Battling exam, summer and games

From what seem like an eternity, here I come. I wonder what triggers me to be here today. I do think it is not because I have a lot of time with me, indeed I do not. My fourth semester examination began today. If you asked me how did it go, here is my reply: One side of my head says it went well, but the other side disagree. With a 50-50 on both side, I can tell you the truth only after the result is declared. (Hint: The paper was British Romantic Literature and there were lots of nature poems, some questions look so related that I wasn't sure if it was from Wordsworth's or Keats' or Coleridge's or Shelley's). I still have 3 more papers to go before they released me for two months of ultimate freedom. As this is my blog, I can write what I want. But what do I want to write? This question keep poking in my head and my mind goes into nothingness. I have my next paper due Monday, which left me with 2 days for preparation. And boy, I need a much longer gap between papers, but again I love the feeling of releasing the paper from my head to their freedom after each paper. It is a win win situation, I freed them and get over it, they get their freedom as well. In the future if we were given a choice to choose when to write our exam, I will surely choose the option to appear all at once. Well, let’s talk about this another fine day, for now, let us look into what I have been doing and how am I doing with my life.

I seem to be doing fine, but hectic. Let us say this exam has been keeping me busy lately. I have been reading a lot which is normal when exam nears. The reading is limited to my course, but whatever books that I read, it is legit to be called as reading.

Every morning – oh wait, I am usually out of my bed only at noon, so – every noon when I open my eyes to the not-so-exciting day that lies ahead, the heat of summer welcomed me. I have written a lot, two or three posts that is, about how much I hate the summer of Delhi. My PG does not provide AC, so we had to battle the heat with fan and cooler. However, my side lost the battle to the heat, its strength growing stronger day by day. Things get worst when we had to go out in the open. The scorching heat of the sun burn us to the bones. Today, the maximum was recorded at 42°C, it will go higher and higher. God save me! 

It is interesting how we get addicted to some games in our phone. Anyone remember the good ole days of Flappy Bird? It is a simple game, and the graphic sucks, but millions get addicted to the game that the developer had to shut down the game! There are many addictive games, I am a victim to some. The first was Angry Bird, then Temple Run, Candy Crush follow suit. The latest trend is Clash of Clans, known in short simply as COC. It is here to stay. I am so into the game that I made a custom Tee. Check this:

Here is me wearing the tee:

I have a lot to tell you, but let’s keep the rest for another day.

That is all for today.

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Winter cold, semester exam and Christmas nostalgia!

The year 2014 will soon end, it is already November, the eleventh-month of the year. The days are getting shorter, and colder. Days like these makes me long for summer, yet the summer of Delhi is not the kind of summer any living soul will ever wish for. The mercury will rise very high at times. The news even says some people died because the temperature rises too high. Such days make me wishes for winter to come soon. And so winter came, but with its arrival came the cold. It is still November, it will get colder and colder, and it will go away in April when the summer starts its business again. Because the weather of Delhi is either too cold or too hot, I guess the weather of late October to mid-November is the kind of weather we were to call the best. I have no option but to say today’s weather is fine, though I am wrap in a blanket even now, the time is past-noon.

The cold won't get any better so yeah, here is a quick update on what is going on. My third semester examination will start in less than a week. I am supposed to be studying even now, but well, here I am. It is a pleasant surprise to find myself updating this at a time like these when my examination is near. This never happen at other times. It has been months since I last posted anything on here, and if not for the exam that is ahead, I would have happily ignored that this blog is still in existence.

In view of the examination, classes have been dispersed few days back and I am saved from rising up early and facing the cold in the morning for the time being. Because I stay in North Delhi and my college is somewhere in south Delhi, I spent over an hour in travelling. I alarmed my phone clock to 6:30 am so that I don't miss the 8:45 am class. The task of attending the first class had become extremely difficult with each new morning as winter approaches. However, since the University required a student to have a minimum attendance of 66% to be able to appear the semester exam without any complication, I need to attend as much as I can lest my attendance falls below the requirement. I had missed some classes for reasons known and unknown in the course of this semester. Update: My attendance stand at 69.29%!

The exam will end in the first week of December. The word "December" brings to me the warmth Christmas. The thought of it alone is nostalgic. With semester exam nearing, this is dangerous. Last year, I spent my Christmas here in Delhi. Though it did not matter much where I stay, there is something amiss being away from home for Christmas. Something feels incomplete. The nostalgia and the memories of childhood attach with the festivities is missing in a land which is not mine. Being born and grew up from the hills in some sleepy villages spread across Manipur, the Christmas I had as a child is associated with many sweet memories. It is only during this season where I get to travel to town and city, buy new dresses, toys and sweets. Unlike last year, I have booked my ticket to home for Christmas. But first, dear God, please help me write my exam in peace!

