My last post was sometime in May, 3 months ago. A month back I was recollecting my moments in IIT apart from studies. I realized there were so many things that I did for the first time in life during my stay in IIT Bombay. We guys used to have a saying, if you want to send anything to Heaven, then the pin code is 400076 (pin code for IIT Powai). Indeed that is what it was for me, learning to stay in a hostel, skating, juggling, and so much fun.
No matter what your interest or passion is, you will find a club related to same in IIT. These were mostly run by students themselves and open to all. You didn't have to be a pro to join any club, if you are passionate you are welcomed or you can join and then fall in love with that particular art. I stayed in IIT for three years and most of the weekends I used to go back home and miss out on many of the student body activities. I used to come home mid-week too. In the second year, once we got our individual rooms, things changed and I started staying more in IIT. Yeah, this was my first hostel experience in Life. Being in Mumbai, helped to adjust to the conditions gradually. That's enough for now for the overview of IIT Hostel.
It was somewhere in the last phase of my first year that I came to know about the IIT-B skating club. The club comprised mainly of under-grad students. They help us procure my first inline-skates (roller blades) and organized a crash course sort of stuff for the new joiners. In the past, I had done roller skating and so it was somewhat easy to learn rollerblading. The best part was, here you learned the technique to go fast as well as you had seniors to help you learn tricks so that you can show off your stunts. I dwelled into both the world and found going faster was easier than doing tricky stunts. I continued that for a year more before giving it up for something else.
Guitar - I was always fascinated by Guitarist and had that in my dream bucket list. Luckily I had a batchmate, Ajinkya Joshi who was a very good guitarist and he helped to take my baby footsteps. He was patient and his notes were like a bible for me. I was more into tabs rather than chords. I learned quite a few Hindi songs but couldn't catch up on the chords part. Way too tough for me. After IIT, Ajinkya and I both joined Mahindra in Chennai and I got a chance to again try out my hand in Guitaring. But like the last time, Chords were beyond my reach.
The other skill that I tried to catch up was juggling. In one of the techfest, I saw Jason Divad a street performer. He juggled, balls, clubs, knives and even rode a uni-cycle. I am not sure what was the trigger point, but on Jan 2015 I decided to give a shot at juggling. Youtube was my only source with hundreds of videos. I followed Niels Duninker since he was a professional juggler and his videos were to the point. I ordered some good quality props like the Balls and Clubs for juggling from my brother in UK. I was able to do 4 balls, three clubs and so variations in that.
Running - This was one of the biggest game-changers. Just before joining IIT I was diagnosed with Astha and had to take inhaler daily. This was frustrating, I couldn't imagine my life taking inhaler daily just to be healthy. Plus, it was always a dream to run a marathon. But it was not like I trained and within a year I completed a marathon. It took years. The seed of that was laid in IIT. I started with 2.5 km runs and then slowly increasing it to 8-9 km. It was in my final year of IIT that I completed my first Mumbai Marathon (Half - 2015). It felt bad to be called half-marathoner and not a marathoner. I trained for a year more and then I ran my first full marathon in 2016 Jan.
These are some of the key first-timers that I had in IIT. I'll end my post and hope that you share your stories too.
No matter what your interest or passion is, you will find a club related to same in IIT. These were mostly run by students themselves and open to all. You didn't have to be a pro to join any club, if you are passionate you are welcomed or you can join and then fall in love with that particular art. I stayed in IIT for three years and most of the weekends I used to go back home and miss out on many of the student body activities. I used to come home mid-week too. In the second year, once we got our individual rooms, things changed and I started staying more in IIT. Yeah, this was my first hostel experience in Life. Being in Mumbai, helped to adjust to the conditions gradually. That's enough for now for the overview of IIT Hostel.
It was somewhere in the last phase of my first year that I came to know about the IIT-B skating club. The club comprised mainly of under-grad students. They help us procure my first inline-skates (roller blades) and organized a crash course sort of stuff for the new joiners. In the past, I had done roller skating and so it was somewhat easy to learn rollerblading. The best part was, here you learned the technique to go fast as well as you had seniors to help you learn tricks so that you can show off your stunts. I dwelled into both the world and found going faster was easier than doing tricky stunts. I continued that for a year more before giving it up for something else.
Guitar - I was always fascinated by Guitarist and had that in my dream bucket list. Luckily I had a batchmate, Ajinkya Joshi who was a very good guitarist and he helped to take my baby footsteps. He was patient and his notes were like a bible for me. I was more into tabs rather than chords. I learned quite a few Hindi songs but couldn't catch up on the chords part. Way too tough for me. After IIT, Ajinkya and I both joined Mahindra in Chennai and I got a chance to again try out my hand in Guitaring. But like the last time, Chords were beyond my reach.
The other skill that I tried to catch up was juggling. In one of the techfest, I saw Jason Divad a street performer. He juggled, balls, clubs, knives and even rode a uni-cycle. I am not sure what was the trigger point, but on Jan 2015 I decided to give a shot at juggling. Youtube was my only source with hundreds of videos. I followed Niels Duninker since he was a professional juggler and his videos were to the point. I ordered some good quality props like the Balls and Clubs for juggling from my brother in UK. I was able to do 4 balls, three clubs and so variations in that.
Running - This was one of the biggest game-changers. Just before joining IIT I was diagnosed with Astha and had to take inhaler daily. This was frustrating, I couldn't imagine my life taking inhaler daily just to be healthy. Plus, it was always a dream to run a marathon. But it was not like I trained and within a year I completed a marathon. It took years. The seed of that was laid in IIT. I started with 2.5 km runs and then slowly increasing it to 8-9 km. It was in my final year of IIT that I completed my first Mumbai Marathon (Half - 2015). It felt bad to be called half-marathoner and not a marathoner. I trained for a year more and then I ran my first full marathon in 2016 Jan.
These are some of the key first-timers that I had in IIT. I'll end my post and hope that you share your stories too.
