My tryst with education Part - III

The three most indelible years of my life I had spent in “Aamchi Pune.” My story to reach Pune was learning in itself. Like many other student by the beginning  of my final year in school I was undecided about my future. One fine day I woke up and realized I wanted to be a lawyer. My mom was delirious with joy that her aimless daughter had finally found something she wanted to do in life.  Within a week she had completed all possible research she could on history of lawyers and the law profession. She had her literature review intact from newspapers and articles. She had selected a sample space of lawyers in the family (friends of family and the network keeps growing in geometric progression), law students and prospective law students in Rourkela and Asansol (my nainihal as they call it) Well that’s how I came across A (both A and my mom have each other to blame for this!!)She even had my long term and short term goals as a lawyer in mind. But me being me had lost interest in it within a few months and had decided it wasn’t an “in” thing for me anymore. In order to avoid any volcanic eruption at home I had taken to preparing for law and even sat for the entrance tests.

I couldn’t make through any of the law schools and my mom was more disappointed than I was. By then I had already decided that I would go ahead pursuing a career in commerce and follow it with mass communication (MBA was nowhere in picture since my bro was doing it. Oh! In case you didn’t know I had a rule “Not to follow his footsteps”).

Amongst all this the word Pune had taken a place in my heart (to clarify: I hadn’t met/seen/talked to A till then). My brother who snobbishly considers himself a few years wiser to me believed that I should pursue my graduation in Calcutta and not in the “wild wild west.”  With the intention of rebelling till my last breathe I had finally succeeded in reaching my personalized “city of joy.” This is how my journey to the beautiful place had begun. A place where I had spent three most beautiful years of my life. In a friend’s term my three years of paid holiday had begun J

 What I learnt from all this? Well you move in life as your destiny takes you. I could have been slogging in a law school for my placements right now. But destiny had it that I should do the same thing in a far flung city called Bhubhaneswar for a job in HR. Even my meeting with A was part of this destiny. If I wouldn’t have thought of law our paths wouldn’t have crossed.

My education in college can be rounded off in one word itself – Zilch. My learning was more from the people around me and the activities I was involved in. Studying in the humanities course I had of course come across all kinds of weirdoes possible in college. I had seen all body tattoos and piercing a human being can survive to show. I met people from various nationalities especially from Bangladesh and Iran. I learnt quite a lot from these people but that wasn’t it. My learning was more from the world I had outside my college.

It was the first time I was staying away from home. Other than learning the logistics part of living alone I learnt a lot about life and people. I found friends. I loved and hated them. I bitched about them and helped them when they needed me. I learnt how to like people in spite of their faults. But I learnt something from each of them and somehow I also rediscovered myself.

H, my roommate for three years and now in her final year in law was a case in her own self. A typical north Indian girl who believed it was her prerogative to have an opinion about everything on earth. She was the perfect lawyer a person could meet. No one ever won an argument with her. She perfectly fits the terms “Chant chatur” but then she was fun like that. Her bitching was fun to listen as long as you weren’t on the receiving end. I also got my mimicry skills from her.

A, another roommate (it’s the girl AJ ) was a person who was matured enough to be called a lady but had a heart of a little girl. I learnt from her to take life as it comes and always greet it with a smile.

M was a dreamy eyed girl from a small town in Maharashtra. If it was possible she would have spent all her life sleeping, reading books and watching movies. She followed her dreams always and I wish I could have been the same. I always envied her peace and tranquility. Another M from Kerela was a perfect daughter to her parents.  I wish I could become half as disciplined as her in life.

N and K were two sides of a coin. N attended college everyday, a topper and an apple of professor’s eyes. K on the other had registered herself in college to get a degree and made a conscious effort not to gain anything which was remotely related to studies.  They both gave stability and balance to my life like never before.

