I really did not have any great liking for the place. I felt there were a lot more things that I could do. I had four full years ahead of me and I was still in love with Cauchy sequences, Riemann integrals and anything that was even remotely calculus, number theory or [insert math stuff here]. Seriously, I thought that the computer lab wasn't all that interesting a place. Had this stocky guy called Sanjeev (urf Kanchu) and I known each other more then, he would've fiercely opposed me.
Few quarters down the line, I found myself tipper tapping at the keyboard in the labs and interacting more with Sanjeev. Come fourth semester, and we were partners in the Software Engineering project. Teams were made and broken, but Sanjeev and I worked together as long as we were in IITG. Sharath joined us in between :-). We made a great Trio I guess.
He felt that I was idealistic and too machine like in my approach to a lot of things. Bhargava was witness to a debate between us. Those few days of silence between us in the one year that I shared the room with him, did make an impression on me. Sometime later, while we were talking, he told me about H. W. Longfellow's poem The Arrow and the Song. He knew that, unlike him, I wasn't the kind that would appreciate poetry a lot. But if he also thought that, I would, for sure, understand what this meant, he was right on target.
Taken from http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/l/longfellow/arrow.html.
I shot an Arrow into the air
It fell to earth I know not where,
For so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
I breath'd a Song into the air
It fell to earth, I know not where.
For who has sight so keen and strong
That it can follow the flight of a song?
Long, long afterward in an oak
I found the Arrow still unbroke;
And the Song from beginning to end
I found again in the heart of a friend.
These days he does some serious photography, maintains our class album, practices Taekwondo, does research in computer networks at the Georgia Tech College of Computing. And, to quote him: "Once in a while [he] likes to think that he is also interested in Distributed Computing and Operating Systems". If you happen to pass by the lab or his apartment, just say "Hi!", never mind if it is 2:00 Am, he sleeps late. A few minutes of conversation and you will realize that he is a great guy.
