5th one in the series of 8.

I keep a mental track of what i do on the first day and last day of each sem, this time decided to put it down.

4th sem ended in the best possible way for me , another sleepless night , no alcohol in system , but felt damn fit after a long long time.

Courtesy - My Love - Football , even though i aint that good at keeping her happpy , lets just say i keep (her) fairly well :P

first day of 5th sem alongwith a new director is already seeing points of authority being established in the college.

Anti Ragging posters everywhere, seriously dude ,we arent after the blood of young 18 year olds .

A campus patrol car that the Delhi Police would like to have in its squadron.

17 , no less than 17 2nd years facing suspension coz of ragging , I m guessing they asked the name of some junior.

While the academic block looks damn hot on plans , its doesnt resemble it anyway right now (4 months needed for completion), and since MIT , Manipal likes showing off , took in about 2k students ,leading classes to be til 7 pm in the eve (till acad block is complete), even 8 in certain sections.Corporate Torture Training is the only positive reason I can possibly think of.

The sem has barely begun and loads of issues are engulfing me . Be it the 12 k or EnC or TMR ..i can see a lively but a very very challenging sem ahead of me.

And yah , there is a quite terrible social life issue rising in my head, most of it is based on certain observations , it might compound or it might just disappear .But reasons for either of them happening are more or less the same , this is what you call Catch -22.

There is a serious lack of a particular type of FRND in my life. and i not speaking of a G-F or a BF for that matter :P

Manipal has such amazing people to be friends with , but somehow even in my rather large of friends i just could not get that one. That essential one, sadly, that TYPE OF FRND , i found in someone or the other no matter where i went , just not in college.

I have put my hopes on someone who cares but cant just express it that well.Problem.

4th sem ends...

At the beginning of the 4^th sem I was thoroughly bored and disgusted… never I knew that quite an amazing sem was lyin ahead of me..that it will the sem where I accept that indeed Manipal offers you endless opportunities provided-

1. You know the right people

2.Convince that little idiot in front of your face that he is not only stupid but an ignorant faggot as well, all this without losing your temper- I m stil tryin to master this point though :P

3.YOUR IDEA IS FOOLPROOF

4.Probably the most important one as I discovered, u need friends who know how and when to work. Someone who can hide your weakness , push up your strengths and vice versa.

4^th sem wasn’t a breeze in any possible way..

There was a moment where I broke down.

There was a time I felt like tearing all my nails apart.

A moment where I began to think I was losing track some of my friends

And there was a time when I established that good partying or class buddies aren’t automatically classified as good friends.

So what was it that made 4^th sem so special…

Manipal started feeling like a very nice city.

Ojas 2,Room 26 signified home , but Akshaya mess didn’t become the ideal kitchen by a rather long margin.

I scored terribly in all my subjects, still liked most of them :D

But then happened Battle of the Bands , the shitty little rock show that happened in MIT during the cultural fest Revels and there came an shiny little idea in my head.

Lets atleast transform this shit into shit served on platter with garnishing of coriander leaves served with Red Wine.

Hence began 15 days of non stop of shouting ,clearances, budget details and banging heads into other dick heads.

Obviously if college music head asks you if the headline band is participating or not, You feel like murdering… either him or yourself .I would go for the former though.

So all in it feels special when somebody who resented your function all along the way comes up to you and says, What a eve man! , Well done.

Or a rock crazy guy says , best night since Maiden in Bangalore.{Though that was a bit too much, Too much of Power Horse in his system I guess :D}

And what a team worked on that project. Sid, Mihir , Gaurav and my dear Piyush sir.

5 guys , 15 days, changed a function totally , gave the best rock show in years, and coolly fucked off to greener pastures later on.

In the meanwhile academics got royally screwed. Like Royally.

As the sem began to close , one phone call disrupts my daily routine, some senior asking for sponsorship data compiled in the last sem for an Off Road racing team.

Details were solid and work was saved so it was presented to the nice sounding chap .

Things worked out although not as well as I would have thought , but I was back again in the thick of things , gathering money for Team Manipal Racing , enabling to get them to Wisconsin for the competition. With the right people happy with your work, 3^rd year seemed to beckon with team leadership on the cards.

Was I mentioning something about greener pastures?? This was it.

And how did the senior chap suddenly remember about me- the success achieved by Battle of the Bands, quality and quantity wise. Quantity being a reference to the amount of moolah that was in excess ,even though we didn’t charge any tickets for th e show :D . So TMR goes on to achieve the best ever finish by an Indian Team , now that was some team with the good elements chucking out the bad ones at regular intervals of time.

