In the fall of 2006, I was what you'd call the typical Indian teenager. Pimply faced, slightly overweight and generally distracted in life. My first year of college was a blast - I had great friends, I was studying in a great school, and best of all, it was in Goa - India's own Vegas, you could say. The lifestyle on campus could be described simply by one word : unleashed. All of us, having prepared for some form of crazy entrance examination, were finally settled in to start enjoying life for four full years.

*For those unaware, the Indian schooling system will take full credit for manufacturing millions of students that for the most part only take up two streams of study - Science (read Engineering, not Research) or Commerce (read Chartered Accountancy) : to set their lives up for two of the most paying and broadly divided job sectors in the country. This involves spending the majority of high school with your nose buried in books, and your bottom on a chair. While this maybe a good strategy for a top notch GPA, the collateral is quite simple and obvious : we tend to churn out really smart, but physically unfit college students (I'm speaking of the majority here, and I'm sure you wouldn't disagree).

I'm trying here to comprehend the difference in lifestyles between our