End-sem blues!!!

“And ther, the monsters approach.. as huge and scary as they always are!!"

--- anonymous
November is nearing its end!! Endsem time again… The only thing that scares the shit outta every one who had in the past, experienced its magnanimity… The power with which the cyclone strikes, leaving nothing but a mess of debris behind!! It’s only those who have lost everything in the Endsem storm who would really understand it! And well I lost not once, not twice… but multiple times…

You feel like you are one of those soldiers in the movie 300 armed with just a spear. As you helplessly watch the hordes of Persian army descend upon you… The idea is no more to win the war… or to kill the enemy. It’s just to stand your ground against the min- numbing force and come out alive and if possible smiling…

The excessive pressure to perform every single time… crushes every single drop outta you!! Many a times this goes in vain!! It leaves u tattered, shattered and broken… it really takes you considerable amount of time to come in terms with reality…

Endsems are like being thrown in the ring blind folded against Mike Tyson!! Unarmed and unprotected… Its no more about throwing punches… its more about proving a point by dodging as many deadly punches as you can, before the inevitable “knock out”

Believe me sometimes you are not even given a chance!! One Bang and KO!! ting ting ting!! They can sometimes be scarier than the scariest of your nightmare.

Again and over again…they never change, Endsems are always the same. The only thing one can expect is a better outcome… Like surving the war or comin out of the ring ALIVE!!

Shailesh R Nadar
10:15 pm, Nov 23, 2007.

Crash.. r ther!!

“Sleep is the second most pleasurable thing to do.. so go n enjoy every bit of it.”

--- SHAILESH R. NADAR

Well sleep was never an issue before comin here(IIT).. it was never such an integral part of ma life as it is now.. Though the hours have remained more or less the same or may be even reduced they seem much more meaningful now.
Now I realize the so called “sleep” I used to sleep was more a mechanical activity. Bed at 12 or 1and rise at 7or 8. Same shit over and over again.
Never knew the thrill of goin into a nite... not knowing when u gonna sleep…

I quite mastered the art of sleeping, over the years, And have broadly classified them into six types..

1. Most normal kind of nite sleep: its those times wen u ready ur bed wen ur eyes start to wink, then put off the comp, lite, go to the bog(I spose every one does that), set the alarm and hit the sack well prepared.. and yaa even keep a bottle of water near your bed. You drift into sleep with a faint smile.Zzzzzzzzzzz..

2.We came, we saw, we collapsed kinda sleeps: Remember those times, jus back from baddy at 1, or jus walked all the way from main-gate from a late nite treat. Your body starts listening to ur muscles before it does to ur brain, which BTW stops functioning by that time. Forget latching the doors, the only thing u ever do before goin to bed is remove ur footwear. Dhumm dhadaash!! Hit the bed with a audible sound.Zzzzzzz

3. Late nite ooops early morning sleeps: Those weekends wen u wait for the world to sleep.. putting movie marathons on ur comp. They happen wen u r really satisfied with urself… like comin outta quizzes alive…etc etc. Time keeps ticking… 2am… 3am… 4am… 5am … and with the first stroke of sunlight u start yawning and hit the bed with little or no idea about when u gonna wake up!! Zzzzzzz

4. Afternoon sleeps: As against the general notion of sleeps this sleep doesn’t reenergize or refresh u but drains energy outta u and leaves u good for nothing for the rest of the day. But still, till date the most satisfying of all the sleeps… U feel doped wen u fall(Mind u I don dope..)… may be the word “crash” has its origin from here… doze off with mouth open totally unaware of things around. Zzzzzzzzz

5.MSB(Mech. Sciences Block) sleeps: Being in Mechanical, I dare not miss this!! Those hours of LVR(Man Tech), Design of Machine Elements and Heat transfer which we spent sleeping.. Though these sleeps are shallow, believe me you can even manage to have dreams if u r in the right place… Aaah awesome experience!!

6.Miscellaneous: And then ther are sleeps which fall in neither of the above categories. What do u call wen u wake up at nine and fall asleep agin by 10.30, when u doze off at 6 in the evening and wake up by 9. Well, I classify them under the misc. category.

That was SLEEP... classified for you!!!

Aaaaaaaggrrrh !! enough of classification... its 11.30 pm already..
I gotta CRASH!!!

Shailesh R Nadar
11:31 pm, Oct 28, 2007.

Screw u Shaastra!!!!

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Quiz1 blues!!

And there it was.. I could see it coming. It was just Thursday and I could feel the euphoria of the “weekend”.. Weekends are gen special with Saturday standing out as the best day of the week. In fact, I feel there must be more Saturdays in a week. For two reasons:

• You don have to do anything on Saturdays and
  
• You don have to do anything on the day that follows..

