Tag: College

Water Management

On March 15, 2013

Taking me out of bed to pick up the brush is a task in itself. Trying to do that early morning, is an addition that one hardly ever wants. At least for someone like me, this addition doesn’t sound good. And yes, I should add, lazy people like me. Or to make it sound more decent, those who do not consider themselves as “morning people”.

Now, when starting your day like this is tough enough to make you realize how “tough” our life is, imagine the day starting with a whole lot of expletives coming out of your Colgate-filled mouth.

Well, don’t mistake me for doing that because of the hardships that I mentioned before, about the getting-up and brushing stuff, as there is a reason.

The reason is a newly added course on Water management in our curriculum and which happens to be an exclusive one at that. Only for boys hostel!! Exclusivity in this is something I wouldn’t like to have. (And of course, there is a whole lot of exclusive stuff I would like to possess, but we’ll talk about that sometime later).

Coming back, onto why this course (let’s call it that), made me end up gulp in some of the colgate and mouth words which I won’t like to myself hear, and that too at the start of the day. Imagine, opening the tap and hearing some peculiar sounds of water doing some sort of dance on strange music and refusing to come out. Yea, it does.

The “morning chores” somehow got over with difficulty, difficulty of running to-and-fro to other rooms to gather the precious stuff. Even more precious than the “Lord of the rings’ ring” and no, it’s no effing exaggeration!! Believe me.

If, this was just an orientation (or a trailer if you are watching a horror movie) of what was to come next, or what important lessons we were to “gain”, then it is very apt to put it that way.

When I addressed myself as a lazy bum, I actually forgot to add about the company that I enjoy over here. “It’s not just me” is what I will have to add too. Filling up water bottles is a task in itself, not to mention the fact that how your bottle, if it’s filled with the “precious”, is a magnet far more powerful than anything else.

Now, imagine, your bottle not being looked upon as the “precious”. Poor lad.

Damn, those water purifiers’ man!! Who have nothing much to do, except being empty.

Anyway, to talk about the water management course, I must say, it’s working quite well.

Some value has been added to our hostel-life with it. Like,

Instead of being lazy, we are even more pumped up to go into “water hunting”.
We have learnt to properly store the “precious” and with this slowly becoming a regular thing
We also have become dedicated to put more efforts into conservation and excel in this course of management.

Hope, you are enjoying by being part of this. If not, it’s never too late to start because this “precious” is someday going to make you run even more.

The last day

By farooq

On January 17, 2013

In Random Philosophy

If you thought I was writing about the Mayan’s and their predictions about the Doomsday, then let me tell you, you were wrong. It is actually the last day before this much-needed-holiday (1 Month!) ends.

This vacation just proved just how much I was missing family, friends, and FOOD!!!
Being away from home isn’t new for me, but being away from family definitely is. I remember doing this one thing, especially when I used to be upset, i.e., to eat good food. Good food in, bad mood out.

But, Alas!! Bangalore doesn’t seem to provide such an option for a pocket like mine.

Bangalore doesn’t seem to provide such an option for a pocket like mine. Leaving aside my foodgasm, let me get to the point, this introduction part is getting too long. I’ll describe the last day, which in many ways sums up the whole vacation.

Letting my Body clock wake me up

Waking up on my own watch is an amazing feeling. Don’t you think ? Sleep to your heart’s content is like letting your morning start off with a victory.

Same Breakfast, Different place

Having masala upma for breakfast which is far better than what I get in my South Indian college mess. Such Irony, I tell you.

Morning of Appreciation

Good morning’d by a mail from Blogadda confirming that I have been shortlisted for the “Notable Newbie” blogger along with many other bloggers. Feels good to be appreciated and then boasting about it here. This was like an icing on the cake after all sorts of appreciation for my work during SUPA.

Foood. Good Food.

Fish curry in the lunch, deliciously made. If at all, I need to single out the percentage of non-veg food I’ve had during this whole month, the ghaans phoons would surely be in single digit scores. Sorry, can’t help it, just born this way. Although, Xime and Bangalore have tried changing it, but only to increase my love for it. Wo kehte hain na, Dooriyon se badhti hain Nazdeekiyan. (Distances bring you closer).

Friend drops by on Time

My friend arriving before time to pick me up!! Well, that had never happened before nor will happen again. So, after a brief wait, when he arrived rode to meet many of my high school buddies. Many were surprised to see me(pleasantly, I hope), some even hitting me as to why I cannot just extend my leaves for a few more days. In between lots of catching up, trying to click photos without flash in almost dark places, “career” discussions, exams, talks about old flames, whose-upto-what, and lots!! All this gupshups can never finish and so rightly so it didn’t. Yet had to get off post bidding people good byes.

