Universal Youngistaan

I was exposed to stringent rules regarding timeliness in the wake of joining a management course. The kind of guy I have been all my life, for me simply it was a difficult ground rule to abide to. Many times, I have been neck to neck running against the ever running, time. I remember, in the undergraduate course often  I would run to catch the college bus. That -'just in time baby!' - with friends on bus. Back then as time passed I built a reputation for it, colleagues used to acknowledge it. But on the other side they used to appreciate of me hardly ever missing college bus but almost catching it in the nick of time. 


            There also have been times in my 4 years of engineering when I reached significantly before time. On those rare days I was again taunted. Oh! well people typecast you and when you don't follow their expectations they kind of start hoping for it. If still you prove their belief wrong they would sarcastically appreciate the change. 

A few epic cases of in time delivery I recall at IMT -

 I woke up at 9:21 AM in clock, just got ready and ran to reach in time for the microeconomics class of 9:30 AM.  

I wake up at  11:05 AM there's a guest lecture at 11:15 AM if I miss my roll call I miss the attendance. I run navigating my way, jumping, traversing through shortcuts, I push open the door and hear my name and say yes sir!. The instructor gives a wry smile, everybody looks at me in awe. Someone exclaims wow! in the meantime regaining breathe I take a seat and relax. 

There is this guy Kandy, I come from shower wrapped in towel, he sees me in the gallery and says boy you better hurry up or you will miss attendance. I manage to get in time. This incident happens time and again. He acknowledges me with 'the towel guy'. 

 There also have been incidents when I ate breakfast partially on my way to the class while running and in class. In class I am well known for doing such stuff. 

I hope to bring about change in managing time. But still I manage it anyhow, I think that's what management is all about.

P.S.: I haven't missed an attendance till date.

When some close aid, a friend, a colleague, a teacher, an uncle or a relative dies, we make up from the shock after sometime. Its a compromise we make for we can not afford to be on the same page for a long time. The prospect of future is brighter than lamenting present, you consolidate it with the idealistic "move on" and eventually move with it.

That's what happens generally, my curiosity in the matter arose when I pondered over one such event of my life. A few months back my uncle died of an heart arrest, he had a sudden demise and I was shocked as death is an unanticipated, dreadful event though it is certain. Well a few days passed and he was no more a part of our conversations, he may rest in peace was said and gradually done. To this day I must have thought about him for he was a close companion of my Dad and I usually got updates about his family etc. But today was a different reason; I was messaging my friends.
Messages-->>Inbox-->>forward-->>add recipients, a list of contacts appear. I scrolled the list, marked some and there it flashed, his(uncle's) name. I moved down in the list but again came back to it, just something clicked and it doesn't wish to go back. All his memories flashed back in the back of my head.

A little later a series of questions started flowing in my mind. What happens to our contact number when we die?
Do people delete it when they know we are no more? What happens to our facebook profile? Does the timeline has an end to it? Have we ever thought of having a will for all this? And is there a proper time to have a will because you never know when you'll die? What is with these lifetime SIM's? What happens with the email address? So on  and so forth.

I surely could not come up with any solid reason/answer to these questions. But I learnt one thing when I mistakenly stumbled into the contact detail of my dead uncle, it made me realize that no matter how difficult time I am having right now, I am still alive. And one day my time will come, when I will be no more, before that comes I shall make this count this is my present this is all I have got. And I remind myself this whenever I see any token of those who rest in peace.

Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.
-George Eliot

So don't forget and get reminded...
 

"kabhi chaha tha ki hum do se char honge
par pata na tha ki waqt ko jaldi thi
woh kisi aur ki ho gayi
aur mein kisi aur ka... "

2nd June 2012, I left the hotel room, got into an auto, paid the fare to reach the city office @ khullar apartment, the summer morning was slowly turning hot, got into the bus and in 55 minutes I saw the red brick walls, the gates opened and I was finally in the college, "its on" I thought, for the next two years.
I knew I might not like it while I live these two years in this place (just a possibility) but later in life I will cherish every moment of it (engineering college experience).