48 guaranteed hours of stress-less life… what more can one ask for!!

Gen fart apart, this weekend seems much more special and not jus a 2 day holiday. After a week of back to back quizzes, a week of three-hr-sleep nights, a week filled with anxiety, skepticism and fear, it looks like a perfect refuge. A couple of days to sit back and relax, to defragment my mind crammed with Man-Tech, Engines, Heat Transfer and Turbo-machines and make space for the agony that follows on Tuesday, Dyn of Mach. Elements.

Still its peaceful.. in the sense I have at least got time to smile and relax(and write this post) amidst the Quiz-storm…

PS: This Quiz was more painful in a way for I mugged with Mr. Bulla, a 'stud' who gets all stud-level doubts barely hours (literally hours) before the quiz... confusing me in the final moments.

Shailesh R Nadar

1:46 pm, Sep 13, 2007.

A nite of the tsunami.. a nite with "Chak De"

Till now I held an impeccable record(twenty years) of never been wet by the splash of rain water by passing vehicles, only to be broken on sunday in a truly magnaimous way.
Sunday evening we were all set to go for the most awaited "Chak de". We got down at thousand lights and everything was fine until it started drizzling and moments later raining. we ran to seek shelter to the nearby bus stop. Waited for 20 mins or so... soon it was time for the show so we decided to brave ourselves through the rain. And ironically the rain almost stopped as soon as wee came out. But to gen put pseud I held my hankie over my head to prevent my hair from the sparsely falling drops. May be the psued puttin was jus too much, the next moment I was in wet from from head to toe supposedly by a wave, a foot or two taller than me. I was stunned, Cmon it was the sidewalk not even the road and i had taken bath hardly an hour ago and din deserve another bath.
Wet inside out I went on to enjoy the best Bollywood movie I have ever seen... "Chak de! India".
God level direction, lotta attention to details, Shahrukh at his best, geniune hockey moves, stud level background music, spirited dialouges and girls and girls everywhere!!!! What more do u want?
What!!! still readin!!! Go, catch the movie.

Shailesh R Nadar
9:10 am, Aug 15, 2007.

Still a Virgin????...... Aaaah cut the crap..

It was sunday afternoon... absolutely nothing to do... so went around personalising the stuff in my new room #360 SARAS.. by writing my name on the door, window, almirah. "Virgin" in cursive as in the virgin of "Virgin Atlantic".
It was then it suddenly struck how weird my name was. The name I hated at first.The name which invited oohs and aahs whenever someone heard it. Everyone.. believe me each and everyone, be it seniors or batchmates made a point to ask "So.... still a virgin haan?".. What the f**k... "Well how many times have you ****** dude" was the way I almost always wanted to retort, but i never did. In third year.. and I still encounter people who end up asking the same question.
Well time passed and I started liking my name... albeit christened "virgin" for the rest of the stay in the campus and the funda behind the name as lame as "You never ****** ** (oops!! censored by CCB) before coming to IIT.. so u r a virgin"... (Well in Chandler Bing's words "Can it.. BE any lamer??"). Still it didnt seem that bad. Not as bad as others.. (The CBB (Censor Board of Blogging) disallows me to put those names up here, so I ideally refrain from doin so.)
Infact now I feel happy or even proud (as u may say)..of the same name. proud enough that I have even created a sign (pic above) to paste on my door. Ironical is'nt it??

Shailesh R Nadar
4:50 pm, Aug 12, 2007.

P.S.-- The nick names at IIT Madras are strictly given by seniors after an extensive interactive session("ragging" in crude words). And these are the names which are carried forward for the next 4 or 5 yrs.

A Cold Welcome!!

Its 4:00 in the morning and I sit wide awake on board 6009, Mumbai-Chennai mail.
I look around and reckon that I am the only one awake, the whole compartment sleeps as if it has never slept before. All I hear barring the regular chuck-chuck of the train are the snoring and the deep breathing of co-travelers.
And for the first time in three months I feel alone and I start scribbling in the faint light....
I look outta the window. Its still dark outside. But I see silhouettes of trees and small buildings racing past me...
Just as a station approaches I crane my neck and strain my eyes through the stained glass window. "TIRUVALLUR" it was... "Well!! Madras again" I thought...
Suddenly a blast of cold air hits my face, bringing me back to reality.
Yet again Madras din fail to gimme a Cold and Hard Welcome...!!!

Shailesh R Nadar
4:10 am, July 25, 2007.