42 Things to do before you graduate from IIT Delhi

IIT Delhi - like never seen before (from the roof of our lab in charge)

1. Make friends. Get close to them. Let the boundaries dissolve. Let the ego melt. Trust them. Understand them. Let them be what they are. Be what you are  
2. Fall in love. But don't let your boyfriend/girlfriend cut you off from the remaining world.
3. Do atleast one course with absolute interest, such that it brings sparks to your eye whenever you think about that course.
4. Find a mentor (senior/professor). Get friends with him/her.
5. Climb on the hyperbolic-parabolic roof. Lie down facing stars. Hear soft music
6. Go and sleep on your hostel roof, when it's too hot or when it's drizzling. Don't get caught.
7. Write a personal mail to each and everyone who has touched your life in last 4 years. Thank them.
8. Go to the Himalayas with your friends on a challenging trekking expedition. It strengthens your friendship.
9. Participate in some highly competitive cultural activity: Inter Hostel, Rendezvous etc...Atleast go for the audition. You will never get a chance to experience such fear again; and an opportunity to overcome it.
   
10. Participate in some highly competitive sports activity: Basketball, Water Polo, Hockey. Try playing rough and soft; for yourself and for your team. Experience how different emotions does each thing arouse in you and others.
11. Go to Chandni Chowk: Eat chaat, parantha, lassi, sweets and kulfi. (Some of my visits: Chawari Bazzar , Chandani Chowk ) 
12. Surprise your parents/close relatives with a surprise visit. Invite them to IIT Delhi; especially during some festival. Introduce your friends to them. Give them a chance to relive their college life.
13. Treat freshers (and all juniors) with love and respect.
    
14. Go and visit the house of all your close friends. Talk to their parents, siblings. Dine with them. It strengthens your bonding.
15. Blog about your experiences, feelings, ideas: anonymously or otherwise. Express yourself.
16. Get access to the IRD conference room and sneak through a door to its right. You will find yourself on the unexplored Insti Roof of IIT Delhi. Don't get caught.
17. Do a fascinating project. Something you always dreamed of doing since your childhood. Give the project everything. Years will not be able to fade the joy of working on your own ideas. I have heard people who graduated 10-15 years back talk with child-like joy about their college projects.
18. Visit Delhi University (of course find someone who you can talk to, once there!). Apart from other things, they are awesome in their right brains where we suck, and can teach you a thing or two about arts and literature among others...
19. Buy a good camera. Develop a good sense of photography. Take a lot of picture of your friends throughout your stay here. Have a friend who can take a lot of equally good pictures of you. But don't get obsessed with it.
20. Watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S
21. Talk to Juniors. See where IIT Delhi's future is going. Relive your past.
22. Devote yourself to at least one organization within IIT Delhi. (For me it was Technocracy)
23. Get out of your comfort zone: visit slums in Delhi. Work with an NGO/NPO.
24. Write an anonymous letters to a professor in the middle of a course: Critically comment on his/her teaching methods and how can they be improved. Note the professor's reaction in the classes onwards. If there is no difference write another letter.
25. Go to India Gate with your guitar (or someone who can play guitar well) and your friends. Sing songs till wee hours.
26. Talk to people about their dreams. Things they are really passionate about. Discuss with them things which you are really passionate about.
27. See people getting wasted. Make a complete fool of yourself: once.
28. Try penning down a paper. It needn't be a core technology paper. It can be something on Environment, Literature, state of education in India...Just try to write an essay at some competition...especially about something you like doing. It makes you introspect a lot.
29. Put a night out at Wind-T when the weather is nice and breezy. Spend it reading a book you like.
30. Write examination for someone else. Don't dare get caught.
31. India is a very diverse country. Your peers are the best people who can educate you about real India. Talk to them about it. Ask them to tell about their city. Discuss the problems you think India is facing and it's solutions. Discuss each others religious believes. Try to understand others religion.
32. Don't get ill. The simple way of doing it is: Get regular sleep. Eat proper food. Exercise. I didn't do either in my 1st year. I was constantly ill. After I started doing all of these things: I haven't been ill even once from last 3 years.
33. For once in a while, do what other tell you to do. Let them decide. Let them lead. Enjoy the joy of having no responsibilities.
34. Develop a habit of questioning. Try to find how can you do it in a polite way so that you don't put people on their defensive. We Indians, as a culture, ask very little. Change that.
35. Talk to kids who are yet in their school. Visit your school sometimes. Talk to principal. Don't worry - you will always be treated very highly. It will bring back all the fond school memories.
36. Don't do all spartan stuff. Do things in group. Even when you watch movie or TV try to do it in a group. You will anyways watch movies alone for the rest of your life.
37. Do some part time job. Don't do something boring on computers. Go out and do some intern/teaching/journalism/marketing etc. Do something where you will meet a lot of new people completely different from what you get to meet here. Don't make this work your priority. Just try it for 1-2 months. Don't do it without good pay.
38. Play kho-kho near WindT. And also all those childhood games: Vish-Amrit, Unch-Neech, Tipi Tipi Top, Chain Chain, Sitolia etc.
    
39. Try appreciating things. It's hard to do that. Give people credit for what they are doing. They will do better. If you feel things are not upto mark - give them suggestions; don't criticize them.
40. Carve out time for yourself each day. Think about your goals, priorities, mistakes etc.
41. Hunt for home food. Day scholars make excellent preys.
42. Decide a date when all of your closest friends will meet, once a year, on a vacation trip. This is something you should do on the last day, the day when you are leaving IIT Delhi. For ever. (We have gone to several places, some of them being: Laddakh, Har ki Dun & Dodital)  
    
    These 4/5 years are never going to return. Ever. You will never be a free bird again. Enjoy your freedom. Responsibly. And do something that justifies your belonging to this institute. To the least, become a good human and a good citizen.
    
    Dream. Dare. Do.
    Also 50 things to do at MITPS: Janta - you are welcome to extend the list. To agree, to disagree with the things said. I hope several things written here go beyond IITD and apply to college life everywhere...
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    Later Additions based on suggestions from people:

1. Have a "pen" friend in a far away IIT to be able to understand a different perspective, to be able to tell things the way you want to (Surbhi, IITM)
2. Have a "pen" friend from far-far away world
3. Help someone in dire need, may not be a friend. you'll feel good about it... and there will be someone who'll remember you forever... (Naman, IITM)
4. Go and ring the bell at the top.....the one that tolls only at graduation.....and yes - don't dare get caught :D (Anshul, IITD)
5. Savor the food of Sassi and Tankush. Chances are that you will get ill but past experiences say that you will not. So do it (Abhishek, IITD)
6. Somehow sneak (possibly with your girlfriend!) to Bharti Roof. Watch the sunrise/sunset Anonymous
7. Meet a really special girl at your social. Have a great time. Let her go. (dunno if let her go = ditch her!) Anonymous