early morning thoughts « Quarter Past Seven

Boarding Bonding

The boarding concert was yesterday. I really didn’t know our students were so talented. Everything, from the piano recital to the classic rock band was amazing. The students were so beaming with confidence, especially since the whole thing was put together by them and none of the staff members were involved with the organizing. Of course a few of the staff was there to oversee the whole thing, but the entire production was by the students.

I think it takes a lot of guts to perform on the stage if the audience is made up of your friends, classmates and mentors. But these guys really pulled it off well, they even supported each others performances by making surprise appearances in the middle of the performance with flowers. I think that was cute.

I missed the Indian gang from last year. There was no bollywood dance, no backstage drama. I missed the gore-gore track playing in my mind all the time. But this is life, I guess. Everything changes.

AAAAArrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

November 3, 2008 at 11:48 am | In early morning thoughts | 3 Comments
Tags: life

That felt good.

Phew.

City Lights

August 20, 2008 at 8:01 am | In early morning thoughts | 8 Comments
Tags: personal

As a part of my “duty”, I have to go to each girl’s room in my hostel and take attendance. When I do that every week, I spend the longest time on the 11th floor. That’s because I can see the lights of the city from that floor.

I love city lights. I love standing on over head bridges and looking at cars with bright headlights coming towards me and going away from me. I love looking at far away buildings that are matchbox-like HDB buildings by the day but turn into what look like a thousand chandeliers by the night. Everything looks different. Just different.

Sometimes when I am up late rushing a report or a proposal for the next day, I stop for a few minutes, stand next to my window and watch the traffic lights go red from green and back to red. Perfectly on time, unaffected by the absence of any traffic on the road. Sometimes I try to find a melody in the relentless switching of traffic lights, I try to imagine a certain song that the world might be trying to set itself to.

I like that silence. That is one moment when my brain switches off and forgets all the pending lab reports and tutorials, proposals and student testimonials, tickets to sell and next rehearsal dates. I think it’s good to blank out your brain sometimes. It brings me calm and makes me realize the value of silence in my otherwise chaotic and over-worked life.

Different, completely different

April 4, 2008 at 12:23 am | In Engineering, early morning thoughts | 4 Comments

In my University, there’s always a clash between the Arts students and the Engineering students. While engineers believe that everyone thinks the same, the arts people refuse to believe it. I was one of those who used to believe in the same-thoughts philosophy. But 2 years and 4 Arts modules later, I have realized that Arts and Engineering students have completely different wavelengths.

We had a presentation for one of my arts modules, and we let my groupmate, who is from Arts do all the talking. That is because I could not understand a word of what he had written in the report. (Yes, we insisted that he write it, since he got an A+ for all his previous ones and we were REALLY greedy for grades). So, everything went well. And most people couldn’t understand his excellent, shakespeare-challenging english, so that kept us away from tormenting questions from the floor.

After the class, one of my friends congratulated me for coming up with something so nice. “Wow, you guys really did well. I lost you halfway, but that doesn’t matter. Man! I wish I had a vocabulary like yours!”, she said.

“Tch”, I replied “Dear, just like you, the longest word that I can use in a normal daily conversation, is ‘Microprocessor’.” She gave me an understanding look. And we walked to our next class.

*Sigh*

Just Another Engineer…?

March 30, 2008 at 1:26 am | In early morning thoughts | 1 Comment

Today is just one of those mornings. You know, where I wake up two hours later than I was supposed to, to a dirty table, un-washed dishes and loads of things on my ‘Things to do’ list. And then the first web page that I open on my computer is my blog, to see that my post from yesterday is gone!

I did publish it. But today it’s not there anymore. Vanished. Wow, the day has gotten off to a perfect start. Now I wonder what all will I find gone later. Surprisingly, all the scholarly readings that I am supposed to finish by today and be able to answer questions about tomorrow are intact, smiling at me in the most vulgar way possible.

And I tell myself that they are wonderful. Yes they are. The fact that I can understand them even after the introduction section makes me feel like an intelligent person. When I read them, I put on my glasses, get a cup of tea, and pretend to be deeply involved in my paper. I am going to be a scholar!

A few months ago, one of my friends, who is a Political Science student told me that the only reason he did not do engineering is because he did not want to end up as just another engineer. ‘But no one is just another engineer!’, I said, feeling utterly shattered. ‘Oh of course they are! Why do you think there is no “World’s Greatest Engineer?’, He replied, smugly.

‘Oh Lord! True there is no World’s Greatest Engineer. But you mustn’t underestimate the power of an engineer, you know’ , I was close to tears.

‘Oh, don’t worry, you are going to be a star!’

And then I pledged to myself to not end up being ‘just another engineer’. But it’s like a trap. No matter how much I enjoy my stuff, that thought keeps running in my head. But I have a long time before I finish University. Sure things would have changed! It’s just another thought.