Like said, you fetch Apples only from the orchards, Grapes from the vineyards and Honey from the hives, you sure fetch Excellency from the Indian Institute of Science (IISC). The aroma of sophistication surely influences your genes unless you wish to grow strawberries out of pine trees. Brewed with the rainwater splashing over my raincoat during my Kindergarten and school days, with the tears of joy of having my first video game and with sweet memories of finches tweeting and singing the spring songs during the Aprils, My 24 years of stay here has injected in me an everlasting aura of benignity, honesty and formidability: Being an IISCian is a legacy, a class, a certification.
Before you deploy yourself off to an alien world outside, just a compound aside or an outsider beside, you still have soil of ages stuck in your roots and this soil shall last till you perish into the abysmal complicacy of the modernization which is an axiomatic proposition: an entrapment of unavoidability. This is due to the variation in the cognition spectrum of the clusters of people living within and outside the campus and your relatives are no exceptions. Besides, you are weaponed with tough shields of intricate Sentiency that only you can feel and never fall for falsely jetted professionalisms and IISC shall assure you of that: you feel like an Iron Man.
IISC is nature in its purest form: Exigency is not the schema of progress here. Of course external world has subsetized certain parts of the campus but if you take Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology, you will see bright yellow amber gums glued to the old British walls of the respective Departments with the DNA of pureness trapped within them, with absolutely no external influences. In fact when you go near these Departments, you get Goosebumps for sure. Do visit it as it is a temple of perpetual mightiness.
Few IISCians that I would like to mention have been highly influential in my life:
1. Mr. Nagendra who was working on genetic coding of groundnuts in the Department of Molecular Biology and who also thought me Vedas after my thread ceremony. I was influenced to music, violin and mrudhangam during this time.
2. Prof. Bhat, the then chairman of Physics Department, who educated me of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and Nanotechnology when I approached him to do my 12th standard Physics Investigatory project on Superconductivity. I had burnt my index finger with Liquid Nitrogen there.
3. Prof. Sharma of Ecological Science department who explicated to me the importance of Bio-diversity with stunning images of his research work on Elephants in the Bandipur National Park. I was the head scout, I guess during my 7th standard.
4. Mr. Ravi Kumar Nair, My Mathematics teacher who bestowed me confidence and courage during my school days; The days of Half-Life 2.
5. Prof. S. Mohan of Instrumentation Department, who enlightened me of the six sigma rules of life, ways to deal with administrative bureaucracy, and ways to focus on the subjects of one’s passion in life.
6. Prof. Ananthasuresh of Mechanical engineering, an M.I.T PostDoc who influenced me when I used to attend his seminars and casual talks. I learnt the following “The four quadrants of life”, “Viswamitra - Nakshatrika system”, “compliant mechanics in autonomous robots” and of course the “Pipe crawler” for which I did some Microcontroller coding.
7. Prof. Patnaik of CEDT who offered me an 8085 board which looked like a jewel box. I tasted the misti-doi (sweet curd) during Durga Pooja with him besides me after I completed my 4th semester summer project under him. I learned a lot about digital electronics under him. He is long retired.
8. Prof. Rudra Pratap, the MATLAB guru of IISC. I met him during the Minnesota bridge collapse incident and he told me that the collapse was due to failed sensor telemetry. He explained the Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN) and importance of Analog Integrated Circuits integration with sensors. I happened to watch a firsthand video of astounding Microfab facility, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland that he captured when he was on Sabbatical to EPFL.
My last month of stay in the campus and only I know the pain. A very sacred relationship that we had needs to be terminated on the judgment day being 8th of August on which I shall be leaving to Sacramento. These are some of the things that can’t be explained. Recently when I attended the IISC centenary conference, I saw alumnus who stayed here for more than 50 years and I could hear faint white noise jetting out of them and spreading all over the auditorium of their inexplicable attachments with the IISC. The nostalgia of her beauty, serenity and attire of nihilistic delusion where lectures from great minds would sound like vedic chants of ages, shall haunt me for eternity.
“Bless me oh Mother IISC ! for I shalt bow in front of thee, with hopes and faith".
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