A RANDOM THOUGHT

The clock reads 1:17am. I’m on the couch in my living room with books sprawled all around me, studying for my Oracle exam, due (very) shortly. My mind keeps wandering. The syllabus is so boring and monotonous I just can’t concentrate. On a reflex I turn on the radio and the music enlivens my senses, like a splash of cold water. I feel all energized once again and go back to studying. The music is still playing. Its steady rhythm helps me concentrate and I’m back on track. Now many of you, especially those in the older age group won’t understand this. This post is especially dedicated to all those who don’t understand.

I did a little research on whether music does really improve learning or is it just an escape mechanism and this is what I found:

In simple terms, the human brain has a left and a right area. When both the areas are activated simultaneously, information is processed much faster. When you study, the left brain is active. Music stimulates the right brain. Thus if you’re studying while listening to music, both the brain areas are activated leading to better learning and retention of information. As simple as that!

So, the next time you see somebody trying to study and listening to music at the same time, don’t give them a hard time! Luckily my folks understand!

The clock reads 11.00 pm. I should be getting back to my books now if I wish to do well in this exam.

BOOK EXCERPT: The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga

…And that was how, Your Excellency, my employer’s marriage came to an end.

Other drivers have techniques to prolong the marriages of their masters. One of them told me that whenever the fighting got worse he drove fast, so they would get home quickly; whenever they got romantic he let the car slow down. If they were shouting at each other he asked them for directions; if they were kissing he turned the music up. I feel some part of the responsibility falls on me, that their marriage broke up while I was the driver.
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(This little rectangular mirror inside that car, Mr. Jiabao – has no one ever noticed before how embarrassing it is? How, every now and then, when master and driver find each other’s eyes in this mirror, it swings open like a door into a changing room, and the two of them have suddenly caught each other naked?)

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Keep you ears open in Bangalore – in any city or town in India – and you will hear stirrings, rumours, threats of insurrection. Men sit under lampposts at night and read. Men huddle together and discuss and point fingers to the heavens. One night, will they all join together – will they destroy the Rooster Coop?

Ha!

Maybe once in a hundred years there is a revolution that frees the poor. I read this in one of those old textbook pages people in tea stalls used to wrap greasy samosas with. See, only four men in history have led successful revolutions to free the slaves and kill their masters, this page said:

Alexander the Great.
Abraham Lincoln of America.
Mao of your country.
And a fourth man. It may have been Hitler, I can’t remember. But I don’t think a fifth name is getting added to the list anytime soon.
An Indian revolution?

No, sir. It won’t happen. People in this country are still waiting for the war of their freedom to come from somewhere else – from the jungles, from the mountains, from China, from Pakistan. That will never happen. Every man must make his own Beneras.
The book of your revolution sits in the pit of your belly, young Indian. Crap it out and read.
Instead of which, they’re all sitting in front of colour TVs and watching cricket and shampoo advertisements.

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SMALL THINGS

A phone call from your long-lost-one-time-best-friend; a piece of cadbury’s dairy milk; a bear hug from a loved one in times of distress; running into your school teacher on the road and knowing that she still remembers you and still loves you and cares for you just as much even after all these years; spending an entire day lazing around at home in your favorite pyjamas and Dad’s oversized t-shirt, doing absolutely nothing; a long, hot water bath; coming across your favorite movie on HBO while randomly flipping channels; making it to class on time when you expected to be thrown out; watching the sunset hand-in hand with that special person; trying on a pair of jeans which are a size smaller than usual and finding that they fit; an afternoon nap; hours of leisurely reading; isn’t it these freebies that bring you a glimpse of heaven and fill you up with so much more happiness than the ‘expensive’ things can ever buy? If you think so too, then we are some lucky people.

THE SANDS OF TIME

I turned 21 yesterday. The adult tag sure feels great but time is flying and it scares me.
I barely have a year more of engineering to go and I’m going to miss these days like crazy!! It’s funny how I feel like it was just yesterday when I was in school and decided to pursue engineering. I’m almost done and I’m happy about that. But I wish I could just stop time. If I still miss the 2 years of junior college then I don’t even want to think about how much I am going to miss these 4 years.

I’ll miss the constant company of my best friends. I’ll miss the unpredictability of our movie plans, always last-minute and the crazy rushing that followed. I’ll miss hanging out with them. I’ll miss all the funny experiences I’ve had with Namrata; especially the long uninterrupted chats with her during lectures and the challenge of keeping a straight face even while listening to the most hilarious things. I’ll miss listening to Arpan read my SMSes. I’ll miss the bitter pleasure of the heartaches- those that I went through and the ones that I caused.

I’ll miss BTech IT like crazy. I’ll miss all the fun times. I’ll miss A3. I’ll miss the library and the canteen. As they say, ‘you never know when you’re making memories’.

I’ve met some great people here and some not- so- great. There have been some fostered relationships and some broken. Some things have made me laugh and some have made me cry. The best thing is that it has never been only about academics. In fact, it has hardly ever been so. There have been some major life-lessons and for those I’ll be ever grateful.

We have just a few trimesters left all of which are going to see frenzied preparation for the MBA entrance exams, final attempts to bring up our CGPAs and the stuff. So officially the best part is over. I don’t know what the years to come have in store for me but I sure as hell know that my days in this college are going to be some of my most cherished ones.