Its not easy to dodge the piranhas. Piranhas are known to have voracious appetites for meat and can smell blood from miles in slow current waters. So when you are crossing a river which are inhabited by these ugly looking all-teeth-no-brain fishes , the only way you can escape them is by dodging them, or eat them alive which is a not-so-good idea since they move around in kick-ass gangs who can do anything for each other. Famous ways of dodging include throwing a lump of meat into the other side of the waters , so that while the piranhas are busy eating , you can cross the waters on your side. Another way which requires some skill is to just cross the river with two things in mind : you shouldn't have any wounds on your body and your body movements need to be smooth. Piranhas can sense wounds on any god-damn alive thing and they just love to complete rip you off in minutes if not seconds...And ofcourse the best way to dodge is to have a boat. :\
Look around you , your life is like these slow-moving South American waters with Piranhas all around.And all you have to do is to dodge them.Piranhas in your life can come around in the form of most stupidest of the days, over-sleeping-n-missing a test day , bad weather days and that-guy/girl-needs-an-attitude-check-or-else-I-will-kill-him/her ways.
BITS has taught me some amazing things , including how to dodge-the-piranhas , which even the most attentive of my teachers here never would have noticed. All the while they were just going over and over the most impractical theoretical fast-forwarded equations , they were telling me how to dodge all that while in the class and still make a decent grade by doing it all in one night before the exam. Or if you're super-afraid of crossing the river , you can request a make-up in which case you have the option of crossing other rivers with more or lesser number of piranhas, but which one? you never know... And then there are always ways to copy others who know dodging-the-piranhas in case you are not game enough. In this case the ghotus are the obvious choice ...Ghotus are those people who will cross all those rivers that have been asked to cross the previous years to make sure they cross it smoothly this year too !!! Teachers love them.
Dodging also implies avoiding the piranhas at all , take alternative paths , not always the waters. Being with the right kind of people and doing the right kind of things , to make sure you feel good always. I have loved doing it , doing just the right things. One amazing thing here in BITS is that you can keep doing your favorite things over and over again , no matter how lame or useless, you will get the friends to do it and that kills the guilt part for ever!... Not to forget, I have met some of the most amazing people here and thanks to my inclination to imitate qualities , this journey has definitely made me someone I wasn't before I got here.
Then everyone has their own ways of dodging , which are not textbook, just skill .Hence comes the dance part, my favorite way of telling the Piranhas to be careful when they bring my name up.I just love to own those few amazing seconds on the stage. I have met people who think all this dance stuff is so over-rated. But frankly, it deserves to be. After some crappy months, if you can just go on-stage and deliver a crowd-puller , it pays for all your sins. I have loved performing here in BITS more than I used to do earlier. And because of no formal training at all , I have always despised the idea of learning the steps to a dance number and then performing it on stage , it makes dance so much seem like an exam and less of an art. Probably one of the reasons , I never wanted to join the dance club. And I just love it when you have a pedigree of performances ,and people know you for something and they expect something better than what they saw last time. Believe me I have two habits any dancer shouldn't have, I never practice my steps before a performance and I have a dance-ego.So, the trick lies in something else, which I won't disclose here. One of my favorite performances would be the last one , just because it was a total impromptu, I love it when all you do is respond to the music and this amazing things remains an art. And really , I just want to thank all those people who have loved to see me perform , thats the reason I keep doing it once every year :) ..not that I have to prove something.
Another thing BITS has taught me is how to be friend with the piranhas. You know all those people you thought were so much thadi 'n stuff or total idiots, then you realize they were actually one of the nicest! . Especially in the my psenti-sem, I have met people who I would have rarely thought of ever going along with, I have done things I have always wanted to do. I have been so much accustomed to dealing with awkward situations than ever before, that things ever rarely upset me.
... The most intriguing part is I hardly remember what kind of person I was before I came here, you know when you've been crossing too many rivers , you hardly remember the first few ones!.. Five years here and its a complete new life after this, this system changes you so much , its hard to get back. I sincerely thought of myself as a total 'geek' before I landed here who could do a bit of this and that. But this pilani life completely changed me , not that now I have super-mutant powers but I have super awesome friends whom I can die for.
Now that this part of the life is almost over , which was better any of the Government's 5 year plans! : ) .. I seriously imagine , like any other BITSian , what would it be like waking up one morning and knowing you won't be waking up in your old-adorable-antique hostel room ever again, its a feeling I would certainly hate to have....and this would be the hardest one to dodge for sure!
