Staying Alone

 I am sure that once in a while, a period comes in your life, when you have to stay alone, away from your lovely home, city & everything that you cherish being with. Be it staying in a hostel, going out for some official work to some other place or something like that. I am prompted to write about such a bizarre topic- as you may call- because currently I am staying away from my home & in last 3 weeks I've experienced this phase twice in two different cities. In the last month my exams were going on & I was forced to leave my home town to present a business plan of our team at Indore. On the last day of practical examination, I had a bus to catch which took 14 hours to reach all the way up Indore. It was actually my birthday & my family had plans for the evening. Well as the news came in (that I am supposed to leave my place by the same evening), I consoled them somehow & managed to book my ticket. Next challenge was to convenience my examiners to complete my practical exam without doing any harm to the procedural conducts to be followed. After everything was done, I was ready to experience the official tour  of my life. The journey was good. I was a bit disappointed as the bus attendant switched off the lights after 9pm. I wanted to read my notes, I had to prepare some drafts for the presentation & so on, but it was all terminated due to switching off of that button. Anyways, all passengers shall (take some) rest in peace!!
When I woke up next morning, I realised being in the Madhya Pradesh. That attendant informed me we were having still 2 hours to travel. Clock was showing 6.50am & the journey began 6.30 last evening: still 2 hour's run..!! I was getting bored (if not sick of it) sitting at the same place. Bus was not too bad either but the sheer duration of travel was getting on my senses. I was getting numb & just hoping for the travel to finish. Somewhere around 8.45 I was helped by the attendant to take out my luggage on my destined stop. My other teammates had already reached there yesterday & were lavishly enjoying the official stay in the IPS academy's guest house. Soon I joined the party.
What an academy it was! You name a thing related to academics & it was there; including a swimming pool, tennis court, baseball ground & not to mention, they all were well maintained. One thing I've noticed about people from Madhya Pradesh is that they are always kind to you-no matter who you are. They are ready to help you about anything. We were there as official guests, then what can I say about the facilities made available to us. We were treated like the heavyweights. Guest house was pretty good with a nice AC facility along with all the comforts which you generally expect when you are away. We were supposed to make our presentation that morning itself. That gave us the opportunity to see their AC auditorium. OMG!! I had never seen such a beautiful and well maintained auditorium hall in my entire life in any academic campus. It was an honour to present something in such a nice hall.
Talent from all over India folded there. Boys & girls from IITs & IIMS had come there with their amazing ideas. I wondered that if this is the potential today's youth has, our future is really bright. later on I realised that if there is anything which has potential to impede their growth, its their addictions, lack of discipline & will power. Am I not addicted? Yup, i am very much addicted to playing badminton, swimming lapses, enjoying my research activities and so on. I am god damn addicted to those things.My addictions are far different than theirs.
Two days were too little for understand the people & culture over there.
(to be continued...)

The Backbencher.

Things appear pretty much different from the last bench. You can do all the things while you are sitting behind. Just to mention, you can enjoy your unfinished tiff in, take a lovely nap, mock at fellas, question the established facts so on & so fore. I sometimes wonder that each one of us has been blessed with such a great talent & creativity how can we all be quantified by exam?? Once in for all? But I am in no mood to ponder on that because I am all set to write about life on the last bench.
When I sit at the last position in the class, it seems as if all the physical boundaries of this mortal world are ceased to exist. Everything around you disappears...everything, teachers who are hellbent upon convincing you how things can only be bookish or from an Alexandrian age (to say the least), batch mates, who are only concerned about notes from teachers, & fleeing off the class, all those idiotic boys & girls who hinder you from clearing your doubts even though its none of their business...& so on. You become one with yourself. Start enjoying the process of learning. Dan Brown, in his recent novel "The Lost Symbol" calls this as At-one-ment (atonement)!! Hindu vedas are the poems written in Sanskrit in which there is one all knowing Purush, & a student who has hell lot of questions about the things around him & curious to know them all. It begins with Aththato .....Jidnyasa. The student never stops asking question & neither the gerat soul stops answering them with all-time cool temprament. As we are growing up, we are surrounded by the mystery that life brings up with it. You must have noticed that a little kid who has been on this planet for say 6 months has so many quetions & quiriosities about this world. Thing is the kiddo hasn't just mastered the estblished communication skills of this world. That's why he is wondering, feeling, sensing the things around him, so that he can make some sense of the things at all. My point is, has that little kid ever went to school to know what are the questions he should pose in order to understand the things? Nah, that little fella can't even pronunce the word SCHOOL. But still, he is full of wonderment & doubts that with all the possible ATP molecules at expense, he tries to understan the funny matter around him & enjoys doing it. So, do we really need the curricula, classrooms & boring lectures? In my opinion, emphatic NO!! I think, the world appeals me more when I am on the back bench. It feels like suddenly, somehow the quarrel between Russia & Georgia is also shaping our needs. The tiny little chloroplasts, mitochondria, centioles, DNA suddenly become my heros. I understand environmental economics better while wondering about it than listening from any economist about it. Books become my great friends than any seriousminded lecturer.
Hey, but don't get me wrong, although I have fallen for the life at the last bench, I have no intentions of insulting or humiliating anyone who loves the things which I appreciate a little. It is just like that I am a bit different...I am a backbencher with full of amazement about life..!!!