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A plan-less Summer

My second semester exam got over two weeks ago. As I came out of the exam hall after every paper, I was asked how my paper went. I would give the same reply every time every day- not too good, but the best I could do, wait for the result. To be honest, preparation for every paper was not satisfactory. There were gaps for days between papers, best suited for movie marathon instead of studying. A boring movie become exciting during exam season. Any paper of mine was not to the level of getting even an A-, but like my reply, I cannot do better than that. Maybe my mind is full, and I cannot take more.

A question I seldom asked myself why I never bother to update or post something on a blog I made. Everything seems interesting and lively at first, but with the passing time, it began to die down. This line seems relatable with human relationship, ahhh… There might be many insidious reasons why I didn’t bother to post here. It might be because this blog is boring (yeah I know that anyway), or it might be because I was busy (No, I wasn’t), it also might be because I have nothing to write (haha hell yeah), or maybe my internet connection was down (Yeah, goodwill of a neighbour, giving me free unlimited wifi for over a week now. Or else I might still be underground).

As I crossed the college gate on the day my semester exam got over, everyone was discussing what they are going to do during the summer. Some were going home, some were going for vacation, some for internship. When asked what I will be doing during the break, I told them that I would be in Delhi beating the summer’s heat of Delhi. I did not have any plan then. I do not usually make plans. I take each day with what life gives me.

The break starts, we do not come to college anymore, we do not see each other’s faces anymore. The common thing that binds us all was Facebook. Very soon, Updates from friends with status like “hooooooommmmeeeeeeeee….”, “finally”, “Paris <3 J'arrive ”, etc. filled my homepage. Some were checking in at IGI International Airport, some at New Delhi Railway Station and some at an airport in another country. Soon, they started uploading their photos with location tag – Shimla, Darjeeling, Andaman, New York, etc. The whole time I was in Delhi, the temperature rising each day. Today’s headline goes- “Delhi’s hottest day in 15 years”. Next day headline – “Delhi heating up, hotter and hotter”. The next day headline – “Delhi mercury to rise higher”, and so on.

I am a movie buff. Hollywood romantic comedy tops my list, followed by Hollywood action, drama, documentary or just anything Hollywood except horror movie which I have no taste. Though I like Indian stars like Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt, Parineeti Chopra, Kareena Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, and so on, I was never a fan of Bollywood. I am not sure what intrigued me to start watching Bollywood, but during this two-week times I have watched over 20 Bollywood movies. All thanks to my neighbour, my torrent feed has always some movies downloading and I never ran out of movies to watch. With subtitles, everything is cool. In some movies, there will be shots from places I have seen with my eyes. To me, this is a nice feeling. Though movies from the late 1990s and early 2000s are amazing, I prefer to watch movies of 2010s.

So anyway, I still have around a month and a half until semester starts. My brother has been telling me I should work and earn for my pocket money. Being from a low-income middle class family with no government employee in the family, self-earning is always the answer if I want to buy something costly. Though my parents never refused any of my demand, sometimes I feel bad myself and shattered that they do not have much source of income back home. My brother said I should get a job in a call centre and maybe buy myself some new clothes and other things I have been longing for long. Everybody needs money. I do. But I do not want to do that. The truth is, I have experience ‘that’. After my 12th, my parents, relatives, elders, everybody wanted me to become a doctor. I went to Imphal to take coaching for a medical examination. After a long four months stay there, I began to realize that being a doctor was not the life I wanted. I came home and told my parents all about it. They were not happy at first. Those four months had become useless. I have spent my time and their money. I came to Delhi with no after thought of the outcome. I tried to earn. I went for interview and got a job. The only job for a twelfth passed and someone who does not know how to speak Hindi is to work at a call centre. I had a good time meeting new friends, working in a fancy building on the fifth floor, speaking a Canadian accent, adjusting to the time zone of the West, everything was so much fun. Barely after a month had passed, the fun began to died down, pressure came up from every corner, the salary was not handsome when compared to the amount of work we did, we were required to achieve a “Sale” or two every day (night). We were treated like machines. We are humans. We have a body which needed rest. I gave up. Period.

I gave up, and I am not ready to go in again yet. I have a life.

I have a craze for travelling since ages. Though I haven’t really travelled to much places, I am going to start the journey. This one and a half month seem like the perfect break to go for one.

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365 Days: Oh that's a Year

Date: 18th January 2013

Time: 12 noon

Raining

The train came to a halt. Though a year has already passed, everything that happened right there was still fresh on his mine. It was January, it wasn't suppose to rain, he thought. Growing up from a land with a rich cultural history and traditions, and superstitions; he had heard a saying which goes that when it rained unexpectedly in a place someone had just arrived, it is a welcome sign that the sky had acknowledged his presence. It's not that he believe in myths but he knew it was a sign, good or bad.

