Tree#6: Back to Pavilion??

Sobb...Sob!! I'l leaving tonight reluctantly to my pavilion, that is my college hostel. I know, I love my hostel. But then, I'm really gonna miss my home. This was the longest stay after I joined college. It's been like I stayed here forever. Anyway, time doesn't wait and I must go in order to take up my semester exams. :( Hope I do well! Wish me luck and pray for me wherever you are!!!

Meet you guys, after the exams. Buh BYe!

Tree#5 : A New Life

My Perception of life changed when I first stepped into my new home, my hostel at SASTRA UNIVERSITY, Thanjavur. After being a happy-go-lucky and leading a carefree life for these many years, suddenly, I was burdened with responsibilities. Responsibilities to take care of myself. Previously, this honourable position was taken care of my sweet mother, who pampered her daughter like all mothers do. I had to stick to a timetable, I had to keep my things in order, take care of my books, take care of my health, take care of my food and whew..the-take-care list seemed never-ending. The transition from being a pampered child to an independent individual is difficult and it was definitely a hard time. But, Of course, it was my very own decision. A decision that I'm still optimistic about, a decision that I would never regret, though I still miss many trivial things.

Well, there are many more interesting things in this life, than these trivial things. I would never have come across such lovely people, if I hadn't sacrificed these trivialities. I can after all, take care of the two- buckets of clothes, I end up with every week-end..I can after all manage to offer a minimum space for beautiful, colourful insects in my bed, which mutually consented to give colourful rashes on my skin!!! Isn't this life all about? Understanding and helping each other. Sacrifice few things and gain few things...?? I'm at present proud to be a hostelite at SASTRA with fun-to-the-core and interesting girls around. I definitely miss my home, but hey.. as long as there are these cute gadgets called mobiles with you, home is not very far, after all!!! :)

Tree#4 : Rain, Rain Come again.

Rains are such a pleasure and Rainy days are always fun. The smell of the water-soaked mud, the cool breeze and the sound of the falling drops against the panes can always be relished. But, I realized lately that the real fun on a rainy day is only when you step out of your haven and into the beckoning hands of the windy rain. Having this in mind , I, Ms.Akshaya undertook an experiment to prove the real fun behind it. And the report is as follows :

AIM:

To prove that there is real fun behind getting drenched on a breezy downpour.

THINGS NEEDED:

5% Joyous nature, 5% Courage and 10% braveness (to face the after-math like coming in face to face with a fuming mother). Apart from these, you might also need to wear stuff that are water-proof and of course you might need your limbs and your body.

PRINCIPLE:

The flow of the breeze against your skin and the falling of soft drops (maybe hard too) against your warm skin causes a certain amount of excitement in the nerves within your body, thereby causing happiness and bliss to the one who experiences it.

My PROCEDURE:

1) Get prepared for the big day. In other words, wait for it to rain.

2) If it does’nt rain in your region, shift to a region, where the chances of raining are high.

(In my case, I waited for about 100 days in the almost rain-proof Chennai,then I went to vellore, where it rained even in the first day of my arrival)

3) Plan out well, before you set out. If you are good at predicting the rain, go out somewhere else hours before it rains and then you can return home when it rains and you’ll have a very good excuse that you had no choice but to get drenched, so as to return home.

4) Sterlize the area from adults, esp. people who might cause such a big hindrance.

5) Take a deep breath and plunge into action.

6) Swings your hands-out and walk*. Take deep breaths alternatively and enjoy the fragrance of the fresh mud and the leaves. Enjoy the chillness that spreads through your body.

7) Keep your speed as low as possible.

8) After achieving your mission, get back home to face the consequences**.

*You can also try out other alternatives like dancing, singing ets. Provided there are no witnesses around.

** There are two types: 1) Health-related: You might encounter short-term troubles like cold, cough or fever. Sol: Take antibiotics and medicines.2)Home-related : People who might scold you for your recklessness. Sol: Thankfully , we are created with two ears. Do you know for what?? One for listening, and other for letting unwanted things out. So, do that.

OBSERVATION :

If you watch out carefully, you can very well notice the jubilation, happiness and exhilaration on the faces of people experiencing it. Even after two hours after the saunter, the excitement will be retained and you can see people spreading tales about their adventure.

RESULT:

Thus, it is proved that there is definitely real fun behind getting drenched on a breezy downpour.

Fine, let me get to the point. I wrote this article out of inspiration after my adventure on 20^th June at vellore. Me and my cousins had gone out and we made it a point to return home late. Finally, it was getting dark and so we decided to return home. We were half way through, when suddenly there was a heavy gush of wind pushing us to our sides. Partly scared, we were literally running to our home. We had just reached the corner of the street, when it started to rain cats and dogs. Being the eldest of the clan, I had no choice but to force the other three into a nearby shop. Those kids were begging me to let them in to the rain. Though my inner conscience was giving a ready made nod, I was reluctant. Who will finally face my aunt? Who would be scolded for being so immature? Me, and only me. So, I shook my head. We waited, and waited and waited. It didn’t cease at all. Finally I gave up. The downpour had slowed down a bit and I saw my chance here. I ran into the rain, beckoning the others to follow suit. They were more than happy to do so. We were running and rounding and singing and nobody noticed us. At last, we reached our home only to find my aunt literally giggling at Us. Yay!!! I wasn’t an immature elder after all. And the cherry on top of the cake was that none of us caught cold or ended up sick. That was one happy reminiscence of an awesome day.

Tree#3: Revaluation or Currency collection??

