Last Year of MSc: Unforgettable Memories

The last year of my Masters was by far one of the most interesting years of my academic career. If somebody would have asked me at the end of MSc-I that would I ever miss my batch-mates, my answer would have been negative. At the most I would have missed Barrel and Anustuv. These two were the closest to me. But everything changed after we entered Msc-II. One of the significant differences was that I had now left refractory and was eating Kaka’s awful dabba. This brought me closer to my batch-mates. Also the class was now divided according to the special subject that one had. But this division only helped in bringing us all together. In the first year itself many had made friendships (Unlike me !!!). Now was the time to have different ingredients and make a single delicious curry having flavours of each and every ingredient kept intact! To an extent the MSc-II curry was really delicious and digestible. Those who couldn’t be part of this should feel sorry about it (I nearly would have!!!).
The new year brought new friends. Significantly among them was a thin, frail and energetic girl called Aradhana. I am generally very bad in handling girls and have found all of them to be of the same flavour but surprisingly this girl was different. It’s mainly due to her popularity and the large friend base she commanded, I could be part of the MSc-II family of which I had been just a mute spectator. Now I too was interacting with people whom I barely knew by names. These were the faces which were around me for a year or so and we barely conversed at all!!! Here I made friendships with the Gayatris, Siddharth, Sanjeev, Atul and all. It would be difficult to forget the teasing that went around among us especially between Aradhana, me and Gayatri. Atul-Anagha fights were also common and entertaining!!!
Another group of friends are my Astrophysics batch-mates, Kaushalya and Avdhoot. While Avdhoot and I were friends, we didn’t know Kaushalya at all. She was in two minds before joining Astro as well which could have made the matters worse. We were also susceptible of the attention that we would be getting from our teachers in IUCAA as we were only three in number. But we got excellent teachers in Dipankar Sir, Kandu Sir, Ranjan Sir, Joydeep Sir, Narsimhan Sir, Tarun Sir and Varun Sir. They not only made astrophysics simpler but also entertaining. And for the first time in my life, I was doing practicals without the teacher being around. And we enjoyed all the practicals whether it was the dark room or the Radio observations (one at 9 o’clock in the morning while the other at 12 o’clock in the night). But the best were the telescopical nights. It was as if we had our own private telescope and the skies were our own. I will strongly miss those late night tracking of Sirius, Betelgeuse and Polaris and then heading to Shivajinagar for midnight coffee that too tripsy on a bike (Kisi Mamu ne pakda nahi !!!).
Also I would like to thank all my teachers in the department without whom learning Physics wouldn’t have been such enjoyable. They were always there to help us around whether with theory or with the practicals.
The last semester was the best of the lot. We had only two lectures per day and a practical every week which gave us enough time to waste around. We were generally to be found in and around the badminton court and the canteen. I missed these mostly as I had lectures starting at half past eleven in IUCAA after which I generally went for a nice afternoon Bhaat Ghoom (Rice Sleep)!!! But whatever quality time I spent there was worthwhile. We discussed on so many different topics and because of these interactions I came to know about so many new activities and things going around me. It was as if a veil was raised and an entirely new world beckoned me. This semester I also did a project under Dipankar Sir which was not done to the fullest by me. But the internet and food facilities which came along with it were fully utilized by me. This helped in reconnecting with many old friends who had been lost in the tide of time.
In all this year would be difficult to forget in years to come. I pray to God that the friendships that have evolved will not be lost as easily as has happened before.
Please put in your inputs and share any incidents that you remember.……