What I learnt at Oxford

1. Fitness comes first:  People in the UK seem to take far more care of their health and appearance. While I have been exercising on and off for years now, Oxford saw me become more regular. Over the first summer, I started going to CrossFit gym and often landed up at work unable to climb the stairs. Then there was the earlier ‘100 surya namaskars a day’ phase and an even earlier rowing phase. Most recently, there has been a gym phase. All of this is supplemented by slightly healthier eating. As my flatmates would attest, I still give in to my ice cream and chocolate craving far too often, but burn at least part of it in the gym.
2. Casual racism and sexism is NOT okay:  Much of what I’ve learnt in the UK is sensitivity. For long, I would argue that making racist jokes is fine as long as no harm is meant. However, first-hand experience soon taught me that much of racism is subtle and pervasive. It doesn’t always take extreme forms. Therefore, racist jokes – even with the ‘best’ intentions (if there are any) – tend to reinforce those stereotypes and preserve a status quo of racial superiority for a select few. On the flight to India, I was watching Sultan and the movie made me cringe. Having been brought up in an environment where Bollywood seemed to reinforce every kind of racist, sexist and homophobic thinking, I am not anxious about re-engaging with where I left off two years back.
3. Travel is fun and expensive:  Before coming to the UK, I had only been on an office retreat to Phuket and to a few places in Europe. After coming to the UK, I have travelled to many new and exciting countries, including Israel, Turkey and Iceland. More importantly, as I plan trips for the next year, I keep that spirit of travelling alive. I have funded all my travels from my UK earnings and that has caused me to save up before a trip. There have also been numerous trips to London to get the Schengen visa. All said, I realised that I do enjoy travelling a fair bit. I remember my trepidation the first time I travelled in Europe; now I approach these situations with a sense of adventure and discovery.
4. I can be SubhaChef:  I have had a love-hate relationship with cooking these two years. At times, the rigmarole of chopping onions and tomatoes has driven me crazy. But at other times, I summoned the iron chef within me and cooked a meal for 25-30 people in a few hours. A rather conservative cook, I recently also starting branching off into other states’ cuisines, culminating with an army’s worth of tomato pappu. A cousin recently told me that a person who can cook is a truly liberated person. Well, by that metric, I now consider myself liberated.
5. Just keep swimming:  I had enjoyed thinking of myself as a melancholic and dark individual. At Oxford, I learnt how to set myself free. Free from my past and free from the expectations that society has of me. I learnt that to pause is to give yourself an opportunity to miss a past that you will inevitably glorify. I learnt to keep moving ahead in life and look back only briefly, perhaps to re-learn forgotten lessons. I learnt that even in the face of the toughest adversity, you don’t give up. You keep moving and one day, the challenges will all seem rather trivial.
6. Embrace the privilege:  At Oxford, I was part of a community where someone’s privilege was often used as a means of cutting the person out of a discussion. Without going into the argument of how privileged I am, I believe privilege is something to be celebrated. It needs to be celebrated in two ways. Firstly, gratitude and happiness that you were born in a setting where you bypass certain problems. More importantly, it should be used to create a better society. Many of our independence stalwarts came from privileged backgrounds, including Gandhi. This did not prevent them from having sympathy for those who weren’t. Privilege, therefore, can be a means to serve society and don’t let anyone tell you that your views aren’t appreciated because you’re privileged.