No, not the Harry Potter series [which would make a very sad post if I start writing about my feelings when this phenomenon..this era..the magic is coming to an end 😦 ]
What is coming to an end, hopefully, is my tryst with studies. In spite of my insincerity and lack of concentration, I have managed to come a long way on this path (credit to my sister, my intelligence, memory and luck. Here are some memories from each step of the long ladder I have climbed till now :-
Few weeks ago I had attended a seminar on the topic of structural changes in curriculum for enhancing employability through skill development in PLM conducted by a reputed company. As our state technical university was the co-organizer, members of all the Board of Studies were invited to attend.
A conversation between colleagues that I witnessed :-
Colleague (Male) say A :- Sir, you are a PhD. You must be tutoring your daughter at home and helping with her homework.
Senior Colleague (Male) say B :- Ahh! No. My wife doesn’t let me teach our daughter because she thinks I am not strict enough. See, my ideology is when she wants to study she will. But my wife is always making her study like when she wants to go out to play, when she is watching tv…
Senior Colleague (Female) say C :- Sir, which child “wants” to study? We have to make them study.
B :- Hmmm..Few days back my wife asked her to write few words in small, capital and cursive. She mixed up and my wife slapped her. But I feel it is unfair to expect a child of 5 yrs to write all that correctly.
C :- Sir, in today’s world of competition, we have to prepare them to fight. Otherwise they will end up as losers and will blame us only that why didn’t we make them study.
Another incident at a bookstore that I witnessed :-
A lady placed a very thin book on the counter and proceeded to pay for it. The book was – Unsolved C.B.S.E. Question Papers for Class 1.
# City of Joy :- Why do they call Kolkata the City of Joy? Just because Dominique Lapierre wrote a story based on Kolkata by the same name? Sigh! I am a Bengali and saying that I do not like Kolkata is like committing sacrilege! I may as well commit Hara Kiri. But there I said it. I do not like Kolkata.
My exams are over and I am back. 😈 Thankfully this time all the question papers were easy and I did well. Last time one of the question papers had come real tough and weird and I was like this :-
3rd of Feb 2009 was a wonderful day for me. First it was my dad’s birthday.
camera on timer
Mom seems to be lost in thought 🙂
An alphabet tag is moving around in the blogosphere. A letter is assigned and one has to write about 10 things one loves that begin with that letter. Now Apar assigned me Q, Vishesh allotted B and Willow tagged me with M. You know from now on once I am tagged for a meme, I will put up a header image declaring “TAGGED FOR XYZ MEME” ..on the lines of shouting “don’t touch me” when someone tries to give you a new pinch. Hope you all know the custom of new pinch 🙂
Few weeks ago, Sulz had asked for help from her readers. She needed topics to blog about and I had suggested that she can write about “Ten good things that you have done in past one year. or maybe ten lessons that you have learned in past one year.” After reading her post I was impressed by my own suggestion and decided to write a post about my lessons. So I have decided to incorporate this tag with a round up of the important events of my life and the lessons I have learned in year 2008.
I decided that I will make quick posts so as to keep my blog alive, to take a break from the monotony of studying and to spread some happiness and cheer in the blogosphere.
If ignorance is bliss then why do we study?
Its been two months since I again became a student to do my second Master of Engineering in my core branch i.e. Electrical Engineering. The first day of M.E. (Power Systems Engineering) was a portent of what lay ahead. Getting up at an unholy time (6.45 am), bathing so early in morning, attending class from 8 to 11 and taking classes after that till evening are totally draining me out mentally and physically. For those who remember my earlier post on categories of students and those who were curious to know my classification, nowadays I can be classified as
# The First Bencher :- One of my Professors in M.E. writes on the board in such a small cursive handwriting that it is not resolvable or readable from the first bench even with a pair of binoculars. Though I admit I haven’t tried using a binoculars yet. Maybe I would one day. When I was the class monitor in school, then only I’d learnt that one has to write for the audience not for oneself on board. Another speaks in low voice and another’s subject is so boring that I have to sit there to avoid sleep. 😛
# The Yawner :- Just as the Professor turns his back to us, I yawn and stretch. 6.45 am is like dawn to me. 😦
# The Stimulator :- In all the 5 subjects, there are only two which really interest me and I’m active in that class. Whether I’m fun to teach or not , that only my professors can tell. 😀
I was tagged by Chakoli and after seeing the interesting ways in which Priya, Vishesh and Balu have replied, I was prompted to do the tag. Also its been quite a while since my last tag post. So here is what is to be done-There are two questions in each category. Answer them and then tag your friends from the blogosphere. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been tagged and you are all set. Stealing the photograph idea from Priya and to spice up my tag post a little, I have also put up some pictorial replies.
Past:-
Your oldest memory :- Getting up early in morning, freshening up in a woozy state and going to kindergarten just behind my home and basically not getting the purpose of the daily torture.
Class 2 not kindergarten. Which one can be me?
What were you doing 10 years ago? :- Struggling to cope up with Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Maths and English. Trying to attend tuitions and evaluating whether I should go for Medical or Engineering. Decided one doctor was enough in family.
In the coming college session 2008-09 of Engineering, around 10 new colleges will add to the existing 19 colleges in the state of Chattisgarh. Also the number of seats in the existing colleges will go up. That would
mean around 10000 seats for engineering admissions. Similar conditions exist in other states too where day by day new colleges, technical or otherwise, are coming up. Education is the one of the biggest investment areas now in India. Big parties are pooling up their legal or illegal money and setting up colleges. Just by showing basic fulfillment of norms, they are getting approval from the AICTE too. Students getting absolutely any rank or even no rank in the state’s entrance exam can now get admission in Engineering easily. The fees of this state is more than Rs.50000 per year, not taking into account donation money for management quota seats.
The question that arises is whether this education boom is actually a boon or bane? Will it prove useful in the long run for India or will it spell out the doom of Indian technical workforce? These are the important points to be considered before deciding the answer to this question.
Yawn!! Yawwnnn!!
I can’t believe I inflicted this torture of attending classes and that too in morning on myself. How very masochistic. 
Ok. Enough. One gotta do what one gotta do.
Pay attention.
OMG!! This man is teaching the stuff we have already read in the undergraduate level.
Stare outside the door. Look at watch. 45 mins more.
Ok. He is an old conceited egoistic grouch. Better listen carefully and take notes.
Shit!! Never took notes in B.E. lectures. How can I take now? Ok. Its better to scribble than doze off while sitting on first bench.
Yawn!! Stare outside the door then watch. 30 mins more.
The sense of relief and happiness that all students feel after their exams are over, is indescribable in few
words. The exaltation is more if the exam is the last one of whatever course the student had been studying for a long time. The sense of riddance from studying on exam’s eve, doing an “all-nighter”, the nervousness, the nausea induced due to tension, sleepiness in exam hall, sudden blankness shrouding the memory and the postmortem of the question paper; is nothing short of a pleasure comparable to the sensation caused by cocaine (as rumored by drug abusers). And after graduation, often we pledge not to fall again into the trap of education system and its encumbrances. But as I’ve expressed my philosophy earlier, one often meets his destiny in the road he takes to avoid it.
My Random Thoughts 