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The taxi entered the gates of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. The driver headed towards the Gajendra Circle, and I was seated in the backseat, staring out of the window. Just looking around, a strange current flowing through my body... Yes I had arrived!!!
As a youngster, getting here had always been my dream and today here I was... There are some moments in life, very few of them, which can't be expressed in words. They can only be felt. The feeling of being at IIT was certainly one of them.

Getting to my hostel, setting up my room, meeting new people and before I knew it, my first day at IIT was over. Over the next three days, we had our formal orientation programme. Brief introductions by our faculty members coupled with a couple of sessions conducted by the people of the industry made it quite interesting. The highlight was the address by the Director of IIT who happens to be one of the most erudite persons I have ever heard speak. He was simply overwhelming in his clarity of thought and speech. Citing numerous examples, quotes and excerpts from books, his speech was greatly inspiring, to say the least. He managed to drive home the importance of hard work and excellence, and also urged us to spend a lot of our time in the library. Following his speech, we had a welcome note by the HoD, DoMS and then got down to the most interesting part of all - getting to know our classmates. There was great sense of excitement as each one of us went on to the dais and introduced ourselves to the whole class, and as we did so, a mini-India had already started to evolve in front of our eyes. We started chatting with one another, had tea in the department with the Profs. The warmth, which had been generated, was enough to keep us chugging for the rest of the day.

The itinerary read like this: 04:30 P.M. - Movie "The Corporation". Nobody among us had even the slightest doubt that the name of the movie was misprinted. "It ought to be 'Corporate' macha!!" The word spread and excitement was brewing among the guys - I mean what could be more exciting than watching the sultry Bipasha Basu right on the first day of the curriculum. But alas! That was not to be. There was no mistake in the print. To brand 'The Corporation' as a movie would be at best a euphemism for a dreary documentary running for the entire three hours. Meant to open our eyes towards the activities and responsibilities of corporations, the documentary was no doubt an informative one.

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* Contributed by -
Surya, Pritam & Varsha,
1st Year'ites,
DoMS, IIT Madras.