A Remarkably Bad Day

This post seems to have come sooner than expected. It is one of those times when there’s too much happening in life to not write about. This is the only positive thing that must’ve happened.

It all started on the evening of the 19^th March. We went to a restaurant nearby at King’s Circle. We had to wait for about 15-20 minutes to get a table. If anyone’s from around here, they probably know that queer guys hang out around there on Sunday evenings. It was a Sunday evening. It just made things a bit awkward, nothing else. Once in the restaurant, I ordered a 7UP, and what I got was Pepsi. After my first course, I ordered another dish. It never came. In hindsight, the fact that I wasn’t charged for it is another good thing.

I had drunk quite a strong coffee in the evening, which led to a rather restless night. I was unable to wake up in time the next day. We have a very strict (with respect to time) professor who doesn’t entertain any latecomers. For his 8:30 class, I woke up at 8:35. I lost hope of attending his class and had my breakfast (which was a good thing too, it seems). When his two-hour lecture ended, I went to attend the next two hours of classes, when my friends told me that the same professor allowed people in till 8:45 today.

At the end of the lectures, I went to the Godrej canteen where the prize money for event winners in Vortex 2k16 was being distributed. While waiting there, I stepped on a thumb pin. Thanks to my floaters, I was saved. When my turn came, I went to collect my cheque, just to find that my name was misspelt. Disappointed, I went to eat lunch – a preparation of cabbage (among other dishes).

This was followed by narrowly escaping a year drop in my analytical and physical chemistry lab (the professor warned me of that (it was my mistake, though (late to lab thrice (once due to a friend (I love parentheses))))). In the day’s session, we had to perform one of the longest experiments, in hot and humid Mumbai weather, with minimal compensation from the fans. The first, and the second, breakages due to my group of 4 were reported and a crack to a conical flask – none of them were due to me, though.

Unfortunately for the neighbours, though, my bad luck seemed to have radiated, as one forgot his lab journal and another dropped his phone, causing a loss of display.

Coming back to the hostel, deciding to drink and nibble, I went to fill my water bottle at the water cooler. It had broken, again. I went to eat at the stalls set up on the campus for SportSaga (I mentioned it last time), spending all my money ☹ (that I had in my pocket at the time).

To top it all off, I’m writing this article on the night of the 20^th and 21^st of March, and the Wi-Fi subscription finished literally an hour ago, as of 1 am. I was watching the latest episode of Dragon Ball Super and now I’m left without the last 6-7 minutes of it. This post, thus, will be uploaded as soon as possible.

Though this was a day that seems too bad to be true, it was. I don’t have a reason to believe in karma, but if it is true, I’m gonna be very lucky soon!

PS: Thanks to friend’s Jio Hotspot.

Shopping

Stupendously quickly, more than a week has flown by! I apologise to the readers for the delay. Well, at least I apologise. The new episode of Dragon Ball Super has also crossed its due date and no one has apologised to me yet.

I went to Pune last weekend. My mother took me shopping. A thing about me that you may or may not be expecting – I hate shopping. If I wish to buy new clothes, I go shopping, select a decent-looking plain or striped shirt, buy it and I’m done! She took me to a mall, with a huge variety of choices and made me try and buy many things. I hate when she does that. The other reason I hate shopping for clothes is that I like plain and simple clothes. One might say plain and simple clothes are the easiest to find, but slow down there! By plain and simple, I mean no fluorescent colours, not too much of contrasting colour combination, not too many colours and nothing written on the shirt. The logo, if one, must be small. Finding all of this in one piece of clothing is not an easy task. To top it all off, I don’t like wearing shirts – T-shirts are the best.

Back at ICT, SportSaga has started! It’s a long sports fest from the 16th to the 26th of March. It includes the largest student-organised marathon in Mumbai. It’s fun – volunteering here and there, for any event or for any department such as hospitality, R&L and all, managing classes and labs with the events you participate in, watching matches unfold before your eyes and cheering for your team. You may learn more about it on www.sportsagaict.org.

