Memories from the golden years of my life (24)

Let me start the blog on a sad note. No one read my last blog after repeated mails! I was actually sad to see this but I must realize that maybe what seems so interesting and is dear to me may not make up even a good story for others. So I have decided not to pain people anymore with my stupid blog mails. I will write just for myself. Maybe 10 years down the line when things are totally different I will have a good time reading it.

Lets start from where I had left in my last blog. I have always believed that the first half of my first term was the toughest time of my stay at IIML. Thankfully, it had come to an end. I do believe that tough times bring out the best in any person and the same was reflected in my behaviour during this period. To quote just one example my expenditure during this one and half months was at an all time low. If I am to guess correctly it would not be more than 1500 a month 80% of which would be contributed by mess bills. This figure had grown to an exorbitant 6-7000 per month by the time the course ended. This was despite the tough times such as my foot infection.

Anyways … classes had begun again in full force. We had four full credit courses continuing from pre mid term which were Behaviour in Organizations – By now it had turned out to be completely boring and useless. Debchat used to give loadsa gyan (most of which held little meaning) for me. All that I picked up from him was wielding hi fi sounding words into sentences which seem to convey a lot but actually mean nothing. Consider this “The personality of the person is truly reflected in his inner conscious and sub conscious interacting with each other, the effects of which are evident in his demeanor” :P

Economics was perhaps becoming more and more interesting with every passing day. I loved my prof. Mr. Bannerjee, though I hated the way he made his papers. Totally globe questions such as “Is economics an art or science? (20 marks)”. This was actually a question in our mid term paper! But the subject nonetheless was very interesting.

Another important thing that I had picked up by now was to play on expectations. I had learnt to look out for what a prof expects from us and deliver the same and believe me this was the best thing that I could do for myself in the entire course. So I was furiously taking note of every sentence that eco prof said so that I could reproduce the same in the final exam while for BIO I was practicing making sentences like above. Believe me it worked like hell. Rest about other subjects and profs in my next blog ….

Memories from the golden years of my life (23)

It has been almost 2 months since my last post. The other day only I was telling Manish, that sometimes it is really emotionally exhausting to write a blog ... because it simply reminds me of so many things that I miss so badly that I just dont feel like entering this world where everything seemed good (well not always!). For example .. its a Sunday today .... and guess what I am writing this blog exactly at 5:43 AM! Well thats not surprising as I am sure there would have been many Sundays in Lucknow when I would have been up at 5:43 AM. But this different coz .. this is after a full 8 hours of sleep :P .... What has happened to me?

Anyways ... back to the story ... Ever since the mid terms got over .. I had this feeling that they hadn't gone too well ... as in I myself was not satisfied with my own performance .. and that is why I had started my readings even before the classes commenced. A second factor was the presence of Mr. Manish Peter. Now strange as it may sound .. Manish was named Maggu of the hostel!!!! Can you imagine .. the same guy who used to roam crying one day before a fin exam saying alound "Gautam ... main fail ho jaaooonga" was actually labelled a Maggu! .. and rightly so ... coz he mugged so much in the first half of first term ... that seniors and juniors both alike thought that he is here to do something! (well we are were ... but still). What convinced us all further was the way in which Manish had done his room. I just cannot describe the difference in how his room looked during those days and during our fifth or sixth term. The entire room was full of books ... to say the least. Morevoer Manish had gone to some cheap Lucknow market and got some posters .. which kinda helped him gain the "Maggu Peter" title ... One such poster saying "Do not disturb ... serious study in progress" was placed outside his room door. In fact I remember one incident when Shanky (one of our hostelmates on the same floor as ours .. 511) even altered that poster using a marker so that now it said ... "Do not disturb ... serious study in progress by Maggu Peter" (of course i was the one who gave the idea for that since i was pissed that he refused to come for evening snacks ... and there was that famous aloo tikki for snacks that day which i loved and he loathed ... just because he wanted to finish a reading). This was then read by Mr. Rajas Raut ... who obviously took no time in spreading the news ... and hence our Mr. Peter was formally named "Maggu Peter". See Manish ... so think twice before you say no to me next time ... ESPECIALLY FOR ALOO TIKKI :P

Anyways ... all said and done .. I was really inspired by Manish .. I was. In fact today also .. when I look back at my winning the gold medal ... I guess the seeds for the same were laid in first term itself by Mr. Peter .. Thank you Manish .. I will be indebted to you for life .. for this ..

So I had started my readings early this time .. one obviously coz of above stated and secondly to get over Mom and Dad leaving .. Well things always do not go in our favour ... It was never meant to be a smooth ride for me. 2 days after they had left ... one morning papa called me to inform me that chachu had expired ... I kind of spent the next 2 days convincing myself that it wasnt because I forced all 3 .. mummy, papa and dhiraj to come with me ... and chachu was left alone even when he wasnt in the best of his health. The sad thing is I myself am not convinced till date ...