(1st year of MSc in Nancy, France)
The cocoon period of a caterpillar is probably the most frustrating of its life's times, and yet the most necessary of phases for it to advance in to a life of avian wonder. The poor thing's not yet out of the closet with the other beetles, moths and bugs about actually being a butterfly! A phase so important and fragile that not only is vulnerable to even the remotest tug or nudge that could render life-changing consequences to the cocooned creature, but is also a blind-spot threshold about the future, with no guarantee of return. There are no options to it really!
That is sort of what my last year has been like. One may say that my description was too dramatic and a little over-bar in the choice of figurative analogy. I beg to differ - this is the most appropriate an analogy can get to such an experience.
Who would even imagine being offered admission in to two universities with two scholarships - a choice is something I've realised not a lot of people get these days with the amount of competition. And to top it all, it wasn't even in a discipline I "settled" to do since most of the competition is for the so-called creamy and top-notch departments (materials, CFD, nanotech, etc.). It was very much the course of my choice AND the universities of my choice (outside of the USA, that is...). A pretty good deal! After unsuccessfully applying to several US universities year after year, and having been stuck in a job that didn't offer the scientific excursions I needed to mentally be satiated with my career, I had indeed reached a point where I needed to take a decision to either change the way I did things, look at a different discipline/way of life, or stick to my job and secure my finances for a future. And then this opportunity came along!
Although I was quite excited when I got the news, it all happened so quickly, that I didn't have sufficient time to "depressurise" between quitting my job, spending time with family, and leaving the country to go back to school again. But I think that might have been a good thing in the end. Or may be not. Needless to say, coming to a different country, living and studying for the first time in my life in a totally new cultural, societal, economic and political setting was quite the prospect that I had been looking forward to. Getting used to the bland food just happened easily, although one can never really stop missing the flavour of good old Indian food. Bland food is bad. Bland food is so boring and just sucks out all the fun from eating (to be footnoted: if food is bland, then answer to the question "coitus or food?" is simple). Bland food is simply not fair to already-tantalised taste buds that have been spoiled by Indian and Goan gourmet for more than 2 decades. Getting used to being smirked at for not knowing the local language also just happened (but thanks to my Chennai days, I had already learnt how to deal with that). Getting used to a whole new climate pattern with its bouts of flu also just happened. And then a whole lot of other things also just happened....
Meeting people of different nationalities, with sometimes very little (at times none) country-stereotypes in your head to go with as mental labels during conversation, is sometimes quite haplessly nice. You don't know which way the conversation could swing, or when you may unknowingly offend a person with some seemingly smart thing to say or a sudden burst of opinion or perspective you may have just acquired during the course of the conversation on an otherwise serious topic. Well, all I can say is whatever stereotypes we go with in to a conversation, one can never have enough of them. Bottomline: prejudice is simply WRONG! (I skipped a few lines where I say "stereotypes are prejudices"). I'm super-pumped to have met so many interesting people along the year, made some interesting acquaintances, developed some very strong friendships, and making some very unexpected extended relations, like family. At the end of the day, the faces you see are the faces you sort of are yourself in different degrees. So you're surrounded by this collection of people who represent your own self with their temperaments, attitudes, mood-swings, weaknesses and strengths. Sort of like a cytoplasmic puppet collection of your favourite barn animals :D. Extended family.
And then you wonder why, that after having navigated through a completely different system of education in India, getting used to the French system DID NOT JUST HAPPEN! That one took a while. And the pedagogy, I must say was exceptional (I took exception to it). Ever had the feeling that you are not understanding a word a person is saying, although word for word you know exactly what the person is saying, but the delivery and the essence of what the person is trying to convey is simply not ascertainable? Have you? I'm sure you have... it happens all the time. When people talk out of their asses. Then there are those that throw words at you (like keywords, for a google search later on), while there are others who simply are not capable of expressing themselves in the mostly widely used professional and international language medium that is today the standard of all communication (I wont say which one.... it's pretty easy!). Then there are some people who have anger and attitude issues and for some (read "RASCIST") reasons believe it to be their solemn duty to antagonise students of a certain skin tone (especially the dusky brown tanned "sexy" kinds that everyone soooo badly wants to acquire). Alright! I'm gonna stop with the sarcasm now and get to the niceties and "lovelities" of my experience. The food... aaah! Did I already mention how awesome the food was?!!