And more friends to meet

After high-school, it was the turn of the guys from college. Not many there, so the two closest ones got the whole time that I could spare. They even stopped me for a pre-dinner “Dinner”. Well, this is that dinner, where you don’t fully stuff yourself but keep a little space for home food and if something of your liking is there at home, than you just go ahead with that as well. Else, your stomach signals a Red light. With promises to be present early morning at the station to bid adieu, they dropped me back at home.

Who says NO to Biriyani?

Home, well a whole lot of packing was to be done. Came in and did that as fast as I could and also to buy some time if at all they force me to eat the Dinner. While finishing, what I smelt was Biryani. Who says NO to that ? now the thing with food and me is, we have an agreement of not ever refusing good food. And so, I jumped into stuffing myself up that as well.

And It’s a Wrap!

A job well done and a day spent that way too. and if you are wondering about my talk of only food all throughout the post, well I should tell you, that is what I was actually upto. Apart from SUPA, almost every activity I did involved food.
But every good thing comes to an end, and along with the news of our “new” Dean, who happens to be “the” strict one.

Yet, with the goodness that I was part of in all these days will, In sha Allah , be reflected, onto my life.

6 long months…

By farooq

On December 18, 2012

In Others

7.00AM!! An early start to the day (by my established standards), I woke up to find the bathroom already occupied. Looked around to find one of other guy in the room was still sleeping. Sat there on my bed itself, waiting for my turn, deep into thoughts about what all was going to come from today onwards. With this initiation of thoughts, the “early-morning-formalities” continued followed by namaz and then the day started and a new journey.

Well, that was exactly 6 months back. 18^th june.

Wish I could use, “time flies fast” here. But, I just cannot. It seems pretty long ago. 6 months in itself is long. 220 days!! 5280 hours!!! 316800 minutes!! 19008000 seconds!!! It’s effing that long.

From running a 10k marathon to playing a amazing-race kinda game to late night coffees to food hunting post-midnight. All of this could happen because of me being here and yes, I loved them all.

And today, after two trimesters!! 13 papers!! Numerous lectures and interactions, Events, fests and competitions, if I had to just ask one question to myself, as to what I have learnt. The biggest of them has been to understand myself. Myself, the complicated one. My flaws, misjudgments, strengths and weaknesses. Also, understood that this was just an initiation of my realization process, there’s still more to find out.

During this long stay over here (yes, I’ll stress on that long, for a long-long time), there were many events that made me learn (sadly, books are not part of it).The people of this college being the ones from whom the actual learning process happened. There were learning from what they said, and what they didn’t. Learning from what they thought about me and how that in turn influenced changing my perceptions towards them, learning from adjusting with them by seeing how they do the same. There was learning as to how people even change with course of time, how just for the sake of girls they change. How there are people who selflessly help you, how some are selfish too. How getting low marks, change their attitude, how some get a joke, some don’t. How things change from one culture to another, from one language to another. How bad food can be made, how money doesn’t last post the first week after you take it out from your account, how to manage without water before going to class, how breakfast just goes out of your schedule, how different festivals bring about a sense of happiness and bonhomie, and many such how’s and their answers.

Even how some insensitive people even post “blogs” regarding cultural differences out there on public platforms!! Seriously, how idiotic ? 🙂

Waise blog se yaad aaya, been blogging quite a lot. So much so, that people keep telling. “Dude!! Stop writing”,” yaar, ye kyun nahi likhta blog me”, “ab ise bhi mat likh dena”, “firse ?” and some also had nice encouraging words too.

I know, I am not one of the best in terms of writing out here, yet the one saying, I’ve always followed “the only way to improve your writing is, to write more”.

Learning, yes. Learning again.

There are many changes that I can notice in myself. Per se, there’s this new found optimism. Optimism, that everything happens for good. What has happened is for the good and what is going to take place in future will also be good (in sha ALLAH). Understanding, things I didn’t use to before and many such things in my long-list of learning from these 6 months, 6 Long months actually.

With practice, I have become quite a good dhobi too and can wash two full buckets of clothes in one go. Although, there’s too much to learn In terms of how to make them look clean too.

Academically, well don’t have anything to brag about. But yes, have learnt to put in hard work and devote time to studies.

