Getting Started...

Studying is never an arduous task for any of us. Oh yes, we are a hard working and laborious generation, after all! But what actually is backbreaking and difficult is a basic thing required for studying - STARTING it! I realized this basic human (read: student) tendency recently when it dawned upon me that I have my college end terms starting in first week of the next month. With only a few days left, I decided to study with all my dedication, or rather desperation, but all in vain!

There are few steps or stages in this process of getting started with books and notes. One of the primary and most important (or somewhat of a prerequisite) to this process is 'knowing the syllabus'. In case of college exams, you only get to know the syllabus, either when the exam is horribly close (like an hour away) or if your parents continue to pester you with nightmares of failing in the exams. Once you become cognizant of the syllabus, its like an electric shock for you. You suddenly run around like maniacs in search of books and brief(est) notes available around. Most of the people around me (including myself) rely on those amazing inventions of humankind called "one week series" in such situations.

Another step which everyone goes through before actually getting started with the process of studying is counting the chapters and number of pages in each. Sometimes it almost gives us a puking feeling to realize that the chapter we thought was the easiest is actually 85 pages in "brief" notes. We count the number of pages every time we sit down to study, and once we start reading a chapter, it is a common student practice to count the number of pages left in the chapter. It is only then that we come to know that we have read only 4 pages of the brobdingnagian chapter in last one hour.

The best time to study is an hour before exam while doing your daily morning chores in the bathroom. It is the time your mind works fastest and you grab most of the knowledge at once. We finally cut down chapters and topics into words and codes which help us remember them at the right time. Some of us, more resourceful and bright, also scribble down things on the back of our hands, pockets and some places which can only be seen in the bathroom to avoid an 'un'family atmosphere in the exam hall.

So I just hope for myself, that I get over with this hard and seemingly impossible task of "Getting Started", else I will have to rely on the morning bathroom hours for the best results...

The One With All the Memories...

Now sometimes, there are just random days when you kind of educe all those golden moments that you spent in the past. People often ask us about the best days of our lives. Without a doubt, I will always be ready with the answer "School Days". Definitely, those bygone days have left a lot... just like the imprint of a foot in wet cement. There is a feeling of a tied knot inside, whenever the memories of those days come alive - and the irony of this all is, that we never even realized that we were going through the best period of our life, when we were in school! And how could we, when we had the ever daunting task of criticizing every step and every decision of our school administration?

The first friends that we made, the first teachers that we idolized, the first time we got recognition, the first time we made girlfriends/boyfriends, the first time we fought, the first time we opposed, the first time we stood up for ourselves, the first time we abused... every thing happened during those years of schooling. We might have moved ahead, we might have achieved a lot, we might have forgotten most of the things that happened during school, but somewhere inside we do have a feeling that lives with us - the feeling of regret and the feeling of anguish and dysphoria that we never lived our school days as much as we should have and that we never realized the importance of those carefree, independent days sans all the tension and shackles of the daily burden of regular lives.

The maximum astriction during those days was when we got a lot of homework, or the teacher called our parents complaining about our wrong doings. And then started the session of endless apologizing and fake promises of not repeating our mistakes! But then, that is what school life is all about. You commit mistakes for the first time, and then learn from them, or maybe in some cases, start enjoying committing them. ;)

Since times immemorial school has played a very important role in creating what we actually are. As they say, the base of the building is the most important and so is the schooling. For all my fellow mates and contemporaries, I would say, that never let that child inside you die, and never let those amazing memories fade away. For all those who are lucky to be enjoying their school life still, I would say that live it to the fullest and do not leave a single stone of fun and frolic unexplored, because these days will never come back!

I close with the lines of the most famous song of Bryan Adams, perfectly suitable for the situation -

"Oh when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Yeah, I'd want to be there
Those were the best days of my life"