Exam-end traditions

For the last three years my classmates and I have followed a certain tradition. Every semester after our exams get over, we invariably go down to Khalsa Dhaba on NH-33. It started out with us feeling the need to detox after the gruelling exam schedules in BIT. There are almost no breaks in the schedule ever. Only Sundays save us. What freaks us out most during those six-seven days of exams isn't so much the way we lose sleep/peace....but the fact that in engg college, you can never make it without rote learning.....and so everyone mugs( The mugger shall inherit the earth...) ....and so in order to survive, you mug.....and in the process lose the last bit of your sanity.....hence the need to de-stress the day exams get over...

When it started in 1st year, most of us didn't booze( I still don't )...but then more and more guys made the shift, so to speak, and drowned their sorrows in endless pegs of rum, vodka and whisky...
I never feel left out because I really enjoy watching these guys get high....and believe me, when a BITian gets high, that's something you wouldn't miss for anything.....all the frustration just breaks out and flows in a free stream of the choicest expletives.....the discussion suddenly shifts from the sane to the insane, from the definite to the abstract and more often than not, no one knows what we're talking about(or wanted to talk about in the first place).

And the best part is the long walk back to BIT---some distance to BIT-More and then the lonely trek to the gate....that's when the magnitude of the situation sinks in......If it's past ten, then you're probably debating whether to get in through the gate and risk getting questioned by the guards( and sometimes unceremoniously having your breath analysed...) or to simply sneak in through the cricket grounds.... but irrespective of how drunk ppl are.....this is the part you tend to enjoy the most.....the road is pitch dark, no souls are visible anywhere on the route and the night sky stands out....sparkling with the zillions of celestial bodies that lend an almost mystic feel to the night....

And the talk....oh the talk! Everything from how fucked up life is, to how God hates us and....you get the drift right? Sometimes people ask me why I never booze....why don't I just "try"? Well, when you're having all the fun watching others getting drunk...who needs the alcohol?

So what good can come of exams?

Every time I answer my semester exams(that's four times a year..) a familiar question pops into my head.....Why am I doing this? I mean I do understand that it's something I'm not allowed to question in the sense that exams are a time tested phenomenon that cannot be wished away by morons like me.....but anyway, now that I'm answering these exams, I might as well do some brainstorming(as if studying for them wasn't enough!)...

Well, frankly, in my opinion exams don't mean much....at least not in India....they just encourage rote learning and challenge our crisis management skills like hell. And if you ask me,for starters, we in India take too many exams...exams to get into school, exams when you're in school, exams to get out of school....and repeat this procedure for undergrad and grad college...and what you have is a people who are probably more obsessed with exams than any other race in human history....

So what good can come of exams? Do you learn a shit? I guess most of us(the people I know at least...) can't remember what they studied for yesterday's exam...yes, we Indians do have brilliantly short term memories...so if exams are not meant to help us learn and if they don't accurately judge how much we've learnt, then why do we have them in the first place? Some kind of tribute to the eternal rat race are they?

Well I guess, it's not my mortal business questioning the efficacy of exams...I mean how dare I?....So I don't see any respite from the dreaded exam phenomenon in the recent future....do you?

I Procrastinate

I live, I breathe, I sleep, I procrastinate. Thats how bad it is. I dont know why i do it...or even why I dont stop doing it....but it keeps getting worse.
Procrastination is a way of life for me...its as ingrained in my existence as say, the appreciation of good food. Ive tried in vain to get rid of this habit. Tried preparing for my exams well in advance...tried packing my bags well in advance of leaving for home....doesnt happen!

Its not like I dont try. Its like my mind deceives me. Tricks me into wasting time. Sometimes I dont even realize Ive wasted time till I glance at the watch. Its official. Theres an ongoing war between me and me. The me that subconsciously wants to waste time and take it easy and the me that says "enough is enough dude, get back to work, lest you get screwed this time" I just hope its the latter that wins. But then, having said that, Im sure that it was the latter me in me that wants me to get back to work..... The other me just wants to blog some more.... but I gotta go design some machine elements....