The Leave :

It's been eight days since that fateful day. On a cold Saturday morning, after physical conditioning and other "requirements" being met with, i was basking in the sun, my back flat against the football field, my feet touching the freshly cut grass. It was divine, almost a mirage. Then out of absolutely nowhere, a hand shook my head; gently at first, and then vigorously. The football field spun out of focus, and i was transported to a classroom. I though i was dreaming about harry potter and the pensive, for the concept of a memory bowl had awed me since the day i heard of it.

Sadly though, i was not harry potter, there was no pensive; instead, there were about fifteen pairs of eyes staring at me, and to my horror, one of those pairs were my program chair's. I had fallen asleep. I stood up, groggily made my way out of the class to face him. Fortunately i was not going down alone, i had compatriots. It's always a welcome sign to have more people, partners in crime. It reminds me of that basic desire for life to seek life.

We were commanded to stand outside his office. "Phew!" i said to my mates. I honestly thought i was getting out of this situation easily. How wrong i was. Our program chair, stepped back in and had pieces of paper with him. We were to write out applications for a weeks leave, because "we could not keep our eyes open in class". So much for my sigh of relief; my breath was sounding more like moans of agony. A weeks class to me is like a timely insulin shot missed by a diabetic on a pastry diet. I'd suffer bad.

We were told to pack our bags and get out; out of the campus, and come back on 3'rd November. We pleaded and pleaded, but he was in a real bad mood. He actually called on security to have us thrown out of the campus, which was highly unnecessary because his loud voice had already scared the shit out of me. We phoned our respective mothers and explained the situation. Then the proctor did the same. For all those who do not know who a proctor is; he is the topmost authority on hostel administration. Even when the mothers of the other two called up, he refused to listen. And so we were sent on a jolly good vacation.

I have taken the lighter side of this comedy, and enjoyed my vacations to the fullest. Sadly though, i will now have to go for extra classes, or stay back till at least 5:30 (right up until the exams) to cover all my missed academics. Jolly good show. Now if you'd excuse me, i have some packing to do.

Cheers.

I see light :

Finally, all my "exams" are over. How about a slight recap? Yeah that would be just about right.

It starts with IIT JEE, the "mother of all exams". Fuck, whom am i kidding? It is a pathetic excuse of an exam, i dont even know why i gave it. 9:00 am in the morning i was busy getting my arse kicked with questions, that i couldnt even trace to a proper topic. 5:00 pm was when it got over, hell of a lot of time aint it?

Second in line was AIEEE. Now, i want to fore-warn every one, i was prepared for this exam, but some one up there had different plans for me. The centre i got was so close to home, and involved so little travel, that some wise guy decided i get no means of ventilation either. YES, there were no fans in the fucken building. Forget fans, the walls were not even painted. To add to that, we were made to sit two on a bench, a bench fit for a couple of K.G kids. So there it went.

Then came TMISAT. for those who have not heard of it, it is an exam to get into Tolani Maritime Institute, for Marine engineering. Okay, the exam went well, (there were A/Cs in the comp lab), i got 63 on 100, which placed me in the top ten among my batch. Great, but then, someone in the admisnistration had a brainstorm and decided to hold the interview on the same day. Baggy pants, rolled sleeves, spikey hair and a 2 week old beard. So much for "first impression" i thought. Thankfully, the person up there was in a forgiving mood, and i aced it.

Now came CET, the meccah for Maharastra students. Again, what is it with the benches. not even half of my hiney was fitting into the fucking bench. The soreness in my back and shoulders, which haunted me for months, came back. i was finishing physics ( i thought : "hey physics was good") when the admisnistrator said, "ten minutes left". So much for physics was good. i marked all the options in chem as "Cs". i had no confidence in maths and i left out all the ones i didnot get for fear of losing time. Fortunately it went okay.

Now BITS. This exam proved that the human mind works better at cooler temperatures. The centre was same as that for TMISAT. AIR CONDITIONING WOO HOO!! i scored a humble 202 (which if should've got in the similar AIEEE exam, would've meant i aced it). So that's how they were.

Now here i am, sitting with a two ton midriff, and a sense of absolute relief.
United need one more point to win the record breaking 18'th title, out of a possible six. So fuck you Liverpool fans. Tired, off to see some television. Bye now.

Odd Man Out :

Can you spot the odd man out?

Minutes To Midnight :

I was reading the morning newspaper today, and i chanced upon a little snippet labelled : Mixed Response to Earth Hour. Now for those of you who are unaware of what "Earth Hour 60" is, let me brief you about it. 

Earth hour 60 was an initiative by the people to spread a message regarding the protection of our environment. Every light was supposed to be turned off between a stipulated time of 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm. Moses Pereira, director of World Wildlife Fund, said "People all over the world have come together to send a strong message to our world leaders that the issues of climate change should be treated on priority basis."

Quite a heart melting theme indeed. Will it be helpful in any way? I rather doubt it. When people "all across the world" come together during such events, majority of them just want to be a part of an event, in there otherwise aimless life, so that a few years down the line, when something really is done by the "world leaders", they can bask in the glory of it and have something to talk about. As for the rest, who seem to be "genuinely concerned" about the environment, majority of them will be having Air Conditioners running on full blow, many will be using filament lamps, and several people will be having inverters at their place. 

Okay, now how do electric appliances really contribute to climate change? Well, I know for a fact that the MOST conventional source of energy (In India at least) is coal, rather the burning of coal. Which implies that if people use more energy, (which they sure do), they burn more coal. the waste products of the burning of coal are (the now famous) greenhouse gases, lots of hot water and ash. The hot water is let into rivers causing thermal pollution, while the ash ends up in our lungs. To add to that, the Generators themselves are outdated and inefficient.