Lastly, my life in Pune doesn’t end (or wasn’t worth mentioning in the first place) without talking about A. The journey from a name my mom always mentioned when she talked about law, slowly becoming a name in my phonebook then promoted to the post of local guardian (Ripley’s believe it or not !!!) and then to finally become a friend and partner for life has had its own charms. He was everything I have dreamt of and a lot more. At times I wonder if we hadn't met what would life have been like and I fail to imagine it. Right from the first date we went on that rainy evening to the last day he left for Delhi---each moment has been perfect in its own sweet way. What I learnt from him cannot be put in  words. He showed me my vices and made me a better person. He is my "better half". The learning with him never ends and I hope it never does. 

 

To be continued…(the final part would come soon)

My tryst with education Part - II

I move on to my school where I have spent 12 years of my life. To put 12 years of learning in one post would be a mammoth task. So I would select a few indelible incidents and funny anecdotes of my school life. I would like to mention that I studied in an all girls’ convent school.

I come from a traditional middle class Bengali family where we eat, drink and live studies. My mom especially made it a point that I studied everyday. One of the first incidents I remember is when I was in Std. I. So this is the morning before my maths exam. She tells me, “Write all the answers in the question paper and bring like your brother does.” I, of course being the rebel that I am, decided it is against my birthright to do what he does. My mom who is by then crestfallen to see the unmarked question paper finally decides to make do the best of the situation she can. So for the next one hour we sit and discuss the question paper as if it is the peace treaty between India and Pakistan. Result: All my procedures were right and I would get above 90 in maths. My mom is happy and so am I.

Fast forward to the report card and PTM day. The report card is handed over to my mom. OK 80, 75, 72....66 …..66 ???? which subject is that. It turns out its MATHEMATICS ( god I hate this word) Mom by then has lost her voice and somehow managed to ask the teacher how did I get so low when at home I had got them all correct. My teacher, who apparently hadn’t done enough harm to my well being till then added in a melancholic voice, “She had got all the procedures right but she committed a lot of silly mistakes.” Oh boy!!! I am so dead. I don’t remember mom telling me anything after that but it seemed my house was that of a mourning one. If we had a flag at home it would have definitely been put on half mast.

My learning never again in my life have I discussed the question paper with mom. On a broader perspective I didn’t discuss it with anyone and I still don’t. I don’t expect much and I don’t believe how my paper went unless I see my marks. If I could get philosophical I would say I have learnt life has its unexpected twists n turns(even if you are responsible for it) and its better if you don’t expect anything.

Slowly as I grew up I realized my marks had a proportionate relationship with my mom’s behavior for that entire evening. My dad’s reaction would always be the constant factor in it. He always said,” It doesn’t matter how much you get. If you pass or fail the sun would still rise tomorrow.” Well I would say in my mind, “DUH!!! I know it, please tell mom that.” With my mom it was like there was an entire chart drawn. 90 –exhilarated, 80 –happy, 70 – OK. But what’s the highest? 60 – A straight face with no emotions. 50 to 40 – Oh boy! I am a dead meat today. She would bang down my food not look at me for the next few hours. On those days I would sit to study at dot 6 PM and even make it a point to wake up early the next morning to study for sometime before I went to school. It definitely doesn’t help if you have the world’s best mamma’s boy as your brother. Man the guy ate drank and slept studies. But I am proud I successfully managed to get through it.

Now I move on to the non studies part of my education life. My first learning was from my rickshaw wala. For the first 6 years of my school life I commuted to school in a cycle rickshaw with 4-5 other girls. If anyone has read the story “Whitewashing the fence” from “The adventures of Tom Sawyer” would be able to draw the similarities in the story. So my rickshaw wala like Tom would try to lure us, “Let me see if you kids can run faster than this rickshaw does.” We all would gleefully get down from the rickshaw and run half the distance to my home in order to taste the sweet nectar of success. Point here is he didn’t have to drag a rickshaw full of small kids and we won against his rickshaw every time. It never occurred to our innocent heads that he would do it deliberately. Recently when I saw a bunch of kids doing the same thing I realized how intelligent and conniving these rickshaw walas are. The above story mentioned had a few lines which said, “He (TOM) had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it – namely, that in order to make a man or boys covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain....Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or performing on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement.”

