Upon crossing the hurdle of JEE we enter the arena of IIT fraught with feelings of triumph. In IIT, we encounter immense opportunities and facilities to hone one's skills and realize the potential within. But how effectively are we able to take advantage of opportunities depends on our attitude and priorities. This article presents three kinds of engagements students may generally indulge in: Studies, Pursuing non-academic interests and Killing Time. However, focus here is on analyzing the reasons for killing time.
Those who engage themselves in regular studies are those who either aim at BC (Branch Change) or want to pursue higher studies or feel satisfied and secure with good grades or simply, love to study. They target academic excellence and remain motivated to study even after first semester. They are the ones who pocket gold and silver. Second category students may consciously give lower priority to studies because their interest demands time and focus. It may be finance or management or drama, music etc.
Third category people usually remain awake till late night watching movies, enjoying thrills of CS – AOE - NFS, playing cards, gossiping, going on late night/extremely early morning walks...(realized junta can fill it up)... - 'TimePass'. If we ponder at our own daily schedule we'll invent sufficient time to engage our energy positively without compromising on required recreation. Let's dive deeper to analyze the scene. What are those factors which drag us to comfort zone and make us complacent time 'n' again. I can think of three of them:
Firstly, there is no authority, full freedom to do whatever we want. Secondly, we have no serious goal after IIT. Thirdly, to add to the above two, we are in majority.
No Authority – Independence is very crucial for personal holistic development. It is a facility because we are not accountable to anyone for what we do through day and night. We are free to decide and choose responses as we wish. But in absence of maturity and a sense of responsibility, independence can be detrimental. What makes us irresponsible is the strong tendency to succumb to instant gratification like watching a late night movie instead of sleeping. Problem is, pleasure derived is temporary and of no tangible value and therefore, it comes from under utilization of time and energy. Moreover, at the end of the day there is hardly any satisfaction. Another practical option is to tolerate the urges to achieve long lasting happiness and gain. For instance, Olympic athletes control their diet because they aspire for gold. In essence, every decision at every moment is about choosing one of the two – instant gratification Vs achieving something tangible in later point of time.
No Goal- Before coming to IIT, we wanted to secure a rank in top 100 or 500 etc. That was our goal. Due to short-sightedness, after coming to IIT, we are blank now. Till the end of graduation situation remains more or less same. We can not perceive a clear picture of ourselves 5 years or 10 years down the line. Its true that we have not got much exposure and therefore without proper input, output can never be clear. In such scenarios, safest path is to diligently focus on regular academics because academia is the forte of IIT more than anything else. One may want to try out some sport as a career but if he is not sure about it and in course of rigorous practices he looses on his grades then it is not the best bargain because IIT is not known for cultivating sportsmen. Nevertheless, we have to have long term and short term serious goals characterized by deadlines. Concerted and directed effort is a natural outcome when target is known.
Association: When I say, “We are in majority” it means that we are living in a community where mostly junta is victimized by second factor. What we associate with portrays where we are heading. When nobody around us is serious about studies nor do they have any other serious goal to pursue then we lack inspiration. To be self-motivated is best but that is like swimming against the currents. We may endeavor very hard to sacrifice movies, CS etc. to focus on studies but some wing-mate comes up and criticizes us. Seeing the opposition and being allured by distractions we may surrender to circumstances. This is typically called peer pressure, deadliest of all the three factors because it is capable of neutralizing the antidotes of above two factors.
Note:
There may be opinions different from what has been presented. If you want to comment or express any disagreement or add more points or have any queries, most welcome. You can always leave a comment.
Those who engage themselves in regular studies are those who either aim at BC (Branch Change) or want to pursue higher studies or feel satisfied and secure with good grades or simply, love to study. They target academic excellence and remain motivated to study even after first semester. They are the ones who pocket gold and silver. Second category students may consciously give lower priority to studies because their interest demands time and focus. It may be finance or management or drama, music etc.
Third category people usually remain awake till late night watching movies, enjoying thrills of CS – AOE - NFS, playing cards, gossiping, going on late night/extremely early morning walks...(realized junta can fill it up)... - 'TimePass'. If we ponder at our own daily schedule we'll invent sufficient time to engage our energy positively without compromising on required recreation. Let's dive deeper to analyze the scene. What are those factors which drag us to comfort zone and make us complacent time 'n' again. I can think of three of them:
Firstly, there is no authority, full freedom to do whatever we want. Secondly, we have no serious goal after IIT. Thirdly, to add to the above two, we are in majority.
No Authority – Independence is very crucial for personal holistic development. It is a facility because we are not accountable to anyone for what we do through day and night. We are free to decide and choose responses as we wish. But in absence of maturity and a sense of responsibility, independence can be detrimental. What makes us irresponsible is the strong tendency to succumb to instant gratification like watching a late night movie instead of sleeping. Problem is, pleasure derived is temporary and of no tangible value and therefore, it comes from under utilization of time and energy. Moreover, at the end of the day there is hardly any satisfaction. Another practical option is to tolerate the urges to achieve long lasting happiness and gain. For instance, Olympic athletes control their diet because they aspire for gold. In essence, every decision at every moment is about choosing one of the two – instant gratification Vs achieving something tangible in later point of time.
No Goal- Before coming to IIT, we wanted to secure a rank in top 100 or 500 etc. That was our goal. Due to short-sightedness, after coming to IIT, we are blank now. Till the end of graduation situation remains more or less same. We can not perceive a clear picture of ourselves 5 years or 10 years down the line. Its true that we have not got much exposure and therefore without proper input, output can never be clear. In such scenarios, safest path is to diligently focus on regular academics because academia is the forte of IIT more than anything else. One may want to try out some sport as a career but if he is not sure about it and in course of rigorous practices he looses on his grades then it is not the best bargain because IIT is not known for cultivating sportsmen. Nevertheless, we have to have long term and short term serious goals characterized by deadlines. Concerted and directed effort is a natural outcome when target is known.
Association: When I say, “We are in majority” it means that we are living in a community where mostly junta is victimized by second factor. What we associate with portrays where we are heading. When nobody around us is serious about studies nor do they have any other serious goal to pursue then we lack inspiration. To be self-motivated is best but that is like swimming against the currents. We may endeavor very hard to sacrifice movies, CS etc. to focus on studies but some wing-mate comes up and criticizes us. Seeing the opposition and being allured by distractions we may surrender to circumstances. This is typically called peer pressure, deadliest of all the three factors because it is capable of neutralizing the antidotes of above two factors.
Note:
There may be opinions different from what has been presented. If you want to comment or express any disagreement or add more points or have any queries, most welcome. You can always leave a comment.
