Graduation...

Finally, it's over. We had our convocation today, and I am now officially Prashanth Sriram, B.Tech, M.Tech, IIT Madras.

Strangely, it didn't feel one bit as though I were going through a momentous, once-in-a-lifetime occasion. I've had unforgettable moments in my life, and even written poetry about them. Well this wasn't one of them. I'm not entirely sure why, but I attach absolutely no importance to the fact that I've graduated. I was making jokes that this, being the 42nd convocation, is the answer to our lives, the universe and everything. I stared at my neighbour's hair, wondering why it looked diferent, until she blushed and said that she'd had a straightening perm. Well, you get the overall picture.

Maybe its because I know that I've gone from being an outstanding student to merely above average. I mean, I haven't done much academically in five years of life at IIT Madras to be proud of. Well... not much outside of academics for that matter! Still, I haven't really put up any performances to be majorly ashamed of either. I think the mediocrity of my existence is killing me slowly... perhaps a new atmosphere is exactly what the doctor ordered. If I'm lucky and find true happiness there, I just might extricate myself from this unshakeable sense of sheer boredom. I need to rekindle my passion for work, and perhaps therein lies my salvation.

Wonder if there are other people out there in the world who feel this way.

Anyway, after the function was over, I realized I had no desire to stop for celebration or goodbyes or gossip. I was the first one to hand in my robes. Fortunately, on the way back, I ran into some friends whom I was genuinely glad to see, so I did celebrate / gossip / say goodbyes after all!

Now comes the strange part. On the way back home, I stopped at the Shiva temple inside the campus to say a prayer of thanks. Well, I'm not actually a believer, and I rarely pray for anything, believing instead that if I want anything I should be capable of getting it by myself or I don't deserve it. No, the thing is that I sometimes go inside temples to say my thanks, for I don't know whom else to address my thanks. And the funny thing is that on a day as important as the convocation, there were very few people in the temple, and not one of them looked like a newly graduated student. I wasn't so early that nobody had had the time to reach the temple; I wasn't so late that everybody had left; I fully expected the temple to be teeming with students and their families. The only explanation I can think of is that people conveniently forget their Gods at times when They are not needed. I mean, people say prayers of request, instead of prayers of thanks. Which sounds extremely selfish and against my expectations of Theists. Perhaps the Gods, if any, would look more kindly upon me than these so-called believers.

Come to think of it, maybe they actually do!

Cheers,
Prashanth.