My rickshaw wala who I am damn sure hadn’t read this story used it to his fullest in his daily life. And I guess for me it was one of my first learning in HR J

When I was in Std. IV Miss Jana had taught us that we should never use foul language or swear words. Using foul language is like vomiting and therefore if we ever  do use words like Shut up, idiot then we should wash our mouth immediately after that. Needless to say we practiced it religiously for the first few weeks. Our days in school were spent between classes and the wash basin. It is somehow lost now since there are people to testify that I use them. But whenever I do, I go back to that sunny afternoon to a sinfully boring moral science class were I was given this invaluable learning.  

There are so many other incidents that I find it difficult to choose between them. Probably I would write about them in some other post. For the time being let this be my learning in school. Next would be my learning from my college life.

 

To be continued ….(I have two exams tomorrow )

My tryst with education Part - I

As my penultimate term comes to an end I have realized that my not-so-good rendezvous with education is coming to an end. Just one more term and then I will be done with education once and for all. I would be lying if I say I will miss studying or giving examinations because honestly I suck in both. I have always hung between the tag of an average and a good student. I have also had the opportunity to be among the bottom or the tail-enders for a few years. I don’t want to do post mortem on why and what of my grades at each level. I know I have picked up something special at every point  and those are the learning’s of my life.

My tryst with education began with Mrs. Kapoor. Honestly, I don’t remember her or her beautiful bungalow where I spent the first few months of my precious education life. There are a few things which are still there in my mind and I at times wonder if they were real or just figments of my imagination. I remember that one bright afternoon Mrs Kapoor had left a bunch of us in the sun kissed verandah of her house with some toys to play with. I don’t remember the other kids but I do remember Lincoln. At this juncture I need to clarify a few things to the reader that what you see me now is not what I was back then. I was an underweight (there’s nothing to laugh on this ---life does play its own jokes with people) and a very timid person (ya! on this you can laugh away all you want). On the other hand Lincoln (my friend or that’s what I thought till that day) who was an overweight next door neighbor of mine was a bully. Now Lincoln who already had a physical advantage over me decided to tear apart the one doll I was playing with. I remember mourning over the beheaded doll for an hour with Lincoln staring at me with a smirk on his face. That day I learnt that the “darker” species of human race are jerks (no offences meant). Life moved on and of course I changed my opinion but I remember this incident because that was the first time I had an opinion about something. That was the first time I felt helpless in my life. As far as Lincoln is concerned I never talked to him after that and last I heard of him is that he is a medical student now.

We moved to a new city and a new school. The name itself was very cute –Arya Wonderland. Here again I remember things very vaguely. I was still thin and timid. (Have pity guys I have just moved to a new place)The only language I ever understood and spoke till then was Bengali. My first day at the school was with a blue bag or jhola which had my name stitched on it. By the first one hour in school I had realized my parents didn’t love me and they had abandoned me to a new planet where people didn’t speak the same language as I did. I still remember my fear and apprehension as a little kid who didn’t speak the same language as the other kids. By lunch time I had a sick feeling in my stomach and I had taken a silent oath that I would never forgive my parents for making me go through this kind of public humiliation. I don’t know how I managed to survive the whole day. But I remember when I saw my mom after school I had hugged her very tightly as if my entire life depended on it. And I remember that with an angelic smile and some soothing words she had made me feel good again. I didn’t understand the significance of the incident then but now when I look back at it, I believe it had a very important message for me. I have to face my life’s tribulations all alone. But I know at the end of the day I would still have my mom smiling and hugging me tightly. And that makes it easier to face these troubles.

 

To be continued….(I have an exam tomorrow for Christ sakes )

Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers; the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul....