After a lengthy process of registration a hostel room was allotted, on the ground floor, I was delighted that there will be no stairs to climb daily. By the evening my father left and then I was all alone on myself. Oh! hell there is nothing to do in here plus temperature is so hot that you can not even lay in bed in the same position for long. Increasing on fluid intake, choosing proper food helped me counter the scorching challenge the place offered.
The weekend was over and then began a weak beginning which had no end, let alone any "weak-end"(weekend). We were loaded with assignments, life became tough and time scarce.

A few days into the course and giving introductions had turned into a tedious job, be it giving to the faculty or to fellow students. Who said practice(repetition in this case) makes a man perfect, actually it makes u hate the thing more (a far fetched comparison). Classes(induction) were designed to make us acquainted with the course but what it did was different. It was in a way mocking our  knowledge and awareness. "come on! anyone in class who can tell blah blah?" "as an aspiring manager one should at least know this" "Don't you read newspaper?"  were the constant derision thrown @ us. And we took it silently without any resistance. To resist there has to be unity and we merely knew each other. Even to absorb the humiliation coherently a bond is required, slowly we caught up with that. Kudos!

Then came the seniors, there was this "healthy interaction" thing which started well but few juniors had problems so they told there mom-pops and hence notified the management which resulted in calling off of HI. I was in a way happy but irony was that I did not even give a single introduction to any senior, I felt bad that we couldn't interact much. A paradox (I m not hypocrite).

Followed were some incidents which lead to spats between senior and junior. And then began what the father of nation taught us the best, "when you don't get your way, unite and do not cooperate".
But we did not see the disclaimer in it which suggested not to be used against our own countrymen (it was against British) otherwise it will hinder the smooth functioning of our own country. But we do what we have imbibed from history, it worked there so it shall here(it works but disturbs the momentum of regular things leading to inefficiency). All it took was an interaction to resolve the conflict. Finally an amicable environment was restored. Bloody non cooperation! a waste of time.


In the first month itself I experienced many events ranging from learning golf to interacting with people belonging to different parts of the country, from conflict to friendliness, from staying awake all night to hitting gym regularly. The place has more to offer and more lessons to teach. In loving memory of the beginning of this course I end this here to begin a streak of posts about happenings during the coming two years @imt nagpur.

A first timers experience :

When you leave your home for the first time, the bond with it gets stronger. You feel a new propensity towards your home and hometown. Suddenly, the boring mundane things you did there become special and you do not know when will you be back to do the same.
  
You pack your stuff, travel the distance & finally you find yourself into another sphere which belongs to different kind of people, speaking there own language, living in there own style. And you feel out of place. You are at the horizon, exploring anew.
  
You come to a hostel, put your trust in a room partner & find yourself sleeping in the same room with a stranger. Will you be able to sleep? Initially it does freaks you out but your body has limitations to avoid rest. You succumb to it!

 You don't find the weather friendly, its harder to overcome the fear of failing to cope with it. Thanks to the human tendency you adjust, compromising to it. If weather can't change you can. It takes time though, praises to "time" the universal healer, the settler.

 You are not habitual to eat four times a day (breakfast-lunch-evening snacks-dinner), that too with a crowd making incessant noise and rush. Others seem awkward to you and supposedly its vice versa.
You search for solitude but in vain. Eating is like fuelling your car, you go out there have food for energy, pump yourself up as fast as you can, do not talk much, do not pay heed to others (even beautiful ones), saving time is priority. Come out of the 'mess" ASAP (metaphorical mess). Having meal is reduced to an exercise.

In the beginning you try too hard to be good to others in order to win them and convert them to be your friends. After sometime you realize you belong to the bunch of guys with whom you can connect, and not just for the sake of it. New ones seem cool, better than the ones you met a few days back. As time passes you realize more or less they are all the same.

When you go to the library, there are immense number of books, you gaze @ them and they stare back saying we have knowledge and we will be your companion, friend, inspiration, freedom, entertainer. You can not contemplate which one to choose and run away seeking pleasure in something else.

And when in evening you talk to your mother, after the routine stuff, suddenly she says "these many no. of days have passed since you left home". You get a lump in throat, you hold back and reply "aur kya mummy". You never shed a tear, the conversation goes nice. Followed are some inexplicable feelings visiting you and departing. Lucky ones can hug their mothers after reading this. I'll have to satiate myself imagining it, for the time being.