Recently I noted with quiet pleasure that I finally have a gardener’s hands. Coarse and calloused, with stubborn dirt underneath my chipped, uneven fingernails. A steady reminder of my 62 companions at home clustered together in the balcony and in the three-wide window enclosures that IIT has so thoughtfully provided.
The recession made me a rather excellent cook.
Back in 2007, when I graduated from my masters at the Industrial Design Centre, I chose not to sit for placements (because I didn’t want to be boxed in to one particular discipline at one particular company) and started my own design practice.
“This is it” I told myself, “It’s time to take the leap of faith!” The consequences did not matter. All that mattered was that inner voice that desperately wanted me to take the plunge…and so I did. Suddenly, just like that, I resigned from my extremely promising corporate job and decided to pursue my passion– teaching.
This month we present a hobby-themed issue which will be enjoyed by all those who love tinkering in their leisure hours. Meet alumni with unusual interests or rediscover a familiar batch mate in a new light. There are all types of hobbyists – amateurs, experts and those who have taken their hobbies to the next level.
Not very long ago, during my visit to S. Africa, our guide-cum-cabbie surprised us all by a weird but practical gem of advice for protecting big cats. Said he: ‘If you ever want anything to be conserved, link it up to your food/livelihood. So, the best way for mankind to stop worrying about the survival of big cats is by starting to eat them, regularly!’ No need to say, I was simply floored by his logic!
One of my favorite quotations of all time is by the Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu. It goes something like this: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step.”
I am an IIT Bombay alumnus from the Energy Science Department. I rode a solar-powered electric bicycle for 7,424 km in 79 days. I started riding from IIT Bombay on 8th May 2016 and, for the next 79 days, rode across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh to raise solar awareness. I returned to IIT Bombay on the 25th July.
[Noseybee’s Nosy Note: The Wondering Minstrels was a joyous exploration of poetry that began as a poetry-by-email service and soon morphed into a lively community of poetry lovers. From Feb ’99 till Jan ’07, The Wondering Minstrels were a source of a poem a day, (almost) every day, accompanied by commentary, analysis, criticism, biographical information about the poet, literary anecdotes, historical asides, trivia etc. Eight years, over 1900 poems, and tons of information about most of them; surprisingly, this treasure trove of verse was the handiwork of three geeks from our very own IITB – the poetry-by-email service was started and run by Abraham Thomas and Martin De Mello, with an accompanying archive website created and maintained by Sitaram Iyer. Read more about their motivations and their journey with The Wondering Minstrels in this interview.]
A few months ago, we received the sad news of the passing away of Prof. MGK Menon, who was one of India’s most gifted scientists and administrators. Prof. Menon was closely associated with IIT Bombay as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT Bombay from 1997 to 2003 and it is a privilege for me to write about him.
