[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Photo: Mid-April 1972 with batchmates and classmates from H4
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]It happened suddenly. Messmates started shouting and there was chaos. Demands were made as to who prepared aloo subzi for the dinner.
[vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”1. Surviving Two Cultures” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:left|color:%23dd9933″][vc_column_text]About a week or two after I became a resident of Hostel 4 on the campus, for some reason I was a bit late getting to the mess for dinner. Usually, a whole gang of about 12-15 of us freshies would gather, go to the mess, and sit at the same table together – for the same reason that Herrings form large shoals, the larger the shoal the lesser the probability of any one individual being eaten by a marauding Shark!
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Illustration by Pradnya J
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]There is a widespread belief among hostel inmates that you would not feel homesick if your hostel served good food. This belief is likely true as most of us enjoyed the food served at Hostel 11 mess, and not many complained of homesickness.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I was visiting H5 after over 35 years. My wife was accompanying me and I was keen to show her my room and relive memories of some of the best times I have had in my life.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]This was our fifth year. Knowing that we’d disperse the following year, we maximized the fun aspect of our hostel and wing life – in the silliest of ways (looking back). We all wore saffron lungis that year and most of us donned beards. Raja shaved his head in a Mohawk – that’s Raja!
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]When Ali sent a message via Ashok Kamath wanting a piece about the ‘literary life’ of IIT Bombay during my time there, I had to dig into rapidly dissipating memories, confused and grown tenuous with age, jumbled randomly together.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Interviewers: Adil Khan, Samyak Shah
This interview was conducted as part of Department of Electrical Engineering’s “Alumni and Corporate Engagement” initiative. Check out the Department’s official student newsletter at this link.
Mr. Sharad Saraf is an alumnus of IIT Bombay (B.Tech. ’69 Elec. Engg. H2) and has also served as a member of the Board of Governors (BoG) of IIT Bombay.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_tta_tabs][vc_tta_section title=”1. Gaping Ape” tab_id=”1652339627806-786f49a2-ee3d”][vc_column_text]I usually never bunked lectures but it so happened that I was down with fever and felt too delirious to attend that day.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Artwork: By author
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]We used to have a common Freshie’s night in LT for all hostels, in which freshers exhibited various skills .
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Arun Kaul wrote, acted in, directed and produced plays, skits, entertainment programs. One of his outlandish media adventure was the production of a “magazine”.