The state of fitness at KGP

//This article is meant to act as a qualifier for the selections of Scholar's Avenue,the English fortnightly of the campus.

When I cleared JEE,I realized I had got it all wrong.I had neglected my fitness for the past two years and had turned a blind eye on my diet.As a result I had gained thirty kilos ,and the nickname golu.I promised myself I would take immediate and drastic steps to improve my fitness.What follows is the account of my year-old experience of trying to stay fit at KGP and the observations regarding the general state of affairs on matters involving health and fitness.

I was allotted the MMM Hall of Residence,which arguably serves the worst food in all of KGP.Being away from home for the first time and completely in shock at the Bengali culture,cuisine,habits(read laziness) and accent,it was an incredibly tough time and I used to stuff myself to make myself feel better.Then a fortnight later,our group discovered VS and its fried maggi and its masala coke.Within no-time it became the midnight hangout destination for our group.Not only us,it seemed the whole of KGP ,from frightened fachchas to gawdly seniors, would come there to have their fair share of maggi,which it seems no one could get enough of.

As a result,after two months I became among the highly selected group of people who have managed to increase their weight after coming to KGP.(For those of you trying to replicate me,sugary drinks and fried food have worked wonders for me.)I was devastated on watching the needle shoot up.While everyone else complained how they were losing weight fast,I looked on with a sore face and decided to join that club.After DP, I came well prepared with a strategy to lose weight as much as possible,as soon as possible.

Firstly,I stopped eating rice altogether.The Bengali rice is sticky as a gum and well known for its inflating effects on the stomach.I also tried to cut down on non-mess food and  to manage at the mess.The curriculum has a compulsory EAA(Extra Academic Activity) subject and offers three breadths;NSS,NCC,NSO.I was alloted NSO(Health and Fitness) by a process that automatically allotted this choice to anyone above a threshold weight.I made up my mind to get up at 6 am in the morning,thrice a week and attend the classes.While my mind was all but made up, the body tried the best it could to resist.The mind-body conflict stayed on but somehow I managed.I also started playing badminton and learning swimming.Here,I would like to add that there is a great mismatch in the number of students and the facilities available for them to play.We had to go to the Gymkhana to play badminton as the MMM court was non-functional and had to wait almost always for an hour or two before we got the chance to play.

There was another problem I had not anticipated that loomed large.After DP,I got my own laptop and discovered the enormous virtual world that KGP boasts of.The virtual 'crib' had everyone hooked to it.Each wing has its god in DOTA,CS,The Age of Empires,Assasin's Creed and lots of other games.I too got addicted to virtual gaming and within no time started spending all my time on it.However,I had the good brains to pull myself out of this habit and stopped it altogether.I have often wondered ,if even a tiny percentage of those playing these games decide to call it quits and to go out and play,the enormous pressure it would have on the already choked up infrastructure.

In spite of everything,the average KGPian is still fit, probably getting all the exercise he needs from cycling(or walking) to the institute,surviving on the mess food and running after the much cherished notes of the maggus.Despite everything, I myself have lost 15 Kg since last year and I am aiming for that again this year.Hopefully I would be able to achieve the goal and when everyone back home asks in amazement 'How?',I can just shrug and say "It's got something to do with KGP"

The 30-Day Challenge

/* This article is meant as a qualifier for the Scholar's Avenue.I didn't originally plan on publishing it but after I wrote it I realized there was something in here for everyone */

Is there something you've always meant to do,wanted to....but just....haven't?
Have you ever felt like you were stuck in a rut?
Wanted to inculcate a new habit,but just haven't been around to doing that?

 If your answer is yes,then this article is just for you.Here I discuss 'The 30-Day Challenge',a methodology to try something new as suggested by 'Matt Cutts',a research scientist at Google.I will also discuss how I implemented it and what I learned from it.

The idea,really,is pretty simple.Think about something you've always wanted to do.Then try it.
For 30 days.An hour a day.

The real tricky part is being consistent.You take a break for even a day and you find that all the rhythm,all the momentum is gone.It's like you never did it in the first place.Once you stick to it,you will realize that instead of your time flying by,you will have an acute sense of it and much more remembrance of it.Setting a fixed time to do it also works wonders.Once you have a hard deadline,it means that that you are more productive,your priorities are better set,you procrastinate less and your mind and body are prepared in anticipation.The secret is not to go to sleep until you have finished your task of the day.You may be sleep-deprived but you would have a sense of accomplishment,worth every extra second you stayed up longer. The reason it works is that small changes are sustainable and if carried out over a reasonable period of time add up to make a big impact.

You may say "Yeah,well.I have heard that kind of stuff a lot.", "Who are you kidding?Its the kind of thing that looks good on paper only.", "Come on dude,go take a run outside." ,"Blimey,I didn't knew you were such a nutcase".This was pretty much my reaction when I heard about it for the first time.But since the holidays were on and I was bored to death,I decided to give it a shot.Here is how it worked out.

On June 1,I decided to challenge myself to work out for an hour daily.Now given my waistline,it was an obvious thing to do,but the whole month of May had passed by and I realized that I had been trolled by time.Not anymore,I thought.And so,the challenge begin.
The first few days were really tough and I had to really use all my will to stop abandoning the whole plan altogether.But after a week or so,I started to look forward to it.I even added another task on the list: learning to play the guitar during the cooling off period.Looking back I think I did fairly well.I completed the gym challenge successfully and probably managed to cancel off the effects of gorging on Punjabi food .Though I left the guitar challenge after a fortnight ,the best part about the whole exercise was the way my mind programmed itself.Every morning,when I would be up,my mind would be ready to exercise and would gently nudge me towards it.After the training was over,I would automatically start thinking about fret positions and strings and (let's be honest) about food.
This I think is the real power of this challenge.The psychological aspect of the whole exercise must be the single greatest thing about it.
July came,and I took up a new challenge.I decided to refrain myself from reading or watching any kind of news.Honestly, Indian media is addicted with glorifying and exaggerating all gory and unhappy news.Besides all the prime spots are taken up by political discussion and after two months of reading two newspapers a day and watching everything from BBC to India TV,I really had enough.I figured I would get the important headlines anyway and I was right.The word of mouth did the trick reasonably well and I don't think (though I can't be possibly sure) that I missed anything important.
For August,I didn't have anything particular in mind,partly because being a second year at KGP is no easy task.Suddenly after the quiet of the first year,you are thrown into this whirlpool of activities,trying to balance academics,sports,Hall Funda and what not.But I did notice that ,thanks to my early morning classes (7.30 am,4 days a week) and morning exercise sessions,I have woken up each day by 8 am.This is really incredible for a late riser like me.I have decided to simply follow this up for the remaining part of the month.I do hope it goes well.

I would like to believe that,by this time. the reader is willing to try out a similar experiment and notice the change in them.
Either way,the next 30 days are going to pass,no matter what.So you might as well want to add some value to it,do something you've always wanted to try.Do it.Give it a shot.Believe me,it is worth your time.