Things stand at their best ever phase as of this day.

Many more “friends ” were lost , leading to a very clear cut group of people that I hope I can truly Friends.

Academics although is still where it was but work and recognition is on an exponential rise and this is the pattern I wanted , because this was the pattern of my school life , which was rather impressive by the time it ended.

Now I am dressed in a black three piece suit waiting to welcome in 5^th sem into Room 26, Ojas 2.

Drifting In and Out..

4th sem starts and started it has...

This time around though something is different. Different in a negative sense.

I simply have nothing at all to look forward to.. 1st sem – C-O-L-L-E-G-E

2nd sem- U realise exactly when do to what kind of masti.

3rd sem- Lets study and see how badly does my branch kick my arse.And oh ya,A new hostel, new roommate , all good friends around u..Promises to be a jolly good time this sem !

4th sem... Ummm.... Well lets see... Campus .. Booze... Hostel masti.. Branch.... I have already explored all of those options.

All that remains is to discover a town which is well stocked BUT smaller than the Univ.
Probably go outside and discover a nearby by tourist spot and burn a rather DEEP hole in my pocket.
Now see i don’t have too much against travelling but i would appreciate my money going into Choco Fudge Brownies rather than tiring myself out on journeys.
Joining clubs .. Working in them is an attractive option though, But in a place having five thousand people , making a name for yourself isn’t easy at a time when 90% of your seniors think of u as a toss bag or someone who is good enough to “run about the campus”.When u see a project crashing in front of your eyes which was supposed to be your “Big Break” , it really does hurt and it hurts worse when u realise that u were indeed a toss bag .Nothing more,Nothing Less.

In such a situation all u can hope is to find the right set of people around u . Which i did and did not.
Having a rather group of acquaintances helps but in MIT, it helps only to a certain extent. Formality parties and Fake smiles are the very tip of the iceberg in that respect.
So when your problems are compounding .. what is the way out. As i see it ,

Go play Ball !

Or join one more club- The Law of averages should hold true.!

Or simply organize another booze party..doesnt take that much effort u know.

Or keep that fake smile and entertaining mood... Might actually convert that fake smile into a real one.

Some prefer to well...Sleep..I am not sure if that works though.
And dare not forget that overdose of sugar in one of those Choco Fudge Brownies !

And the Curtain Falls...

Its quite an evening , the very last day of the year numbered 2008, like a file , a file on which the dust is just about to start settling.
It really transpires the image of a small cabin with a little green man looking upon the File 2008 who is just about to close it.
I call it a small cabin because in the eyes of this celestial system where the CEO is like some Chief who has been only heard of , whose has never been seen, we are nothing but a file in the hands of a really junior officer hoping he will make it big someday because he has been given Earth to study upon !
The little green man is also using his intra office contacts trying his best to verify that he is the only one with a file of a planet having life :D
I remember the very first day of 2008. it was the day numerologists found a reason to get published in all forms of media by giving the ruling that 8 being a erratic number can bring great achievements OR great disasters in a short span of time.
The year really turned to be pretty close to it, BUT well it can be argued that is bound to happen with a planet having about 6 billion of the ruling species in too many locations, style of living and ambitions.
On the other hand India as a country saw both sides of the coin.
Be it the finalization of the Nuclear Deal
The immense success that our athletes achieved,
The unprecedented 20k mark being touched by the Sensex

BUT certain events didn’t let the happy moments sink in
A global meltdown thanks to the All Powerful USA and its amazing Banking System.
The 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, where the Nation was held at gunpoint.
The Sensex going below the 10k mark as the financial crisis reached India.
And there were the days where bomb blasts happened in practically every corner of the country.
With our elected representatives again having the sheer guts to divide people on basis of where they were born.(and they say the British divided India)

Keeping all this in mind, 2008 wont be a year whose file immediately goes to the closed section but a file which shall rest in the For Later Reference section.

Trying my hand at blogging for the second time now ...that too after a lot of persuasion from friends and family.
The last one , well it didnt come out the way i wanted it to be very honest.
But ya it was like looking back into the past of mid teens wid a magnifying glass, as i could see exactly how my thought process has changed during the last few years in which i have seen many transitions taking place within and outisde me.
This blog hopefully will serve as the same as the last one did, a little space in this great Spider's web , a little string which i can hold onto for life as remember my early adutlhood days as probably the best days of my life, the days where all the restrictions were taken off me , the days where i started to decisions and talking rationally , the days where i truly LEARNT