Monday morning , my dad woke me up, forcing a newspaper into my hands and pointing an article. It was titled, “Revaluation procedures”.  I sighed and went about reading it. Now what exactly does “revaluation” mean?   A students goes about for re totaling or revaluation when he/she is not satisfied with  his/her  marks secured in their board- exams and are sure that they deserve more. In our system of education, we don’t get to see our answer scripts, instead we receive only the marks we scored . So, for applying for the above-mentioned-r’s , there is a procedure.

 And bet you, this is not a simple task as you might think.  The steps proceed this way.

-First and Foremost, you need to get a demand-draft of about Rs.275/- for each subject, which you think you might deserve more.

- After getting the demand draft, you’ve to write in few basic particulars at the back of the DD.

-Next, you’ve to head to the nearest education department and give your DD in exchange of which you get back a form. This is the application form for getting your Xeroxed  copies of  the answer scripts.

-Then, you need to fill in these forms and return as soon as you can.

-You need to wait for 2 to 3 days till you get your fake(Xeroxed) answer-scripts by post.

- You check your paper and see whether any mistakes  are committed  by the examiner either in correction( such as leaving out an answer or giving less marks for a deserving answer) or totaling.

- When you figure out what’s wrong in the correction, you go in for either re totaling or revaluation.

- Revaluation costs about Rs. 505/- For each subject and re totaling about Rs. 205/- again.

-Again, well..you need to fill in forms and wait and stuff.

Whew!! Such complications. Well, expecting about 100 students, I headed to the Directorate of examinations after getting my DD. You would not believe me if I said I met about 1000s of students, all busy, filling in forms, asking doubts, jostling each other in the crowds, waiting untiringly in the hot sun.  I got to see at least 10 people from my school. And we had to wait in a very long queue for getting the form first and then a longer queue for submitting the forms again. I had to submit today itself so as to get my answer scripts soon. Seeing all these, I wondered. 

 About 1000 people were around me. And everyone were applying minimum for 2 subjects.  Just imagine, if everyone payed at least Rs.550/-, how much money would the directorate gain this way. And this is just for getting Xeroxed answer scripts. And the revaluation steps still remain. People don’t  seem to care about money. Money is nothing compared to marks. All that matters is finding a way to gain 1 or 2 or god- knows -how -many -marks. Using  this as an Achilles' heel  in the parents, they take advantage from them. I just cant get it. Why the hell should we pay to get back our scripts? Well, if it is for the  Xeroxing, I don’t think it can go more than Rs.50/-. And Why the hell should we PAY for a *silly* lack-of-concentration done by the examiner while correcting our paper?? Of course, my previous sentence, includes papers which *really* has corrections. AT least, they must do this way. If there is *really* a mistake in the correction, they must pay the money back. We’re not responsible for their mistake. They must in fact get the money from the teacher who corrected it.

Rich parents and middle class families don’t mind spending. But, it really is an unworthy amount for people from poor backgrounds. What are they thinking?? Why are we keeping our mouths zipped about this??

Damn...I'm still wondering!!!!!

Tree#2 : Good ol' clouds!!

As a nature aficionado, I was always fond of those white cottons hanging up in the sky.I always wondered within myself, what clouds were made of, but never queried this to the others around me. Now following are my predictions or assumptions in my childhood, about what these clouds were made of!

At my grade:1: That was the age I quite understood the things around me.

Once it was quite a sunny day, and needless to say, so many clouds were seen in the sky. I was waiting outside my school for my dad to cum and pick me up. While I was waiting, I looked up at the sky and started wondering about it…. I assumed that they were all white foamy beds, made of so many sheets of cotton and If I cud get above that bed, I could sleep and look down upon the people from there.

At Grade:2: My assumptions changed at this age, What do you think? Of course, Ice-creams stuffed in the sky. Those days, I used to dream of flying high in the sky, with wings and licking the clouds…YUCK! Really absurd of me!

At grade:3: Er…I was not quite convinced with my ice-cream perception because, ice-creams come in different colors and all I could see were black and white clouds, scattered here and there .As far as I knew, there wasn’t any Black-colored ice-cream and moreover clouds were quite transparent, unlike creamy ice-creams. Good brains, Na? Lolz! So, this time I resorted to the fact that they were actually foams (maybe formed from soap-liquid) just suspended in the sky.

But then, in the middle of the year, actually I studied about Water-Cycle, and I realized that they were actually made of many droplets of water, I wondered how. But I was satisfied that I was quite close to the answer, and I stuck-up to the fact that they were foams of water and I visualized the clouds as a big foam of water hanging in the sky . My perception was that if I touched them, my hands would get wet.

The following vacations, we set off to a hill-station and “Holly Molly” my parents updated me that I could actually touch the clouds. WOW…That was in fact an electrifying news to me. I was really waiting for that jiffy. I was anticipating that I could enter one side of the cloud, get drenched and come out of the other side, fully wet .But to my dismay, What I saw dumbfounded me….They were actually what I least expected of, just SMOKE or rather MIST. Shit! All those cotton stuff, ice-cream stuff and those squeezed, foamy liquids at once were replaced by just smog. I came out of my reverie and realized that I was actually standing in the middle of a cloud. That was indeed swaying and at last I could lay a hand on the clouds, which I ceaselessly dreamt of. And the next time I saw them, I just saw them as what they are. Just smoke in the sky, but at that instance, I knew, what these smoke would turn into, later, giving lives to many worldly mortals.

Indeed understanding nature is quite elusive and that day I realized that, appearances could be deceptive and you have to look into the temperament of anything/anyone and not get carried away by just what you see.

Ooh….I could come out with a moral as a finishing, Hats off to me, loll!