It was 10 o’clock on an empty bus, heading to Nadiad for the
start of yet another semester in an endless journey for a piece of paper which
was the degree certificate. Hardly two days break between the end of one sem
and the beginning of the next. The heart though was beating at a faster rate
compared to the bus speed. Had just horribly goofed up the NA examination. What
was more troubling was in the retrospect I felt I was a bit over prepared. Not
having learnt from one AE sessional exam where I had tried to study almost
everything with very little sleep, resulted in a single digit score… The lowest
so far. Alas sometimes one does not learn from his mistakes :/ Hence on that
bumpy ride to Nadiad… I dreaded the result… The shaky experience at the time of
the examination where the mind was totally blank which had never happened
before still continuously hogged my mind.
A few weeks passed and by GODS grace, somehow got over the
border with a couple of marks to spare and where my sessional score out of 36
was more compared to the final score out of 60! But a decent attendance at
classroom and an inquisitive approach to study in the labs … somehow managed to
fulfill my targets.
There I remember driving on one hand a speaker phone on the
other, unable to believe I had scrapped through. And that’s where I thought for
the next semester I did not want to repeat the same history. No more madness in
studies. And to accept that achieving targets is secondary as compared to
enjoying the journey to the final destination.
Having decided that the 4th sem seemed so far to
be the best and the most memorable one! Having had the pleasure of studying
with some of the most “Interesting” Profs, learning seemed secondary compared
to the enjoyment and fun in the class.
A week before the exam somehow I managed to watch over 20-25
movies along with fully following some 6 or 7 odd sitcoms. Twice managed to
find ppl for chit chatting way into the night. And during the exam time, wanted
to focus more on learning rather than scoring and strictly no more deprived
sleepless nights. Had wanted to just score some 40 odd of 60 and finish the wonderful
semester on a high! Somehow on the completion of the exams, I actually and
honestly missed the past few weeks. In the hindsight they seemed some of the
best days at Nadiad.
On yet another result time, I received the best present in a
long time. Not that it mattered, but getting an otherwise meaningless number
more then what you expected makes your parents especially, very happy.
Well what I feel is I still am under performing BUT if this
is how I can still manage to get through I would gladly do that, for this
number is not worthy of giving it your full potential. Moreover the recent RCB
fiasco at the IPL has taught me one thing Do not reach your peak early on! For
after that it’s a downhill ride. And I am glad I am no 9 pointer cause maintaining
that would be a lot of energy and makes one sound like a geek! And lastly irrespective of
your goals and pointers, if you learn and manage to make peace with your past, the future always would
turn up good.
Lastly and hopefully if I remain sane throughout the remaining
4 sems , I would like to remind myself and to everybody else “The best days
would be the ones when you start enjoying your academic along with your exam
days”