Today, a section of the first-years had a continuous assessment test (CAT) on process calculations. I was helping a friend study (more like teaching him, though) from 10 pm the day before. When we finished, the watch read 1:26 am. If this goes on before every CAT or mid-semester or end semester examination, I am seriously thinking of including “Teaching Experience: Helped 30% of the hostelites pass” in my CV. Of course, I need to invest my time and concentration in that.

So, let’s “exchange” views next time…

PS: I haven’t been asked to advertise SportSaga. It is just so great that I feel like doing so, you know, sharing the joy!

Birthday

I had an excellent opportunity to celebrate my birthday on the 4th of March with my friends from ICT and some from the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition. We had FunTech – our intracollegiate fest. It included sports and cultural events and even a few entrepreneurship-related events.

In the sports events, the only one I participated in was table tennis. I went to the semis and lost to my batchmate (against whom I generally win in practice sessions) for the third time! From then, I’ve been practising almost daily.

The cultural events were centred mainly around the two final nights on the 3rd and the 4th. I attended the first of them. I saw the Hindi drama (a parody based on college) and an amazing Marathi drama, for which I missed my dinner in the hostel mess (but went out to eat Dosa and drink coffee in Anandbhavan (quite a famous restaurant in Matunga at King’s Circle)).

I was congratulated for my birthday by friends at the hostel with a cake at 12 am. The cake had written on it, my name in Katakana (that’s Japanese for folk not interested in Japanese writing systems (yes, systems – the plural)).

It was on my birthday itself that I gave my first “real” business pitch with another friend of mine. Remember the entrepreneurship-related events I mentioned? This was for one of them. The event started at 10 am. I went at 9:30 am to confirm and to inform them that my team (the two of us) would be a little late. There, I was given 500 rupees ($7.50) and the task of bringing 2 bouquets and 3 water bottles from the stores nearby. I did that successfully, as expected from an adult (I crossed 18 years of age (yeah!!)). It all cost 330 rupees ($4.95). The reason I included the prices is that I would appreciate anyone who’d post their regional prices in the comments.

The afternoon was quite uneventful – just usual random discussions – termed as gappaa (gappa) in Marathi. In the afternoon, I went to IHM, Dadar, where I was greeted by my friend, a former classmate from my school. The experience I had there is really difficult to express there in words as it is much of tasting, as one would expect. Anyways, I ate sushi, lasagne, chicken baos, gosht yakhni, tacos and some amazing desserts. Along with all this, there was a stall providing some awesome coffee – I drank espresso. I got to see celebrity chef Vicky Ratnani too!

Further, more!

Adjustments

     Today’s post concerns one of the major changes I underwent, specifically in the conditions of living.

     Till august of last year, I had always lived along with my family. I had always been in Pune. Till I was preparing for the JEE and other similar examinations, I had a regular schedule – Waking up at 6 am, going to class, coming back, watching TV, eating, studying, eating and, finally, sleeping.

I moved into the hostel 1 of the Institute of Chemical Technology on the 16^th of August. Seeing the room for the first time always puts a question in your mind. This question, for me, was, “How am I supposed to live in such a small space? That too with another person whom I’ve never met?” I adapted and adjusted within the week. There was, I daresay, absolutely no problem in the transition.

At this instant, one may think that I ignored my family. I beg to differ. The transition was smooth because I was in touch with them every day. I must, however, agree that that level of communication has not been maintained.

I like my institute. I like my home. I wish to spend time with both but they are some 160 kilometres apart. My mind clings to both. So, whenever I go to Pune during the holidays or come back to ICT, it is always a bittersweet feeling and I find myself in an emotionally confused state.

Furthermore, I will be turning 18 in a couple of days. I will officially become a major, an adult. That means I will have a ton of responsibilities on my shoulders, in addition to the current ones, and if I mess up, I am to blame. Excuses like “He’s still young,” won’t work. Of course, there will be some room for error, but I must take care of those errors, correcting them wherever possible.

So, I bid you adieu till the next post is in!