Pots.... Beautiful round earthen pots... On our heads.... This expression would make anybody imagine a serene Indian village with simple yet contented women carrying elegant earthen pots on their heads, which would mostly be filled with water. But our situation here is just not that!
When does a human feel like going straight home in the evening, then straight to the kitchen, at times even with shoes on, picking up that earthen pot that holds the cool water that has kept the human's mind preoccupied throughout the mid-summer mid-day's dreams, bending down and pushing the head right into the pot, straightening up as that same water drenches everything while the human thinks he/she deserves a better life?! (In short, thalaila paanaya kavuthufying!)
Oh well... In the upcoming posts I'll decribe the incidents which made me do just that....
It was 5:30 am and my mom already wanted me to get up. In spite of being old enough to go to college, I guess, the joy of sleeping in the morning is something no one out grows. I was half awake and could hear the thundering of rubbing clouds, the lightening tearing the skies apart, and the oceans from the heavens falling towards the earth and splashing off the pavements at very high velocities. My thoughts drifted and I was a child again, playing and bathing in the first rain of every season. I fast-forwarded to one day when I beat the rain to school on my bicycle. Then I was sitting in a rickety bus counting the number of droplets falling off the top of the window. I was going to college.
College. Observation - finishing. Observations - getting it corrected. Record - finishing. Record- getting it corrected.
Tests - study = test cancelled
don't study = longer test with extra questions, internal marks awarded(rather stolen) based on this test marks, poor performance = minimum 5 times assignment(assignment?? who am I kidding! I mean 'Imposition'!) +retest with lesser questions but {total-20% of total} marks+call parents+meet hod+meet principal+stay after college hours with a bunch of pissed off toppers for "group studies", i.e. the toppers leave in 5 mins, but you spend the remaining 40 mins staring at the book, wall, blackboard ( Oopsie! I mean greenboard! Blackboards are for schools! sry my bad!), duster, dustbin, window, and whatever else seems extremely interesting at that moment.
Tests...TEST!!! I HAVE A TEST TODAY!!!
SHIT!!!
I jump out of the bed before I open my eyes. I'm late and havn't touched the books! So I decide to study in the bus. Well... I'm gonna be sitting in a moving rectangular box for like 45mins. How better to use the time! Or at least thats what I thought...
I went rushing to the bus stop. It seemed fairly empty. Within 2 mins a bus came. The bus too was fairly empty. It slowed down and I prepared to board it. I was inches away from the bus when suddenly I felt like I was caught in a Rolling Current. Then suddenly I was teleported to what seemed to be the middle of Ranganathan Street at 6pm on a saturday. Few seconds later I was back in the same bus stop and the bus I was about board was pulling away with the bus tilted to the left a good 25degrees and the 'Ranganathan Street' pouring out! A minute later another bus plying the same route came and I was the 9th person on the bus - including the conductor.
In this peace and calm I studied. I was concentrating real hard. Traffic Lights. Traffic light control using microcontroller IC 8051. Three 8-pin ports - Port A, Port B and Port C. 3 pins for traffic lights, 2 for pedestrian lights, 4 directions. Delays subroutines......
I was looking at a traffic signal. The last one before my break point came. Here I usually change the bus. Looked about the same as the one I saw near my house. I jolted back to reality. Wasn't I supposed to be studying Computer Architecture?
And there was no connecting bus.
And it was raining.
And I was late.
Hastily, I tried to get an auto-rickshaw. Minimum fare- 60 bucks. I'd rather pay the the coll 'late fees'! Yes, they collect 25 bucks as late fees in our coll. Its common....
Oh ya... almost forgot!
Go late - With a good reason - Nobody catches, quarantines or
questions. i.e. E kaka irukkadu
Woke up late - There's a big crowd gathered outside the enterance. Exchange 'hi's with fellow criminals. Write down your name. Stand for 30mins. After 30mins pay 25 bucks = go inside the college and stand outside the class for the remaining 30mins. Dont have money = wait. After a few minutes some students leave. Wait a litte longer and a separate list is made of those who didn't pay up. Either way once IN the next barrier is the dept faculty room. Here 1 chance is given to explain the reason - biggest test for one's imagination and creativity! Depending upon one's luck, again wait for 1hr or half day! Then the last barrier is the class room itself. If there's a lec inside, entry only in the next hr! And.... 200 bucks fine for regular late-comers.
So, I make a master plan. I decide to catch a secondary connecting bus to the next bus stop to get an auto from there. I execute my plan. Now minimum auto fares- 40 bucks for less than 2kms. Still more than my coll late fees.
And its raining.
And this bus stop doesn't have a good shelter.
I make a plan B. Catch yet another bus, go to the next stop and catch yet another connecting bus coming from a different direction. Again I execute my plan.
In this bus stop, the connecting bus I was expecting comes. And there was a whole crowd of ladies waiting to board the same bus. The bus was a complete solid. The bus stopped right in front of me while I was wondering where the air vents were. After that all I remember is entering a high pressure zone like an ocean bed. After I don't know how long, I was standing outside my college.
It was raining today, so no one to catch us.
Generally the tests in college are conducted after the lunch hour. Its like giving a last chance to study. So convincing myself that I had to read just 60 pages and I have a whole half an hour, I walked into the college. I was still on the corridor when my eyes fell upon some bags outside my class. The test had started. In the 1st hour! I waited outside for the lec to call me in. All she said was I can enter in the next hr. That means after the test is over! :) I sat down outside.
I stood up again at the end of that hr. I waited and waited for the test to get over, the lec to collect the papers and leave.
