Me, my college, and all the good things

 

My friend Sujit wrote a beautiful post about what he got right in graduate school. It nudged me to reflect on what I got right, by intent or otherwise, in my college (Bengal Engineering College, now known as IIEST Shibpur).

1. My college healed my failure scar: I failed to crack the ivy-league of India and cried bucketfuls of tears. It had hurt me badly. My college, though not Ivy League, was a premier institute. The glamour of my college led to a lot of social approval. That social approval allowed me to pick up the pieces and proceed onward with life.
2. Confidence in life: I kept my studies in moderate focus. Unlike many who completely abandoned the hard work and discipline of 11th/12th. That allowed me to score well in college relative to the class. The class population was already supposed to be an elite one. So, performing well there set me up emotionally for the moments of self-doubt, I faced later in my job life.
3. Outlook towards charity: I have an unconventional outlook towards charity that I find very satisfying. My college days set the foundation of my current worldview when I got pulled into a philanthropic-spiritual college club (Vivekananda Youth Circle). Through good and bad experiences in volunteering, I learnt deeper about charity and my stance towards charity.
4. Get into a job domain of my choice: Through some logical (and not so logical) reasoning, I decided to go after VLSI/semiconductor domain. My college, due to its glamour (and some dumb luck), allowed me to land a VLSI job in my final year. I am thankful for that.
5. 'Risk'y feelgood: I am not much of a risk taker. In my college, I took two huge risks. One paid off. Other bombed. But 25 years later, I feel so good that I could dare to take the two risks.
6. Falling in love with Calcutta and Bengal: Being a Bengali by birth (but raised outside Bengal), there was always a soft spot. But much of it was 'theoretical', mainly based on Bengali literature. My four years in the heart of Bengal deepened my love. I saw the good, bad and ugly of Bengal and loved it despite everything.

Is that all? Hell no. But some are too personal and raw to discuss publicly, and 25 years have not dulled the sensitivity one bit.

Was everything good? Hell no (again). There are some serious regrets, and the list is much longer there. But it is good psychology to reflect on the positives for a default pessimist like me.