering education. I heard Sudha Murthy awarded him a handsome lump sum. During her talk, a student asked her, "How can we students practise philanthropy? We don't have enough money to donate" . And this was her answer, " Lend your notes to the guy who needs it. Get an 'A' grade and help the other guy get an 'A' grade. This is philanthropy too". Lessons on philanthropy and true nation building indeed. Lessons on what a single individual can do for his nation.

This is not all. Some experiences I do not dare to blog. Whatever it be, I see life better now.