Merge branch 'master' of git://github.com/wona/wona.github.com

_posts/2019-05-23-memoir-arnav.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 layout: post
-title: "Of Debates and Doggos"
+title: "Memoir: Of Debates and Doggos"
 tags: [wona, column]
 image: arnav1.jpg
 category: memoirs

_posts/2019-06-01-memoir-siddharth.md

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Memoir: Jigsaw Falling into Place"
+tags: [wona, column]
+image: siddharth-memoir.jpg
+category: memoirs
+author: "Siddharth Saravanakumar"
+excerpt: "I loved painting with my fingers as a 7 year old, playing guitar till I bruised my fingers as a 12 year old, and deveining prawns with my granny for her curry as a 15 year old."
+---
+
+*I loved painting with my fingers as a 7 year old, playing guitar till I bruised my fingers as a 12 year old, and deveining prawns with my granny for her curry as a 15 year old. The best memories from my childhood? Getting my hands messy.*
+
+Most people think of me as this happy-happy dude who knows what he wants to do with his life, started a student-run cafe, and who cooks all the time and experiments with food. It’s partially true, I do know what I want to do with my life, but it comes at a price. There’s a feeling of devastation when I come home- no parent would want to accept that their kid who’s in India’s most prestigious institute wants to throw it all away and cook full-time. The relationship with my parents has become sour and knowing that it will not be the same, at least for a few years, is a hard pill to swallow. But that’s the choice I have made for pursuing my dreams of becoming a chef.
+
+I joined IITR in 2014 as a half-hearted physics undergrad, skeptical if I had taken the right decision. The thought of joining hotel management was still lingering in my mind- cooking was the only thing I ever liked- while physics at IITR seemed the easier route and a reason to smile for my mother. My father, on the other hand, was skeptical regarding Integrated M.Sc. Physics, as a non-B.Tech course at an IIT was an ordeal for him. The ‘ideal’ son that I was at the time, I promised dad that I’d work hard and branch change to a course that was better on paper. I write these lines laughing at my plight, wishing I could tell my younger self that cooking is what I'd continue to pursue in the final years of my college life.
+
+There will come a time of confusion, anger, a constant feeling of being lost, and maybe depression in your tenure at Roorkee. Most of the times that phase will be in your second or third year, the years you have to make the important decisions of your life. It's tough, it really is. What’s important is to make conscious choices that are unaffected by the path often taken and never look back. That's the hard part-not looking back-because it’s so easy to point at the mistakes we made in hindsight and feel frustrated about it. Start making peace with your past, it’ll help in the long run.
+
+The first few years of university have been harsh,but the final year of my Insti life has been rewarding. I stopped comparing myself to others, realized that cooking is my path in life, and did nothing but experiment in my cafe throughout my final semester. I loved every single moment of cooking in college, and it made all the previous bitter years of college worth it. No one came and handed me this happiness, no one gave it on a silver platter. I worked hard for it, visited the main building every other day, made the administration believe in my vision and as to why they must invest in this idea, and made sure they act on my idea. Trust me, it’s tough to justify spending the Institute’s money on a hobby like cooking. They did not understand it at the time, some of them still don’t, but those who do are happy when they visit my cafe for trying out the food. It feels great, it truly does.
+
+The choice of becoming a chef, I must admit, was a product of the frustration I felt as a physics undergrad at IITR. I always thought I'd work a normal job till I'm 40 and then start a cafe of my own in Pondicherry. But college academics, particularly physics, frustrated me so much that all I could think about was doing something I love in the remaining years I had left in college, something that made me feel free and creative. I perceived cooking as an escape, but now I knew it had to be pursued more seriously. I'm really happy that I did.
+
+I sometimes wonder if I were in a less intensive branch, would I have followed the herd and gotten a job like everybody else. If I would have ever come up with an idea of a student-run cafe in India and started Culinary Club, IIT Roorkee. I really don’t know, but in retrospect, I’m happy I chose Physics. It made me do the things I love, it made me cook. Culinary Club has been my surviving grace- the reason I was sane in the final year of  my Insti life- and something that makes me really happy. That, and food shows on Netflix- Chef’s Table, Mind of a chef, Shokugeki no Soma, Eat street, The final table, Raja Rasoi aur anya kahaniya. Yes, you read the last one right.
+
+Brilliant show.

