Universal Youngistaan

This was probably the last time I was seeing them, after there is a far chance that I see these French guys. They had come to my college(IMT, Nagpur) under foreign exchange program, for about 100 days. They were to attend classes with second year; I am a first year grad still we got to know each other well. They were 3 guys Gwen, Geof and Josh.

Gwen was  romantic, committed, decent and civil; moves head while talking in a natural and consistent manner, smiles with wrinkles at the corner of his eyes. Out of them he was the closest to me. Geof had a peculiar way of conversing, partially bald with the foliage loss from front, he mostly wore dark goggles, didn't like Indian food much and used to carry soft drink all the time. He was good in sharing and comparing cultural differences. The third guy Josh was the tallest amongst them, he was funny, spontaneously witty, extrovert, happy go lucky kind of person. He was incredibly open in his conversations.

At lunch a day before our last supper I accompanied Gwen. Its Christmas eve today. We sat across each other, I asked him about his new year plans, his experience in the country of Gods and colors etc. After the general chit chat I inquired if he will remember any of us after going back to his country. He straightforwardly declined it, said after some time he will forget. Well that is how things go, we meet people in our journey through time in life and after loosing touch eventually we tend to forget them. Of course now we have social media, which does gives connectivity but it solely depends on the persons intention to be in touch. People also remain in friend lists just for the sake of it.

On their last night at campus we had dinner together. "So this is the last time then", "all the best for your future endeavors", "enjoy new year(in your country)" etc followed with the supper. One of them spoke few words in Hindi followed those were all cuss words they had learnt. We laughed on the manner he cussed it sounded polite. We bid adieu as our paths diverged.

What does a human being gives and takes from others? Is it only monetary or something which is intangible? The way we perceive it defines our exchange. We come across many people in our life, some people become important, some do not register in our memory. No matter we forget them or not what we shall aspire to do is make the most of the time we spend together. The time spent should be worthy to remember. After all what we can best share are joy, smile and happiness.  

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.

Prologue: I woke up at 11:30 in the morning with constant knocking on the door. I rolled out of the bed, opened the door to find D.J., semi naked.
D.J.- "what happened last night? Why are you here? Why I was in your room "?
I gathered my thoughts, sat on bed; looked him deep in eyes and mumbled "asshole".
D.J-. What ?

--------***------

Its Ramadan going on, I follow my routine course starting in the morning at 4 am. I have developed a habit of not sleeping all night and sleeping after having morning snacks. I don't believe in alarms waking me up, I am so lethargic in getting up at once. I came back to room from 'mess' but could not sleep, I laid down on bed looking at the ceiling fans shadow arising from the light coming through the window. To add to my inability to sleep there was problem coming, like always I didn't anticipate it until it was right there in front of me mocking my plans for the day. All I wanted was a few hours of sleep before I yawn in class.

It was 5, the unlocked door of my room was pushed open. I thought it must be the room partner. He was but with 3 other chaps. I initially pretended that I am asleep, gradually I sensed that something is wrong. Out of curiosity I turned and witnessed. DJ a good friend  of mine, lay down on bed on the other side of the room, completely drunk, unconscious & making weird noises. I knew about the party but I could not understand what was wrong him. Then came the disclosure, the drunk began vomiting. With an angry face I left the room to sleep in DJ's room. Leave alone sleep I couldn't help thinking about how it turned ugly(well this is due to my inept knowledge of alcohol and aftereffects of its consumption).


 I came outside walked towards my room to know more of the happenings before. One of them narrated the story to me. In short all he meant was " initially we drank, then we drank again and finally we were drunk". DJ pulled some stunts thereafter picking guys up his shoulders and stuff. That made the alcohol churn up in his stomach and hence the vomiting. The chaos he created also includes abusing a senior, trying to break a glass door etc. I thought let him become conscious he'll have to answer some serious questions.

I went back to his room and slept.


Epilogue: I tersely described to him a part of what I knew, it was astonishing that he expressed no guilt but pride, as if he had done a great thing; I left him in his room. The cleaners cleaned my room, and within a few hours the aura returned to normal. Finally, the hangover was over!


 

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.

The other night I was walking after dinner, a wont nowadays. It rained in the evening for almost two hours. Generally after a shower, by the side of the border of plants snails come out and spread out on the pathway. After crushing some to death in the beginning I realised that I need to be cautious about that particular area.

SNAIL

 That night I was in a jiffy for I had to send an e-mail. I forgot about the prone area and crushed one to death. Alas! I killed one I thought, the sound made me feel guilty, I tried to shift my weight to the other foot but in vain, it was gone. I turned and watched it with regret exclaiming loudly 'Oh crap!'.

After responding to what was urgent work, it occurred to me that in a way what had happened is related to the pace at which we live life, and of course the damage we do meanwhile.
At times we are so obsessed with our goals that we do not care about many things we crush, treading on and on in a haste; hurting people around us unknowingly. We do not even reflect on what we did, how it happened and leave alone to palliate the hurt.

Its well known that people who reach at the top are alone, and after achieving so much the misery of loneliness haunts them. What one needs to do is to keep a constant check on where one is heading towards. Ambition is the source which drives the inner self of the person but that ambition must be synchronized with all that matters the most and all that which deceives to be trivial but is also important.

"It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary, only wise men are able to understand them"

Paulo Coelho

May the misguided of us get the wisdom to understand the importance of the ordinary.

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.