A long journey, of laziness, of procrastination, of effort that went only so far as to achieve what I was happy with, not so far as to amaze the world. Well, I guess that’s just me. Its been one semester into my Masters at Cornell and frankly I’m quite amazed. It was quite the surprise when last April I got an admit into Cornell University.
I like to believe that I am like Dimitar Berbatov in my approach to life … Berba once said of his style of play on the football pitch
I am a relaxed guy. I play that way and I can’t change my style. I watch games and see guys who panic on the ball – they look so nervous. I can be calm, because I sometimes know what I want to do before the ball comes to me.
Like he says, I feel that when life dishes out a situation for me, quite often I intuitively know how I need to deal with it … and then I deal with it the way i want to deal with it. Quite often the way I need to deal with it may be horribly misaligned with the way I deal with it ! Well again, I guess that’s just me.
So yeah, coming back to the Road to Ithaca … for that’s what the title reads. The admit from Cornell has made me believe that there is a place in this world for languid, fluent laziness to co-exist with the huffing and puffing road to excellence. I am amazed by the work rates of some of my fellow Cornellians (read Ved). (The guy goes ninja on stuff quite often.) I just can’t.See i’m off topic already. Again.
What it tells me is that there seem to be more people out there like me who have an alarming sense of nonchalance. Nonchalance as seen by the eyes of the world, that is. Nonchalance is often misunderstood as negligence, and that it the worst pitfall for someone as nonchalant as me.
It began with me, in typical nonchalance, giving the IIT JEE in 2007. All I knew going in was that I was good enough to crack the exam. And that’s just what I did. Nothing more … none of the fireworks that some of my friends set alight. Just good enough. Then began a journey through 4 years that will always be described as the best in my life. Never making an effort to actually excel. I always played to a target. Demonstrate adequate mastery of the subject. Amaze in an internship. Get the prized admit. On hindsight I might say, maybe a slightly better CPI wouldn’t have harmed my chances. But then, in order to actually get that, I would have to slightly compromise on the other joys of life. I don’t think I can do that ! Well again, that’s just me.
I can say for sure that I, personally, value the experience of all out Alcher, all out quizzing, sort’ve all out Inter IIT and a borderline, average 7.52 as much much more than dropping or reducing intensity on something among Alcher or Quizzing or the Inters to scratch an 8 (maybe). I always knew that when it came to an internship, if I can catch one lucky break with a borderline CPI, then my work will speak for itself. I knew I was playing on the edge with a CPI that makes most people think “He knows some of his stuff, but not most of it.” But by playing on the edge, I got to do the things I love, the things that I will be able to cherish the most, all the way to my grave (or ashes, or that cryogenic chamber, or that scientific experiment, or that museum, or whatever else may be IN by then 
). Those thing being Alcher and my experiences Quizzing and Swimming.
Well playing on the edge in my first semester nearly threw me off it !! I was left barely clutching the very edge of the edge with a 6.84 and the plan was already going awry !! Well (luckily) another semester in and a much more decent performance in it, and the plan was back on !! But anyways, fast forward to the lucky break. The summer of 2009 afforded me an opportunity to work at TIFR. And that has definitely been my lucky break. Dr Prabhu took a gamble in me (definitely a gamble I have to say). And luckily my work was up to the mark. I remember discussion I had with him towards the end of that summer. He told me to work at a good research university the next summer and then go on to one of the top graduate programs later on. I was hopeful, but not too sure, since excellence in academics is definitely something a top graduate program would look for. And all I had, was, as I say above, borderline mediocrity in academics.
The TIFR intern made me a bit more sure of myself … and then another lucky break at TU Delft. towards the end of the intern at Delft, I spoke to Prof Urbach about the three odd months i’d spent there. Surprisingly he said my work was good, and also mentioned that I should stand a pretty good chance if I applied to the EM Masters Program !! That gave me an added boost … one (supposedly) killer SOP later … I seemed to be set on the right course … The plan seemed to have worked … and I was on the Road to Ithaca … which is by the way the title of this post …
… Well Viva Espana 