The test was for 2hrs.
It was analogous to a unit test.
(Go to para 5)
(Then to para 2)
When does a human feel like going straight home in the evening, then straight to the kitchen, at times even with shoes on, picking up that earthen pot that holds the cool water that has kept the human's mind preoccupied throughout the mid-summer mid-day's dreams, bending down and pushing the head right into the pot, straightening up as that same water drenches everything while the human thinks he/she deserves a better life?! (In short, thalaila paanaya kavuthufying!)
Oh well... In the upcoming posts I'll decribe the incidents which made me do just that....
It was 5:30 am and my mom already wanted me to get up. In spite of being old enough to go to college, I guess, the joy of sleeping in the morning is something no one out grows. I was half awake and could hear the thundering of rubbing clouds, the lightening tearing the skies apart, and the oceans from the heavens falling towards the earth and splashing off the pavements at very high velocities. My thoughts drifted and I was a child again, playing and bathing in the first rain of every season. I fast-forwarded to one day when I beat the rain to school on my bicycle. Then I was sitting in a rickety bus counting the number of droplets falling off the top of the window. I was going to college.
College. Observation - finishing. Observations - getting it corrected. Record - finishing. Record- getting it corrected.
Tests - study = test cancelled
don't study = longer test with extra questions, internal marks awarded(rather stolen) based on this test marks, poor performance = minimum 5 times assignment(assignment?? who am I kidding! I mean 'Imposition'!) +retest with lesser questions but {total-20% of total} marks+call parents+meet hod+meet principal+stay after college hours with a bunch of pissed off toppers for "group studies", i.e. the toppers leave in 5 mins, but you spend the remaining 40 mins staring at the book, wall, blackboard ( Oopsie! I mean greenboard! Blackboards are for schools! sry my bad!), duster, dustbin, window, and whatever else seems extremely interesting at that moment.
Tests...TEST!!! I HAVE A TEST TODAY!!!
SHIT!!!
I jump out of the bed before I open my eyes. I'm late and havn't touched the books! So I decide to study in the bus. Well... I'm gonna be sitting in a moving rectangular box for like 45mins. How better to use the time! Or at least thats what I thought...
I went rushing to the bus stop. It seemed fairly empty. Within 2 mins a bus came. The bus too was fairly empty. It slowed down and I prepared to board it. I was inches away from the bus when suddenly I felt like I was caught in a Rolling Current. Then suddenly I was teleported to what seemed to be the middle of Ranganathan Street at 6pm on a saturday. Few seconds later I was back in the same bus stop and the bus I was about board was pulling away with the bus tilted to the left a good 25degrees and the 'Ranganathan Street' pouring out! A minute later another bus plying the same route came and I was the 9th person on the bus - including the conductor.
In this peace and calm I studied. I was concentrating real hard. Traffic Lights. Traffic light control using microcontroller IC 8051. Three 8-pin ports - Port A, Port B and Port C. 3 pins for traffic lights, 2 for pedestrian lights, 4 directions. Delays subroutines......
I was looking at a traffic signal. The last one before my break point came. Here I usually change the bus. Looked about the same as the one I saw near my house. I jolted back to reality. Wasn't I supposed to be studying Computer Architecture?
And there was no connecting bus.
And it was raining.
And I was late.
Hastily, I tried to get an auto-rickshaw. Minimum fare- 60 bucks. I'd rather pay the the coll 'late fees'! Yes, they collect 25 bucks as late fees in our coll. Its common....
Oh ya... almost forgot!
Go late - With a good reason - Nobody catches, quarantines or
questions. i.e. E kaka irukkadu
Woke up late - There's a big crowd gathered outside the enterance. Exchange 'hi's with fellow criminals. Write down your name. Stand for 30mins. After 30mins pay 25 bucks = go inside the college and stand outside the class for the remaining 30mins. Dont have money = wait. After a few minutes some students leave. Wait a litte longer and a separate list is made of those who didn't pay up. Either way once IN the next barrier is the dept faculty room. Here 1 chance is given to explain the reason - biggest test for one's imagination and creativity! Depending upon one's luck, again wait for 1hr or half day! Then the last barrier is the class room itself. If there's a lec inside, entry only in the next hr! And.... 200 bucks fine for regular late-comers.
So, I make a master plan. I decide to catch a secondary connecting bus to the next bus stop to get an auto from there. I execute my plan. Now minimum auto fares- 40 bucks for less than 2kms. Still more than my coll late fees.
And its raining.
And this bus stop doesn't have a good shelter.
I make a plan B. Catch yet another bus, go to the next stop and catch yet another connecting bus coming from a different direction. Again I execute my plan.
In this bus stop, the connecting bus I was expecting comes. And there was a whole crowd of ladies waiting to board the same bus. The bus was a complete solid. The bus stopped right in front of me while I was wondering where the air vents were. After that all I remember is entering a high pressure zone like an ocean bed. After I don't know how long, I was standing outside my college.
It was raining today, so no one to catch us.
Generally the tests in college are conducted after the lunch hour. Its like giving a last chance to study. So convincing myself that I had to read just 60 pages and I have a whole half an hour, I walked into the college. I was still on the corridor when my eyes fell upon some bags outside my class. The test had started. In the 1st hour! I waited outside for the lec to call me in. All she said was I can enter in the next hr. That means after the test is over! :) I sat down outside.
I stood up again at the end of that hr. I waited and waited for the test to get over, the lec to collect the papers and leave.
The test was for 2hrs.
It was analogous to a unit test.
(Go to para 5)
(Then to para 2)
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