Well, then I'll talk about the countryside. French countryside is soooooooooooo beautiful (this one's really really not sarcastic). Europe in general has very beautiful views and scenes. And because of its latitudinal location on the globe, it benefits from the year-round pleasant climate that those coming from the tropics find very appealing. And it's also very clean! Oh if only my countrymen would aspire to the cleanliness and public propriety & etiquette standards of some western nations.... Sigh!
I enjoyed running in the park, or along the channel when I had the time. I enjoyed listening and playing music, drinking "tea" with friends, and eating out when we could. I enjoyed getting close to some individuals, appreciating their intellect at times, and at other times their humility and generosity. And then there were the other happenings of life, the upheavals of the soul, the personal drama one has to deal with from time to time, the sense of ethics and morality that often get clouded when the locales are too different for too long, blah blah blah.... Nonetheless, we maintain ourselves in one piece, as one person, as two feet and two hands and one head. It was indeed quite a year! And I think I aged it well, with a couple of whites to sport on my beard - my war wounds. And a bunch of great memories to keep me going to the next year, and the next, and the one after that....
The cocoon period of a caterpillar is probably the most frustrating of its life's times, and yet the most necessary of phases for it to advance in to a life of avian wonder. The poor thing's not yet out of the closet with the other beetles, moths and bugs about actually being a butterfly! A phase so important and fragile that not only is vulnerable to even the remotest tug or nudge that could render life-changing consequences to the cocooned creature, but is also a blind-spot threshold about the future, with no guarantee of return. There are no options to it really!
That is sort of what my last year has been like. One may say that my description was too dramatic and a little over-bar in the choice of figurative analogy. I beg to differ - this is the most appropriate an analogy can get to such an experience.
Who would even imagine being offered admission in to two universities with two scholarships - a choice is something I've realised not a lot of people get these days with the amount of competition. And to top it all, it wasn't even in a discipline I "settled" to do since most of the competition is for the so-called creamy and top-notch departments (materials, CFD, nanotech, etc.). It was very much the course of my choice AND the universities of my choice (outside of the USA, that is...). A pretty good deal! After unsuccessfully applying to several US universities year after year, and having been stuck in a job that didn't offer the scientific excursions I needed to mentally be satiated with my career, I had indeed reached a point where I needed to take a decision to either change the way I did things, look at a different discipline/way of life, or stick to my job and secure my finances for a future. And then this opportunity came along!
Although I was quite excited when I got the news, it all happened so quickly, that I didn't have sufficient time to "depressurise" between quitting my job, spending time with family, and leaving the country to go back to school again. But I think that might have been a good thing in the end. Or may be not. Needless to say, coming to a different country, living and studying for the first time in my life in a totally new cultural, societal, economic and political setting was quite the prospect that I had been looking forward to. Getting used to the bland food just happened easily, although one can never really stop missing the flavour of good old Indian food. Bland food is bad. Bland food is so boring and just sucks out all the fun from eating (to be footnoted: if food is bland, then answer to the question "coitus or food?" is simple). Bland food is simply not fair to already-tantalised taste buds that have been spoiled by Indian and Goan gourmet for more than 2 decades. Getting used to being smirked at for not knowing the local language also just happened (but thanks to my Chennai days, I had already learnt how to deal with that). Getting used to a whole new climate pattern with its bouts of flu also just happened. And then a whole lot of other things also just happened....
