Mine was too meagre

The college days are here to end and the realization is slowly, but surely growing on me. After a lot of searching and efforts, I have managed to create some DVDs with content which I would like to have after IIT and with which I would be prepared to face the world outside IIT without LAN. I just cannot imagine the state in which you wish to watch a movie, or listen to a song or watch the latest episode of an American daily and not have access to it.

However, it turned out that it was a long way to go before we can say good bye to the college. My friend gave me a link to a site listing different phobias. However, I could not find the name for the phobia of sitting on a hunger strike. Mine was not that of a phobia but more of hitch about doing something you have not done ever before. Yes, I went for a hunger strike. But only for 24 hours. If you think that is not big enough, try one for yourself. Of course you can drink plain water but nothing else. However, it was nothing when I and my 4 other friends looked around and found people who had not eaten for some 100 or so hours.

I would like to mention the names of my fellow strikers who took the brave initiative, which the entire engineering community had refrained from. They were Mr. NJ, Mr. KS (also a contributor to this blog), Mr. SP and Mr. AB. We were on a relay strike for 24 hours at AIIMS along with people from the medical community. When we started the count said that there were 87 people on strike and 43 had already collapsed. 24 hours later there were the numbers were 34 and 95.

Their effort was more than commendable. I just cannot imagine surviving 100 hours without food. And the enthusiasm was tremendous. The support came from everywhere. Students, welfare associations, faculty etc. everyone was there. The media was busy giving in depth and regular updates back to their studios. While I knew that by so and so time my strike would be over and so had something to look forward to, others did not and yet they continued.

But one thing I realized was that people like me who try to achieve things by protesting online through blogs, communities, petitions etc. are merely bluffing. Nothing much is achieved by forwarding mails, posting on online groups or communities, signing petitions. It is just a method to convince oneself that he has done something for the cause when in reality he has done nothing more than crap. Little is achieved even after taking to the streets and NOTHING is achieved by the former method, if you call it a method at all.

Lastly, after the strike, I happened to meet a lady doctor and when she came to know that I was from IIT, she enquired (I assume sarcastically) if the IIT was affected at all by reservations. I said yes and tried to defend how the engineering community especially the pan IITians are doing their bit, something for which even I was not completely convinced. However, at least I could tell her that IITians have joined and 5 IITians went on a hunger strike with the medicos. She looked somewhat satisfied but I am not.