Time and again

After searching heaven and hell, I have finally zoomed on a topic about which I can scribble something and maybe people would be interested in reading through it too. It’s an experience I have had time & again. And every time it happens, I tell myself I am not going to go through it again; enough is ENOUGH, at least not by my own free will. I do have a right to do what I want to do. Don’t I? After all we live in the second largest democracy in the world. Don’t we?

I am talking about exam time. Rings a bell doesn’t it? A big, loud, resounding bell.. I am sure most of you will identify with the nerve wrenching, gut slashing feeling one experiences while taking an exam… any exam. After all an exam is an exam. PERIOD.

During my engineering days, I (like so many other techies-to-be) used to suffer from the last-minute/exam-eve-preparation syndrome. I always used to start preparing for the exam the day before or rather the night before. Used to stay awake till wee hours (thank god the exams were generally held in the afternoon), tried to cram up a whole semester in just a few hours, write the paper and then pray, pray & pray.

And after each & every exam I used to make a resolution to myself. No more last minute studying.. I’ll start being attentive in the class, stop passing chits & gossiping while a lecture is going on. I’ll do my assignments diligently, get my doubts cleared at the start so that they don’t pile up like Mt. Etna and then erupt one day. The bottom-line was to be prepared. But alas this resolution remained a resolution and remains so till this date.

Memories of my engineering days came rushing back to me when I had to appear for a domain certification this Saturday. It was nothing like I had it was a mandatory certification or so. I just applied for it on an impulse. Got a mail from our PM asking for nominations and I just raised my hands in response. Little did I know that domain certification is very different from engineering exams? Engineering used to be fun. Being back benchers in the class, attending funny lectures & even funnier lecturers, bunking classes, putting proxy attendance for friends, copying assignments( guess the original assignment was done by some guy way back in '80s or something), doing combined group study where the output followed the 80-20 principle. Even after studying for 80% of the day, we couldn’t even effectively cover 20% of the syllabus. Engineering was the sum total of all these mutually exclusive but still totally dependent activities. This all used to make even the last day preparation rewarding. Concentration was higher and hence the result was better. Those were tension free days. Not like now when I need to worry abt a lot of things including rent, electricity/water bill, traffic, appraisal, onsite opportunities and to top it all WORK!!

Those were some days.. Sigh. On second thoughts.. no.. no second thoughts.. would not trade those days for the world. If I had to relive those days, I know I’ll do the same things in the exact similar way. Heard a saying..? It goes something like this – “Be what you are & do what you feel. If GOD had wanted you otherwise, HE would have created you otherwise.”
I’ll sign-off on that note. Have fun!! ;-)

Add-to-the-decibels

This is my first ever blog. A lot of hue & cry is being made regarding blogs now-a-days. So I thought lets add to the decibels. :)

Had tried my hands in maintaining a journal when I was a kid but could never make regular entries into it. Soon it took a backseat and then one fine day the idea just kinda vanished into thin air. Lets see how long I can maintain its new-age avataar.

Haven't got any clue as to what all I'll be writing in the blogs though. My life is just as ordinary as that of any ordinary software professional. Working in one of those BIG software companies. Forced to strive 24/7 to prove that the attitude reflected by "Rome was not/(could not be) built in a day" is soooooo wrong. Wish my boss was the architect/planner, she would have easily made sure that it was indeed built in a day with time spared for review & rework. ;-)