Meeting people of different nationalities, with sometimes very little (at times none) country-stereotypes in your head to go with as mental labels during conversation, is sometimes quite haplessly nice. You don't know which way the conversation could swing, or when you may unknowingly offend a person with some seemingly smart thing to say or a sudden burst of opinion or perspective you may have just acquired during the course of the conversation on an otherwise serious topic. Well, all I can say is whatever stereotypes we go with in to a conversation, one can never have enough of them. Bottomline: prejudice is simply WRONG! (I skipped a few lines where I say "stereotypes are prejudices"). I'm super-pumped to have met so many interesting people along the year, made some interesting acquaintances, developed some very strong friendships, and making some very unexpected extended relations, like family. At the end of the day, the faces you see are the faces you sort of are yourself in different degrees. So you're surrounded by this collection of people who represent your own self with their temperaments, attitudes, mood-swings, weaknesses and strengths. Sort of like a cytoplasmic puppet collection of your favourite barn animals :D. Extended family.
And then you wonder why, that after having navigated through a completely different system of education in India, getting used to the French system DID NOT JUST HAPPEN! That one took a while. And the pedagogy, I must say was exceptional (I took exception to it). Ever had the feeling that you are not understanding a word a person is saying, although word for word you know exactly what the person is saying, but the delivery and the essence of what the person is trying to convey is simply not ascertainable? Have you? I'm sure you have... it happens all the time. When people talk out of their asses. Then there are those that throw words at you (like keywords, for a google search later on), while there are others who simply are not capable of expressing themselves in the mostly widely used professional and international language medium that is today the standard of all communication (I wont say which one.... it's pretty easy!). Then there are some people who have anger and attitude issues and for some (read "RASCIST") reasons believe it to be their solemn duty to antagonise students of a certain skin tone (especially the dusky brown tanned "sexy" kinds that everyone soooo badly wants to acquire). Alright! I'm gonna stop with the sarcasm now and get to the niceties and "lovelities" of my experience. The food... aaah! Did I already mention how awesome the food was?!!
Well, then I'll talk about the countryside. French countryside is soooooooooooo beautiful (this one's really really not sarcastic). Europe in general has very beautiful views and scenes. And because of its latitudinal location on the globe, it benefits from the year-round pleasant climate that those coming from the tropics find very appealing. And it's also very clean! Oh if only my countrymen would aspire to the cleanliness and public propriety & etiquette standards of some western nations.... Sigh!
I enjoyed running in the park, or along the channel when I had the time. I enjoyed listening and playing music, drinking "tea" with friends, and eating out when we could. I enjoyed getting close to some individuals, appreciating their intellect at times, and at other times their humility and generosity. And then there were the other happenings of life, the upheavals of the soul, the personal drama one has to deal with from time to time, the sense of ethics and morality that often get clouded when the locales are too different for too long, blah blah blah.... Nonetheless, we maintain ourselves in one piece, as one person, as two feet and two hands and one head. It was indeed quite a year! And I think I aged it well, with a couple of whites to sport on my beard - my war wounds. And a bunch of great memories to keep me going to the next year, and the next, and the one after that....
7 comments:
ha ha ha... nice one... :)
"the sense of ethics and morality that often get clouded when the locales are too different for too long"... hmmm... would like to hear some more on that!
pity we cud not catch up... :(
Hehe... yea. Would've been great to catch up!
your next blog should be of you dreaming about rajma chawal :D
Put to words nicely William :) And I am happy that you enjoyed your stay here in our little (literally!) Europe!
As for the food, I wouldn't describe your tasting buds as "spoiled" but rather as roughened and scarred :) I remember the Indian food quite vividly still ;)
Have fun Bharat meh and we'll all see you next year. Maybe we can even go back to the Czech mountains for some cross-country skiing? It would be quite a pitty to lose those skills you acquired so painstakingly ;)
Hahahahahaa.... roughened and scarred indeed! And those skiing skills I have will surely come in handy for tomatina or grape crushing in some of the wineries in France :D .... P.S. Czech (part 2) sounds fun!!
white in your beard yaar?! im glad you will always think of Kalkaji & GK1 as a barn yard!
nicely written beta.
Yes pappu bhai...barn yard :) thanks! BTW, waiting to heat about your experiences of taking entrepreneurship into the American outbacks.
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