I have not even touched upon the mad use of cars these days, which certainly affect the climate.

Now, if someone gave a Rat's arse about "climate change" they would become engineers and change the generators, they would sweat out hot nights, they would put their PC(s) on standby when talking on the phone or, switch off the LCD (otherwise the power guzzling CRT) while performing a virus scan or while downloading from the internet, while simultaneously ensuring that the television is not on in the other room.

But apparently, farcical activities such as "Earth Hours" etc. are "the in thing", which leaves me pitying the handful of genuine caring people who are trapped amidst glory hunters trying to leave their mark on proceedings. Have to leave for breakfast. 

Cheers.  

Broken, Beat and Scarred :

Manchester United lost two games in a row for first time in 4 years, to a resurgent fulham side. Although, several decisions not going our way, and despite looking the better side in the second half. Second half? Fuck you all who are sympathizing with United fans. It is a fucken great side, and fuck all you Fulham fans, go enjoy your "sweet" victory and then keep battling against relegation in the next season. Bitches, S.O.B(s), Cunts, Dickheads.

Phew, now that the rant is over, lets clear things out. Chelsea have also lost to Tottenham Hotspur and so we await Liverpool to do what they have done best, bottle it. No credit taken away for their victory at Old trafford, yeah they worked hard, after all it takes a lot of strength and determination to open the gift wrappers.
I actually had a mild fever, but it has eased out after the Chelsea defeat. As far as the league is concerned, it all melts down to which team wants to win it the most.
So I am signing off after a crazy evening, hoping fervently that there will be some prick in my colony who will mention tonights match, and whom I can beat the shit out of.
Seek and Destroy Baby. Yeah.

The memories come flooding in:

Date : 1'st December 2008
This was the date I visited my school (and junior college) after a long time. For most people who just popped in from another school after tenth standard, this would just seem to be a sanitarium, but I beg to differ. I have been in this institution for Six years. That's approximately for one third of my life lived so far. Its too big a phase to ignore.
Walking through the gates again, I actually checked for my identity card. I laughed and then walked on. To my delight, some of my friends from eleventh standard (now twelfth) were playing foot ball with the present 11'Th std. guys. I decided to crash in. Once I was selected in a team, the game resumed. It was a mixture of heaven and hell. Playing on the big ground with all the others, and just getting a touch on the ball felt orgasmic. Although, running down the wing again and putting in the tackles will not seem too difficult a task unless you haven't played for an year, and have to carry and extra five kilos of lard around with you. Hence the term "hell".
I also felt (on a much smaller scale) what a professional football player goes through after being months out with an injury.
On entering the lift, I wasn't too surprised to find the person who had confiscated my iPod two times. Mrs. Ramanujan was, I think, not too pleased to see me, but I would not blame her for that, after all, tolerating us for two years takes patience. I also met our principal. She did seem pleased, but she was always kind to us, forgiving our (what seem now to be) petty offences. We talked on what I was doing currently, and my plans for the future. Wishing me well, she left for her work while I strolled across to the point where my friends and I used to visit, bunking several classes. I sat there listening to my iPod, thinking of the struggle that my life has been (is) for the past two years, feeling the wind in my face, the smell of the trampled grass intoxicating me. Everything melted away, and I was left with a sense of belonging, of existence and of actually being remembered.

Whatever others may say, I will miss the place.

P.S : I will be uploading pictures later on. Cheers to all.

A little while ago:

Hello. It's been a while since my last post. To say that I have been busier than a bee would be an understatement. Studies, health, yes, it has been hectic. Yesterday though, I got some time free due to a power failure. It was a hot and sultry afternoon, and I had nothing better to do, so I sat in the sunlight, allowing the breeze to caress me gently, soothing me to into a trance. It was one of those absolutely average afternoons during which you tend to feel nostalgic.

Nostalgia is not one of those typical human emotions. In fact, it is an extremely powerful phenomenon in human lives. At times it can be deppressing, and at times an aphrodisiac. Memories, neither good nor bad can escape inclusion.

It was then that I remembered a particularly funny incident, that I remember vividly to date. I was in 6'Th standard, and had just transferred to the school, where I was to remain till completing 17 years of age (I didnot know it, then). I was alone at home because my mother had gone to visit Dad at Hyderabad. Those were the good old days, no power cuts and the global temperatures were lower by a good few degrees. The address bar of my internet explorer read : http://www.cartoonnetworkindia.com/. I had visited the site to play "DragonballZ : Trouble on Namek", and after saving the planet from total anhilation, I was particularly bored. As I browsed, I came across a link titled, "Ask dexter". Now, you see, I was a real geek, and my boyhood hero had been Dexter, "Boy genius", so I took the opportunity to read what all the other kids had written. Some asked whether his parents would find out about his lab, and some asked whether his sister really troubled him so much. I found these questions out of place for a boy who knew so much.

There was a dialougue box provided, where I could register and ask my questions. I registered with the enthusiasm of a child getting a reward after doing something in advance. Finally came the time to ask the question. I typed, slowly, careful not to make any spelling mistakes. This is what I had in my mind: "Dear Dexter, what makes the planets go around the sun? Will they ever stop revolving?" Having rechecked the question, I hit the enter button. After that day, I scoured the site twice a day, for two months. To my utter dismay, several rubbish questions were published, while mine was nowhere to be seen. I was shattered, I had expected a genius of an answer but none came.

I realised it was all a fake. I realised that the site was dedicated to popularising the program, and not really solving any queries. A lesson learnt I said to myself. In a way it kept me from clicking several "Congrats! You are our 1000000'Th visitor. To claim a special prize click here." links. Just another child learning the harsh realities behind his childhood hero.