_posts/2019-06-07-memoir-aditya-rathi.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Memoir: With love, Rathi."
+tags: [wona, column]
+image: rathi.png
+category: memoirs
+author: "Aditya Rathi"
+excerpt: "Dear Roorkee, I never really wanted you to be a part of my life. Four years ago, I remember feeling like I had no other option except you - like I had to settle for you."
+---
+
+Dear Roorkee,
+
+I never really wanted you to be a part of my life. Four years ago, I remember feeling like I had no other option except you - like I had to settle for you. You were never my first choice. You just didn’t feel like home. However, out of sheer helplessness, I gave you a chance.
+
+Ever since, we’ve had a love-hate relationship, you and I. Time and again, you kept giving me numerous reasons to dislike you, and yet, moving on from you seems emptying. Over time, I am sure you’ve heard me (through muffled cries and unrestrained rants) swear at you and curse you. So instead of just reminding you (and in the process, myself) about it all, I’ll try to tell you why, with all your vices, you’ll still be a story I’ll recall with happiness.
+
+I’d like to thank you..
+
+..for throwing untimely challenges at me and messing my sleep-cycle up. I learned to love both the tranquility of the night and the chaos of the day. I saw sunsets half-asleep and sunrises wide-awake.
+
+..for making me miserably lonely with seemingly no place to go. I ended up in conversations with Bittu-bhaiya while I waited for my cup of tea.
+
+..for reminding me how rare second chances are. It made me opportunistic on my good days and hopeful on my bad ones. I started being grateful for when fresh starts were given to me, even though I learned to never seek them actively.
+
+..for letting me be stupid enough to rest my fate at the outcomes of coin-tosses.
+
+..for embarrassingly short and unsuccessful interviews. It humbled me. It made me want to work harder.
+
+..for panic-induced blackouts, ill-tempered anxiety attacks, and unwelcome bouts of depression. It made me compassionate enough to try and help people who needed me when I was doing well. It made me humane.
+
+..for uncertain situations and confusing choices which demanded prompt action. On one hand, it coaxed me into being civil to the ones that came to me for advice and mentorship, and on the other, made me accept the consequences of and live with my decisions.
+
+..for a fair share of both heartbreaks and joy. It made me resilient and faithful, and gave me regular reminders of and (necessary) testaments to the tenacity of the human heart.
+
+..for the monotony disguised as the food in the mess. It made me miss home-cooked meals.
+
+..for putting me in uncomfortably painful situations. It trained my brain to resort to my defence mechanisms more smoothly. I started finding jokes swiftly enough to normalise a lot of problems I’d otherwise be miserable about.
+
+..for making me acutely dependent. It helped me gain modesty and learn to ask for help.
+
+..for making me insecure, vulnerable, volatile and fearful. It made me look deeper into myself. It made me realise how beautiful (but fleeting) moments free of these emotions were, and led me to appreciate them to the fullest.
+
+..for keeping me away from my family for months at a stretch. I ended up finding a family for myself right here.
+
+~
+
+Four years ago, I gave you a chance. Thank you for not letting me down.
+
+With love,
+Rathi.

_posts/2019-06-13-memoir-anchit.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Memoir: May Hogwarts never change!"
+tags: [wona, column]
+image: anchit1.jpg
+category: memoirs
+author: "Anchit Shukla"
+excerpt: "Writing this memoir takes me back to the first day at R-land standing in a long queue waiting for my turn to officially start living my dream."
+---
+
+Writing this memoir takes me back to the first day at R-land standing in a long queue waiting for my turn to officially start living my dream. Being a socially introvert person that I had been till my Kota days, I just wanted to break that when I came here. I think I succeeded, though some people don’t think the same.
+
+
+![fb_post](/images/posts/anchit2.png){: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
+
+
+The day I posted this on facebook :D, to the day we parted ways, the world changed, people around me changed and I changed with them learning a life lesson almost every time I was shot with a challenge. But, with all the highs and the lows, these four years made me a person that I never thought I would be able to become. 
+Thanks, Roorkee!
+
+Thank you for providing me an opportunity to meet great, great people. For letting me learn from the experiences of my seniors, They are the ones who I credit for helping me enter the design world (they even placed bets on whether I would be coming back to work during my initial Cogni design days and told me this an eternity later). The journey that followed is what I would cherish throughout my life.
+
+Thank you for imparting in me a selfless attitude which always helped me in helping people around. Sadly, the culture at IITR has now transitioned from a phase where people cared about other people but still, it exists in bits (I have had hours of long talks on the group culture that R-land has and how it has always brought people together). I hope that this selflessness would not cease to exist.
+
+Thank you for the lifetime friendships. For the perfect locations that you provided to have conversations, some wise and some wicked. Earlier the main building area used to be the quietest place at night and I have had the most gyaan-ful discussions there watching the beautiful night sky.
+
+Thank you for the most nalaayak juniors that I have had from Design Studio and Kshitij and thanks for making me learn to handle them. I must say that they will surely take the legacy forward and would achieve greater heights.
+
+Thank you for helping me find occasions to explore myself. I never thought I would write a whole long poem and perform in a slam poetry event until you made me do it.
+
+Thank you for making me immune to embarrassments and failures. Believe me, I have had many and I would suggest everyone in college to have one. It would help you find your best self. 
+
+Thanks to your geography Roorkee, I was able to measure distances in the north. Special mention to a pahadi person, who planned the most fun trips to the most peaceful places of Uttarakhand and thanks to Maggi for making the best noodles that always came to rescue. The North will be remembered.
+
+A senior of mine in my freshman year told me that being in a college, you get to know people from 8 different batches and if you talk to even 10 percent of them(that’s almost 700 odd UG folks), you become an experienced individual right away. This, I tried to practice and I believe that a lot has been earned.
+
+Thank you, Roorkee for being the amazing host that you were and I hope that you would always be the way you have been!

_posts/2019-06-14-guide-to-branches.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Watch Out's Guide to the Branches at IIT Roorkee"
+tags: [wona]
+category: academics
+image: branch-guide.jpg
+---
+
+It is pretty difficult to choose a field of study that you might have to stick with for four (or five) years. We know because we've all been there. Hence, to make the process a little bit easier, we came up with this rather elaborate and painstakingly devised guide to the various branches at IIT Roorkee. With an analysis of the various specialisations available, including an overview of the syllabus, future prospects, and some inside information from IIT Roorkee, we hope to give you a perspective of what you might be getting into!
+
+![pic](/images/posts/branch-guide-19.png){: style="width:100%;height:auto"}
+
+<a href="/WatchOutsGuidetoBranches2019.pdf" style="text-align: center"><button type="button" class="btn btn-primary btn-block btn-lg">Download the Guide Here!</button></a>