His whole life, he was confined more to the countryside and not a city. The sight that lies before him, it made him overwhelmed with amazement. This wasn't the sight he had expected, what was he expecting then? Indeed he hasn't thought about anything. A week ago, he was in his native village wondering what to do with his life.

His whole life, people keeps telling him that he has to become a doctor. After the completion of his twelfth examination, he was admitted to a medical coaching institute in a nearby city. Though he was not so sure if being a doctor was what he wanted, but the pressure that his parents and relatives gave him, he was driven to it. To the world of his parents and relatives, a medical doctor was the perfect profession, in the line with engineers and IAS officers. Every parents in his community has dreams of their sons and daughters becoming anyone of these three. To them, all other professions are secondary and are professed by weaker people who does not want happiness in their life. 

The good marks he scored and the countless pressures that poured in, he had no choice but to take the path created by his parents and relatives. Three months passed,  he knew deep in his heart that he was heading the wrong way and he start to realize how he would eventually regret taking this path sooner or later. A doctor was not what he wanted with his life to be. Though he might become rich and healthy, with the perfect job and the "Dr" tag in his name, like his parents has always dreamed, he knew he was never going to attained this, he knew he would end up hating himself waking up each morning for the rest of his life.

Finally, he decided to stop this before he come to a place where there was no turning back. When this news broke out, the response was overwhelming. With a population of over 7000 in more than 400 houses, a hospital and a PHC, the village still lacks a doctor, among many others.  When a certain boy who made news few months back that he is trying to pursue the medical profession; and then after 4 months, overturn it; it made headlines.

The confusions created by people around him and the never-ending talks from relatives, it was psychologically disturbing to him. Everyone in the community has hope that he would become the first ever doctor from his community. Although attaining this title won't be so bad, he wanted to escape from this nerve-wrecking confusions and chaos. He has a brother who lives in Delhi, maybe he could help. Maybe he could help him escape. Sigh.

And there he stands on the platform in an unknown foreign land, with a bag next to him. This was a dream, this cannot happened. Everything looked strange to him, he hasn't see anything like this before.  Along with three other travelers, they stepped out of the station. Once outside, the environment was a total change. He could feel the cold winter wind on his face. The rain which hasn't stopped yet had flooded the whole area outside the station. He could hear the buzz of vehicles all around, cars honking at him from every directions, and yet he was excited. They called a taxi and then putting the baggage on the trunk of the vehicle, he took the window seat so that he could enjoy the view of the enchanted city as they headed to their destination. Like most taxis in the city, they hired an air-conditioned for a exciting and comfortable ride. It was a total change from what he sees back home. He was in another world. He feel himself like an officer travelling in the best car to attend the biggest event in the universe.

Being a new arrival, he could not  figure out which direction he was taken to. He saw buildings, tall buildings, perfect lane, greenery, parks, everything was paradise. About an hour later, they were taken to a smaller lane, and then to a neighborhood, till the taxi stop at a corner of a building. He thought this must be the place. Close enough, they told him they have reached. They took their bags and then enter into a building and then to a long hallway, and then the stairs that seems to almost touched heaven. At length, they knocked on a door, and someone opened and smiled, welcoming them to the room. He wasn't still so sure if this was all but a dream, this was too great to be real, too real to be a dream. It was not a dream, it was reality. He was in Delhi. He is in Delhi. That's my story.

This day last year, the 18th of January, I stepped on Delhi's soil and breath Delhi's air. Exactly a year ago today, I took to journey to where I am today. I still have a couple of years to stay in this great city I fall in love with. I don't know how things will pan out in the end, for now let us live with it.

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The 2013 Closing Report

Let me start off by admitting the fact that I am a lazy blogger. Gap between posts can take ages. Today being the last day of the year, the 365th day of 2013, I had so much to write finally. Before I even realized, 2014 is here. Years come and go, leaving a truckload of memories behind. So many things have happened this in the past year, most were amazing dotted with few regrets.

The year 2013 was a wonderful year for me. It was one of the best years of my life. I was able to accomplished a ton of things, and what surprised me most is that many of those things happened were unexpected as well as spontaneous. Starting from New Year day, my share of 365 days were well spent. Here in this post, I will walk you down memory lane and have our shares of 2013. Sure there are many things I might have missed in the list, thanks to my memory.

To start with, in the first week of January, I along with some friends successfully organized a "Career Guidance" seminar back at my hometown. After a week, I attended a cousin's wedding. Believe me, it was the best wedding ever. In the future when I grow old, I know exactly how my wedding will be.

I came to Delhi for the first time on the 18th of January 2013, passing hills and mountains and rivers, a place so far away from home. The first sight of Delhi made me fall in love with it. You can read more about the epic journey by clicking here [link not active].

