The Ballad of Bomberman - Act 2

Act 2: Timing is Everything

11:30 am, November 16,2010

Location- Dept. of Fuel and Mineral Engg.

After the heroics displayed by me on Monday, I was elated and elevated. Although what I did was not by societal standards a good deed, I still wanted to believe that I had in some way broken out of a cage.My firm belief that exams, or for that matter vivas,could not be cleared without decent preparation,had been shattered to bits. The fear before Material Handling exam had been replaced with a sense of pride and freedom. But I had decided that that was the first and the last time. No more of such irresponsible behaviour  from now onwards. Hah! What a joke!

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5 pm Monday evening, I was done with my first prac. The week had 3 more vivas on the menu. And the next one-Physical Separation, was going to be served with breakfast on Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock. While all the guys were discussing how 'Mandrake'(Phy. Separation prof.) would rape each and every student of Vth MLE, I was already on my way out of the campus. I needed some air. I mean all this panicky behaviour just turns me off. 

And 'Mandrake'? Come on! He is nothing! Well, his actual name is N.R Mandre. I christened him 'Mandrake' after the famous cartoon character. That is because our beloved professor has the very special quality of magically removing smiles from the faces of his students and replace them with creases of tension. He once caught me in class while I was busy examining a hair that had come off my scalp while I was removing my cap. I have been an eternal back bencher in his class.I didn't pay much attention to his scolding, because he's an a** anyway! But I do remember his comparing me to a donkey and moron and officially declaring that I would never be a good mineral engineer! Like I ever wanted to be one!

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9:30 pm Monday night

I had just come back to my room and as usual it had more occupants than the two beds in it could support. I gave the tress passers an I-want-to-sleep-get-the-f***-out-of-my room look and after 15 minutes I was in my dream world. It was something about me and my girlfriend and some regular college stuff thrown in. 

7:30 am Tuesday morning

I woke up with my best friend's good morning SMS. The morning was already doomed. I had Mandrake waiting to rape me, and I didn't even cared to buy some 'protection'! I hurriedly completed my unfinished practical notebook. That took about an hour. Brushing, bathing and breakfast took another half an hour. I spent the remaining 1 hour playing PacMan and Poker on my Manish's laptop. I had decided I would just ask questions from the guys going in before me. The easy way out, as always!

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Before I tell you how I fared in my viva, let me describe the scene and position of all the characters and elements in the room. On the other side of a huge antique table- Kalicharan, Mandrake, and their sidekick LK-our three nemesis. On this side of the table- Me,Baul the stupid,Nanga the alcoholic,Reja the topper ,Purwar the overconfident a** and  Manish the laptop guy!

6 on 3...sounds good,right? Well, me and Reja were the best prepared guys in the group, so now you can see the odds were not really in our favour.

Mandrake fired the first shot. He inquired from LK about our attendances in lab throughout the semester and Baul and Purwar came out to be defaulters. First blood!

Mandrake ordered us all to write down one practical each that we had performed in the lab.Nanga was the first one to finish. But hardly did he realize what a blunder he had just made. As soon as his pen stopped, Mandrake and Kalicharan directed their guns towards him. The started questioning him alternately and soon we bid farewell to Nanga. Three men down in the first 5 minutes!

Seeing Nange's fate, me,Reja and Manish slowed down our pens. We were buying time, because each group was being held captive for around 20 minutes. I had been thrown a relatively easy practical at me, one which I knew about. My finishing coincided with Kalicharan leaving the room on account of some urgent work. Great!3 on 2 now!

Mandrake asked me the basic principle of the experiment I had written down. Piece of cake. But before I could open my mouth, his cellphone interrupted(with the worst ringtone I have ever heard in my life)! Reja had engaged LK in a duel,Manish was still writing and I had a few minutes to spare.I was so excited at my good luck that I quietly took out my cellphone and messaged my best friend-"Viva going on.I am doing good! :)". She replied with a string of question marks. I decided not to reply. And it was a good decision because just as I slipped the phone back in my pocket, Mandrake returned.

I answered his question and after that he asked a tricky question related to diamagnetism and paramagnetism. Now this was his trump card- Divide and destroy! All six of us looked at each other, not sure what to do. Purwar,Baul and Manish stuck to one theory, Nanga kept quiet, Reja gave one of his own and I decided to stick to mine. And luckily for me, I turned out to be the correct one! That impressed Mandre,or maybe my wearing a shirt impressed him. Whatever, the impression did not last long, as he scolded us all for being the worst batch in the history of Mineral Engineering. It was a ritual every incoming group had to undergo before going out. But I knew I had done well!

PS- I still wonder,"What if I had decided to reply to my best friend and Mandrake would have caught me with a cellphone in my hand in the middle of a viva?"

Continued...

The Ballad of Bomberman - Act 1

Act 1: The Printing Press
4:30 pm,November 15,2010

Location: Dept. of Mechanical Engg.

"Abey jaldi chhap! Aankh band karke chhap!"- Vikas, my room mate, and currently my saviour, was prompting me with hushes.

"Abey tu bas likhta jaa, maine yahan printing press khol di hai!" - Me,a topper of my times, currently at the mercy of others, was boasting shamelessly!

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I was blindly copying whatever Vikas was writing down in his answer sheet. His writing would have been barely legibly in normal circumstances, but this was examination time!

Desperate situations call for desperate measures! 

My head was tilted 60 degree away from Vikas's copy, my left hand was covering my roving eyes, and my eyelids had been strictly instructed not to bat. In all, I was 'in the zone'!  It's a term usually applied to sports persons when they are giving a performance of their lifetime.  Well, I considered myself not less than Sachin Tendulkar en route to a 200 there!

