RedBull vs Exams

You are jolted into consciousness with the very first gulp, but sedative effect of books overtakes pretty quickly. The moment you lie down, caffeine's effects resurface and you are not able to sleep for a loooong time. Though when you get up, you feel refreshed and ready to take on the world. And finally, when you sit in the examination hall, all the drowsiness in the world comes gushing and the only thing which keeps you from drowning is the question paper sitting on your desk.

Nostalgia

There is something peculiar about nostalgia that eludes me. It hits when you are least expecting it to and recovery is neither easy nor quick.
Its just another day at office and you are in early, with hardly anyone around. You walk towards the coffee machine when your olfactory modality picks up something hardly perceptible, but still there, that reminds you of days when you were at school early, when you could tell that the floor had just been mopped and the place had just been through its morning ritual of cleaning. You dive headlong into memories of those days, which, I would like to point out, had absolutely nothing to do with that odour. All kinds of memories; ones you would love to go over and over again, others less cherishable and still others, which you thought you had buried for good. So here you are, in a whirlpool of snapshots which had been lying in ambush, waiting for the opportune moment (and smell?) to unleash them. Then someone greets you and tries to make small talk, pulling you out of your reverie. Regardless of the nature of reminiscences, you are reluctant to come back to reality, which you eventually do. But the tone for the day is already set. You cannot shake off the mood that you are now in; not that you always want to but at times when you really need to get back to your routine, you find yourself helpless. Its like you take the elevator from ground floor for the 13th and as you step in, your nostrils fill up with the remenants of the previous occupier's perfume. It stays with you; you cannot wish it away, whether you savour it or are allergic to it.
The example of the causative force that I have taken to illustrate the phenomena is actually one of the less potent ones. There are other more aggresive forces lurking around; like an old song you used to listen to in college, a particular phrase that one of your friends was so addicted to, the sort of sarcastic remarks you associate with your teachers and professors, so on and so forth. The list, it seems, is quite large, with the impact quotient of each factor varying from person to person. So here is the thing that has me confused: how can a faint and mundane odor have such a deep impact on your psyche? And with so many other assailants surrounding you, how are you supposed to keep your sanity intact? How are you supposed to prevent these floods from drowning you in their psychotropic waters?
The part of me that still retains its sanity has been the one searching for the answers to these questions. The other part is calmly floating in those turbulent environs.

Real life is usually more sensational than drama!

Fare thee well...A tribute to my batchmates!

See-offs are worse, but even goodbyes are hard to say
Heavier becomes the load, with each second's delay
In my throat, I feel a lump swell
As I say these parting words, fare thee well.

Moist lashes hold back the flood
Clenched fists reveal nails in blood
The loss i'll try to hide, but my eyes will tell
As my heart moans, fare thee well.

Crying clouds shower goodbye kisses
I feel the pain in wailing wind's caresses
In the distance, I hear the VT bell
Hark! Even He is singing, fare thee well.

Stranded...in the middle of Nowhere!

"Keep moving! Keep moving!" shouted the voice from behind "We better get out of here quick, coz if it gets dark, we'll be in real trouble." That's when panic set in. Dont know about the others, but I was scared shitless. It must have been palpable from my face, coz I heard someone reassure me tht everything will be fine. Was it Deepak? Was it Vaibhav? Dunno for sure. As it is, it was hard to make out wht was being said, leave alone identifying the speaker. All other noises kept drowning in the roaring thunder and lashing rain. But thank God, it was 'raining water' now - i couldn't endure any more of those TT-ball-sized hail pellets. As I tried turning around, I realised that my legs had been numbed by those chilling, cold winds. Fearing that this lack of sensation might worsen, I started stamping my feet on the ground, with the idea of warming them up. Everyone else had resumed their search for the boat and its owner. But we had come far ahead of the spot where we had landed and still, the boat was nowhere to be seen. All of us knew what had happened to it, but no one was ready to acknowledge the truth.

