Sunday, as it went by...

The time is 3 a.m and its not a very happy Monday morning for reasons more than one. I have lectures to attend. Around 150(!) pages to copy mindlessly. My exams are coming up in fifteen days. Oh! Make that ten. Four extremely (and unjustifiably) complicated papers which go by the names of International Law, Taxation Law, Jurisprudence and Intellectual (hardly!) Property Law. And most importantly, I just finished wasting an entire Sunday CRIMINALLY. Someone kill me. Please. The entire thought of it has clogged my mind. How could I be so shameless? Why so lazy? From where have I picked up the art of procrastinating (so smoothly that is)? In which decade am I going to realize the need to work? Who would tolerate this when I am not able to do it myself! Well. There are a million such questions that I can ask myself but where is it heading? Ok. Loosen it. Lets analyze the Sunday to see if some hints peek out!

I woke up at eight with the happy news that mom has reached Madras. It is really comforting to be woken up by one's mother, even if its just by a phone call, after a long long time. When I finished the call, it took me just five seconds to convince myself about the 16 hours ahead of me to toil and as to how I deserve (as a matter of some sort of a right?) to sleep for a few more minutes. Thereby, promptly dozed off! Again my phone screamed! But the time was 9:30 then and that shook me out of the bed! Made coffee (which certainly needs no reminder). Set my bed table to write notes. Opened my laptop (now this is where the tragedy kicks in) and started to check my mail. For about two hours, I did nothing but check mail, orkut, facebook, blog page, etc. The time rushed to twelve when I was dragged out to print out tickets and collect reading materials. Lunch. Returned to the room. Time was two and my eyes automatically shut out. Yes! They protest if made to work beyond two in the afternoon. Afternoon nap in an odd position (basically pillow on the floor, my head hanging out, legs up against the wall and hands cuffed under my neck)! And when I woke up, the time was nearly four. I quickly set them up again and started writing tax notes...nearly ten pages and I took three hours! In order to appreciate this immensely satisfying accomplishment of mine, I decided to play a game. And I did for two hours. That's when dinner was served in the mess and I feasted on some surprisingly nice food. I then started writing notes. Just started. Which means writing a few words. Gtalk and an ebook held me back for nearly six hours, with a few conversations with roommates in the middle.

So precisely I was doing all that till this moment! And now obviously, I am terribly sleepy. I cant believe I spent it this way. Utterly forlorn! I do all this even if my eyes burn and stomach growls in hunger. But academic work? No. Hmm... Sundays are precious. And I have realized its worth only after its departure. Now even if I wait for another Sunday, its not going to be the same. Its not going to be 14th September. Its not going to be eleven days to exams anymore. Its ten now. Okay. That's enough. I know I don't need to be getting so emotional about it but you know what I mean... I am just hopeless! This happens with me every time and I never never learn! Let it be! Lets overwork this week. Or may be to begin with, lets just try to sit down in one place and work...

Madras Kalangal!

When memories decided to visit me.

This morning when I was heating water to make coffee for myself (and of course, dreading the idea of working on projects), memories of my childhood in Madras suddenly flashed by for a second... Don't know if their intention was to remind me of how pathetic it is to stay away from home or to just make me smile for at least those few seconds. So I thought I'll put down a few words about the lovely days in Madras. My typical morning, then, was something like this...

Wake up at four forty five after amma reminds you the time (oh yeah, I turn deaf when I am sleeping- so alarm clocks don’t work. I need a person to literally shake me from the slumber) only to feel so stupid to have woken up so late(!) (interestingly, I do yoga immediately after I wake up not consciously but the way I stretch and turn looks like some sort of an abnormal unstructured yoga)… And then I sluggishly walk into the kitchen for a quick review of the day's menu (which is usually dosa and sambhar, kootu-sadham, paruppu thoghaiyal or the likes) with amma and tell her what I dreamed of the previous night (mostly about how I was honoured as the Chief Justice of India or how the entire Chennai is praising me about my thoughtful arguments in a happening case(!) or how I bought a stylish black Ford Ikon)... Then obviously as anybody would expect, brush my teeth but for five minutes humming my favourite kollywood hit not realizing that five minutes have passed until anna queues up behind there with a evlavu-thechalum-pallu-onnum-vellaya-minna-pordhu-illa-look on his face...By then anna playing loud English music (as opposed to any normal form of suprabatham or adityahrudayam) and with a Kumbakonam degree kaapi (something you shouldn't miss- the best way coffee beans and chicory can be combined) and a fight with anna about how I should be allowed to check my mail first because I have Maths tuition (which is the fate of every Board-class student of Chennai) at five thirty, my day actually begins... One round of Gmail and Yahoo after which at five, my heart beat races as I realize I have not done my math homework (which invariably is a worksheet of 100 odd questions) and so I quickly sit down to see what damage-control I can do in the given twenty minutes... Two questions here, two questions there. Then after telling amma varen (and being corrected for the nth time to say poitu varen and not just varen), I run out of the house to see my TVS-Excel ready to gear me up for the day...

After ninety minutes of mindless rambling at Math tuition, I get back home at seven fifteen and park my bike under a tree outside my house... look up at the veranda (mine is a first floor apartment) to see appa reading the newspaper (we only read The Hindu)... and then get indoors to see Rajam cleaning the house religiously... I quickly go to the kitchen to peek into what amma is doing and usually grab raw ingredients (such as chapathi maavu, vadam, maggi noodles, etc) as I switch over to a coversation with appa to learn what the CM's plans(!) about Tamil Nadu are... And then iron my yellow-grey uniform to get ready to go...

At seven forty five, appa, anna and me sit for breakfast in the hall before the TV (appa waiting eagerly for the Sun News Channel update) as amma gets hot-hot dosas and chinna vengayam/vendakka sambhar (or with ghee :D)... Appa then questions me about how far I have reached in Accountancy (In the fifteen years of schooling, this is the only subject he was ever interested in for obvious reasons- he is an Accounts Manager himself)….And when I tell him Sir has reached company accounts, he starts recollecting his reminiscences about company accounts (Yes, I know people grow weirder as years pass. How else can you justify somebody reacting so positively about company accounts?!) Then its time for listening to the usual things from amma and appa such as "pocket-la kaasu irukka?, fast-a otadha vandiya, lunch michham vaikama sapdu, paathu poitu va, saingalam oor suthhama veedu vandhu seru"...

With that, I rush to school at eight ten... obviously not realizing then that they were going to be the best days of my life! :)