Campus Diem

Amidst the noise about how this year mattered to bankers, politicians, environmentalists, neo-Nazis, and godmen, one important voice was left out in the cold. It isn’t like we young people are used to too much attention; but to listlessly ignore the tumult in our lives isn’t quite done.Education may be the best phase of everybody’s lives – but one considers it memorable only when it has passed. In the midst of dreary college years, it is quite, quite horrific. Don’t you want to know, then, how this year broke new ground in our lives? Pulling all stops and no résumésTo…

Amidst the noise about how this year mattered to bankers, politicians, environmentalists, neo-Nazis, and godmen, one important voice was left out in the cold. It isn’t like we young people are used to too much attention; but to listlessly ignore the tumult in our lives isn’t quite done.Education may be the best phase of everybody’s lives – but one considers it memorable only when it has passed. In the midst of dreary college years, it is quite, quite horrific. Don’t you want to know, then, how this year broke new ground in our lives? Pulling all stops and no résumésTo…

As if my mother's smiling approval each morning of the various little children who bagged single digit CET ranks this year, and reading aloud of their newspaper interviews (in which each of them invariably extol the virtues of boring things such as ‘perseverance and hard work') weren't enough, the household phone has been ringing off the hook. Little cousins I didn't know existed have been dialing in with a frequency and gusto that puts fans of NRI American Idol contestants to unspeakable shame. The competitive exam season post the twelfth standard/II PU exams may be the most seemingly pointless/endless, excruciating,…

As if my mother's smiling approval each morning of the various little children who bagged single digit CET ranks this year, and reading aloud of their newspaper interviews (in which each of them invariably extol the virtues of boring things such as ‘perseverance and hard work') weren't enough, the household phone has been ringing off the hook. Little cousins I didn't know existed have been dialing in with a frequency and gusto that puts fans of NRI American Idol contestants to unspeakable shame. The competitive exam season post the twelfth standard/II PU exams may be the most seemingly pointless/endless, excruciating,…

You would have loved to grow up in the pleasant, perfect, considerably privileged locality of I Block, Jayanagar. The streets were clean, sidewalks smooth, roads neatly planned and regularly tarred: Not a single game of badminton on the streets was ever interrupted by an infrastructural glitch. The children who lived here attended "good schools", spoke purr-fect English and by age 8 could carry off a full fledged shouting-match over games of I-Spy in The Queen's very language. After all, we'd grow up to be independent people, leading awesome lives. Not the least like those children, who came to be recognized…

You would have loved to grow up in the pleasant, perfect, considerably privileged locality of I Block, Jayanagar. The streets were clean, sidewalks smooth, roads neatly planned and regularly tarred: Not a single game of badminton on the streets was ever interrupted by an infrastructural glitch. The children who lived here attended "good schools", spoke purr-fect English and by age 8 could carry off a full fledged shouting-match over games of I-Spy in The Queen's very language. After all, we'd grow up to be independent people, leading awesome lives. Not the least like those children, who came to be recognized…

As a matter of principle, we don't like over-achievers around here. But some, we let pass. Rakesh Sharma is currently interning at St. John's Medical College. He will head to Oxford to pursue a D.Phil in Clinical Neurology as one of this year's Rhodes Scholars. Like that were not enough, he manages his own show on WorldSpace Satellite Radio. He also writes a popular blog about the pains of juggling medical education alongside culture clashes. Having excelled in theater, music, writing, and academics and, yet, miraculously managing to retain a sense of humor, he talks to me about pulling off…

As a matter of principle, we don't like over-achievers around here. But some, we let pass. Rakesh Sharma is currently interning at St. John's Medical College. He will head to Oxford to pursue a D.Phil in Clinical Neurology as one of this year's Rhodes Scholars. Like that were not enough, he manages his own show on WorldSpace Satellite Radio. He also writes a popular blog about the pains of juggling medical education alongside culture clashes. Having excelled in theater, music, writing, and academics and, yet, miraculously managing to retain a sense of humor, he talks to me about pulling off…

In all the times one is under deep emotional and spiritual duress, one feels irrevocably attached to certain people. As if misery were some sort of brotherhood held together by common predicaments. This brotherhood allows you the unlikeliest and most surprising company. And so it is, today, in a moment of spellbinding epiphany, I realize that holding my hand in this universal, timeless, not-so-secret society is... Leon Trotsky.On a bright sunny day in 1940, the late revolutionary hobbled up to the window of his room in an alien land, looked at the skies (that were blue), the grass(which was green)…

In all the times one is under deep emotional and spiritual duress, one feels irrevocably attached to certain people. As if misery were some sort of brotherhood held together by common predicaments. This brotherhood allows you the unlikeliest and most surprising company. And so it is, today, in a moment of spellbinding epiphany, I realize that holding my hand in this universal, timeless, not-so-secret society is... Leon Trotsky.On a bright sunny day in 1940, the late revolutionary hobbled up to the window of his room in an alien land, looked at the skies (that were blue), the grass(which was green)…