Who would have thought that a quiet evening at the 'ghat' would turn out this way. The program had been off-the-cuff. We had 2nd half to ourselves but it came at the cost of 1 precious, and hitherto, easily earned, attendance. The decision to spend the evening at 'Assi ghat' was unanimous. After all, its not everyday that u have a cool breeze and an overcast sky bringing the temperatures down on an otherwise hot, sunny afternoon. So the seven of us (Raghu, Vaibhav, Deepak, Kunal, Abhinav, Supreet and I) embarked on what promised to be an action packed, fun-filled trip. Action packed - it was...fun-filled? thats debatable. As soon as we reached there, we hired a boat to get across, where we cud put to use the football, that we had brought along, on miles and miles of sand, with the nearest sign of civilisation some 4-5 kms away. At the point where we landed, ground was rugged and uneven and thus unsuitable for play. So we began our search for even surface, which led us to our 'camping' spot after 5-10 mins of walk. The party began: Soccer and Sandwiches. I began capturing the panoramic scenary in my camera. Light colored sand contrasted against the dark grey cloud-cover to give a breath taking view!

Then came the change...the breeze turned into wind. The grey mass, pregnant with rain, started touching down at the horizon. The far off bridge, which was a stark white against the background a few minutes back, was now engulfed in the advancing storm and barely visible. It was time to retreat. We strted heading back at a leisurely pace, myself stopping every now and then, trying to catch a shot of 'lightning' with my cam. I kept following others while continuing with my futile attempts but where was the boat? We reached the point where we had landed but there was no sign of the boat or the boat wallah. There was general consent among the group that we had misjudged the rendezvous point (it is quite easy to hav made such a mistake, since the entire stretch of the bank looks more or less the same). So, we kept walking and walking towards nothing. Our evening stroll was abruptly halted by a sudden burst of rain which quickly turned into a horrendous hailstorm. My first reaction was to cover the bag containing my camera. Keeping Supreet's condition in mind (he had his lungs operated upon recently), I tried to cover him as much as possible, bearing the brunt of balls of ice myself. As soon as the hails gave way to water drops, I heard that call from behind "Keep moving! Keep moving!" I was white with fear and cold and the fact that I had lost my bearings didnt help matters. By this time, wind had taken the shape of a strong gale. Visibility had reduced drastically. Abhinav called out to the rest of us, pointing in a particular direction, and calling out "This way!" No, he hadnt found the boat; boat-wallah, it seems, had fled fearing the storm and left us stranded: in the middle of nowhere.

By now, u know that this story has a happy ending, or I wudnt be here writing this stuff. But to end what I've begun...here's the remaining tale.

Through all this Abhinav had managed to keep track of where we were heading. He lead the pack from there on. We had a hard time keeping pace with him with ground all squahy and slippery. After 5 mins or so, all we cud see of him was his yellow T-shirt. We kept following that yellow dot, but even that was not easy. Wind was blowing in our faces and water drops were stinging like needles. It was impossible to keep one's head up and avoid the rain drops piercing thru the eyes, yet we somehow managed to trail the yellow speck. After some 15-20 mins of walk (it felt like an eternity) we saw fisrt sign of human inhabitation; a brick wall. It was a relief beyond measure...this meant at least we were not drifting into wilderness. The wall led us to a beaten path; any lost person's greatest hope! From there on it was simpler, not easy though. With the rain Gods still not relenting, and each and everyone of us drenched to the bones on that windy evening, it was far from a 'done' thing. We still had the cold to face and threat that we might catch a fever loomed large over our heads. We continued following the beaten path (that yellow dot was lost in the surrounding grey) in packs...Vaibhav and I in the front, Deepak and Supreet behind us and Kunal and Raghu making up the tail. Another 30 mins or so passed before we reached the road. The journey from there on is a story in itself, but compared to the earlier trek, it was like riding in a Limo.

As they say, there is an upside of everything...and there was a moment in all this drama which made it all worthwhile...I clicked my FIRST (and uptil now, the only) Lightning!!!!!!!