I couldn’t give a title to this post. You may call them my musing on a free morning (Ya! At times we do have them over here). I am not much into listening to songs but recently since my laptop has decided to go all dumb for sure I realize I miss listening to a few songs(courtesy youtube, who else!!!) Especially those songs which remind me of people. People who form an integral part of my life, people who just came across coz they had to, people who I don’t want to think of and also people who meant a lot at one point of time but now just remain a name for me. I would just mention a few songs which invariably remind me of those people. A tribute to those songs or those people I don’t know but its tribute nevertheless.

Lets start with the person who dared (I swear it isn’t a typo) to bring me on this earth. My mom. I link all possible Bengali songs (especially those Rabindra Sangeet) with her. They would invariably take me back to that same kitchen were between the clinking of vessels I could hear my mom singing these songs. She doesn’t have a great voice and let’s not talk about her knowledge of lyrics n music, but it all seemed great. I guess it’s the Mom factor and though I never told her this but I owe her whatever little knowledge I have of Bengali songs completely.

“Chalte chalte yuhin koi mil gaya…” If this song is heard anywhere in my house my dad would come running to me to always say in his dreamy smiling voice, “ Tinni, these are all eternal and evergreen songs. Not the ones that you listen to these days.” I would always snort at him or make a face as if I care (but unfortunately I do L). I want to go back and tell him I thought the same and I still do.

Now onwards the rest of the characters will not be named due to confidentiality matters. If you can guess who they are.. Lucky you J

“Raja ko Rani se pyar ho gaya”…I associate this song with D (funny I know but it wont be if you read along) It takes me back to my pre teen days and unfortunately to his teen ones when he would make me a love messenger to pass on letters, cassettes and other stupid stuff to his then puppy love GF. I can still close my eyes and see him giving me a cassette of “Akele Hum Akele Tum” and ordering me, “Tell her Song No. 1 is for her” (BAAAHHHHHH !!!Those late 90’s stupid love stories ) And ofcourse needless to mention that it was this song. And I a pre teen who only had crush on Shahrukh till then thought, “Oh he is so cool and romantic.” For the next few days he was close to Shahrukh for me. But of course I was back to realities with one of our endless fights.

“Dam a dam Mast kalandar..” This song takes me back to a humid afternoon in Rourkela Club …100 people dancing to this song….I cant think of any one face in this case but a 100 of them screaming and dancing on it in a party. Ofcourse since the SPICMACAY function in our college recently, I have started associating it with the right set of people.

“ Sanson ko sanson se.. “ A song which reminds me of H. It takes me back to those days when she and her BF behaved like a lovesick couple in a long distant relationship. This song was unfortunately her mobile ringtone and apparently due to high STD call rates her BF decided to give her more missed calls than calls. SO all day long her cellphone would sing this song for half a minute. I who was myself one of the recent cupid target by then found it the most romantic song on earth. Ahh…that French Window and the Pune rains!!!

"Now what the hell are you waiting for" Numb by Linking Park it reminds me.. well of myself. Thanks to A this song was my alarm ringtone for nearly a year. This song, not so thankfully, has woken me up from my unending dreams to the stark realities of projects, assignments, classes and quizzes of the hellish first term in XIMB. And I guess A would be smiling and nodding his head saying," I told you so" at this ---I miss my alarm tone and I wish I could have it back. 

“Soni de nakhre soni lagde..” I think my entire batch (or at least the die hard XIMB JLT fans ) would support me in this song. It simply reminds me of our all night long JLTs and those hazy faces who dance as if they have attained nirvana in this life itself.

I saved this for the last. “Ankhon hi ankhon mein” from the latest movie EMI. It doesn’t take me back too far. At the stroke of midnight (or a little after that) A sang this song for me on my bday. Apparently he memorized the entire song as a bday gift. The duchess loved it but she still awaits her actual gift :) 

 

 

My First Blog

I am way too lazy to write. I love to read blogs and this is the first time I am writing something. It might as well be the last time. If you like it Thank you. If you don't I dont care it wasn't meant for you to read...