Right now, I’m just 1/3^rd of an MBA. A whole lot of things to look forward to, new experiences, new friends and new beginnings. Forgetting things, which doesn’t matter and keeping focus on the ones which does. Ending the ends, and starting new trends.

Its happiness all around XIME, every face looks just so happy. Bidding goodbyes and New Year wishes is to be seen everywhere. Even I’ve finished packing my bags and not to mention just how happy I am. 🙂

Happy holidays. 🙂

Poda…

By farooq

On November 3, 2012

In Others

Have you ever been in a room where people are speaking some language, which you just don’t understand ??? Then, Read on. Else, you have been really lucky!!

They come, they talk, they laugh and of course they just don’t give a damn to your existence. You are like that unwanted stuff that is hampering their “very important conversation ” that is so important that it can only be spoken in their regional language.

This is not something which is faced not just by me but many of the people who are not from down-south face it. Some face it, some ignore it and some move ahead to some other group. They all just start hanging out with other non-southies, but some like me perish for not forcefully joining a “group”. A south-indian working up in the north might also be feeling the same, condition being, he should be alone. if, he finds even one like him. he can make a group with that too.

Going to a place where people speak a different language than what you do, is not at all new for me. From a person who has been brought up in Jamshedpur and then going to the odia speaking-Odisha was very much new for me. But, what i loved was that, people over there actually helped me to learn it, as well as make me be a part of their own group. By the time, i boarded the train to come to bangalore, i can proudly speak Odia.

Miss that.

I am sure, all of that is never going to happen over here. I have tried. Tried out many things.

From telling them directly, “Dude, English please” (i’ve lost count of how many times I might have used this line), to even trying out some words or the others just so to start the learning process.Nothing works. Ironically, one of the first words i learnt was “poda” which means “Go away!!” .

Empathy is that one thing i had been trying to inculcate in me. But sometimes, you just can’t clap from one hand. Right ??

The culture that we like to portray is of “unity in diversity” (at least, that’s how ideally we all “think”), but do we care enough to let others understand our varied cultures?? Cultural diversity doesn’t just come into play while celebrating festivals, it is more than that. It is what you portray of a culture that people Look up to.

If your message is to let people know that the acceptance is only for people who know your language, then Congratulations your message has been registered!!!!!!

Audi-week

By farooq

On September 18, 2012

In Others

It’s been more than one week since my life at Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME) started. A new chapter in the not-so-happening life of a fellow, who aims to be somebody from nobody. One word that can simply describe this week and all its happening is that its “Tiring” and no doubt that for each of us this has been one hell of a week and getting accustomed to timings is taking a while. And most importantly, the Audi-week was quite a task for me.

It was on 17th June that almost all of us arrived at the hostel as directed by the authorities and were allotted rooms as per our “Roll no!!!!!!!”, I came only in the evening and my roomies had arrived before me, but only their baggage were to be seen. I went out to different rooms to try and meet people whom I knew from the Facebook group where almost each of us interacted quite regularly. Virtual and real world are two different spheres and I was getting a proof of that. People with whom you had interacted felt quite at a loss of words while some were very friendly. Day passed, got settled in my room and then came the next day where our orientation program started. It was a week long program where various dignified speakers and industry experts were expected to grace the occasion. The food was better than expected and would only say that it was quite decent, although Coffee was pathetic.

It was told beforehand that “some” of the speakers might not be good orators but we are supposed to cope with it and be patient. As it turned out, most of us almost got to learn the course “how to sleep with your eyes open”. Some of them even ended up dozing off for a few seconds ( at least I did). Won’t say that all the sessions were the same, out of the 20 lectures (yes 20!!!!!!), majority of them gave us a new perspective of various things that infused some vague sort of understanding about the management world and how to kick-start our career in the correct manner so as to reach our goals with the right attitude. We were even given some basic Orientation Gyaan on some subjects like Accounting, Economics or Quantitative techniques as per our preference. We even had a 70-min class to explain the “rules and regulations” that we had to follow!!!!

Most of the students, be it the work experienced or the fresh out of college fellows from engineering and non-engineering backgrounds, all shared a common thing in that auditorium, finding it hard to adjust ( another reason was the chairs, which was giving our asses a hard time). A whole week in the same place sitting according to our “Roll no.!!!”. Teasing each other and trying to let our minds wander was some of the medicines that helped us stay away from sleep.

Finally, we overcame all of it and now our classes have even started, but yeah, the sleeping effects of the “Audi-Week” continues. . .