So I'm Coming Home

Ah well.

Here we are again.

The past 30 days have been a complete whirlwind. Starting with excessive assignment submissions to preparation for Mid-Semester Exams, aka sessional.

So, college started out to be a great experience, even academically. But, boy, was I wrong.

Sessional scared me to death. Not the fact that my preparation was bad, it indeed was good. But looking at others studying late at nights, taking power naps just to stay up for the rest of the night… I felt completely out of place. Like, hey doesn’t anybody study like a normal person here?

Well, that was not all.

The assignment submission was an equal headache. I believe in self-study and doing things on my own. But an occasional doubt clearing session with friends/teachers is very important.  Unfortunately, the system here is copy paste. An apparent ‘nerd’ has to finish the assignment a day before the submission date so that the other ‘jocks’ can copy it and paste it onto their papers all night long. This makes the ‘nerd’ more desirable (go figure!)

Let’s come back to my problem now.

The teachers here are equally smart here. They set such tough questions in the assignments that a couple of nerds have to sit together and try to solve them. Thus, providing them with a valid excuse not to give them to others as theirs wouldn’t be complete by then.

So that was the storm that blew past rather quickly, and here I am, on a flight back home for a break of 10 days. Indeed, it’s one of the most glorious facts about MIT. It sends its first year students back home for coping with home-sickness (I’m not suffering from that much though).

It does feel rather grand going back. I’ll meet my mom and brother, go shopping in malls, catch a movie with my cousin probably and eat loads and loads of fish. Yup, Manipal does have its share of sea-food, but I unfortunately don’t have my share of fish-loving friends L

Nevertheless, its always fun being with them, eating with them and going to classes. Plus hostel mates are pretty awesome as well. Fooling around in the middle of the night, ball-room dancing, acting dumb and stupid… life becomes a breeze here at Manipal (barring the exam time of course!)

So, listening to The Script, watching How I Met Your Mother, watching loads of movies (and studying a little).. That’s how I plan to spend the next 10 days.

And oh, did I mention the hoards of amazing food my mom’s gonna make? Starting with cheesecakes to fish Manchurian and Lasagna...

 Life promises to be blissful for the next 10 days.

The Eventful First Month

The worst thing about college... Meeting arrogant people.

The best thing about it...

Everything else.

Yes, that has been my observation in the first month of college, and indeed, such has been the case here in Manipal.

Colourful, attractive, (not so attractive), smart, dumb, sluts, jocks, and nerds. Such is the demography of the students here. And this is what makes everyday in Manipal different and eventful, i.e meeting them. Especially if you're sitting in the food court and looking at the people around (cell phones aren't of much use here- low 3G connection and probably the only Wi-Fi free zone in the MIT Campus) there are always new faces in funny and eye-catching outfits. 

Time and again I see girls wearing hot-pants and spaghetti tops, (like hell, this ain't the beach), and at other times, I can see guys in t-shirts blaring out obscene lines. 

Now like a layman I wonder why they wear such clothes and then it strikes me that they have what I call : ASD - Attention Seeking Disorder.

Believe me, this isn't just the case in my college but everywhere else. Although it was on a much lower scale in school, but it's everywhere. 

So, these unfortunate people with ASD turn out to be the most arrogant in campus (that was quite expected). 

But, my sociology doesn't end here. 

What if i tell you something about a teacher here? One in particular, who has absolutely nothing to do with me or my class. She's a sadistic witch with nothing but pure evil overflowing her pot which is a sorry excuse for a brain. She made a very grave mistake by giving me less marks for the practical related to Zener Diodes. I had studied from 3 different books (Malvino, Milman, and Uday Kumar), watched endless videos on YouTube to understand the concept and working. But alas!

That poor woman was too bored to ask me relevant questions, so instead, she asked me 2 which even the head of the department of Electronics wouldn't have been able to answer... (Wait. I think I went a bit too far with that.).

Thankfully, as far as the people I've met are concerned, such sadism is still restricted to that woman . The teachers in my class are just too good for words. Absolute brilliance is what the aura surrounding them radiates. Barring a few exceptional lectures, the classes are very interesting and teachers are truly very knowledgeable.

So classes go on with great enthusiasm (except for the early lectures or the ones after lunch, as everyone's sleepy) and we look forward to Saturdays when we have Workshop classes. Its a nice break from all the study and bookish language (barring the fact that we need to write about 10 pages of homework before each class). But after all the rigourous and laborious work, we all get tired and hog on Pav-Bhaji and coffee to regain consciousness.

An occasional chat at KC over a bottle of Sipra with my two closest friends, late night friendly gossip with my sweet roomie and our neighbours, crunchy toast, soft idlis and sumptious dosas and hot coffee in the breakfast, delicious chicken every alternate day complemented by the wonderful scenery around... This is what I call utter bliss.

Praying that the coming four years have something similar in store for me, this is Trisha signing out for now.
Ciao~