My coming to Delhi was the biggest surprise, not just to me but to everyone. No one believed me when I said I was in Delhi. But I really was in Delhi. Since I was here without a purpose, after the initial days, boredom came to me. The people I know here in Delhi are mostly call centre workers and they worked in night shift. They slept during the day and worked at night. The few others who were students were busy with their classes. I was all alone. Since I came from a place where Hindi language is unknown, the language was a total stranger to me. I lied. I took up Hindi till upto Class V, armoring me with the knowledge of reading the alphabet. I cannot speak the language, and because of that that I don't find comfortable to be alone in the city. Of course, I can always speak English, but for a country boy to be alone in a big city is not a kid's play.

I had a huge wish list and in the month of March, out of boredom, I was able to accomplished one, with bitter sweet memories. As long as I can remember, I had a dream of earning for myself and not always demand from parents. Though this can be done later in life, after my graduation, with a job, but I didn't want to wait that long to accomplished this simple desire. I started searching for a job and finally landed with one, at a call centre. A job at a call centre is the easiest to find for someone fresh out of school and with no prior experience, so they say. But even before the completion of a month, I quit. Go here to find out why [link not active].

June came, accompanying with the heat to Delhi's summer. Accomplishing my plan of staying in Delhi for 5 months and future plan to attend college back in Manipur, I booked my ticket back home. Two days before the journey, my parents call with a change of plan. They wanted me to do graduation in Delhi and nowhere else. My dad start his lecture of all the good things about Delhi. It is worth mentioning here that my dad had been to Delhi in early 2000s and my grandfather in the 1970s. It is always wise to obey the words of our parents and respect their decisions. I canceled my ticket. Sigh.

Very soon, the admission at the University of Delhi started. Since my parents wanted me to stay in Delhi, out of the many universities in the city, I choose DU. Though I had appeared the entrance for a language course to JNU, a dream university for every students, or so I hope, I knew what I had done and rather than having another gap year, I applied for English and Botany in DU, though the later was my optional paper in my twelfth.

Very soon, admission to DU came and the sky-high cut-offs were making headlines. Though there are many colleges in DU, there are some colleges with higher standard, if you know what I mean. I have some favorites and in the second cut-off, my percentage which was "excellent" back home and "average" in DU made it to one. Halfway in the process of admission, a problem struck resolving only at the fourth cut-off, securing the last seat. I had a narrow escape.

College starts, I moved, and life starts rolling into places. Days passed, turning into months and here we are, standing at the edge, with a new year ahead.

2013 has taught me a lot of things. First, it taught me that it is perfectly okay to live life as it comes. Not living, but seeing Delhi alone was a dream for me, a dream I hope to accomplished in the distant future, (after my retirement, maybe). Like a dream, I came to Delhi, lived for five months, booked ticket to go back home, changed plan, and now hooked to stay in Delhi for the next four years or maybe even more.

In September, when a friend of mine got sick and was admitted to hospital, and the more recent one in November when my brother got sick, I realized the importance of good health and the need to remain healthy in a land really far away from home.

Four pairs of shoes, three pants and four shirts; and a phone - pray they all landed on safe hands. I had a surprise one evening after I came back from college to find some of my clothes missing. Either someone had breached our door (which can be open easily if someone know how to even if it's locked), or had climbed the wall of our building to my apartment and then left with his find. Another time, my phone was stolen at a train station. I agreed this was due to my carelessness. The year 2013 had taught me to be more careful and to learn to adapt the life in a city.

The year also taught me the value of money; how hard it is to earn and how easy it is to spent. In the month of April, I got my scholarship for 2012 from my state, another scholarship and I also got half my paycheck from the job I did in March, the whole amount totaling to over twenty thousand i.e. ~ $350, which was, well, a big amount for me. After doing some upgrade to my laptop and buying a cheap smart phone, my pocket was soon empty. This whole time in Delhi, my pocket was always empty. My brother who worked in an MNC provide me food and bed, and some pocket money. My dad is a pastor and I don't always have the courage to asked from him seeing his meagre income. To reach my college, I take the bus as well as the metro. My typical expenditure in a day goes like this:
     Bus to metro :  10
     Metro : 13
    Bus to college :  10 (15, if the bus is AC)
    College to metro :  10 (15, if the bus is AC
    Metro :  13
    Metro to home :  10
                               =  66 (if AC = 76)

This is only the fare; added the stationery, too often phone recharge, everyday canteen, weekend visits to Delhi's famous places, occasional auto hiring to college when I am late; I was always broke.

... and the list goes on. It will take forever to  write about everything. Thank you 2013, I had a great year.

By the way, it is always better late than never: Happy New Year

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