Outings: Part 2

Waking up at the hostel when you have a free day is difficult. There’s just no sense of purpose. In such a case, one lazes around all day. When this happens to me, I feel a little guilty – “Another day wasted…” It is, thus, very important to enjoy your free days by doing something. We did plan, and execute it successfully.

We visited the Veermata Jijabai Garden, a.k.a. the Byculla Zoo. The zoo, by itself, is quite depressing, especially after the last zoo I visited being the one in Mysore, I think. The only “new” thing I saw there were Humboldt penguins, which are accommodated in a really out of proportion building. The main two points people visit the Humboldts’ building are the penguins themselves and the air-conditioned atmosphere.

From there, we went to CST. After a short walk, we reached our lunching destination – Pancham Pooriwala. It was nice. They had Aamras (mango pulp, authentic) too! We took a bus to Girgaon Chowpatty. It is essentially a beach. It is not very big, but it is enough, I guess. We reached there in the evening, so the weather was (surprisingly) pleasant. Very much out of character, I drank two over-priced teas. It was quite peaceful there, literally a few footsteps away from the busy Mumbai roads. We ate at the stalls there. They are way too pricey.

Taking a local to Dadar from Charni Road (these are railway stations, for those who don’t know (obviously)), we reached our institute by cab at around 8:30 pm (I don’t really remember).

The next day was unplanned. I woke up at 1:58 pm…

Outings: Part 1

I already mentioned that my end semester examinations ended on the 28^th of April. To be more accurate, they ended at 2 pm on that day. We had already booked tickets for the 3:30 pm show of Bahubali 2: The Conclusion. As one could expect, I hadn’t seen the first part of Bahubali. So, after finishing a hurried lunch, I saw the first part at 4x speed. I got the gist of the story, which was the important part. (Wasn’t the last part of the last sentence redundant?)

            We left for the theatre (Starcity Theatre, Matunga (W)) at 3:30 pm (don’t ask me why I left so late, I myself am uncertain). We reached by 3:45 pm and saw the rest of the film. It was good one-time watch. After the movie, our group split into 3 factions – one going home (the localites), one going home ((most of) the hostelites) and one who wanted to wander about (3 people, inclusive of me). We strolled along the streets, entering Dadar. We ate some awesome ice cream on the way. Deciding to dine (that word seems a bit off), we went to Aaswad. The Misal Pav was good. I also ordered Solkadhi, which was also good. A friend of mine tried it for the first time. Judging (wrongly) by its colour, he thought it would be something sweet. His expression is mentionable.

            Coming back, we decided to walk in the direction we were supposed to go till we find a cab. As you probably guessed, our return was entirely on foot. I got to enjoy an espresso at Café Coffee Day though.

            This was pretty much it for the 28^th of April.

            Next, next!

Obsessions

I mentioned in the last-to-last post that I have cultivated two obsessions – one good and one bad. According to Practical Psychology, a good obsession helps in life, while a bad one takes the obsessed away from reality. As you might have guessed, the bad obsession is anime and manga. The good one is learning new languages.

Let’s start with the good one. A couple of months ago, we had a ‘books by weight’ sale in our college, in which a friend of mine bought a book for me, based on the presumption that I could read Japanese, which in turn was based on the fact I read (translated) manga and (subtitled) anime. Anyways, one receiving the book, my mind interjected, “Challenge accepted!” I quickly learnt the most basic (I feel) Japanese script – Hiragana – followed by Katakana. A friend then suggested an app – Memrise. It is a very good app if you want to learn new languages. So, I have been learning Japanese using this app for two months.

Something happens to my brain when exams approach. At the time of my SSC exams (2014), I learnt the script used by the Urdu language. At the time of my HSC exams, I was busy making modified scripts based on Braille and the Morse code. Similarly, when the end semester exams came, I had to scratch that itch. I have a friend in Russia, so I decided on Russian. Still, that itch won’t give up. What more? French! I’ve been learning Japanese, Russian and French simultaneously using the app from then, progressing smoothly.

**WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD**

My view of the world is quite negative and cynical. I like to escape reality through the medium of manga and anime. It’s not even as if the worlds I go to are bright and good. You will realise that from the list of manga and anime that I read/watch. In manga, I read Baby Steps to Giant Strides, which is currently at a stage where the protagonist is about to lose a symbolically important tennis match. In Boku no Hero Academia, the threat of villains is increasing with the advent of quirk-enhancing and quirk-diminishing drugs. In Fairy Tail, one of the main characters, the fire dragon slayer, is being pushed back by the white-turned dark mage Zeref. In Sousei no Onmyouji, the male protagonist is not in a very good position while the female lead has lost her powers and is trapped in Magano. In Shokugeki no Souma, the regimental Shokugeki is on a cliffhanger. In The Gamer, the protagonist and his mentor are on a quest by the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea where unknown dangers might lie ahead. I also watch Shingeki no Kyojin, so the idea that I delve into other worlds for peace is certainly incorrect.

In anime, I currently follow Dragon Ball Super, Shingeki no Kyojin and Detective Conan.

More about the time I spent after the 28^th of April next time!

Examination Week: End Sems

The end semester examinations for the second semester were from April 24 to April 28. There were 5 subjects and 5 corresponding exams on these 5 days. These five subjects were MEBC (material and energy balance calculations), physics, organic and analytical chemistry and mathematics.

My official preparations for the exams started on the 22^nd. I revised some topics which I don’t recall now. That night (wee hours of the next day), I saw Dragon Ball Z: Fukkatsu no F and slept. The next day, I had a lunch with my mom at Sizzle House in Dadar. The fish sizzler was good.

MEBC is a subject which, I feel, mainly requires logic and calculation skills. So, this is a subject for which I put a lot of pressure on myself to do good in. In the pre-end semester exams and tests, I had already scored full (50/50). The end semester examination was for the other half of the marks, i.e. 50 marks. That night, I saw Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn, which was a bad movie. (I really wish to use ‘fuc*all’ instead of the word ‘bad’). I started studying in the night and I think it might’ve been almost 3:30 am when I slept. It was the first exam in the schedule. I pressurised myself too much.

When I woke up (fortunately) early enough, I had breakfast and a quick revision. Honestly, I don’t think I studied with that much pressure even at the time of JEE and all. Eventually, in the exam hall at 11 am, I sat, nauseated. Pressure and stress does that. It’s not that the paper was too hard or anything, but you can never be too sure in this subject. That night, I watched Dragon Ball Z: Battle of the Gods, which was a good movie.

I was quite depressed after the paper. So, that affected my studies for the next paper – physics. The physics paper was uneventful.

That night, I started watching ERASED. It was just too good. I had to stop after two episodes to wake up for the exam next day. I did not study at all for the organic chemistry paper, which I should have done, looking back. The paper was not difficult, but sure was lengthy, or so I thought. I finished the more descriptive section I in two hours, and rushed to finish the second in the remaining hour. I did, but with a horrendous handwriting and presentation. When the last minute of the examination time was left, I started counting how many marks I was losing, just to find that each section totalled more than the allotted 25 marks…there were options.

Next was analytical chemistry. The paper was boring and straightforward, not very challenging. The only thing challenging regarding the exam is going to be reading my handwriting. When I’m bored, my handwriting pretty much ‘collapses’. I finished ERASED this night.

The last paper was maths. As you may have expected, I had a hard time studying for this. The paper was uneventful, but I can’t say how good it was.

Also, note that, barring the first day, I woke up at 10:45 am for the 11 am examinations. Not that it’s good, but remarkable. The only thing clear from these exams is that my pointer is going to suffer heavily. I am not awaiting the results.