Commencemend

So that’s that then. Two days of Commencement exercises brought 5 years of graduate work to a close. I realise that I’ve cribbed endlessly about the vicissitudes of the “Advanced Degree”. I remember the complaints about the uncertainties associated with the gurukul life. Towards the end, I couldn’t wait to get out of the academic loop. However, now that it’s all over, there’s a void within. Immigration law states quite explicitly that I have ceased to be a student. The routine of getting up in the morning and walking to the lab is so ingrained in me that I have been left quite clueless with the temporary absence of a laboratorical destination.

Commencement was fun though. Quaint too, what with everyone dressed in a medieval fashion. I thought I was rebelling against the formals establishment by wearing a tee, jeans and sneakers only to find that I had been one-upped by chaps who were in shorts and sandals. While registering for the ceremony a few months ago, we were required to provide a pronunciation guide to our tongue-twisting names. I chose “British Liar” as a fairly accurate – although Anglicised – version of mine. It actually worked for the Doctoral Hooding ceremony but plonked for the Commencement. Oh well. 21 years of schooling got Nitish Nair a PhD hood but Natish Nair was left holding the diploma.

And now, I have to invent new ways of wasting time until the Ides of July.