I had completed the practical file in the morning itself. So,being ready for the written exam was a deed I could think of performing in the next life only. I had just skimmed through the practicals and had half heartedly listened to another one of those 'enlightening GD sessions' of the 'genius' guys of the branch.Moreover, my room mate had prepared a day in advance, so by engineering college standards, I had prepared well for the exam!

The professor and his side kick research scholar were pieces of cake to get through while cheating. But my inquisitive a** was the only enemy in the field! I mean, I was prepared like shit, I had no F-ing idea what the answers were, and here I was, pointing out errors in Vikas's answer sheet. The guts!

We were literally having a discussion in the middle of an exam there. And Vikas had to convince me that his answers were right and I could copy them safely,without the fear of failing(like if I refused to copy them, the professor would pass me on account of my honesty and perseverance to copy only the 100% correct answer!) Finally, the honest cheater inside me gave in and I started 'Xeroxing' his answer sheet.

'WE' breezed through the 50 minute 60 marker. Actually it was Vikas who breezed through,I just hung on to him with tightly! In the end, it didn't matter that much, because rumour had it that the professor was not going to check the copies anyway and would give an 8 pointer to everyone,at the least! 

So much for being an adamant a** in the middle of an exam!

PS- There are two ways to excelling in an exam. Studying well. Or copying well!


Continued...

To be or not to be

My very close friend is going through a tough time. I can't name him for obvious reasons, but since he is as good a friend as it gets, it gives me shivers to look at his pathetic condition. And guess what can be the reason of his sad state? Well, it's a girl. But don't get it wrong. It's not those stereotypical 'one sided love affair' or 'rejected and dejected' or even 'loved and lost' affairs. It's hard to be 'adjectivated' or 'typified'. So here's what it is....as he told me...

He likes her.She likes him.

He doesn't know if he loves her. But he is sure it's the closest to love he has been in his life. She loves him.

He wants to be with her. She wants to be with him.

He is with her.She is with him.For now.

His mom might agree to her. Her parents might also agree to him.

He would probably tell his mom about her. She would definitely never tell her parents about him.

So he can't be with her.She can't be with him. Forever.

He can't leave her right now because she needs him. He wants to be there for her...with her.

But, when the time is right and she is okay with him leaving her, what if he needs her then?

And what if that time never arrives?What if she always needs him? He is sure he can never say 'no' to her for anything. What will he do then?

Now I don't know what to tell him that will make him feel good. I am afraid of the fact that they are going to lose each other. The pinching part is,as he says, their feelings will never be lost. I hope he gets out of this. And gets out without a broken heart.

PS- Since skeptics would anyway think it's me writing in the disguise of my friend, I won't make a clarification. I just want to say, if it was me, I wouldn't be writing it down. I would be doing something about it!

Evanescent Happiness

"The only thing more beautiful than a relationship without a name is a relationship that needs none!"

I've experienced both....I enjoyed both...and then reality struck me with a fatal blow! Fatal enough to bring me back to life. To the harsh, cold realities of life.


If a dream is worse than reality, we always have the choice of waking up. But what if the dream is better than reality? Can we sleep forever? Can I sleep forever?



PS- My earlier post, as misinterpreted by some, was not about my ex-girlfriend(s)...the 'he' in that post was intentional. There's not just one kind of relationship whose loss can be mourned,is it?

That won't bring me back to you

"Wish you a very happy and prosperous 'DEWALI'. Take care of ur health & study beacuse only these 2 things r important in life & future.kabhi dil kare to bat kar lena tab shayad mujhe samajh pao. i m waiting.ok take care."

The sender of this SMS was close to me once. Then the sender made a mistake that ruined everything. I tried to stop the sender from choosing the wrong path. But the sender was adamant. The sender had become selfish, so he couldn't see what he wanted to do was ruining not only our relationship, but was tearing away several other relationships that were dear to both of us. Now, it's too late to mend those mistakes. The wounds might heel with time, but the scars will be there forever.

I don't remember for how long we haven't talked.


If you can read this, then you should know that sending greetings on festivals and birthdays won't undo what you did to me and my family. 

You yearn to talk to me? You want to hear my voice? You ache to listen to my words?  

Your punishment is not my words and my anger, your punishment is my silence and my indifference!

Micropost #001

Whoa! Third year is really turning up the heat now!! Never thought I would find myself so busy in this otherwise laid-back place. Suddenly, a 24 hour day has started appearing unfair. And I am faced with one of those situations that make my face go pale and my hair turn gray.(Talking of hair, I recently had a haircut; that, when I promised myself for the zillionth time that I would grow my hair long! Making false promises to myself, that's damn pathetic!)
I have to prioritize. I hate prioritizing. It is so unfair. Why can't I do all the things all the time?Or maybe things I like at times I like? No sir, it has to done by the clock. It's like:"Work now, you can enjoy later".Now,this 'later' is a dangerous word. The event of occurrence of 'later' has probability tending to zero. I have been waiting for 'later' since 11th grade. It hasn't arrived yet.
Anyway, since time for me these days is an asset, I'll wrap this up in short: I am busy, I am confused, I am cornered and I have to make some life changing decisions.Now.

PS- Finally, my dream of owning a net book looks like becoming a reality. The bad thing is, Mom has not said yes still. The good thing is, she hasn't said 'no' either!(All previous attempts were met with an outright rejection). So, I am in the maybe zone. Living on hopes, that is.