Library, at IIT Delhi or at any college for that matter—comes to life—only when the heavy, cold droplets of scary exams are very about to rain over the skins of innocent, terrified—apparent students. Otherwise, it is as silent as is supposed to be—marked by mainly those, turning old at a fast pace, and planning to get a couple of papers published before their kids come into existence.
Back then, it was a very fine—non-scary—day for most of the sophomores, but a bit special for those who made it through the rigorous 3 on 1 interviews, eventually to find their bums resting on the wooden and plastic chairs of the library. Team leaders had called for the first full team meeting since the recruitment. The old had to beckon to welcome the new. The new were to be introduced to the team. The rules were to be made public and the chocolates—a lot of them—were to be fought for. As one rule said, that all the new recruits were supposed to bring a lot of chocolates, and the one who would remember most names of the team members—including both, the old and the new—would be the rightful owner of most number of chocolates and candies.
I still remember the three of us, running really fast to make it to the library because the fresh recruits were not supposed to get late. One among the three of us was an old member and had a fair bit idea about what was to unfold next. We rushed quickly to the top floor of the library, as was mentioned to be the venue in the mail and found ourself a seat with the pack, trying not to interrupt the meeting, which was already started and running. Fresh recruits were seated, while the Team Leaders and a few Core Team Members were straight up. Core Team Members—or CTMs, as they call it—were observing the new and the old from time to time, and were listening to the commandments given by both the team leaders. I was taken aback by the energy of our male and the sweetness in the voice of our female team leader. We were recruited as the General Team Members and were being given the basic idea about the existing projects, team working style, scope to innovate and much more. One thing which hit me the most was the special emphasis on the fact—which at that time I heard as a commandment—that, ‘Everybody is equal in Enactus IIT Delhi. Everybody has an equal say and, not the fancy talks, but genuine work, is respected here. So, explore, try, fail, try, win.’
Soon the energy pumped in and the library was filled with low, but a number of murmurs of the new General Team Members, who—along with consuming chocolates—were sub-consciously realising their importance in the team, which was no ordinary pack. And they clearly sensed the responsibility, which was soon to knock on their respective doors, in the near future.
The pep talk had surely worked and so had the experiences given by the journey, which started from that library. We never know, where would a beginning take us to. Probably all we need to do is Believe, in the journey yet to unfold, in the lessons yet to be learned, in the life yet to be lived.
