Thursday, September 08, 2005

Student..! Eternal!?

“6 X 7 = 44”, I said as the Evert in my mom demonstrated her forehand skills to my Cerebellum!

“Tables are the most important thing for the rest of your life! You make sure you are not making any mistakes!” she said as I struggled without realizing a calculator would help me in years to come! – It was 1983 and I was forced to listen.

“Physics, Chemistry, Biology….ah ...here you go! it’s not going to be easy this year. You better start getting serious…No more baby talks brother!” my brother was competing for the most improved Satan of the year award! It was 1987 and I was confused and did not have a clue if I have to listen or not.

“Well, it's 9th standard. This means no more street-cricket. You need to pull your socks and work your heart and soul to get in to the first group!” my father was dead serious and something in my heart said may be he is right! Lets do it! …after last few days of cricket and fun....... It was 1993 and I was changing.

“What do I say? I still can’t understand why and how you screwed it up! Your marks are not that bad …but certainly doesn’t reflect your skills” my mom was concerned.

“Maa! No worries…for this mark I will get the group that I want to go in…Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Comp. Sci with French!…I still can’t understand what’s the big deal in this 10th standard exams. Its just a formality to get in to a group” with vengeance and furious anger I claimed myself to be the Lord!

“Shut up Barath! After scoring like this, you dare to raise your voice!?” that’s mom’s way of telling I don’t have an answer!! It was 1994 and I started to talk.

“Barath!!? Its 4.10 in the morning!!” my dad woke me up!

“Yes appa! Am up!!” I responded with my 12th standard chemistry book right beside me.

0420 coffee. 0745 breakfast. 0815-1405 Gill Adarsh. 1445-1700 Math or French tution. 1800-2130 Physics and Chemistry. 2200 dinner. 2230 homeworks, exams preps etc., 2345 and after sleep. ….0420 coffee again! No weekends! No holidays! Day in and Day out this was my schedule for a year! That’s how middle class corps works!!

I fell in love! With an open category (OC) dream, called a professional degree. May be it was a forced dream!It was 1995, I was focused for the first time.

“Well, you have options Mr.Barath. Chemical or Computer Science? Which one do you prefer!?” I can’t bet if I was the first on in the world, but I am sure I was the only one in the room thinking that Chemical Engineering sounded geekier than computer science! It was 1996 and I started to see a future!

“Machi! Could you explain this shrinking core model!?” my friend was absolutely lost in translation. As for him, Chemical Engineering was Latin.

“Mams, it’s the first one on the Appadithan concept list!” I kindled!

“What the f(*& is that? Man are we in the same planet..did I skip a chapter”, he was thinking loud!

“Appadithan means “it’s like that”, which means you can’t understand a shit! You will, when you do your masters degree! So, shut your garb and assume that you understood and just puke it back if you need marks. For heavens sake, we just have 2 hrs before the exam”…did I just let my secret out!!? I guess it was 1998 and I was not even attempting to work!

“Perfidious?” I asked Vivek, who ran the query in his word-list-data-base-system and said, “Treacherous, Disloyal..!”

“Perfecto!” I said as we explored our brilliance with Barrons! It was 1999, I was preparing for the inevitable brain drain.

“Did you finish the assignment? If so, email the file to me. I will make some changes and submit! After the cafeteria job…I don’t think I will be able to finish the homework myself” my earthquake friend cried as he was trying to be in touch with his M.S course material. It was 2000, and I was working!

“Dr. I guess I can say that I just finished my final exam of my final course in life!” which means I did not have anything to talk for that meeting that day.

“Never say that Barath! You will never know how much you would have to learn later in life! May be you have a PhD in the making!” said my advisor! It was 2002, and I was en route to add a couple of letters more to my educational adventures!

“Dei Chinni! How are you?” my friend usually calls me with all new made up names, especially in the excited state!

“Who the f*&^ is that? Chinni?” I had no clue what he was talking about!

“Machi that’s you da…you are the only one in our gang who is still a student…25 and studying!! You are our Chinni Jayanth da” I was rolling on the floor for this! (for non-tamil folks, Chinni Jayanth is a film artist who is known for acting as a college student even at his late 30s)

Did I just finish my last course work, my candidacy et al and finally have just my research left?Its year 2005, I am still a student and loving it. I am listening. I am changing. I am working. I am learning and with all this I am living! Living in a dream of reality. A technocrat in the making, killing an almost eternal student!? May be in days to come! Right now I have nothing but “I am still an academic student” to proclaim! And sure I am in love with these last few months!

Hopefully!

45 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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ada-paavi!!!! said...

i tot i was the only guy whod want to be a studnet for another 7 yrs (am 20 now), atleast! not bad i have company, nothing beats student life!

Soumya said...

we have to be sudent all our lifes but i dont like to appear for exams

BB said...

@ Vatsan

Yep nothing beats it! Good things have to end sometimes tho! 7 years is not pretty long tho!

BB said...

@ Soumya

Agreed! Students in class in diff from Studnents in life isnt it!?...and trust me its nice and its great when you come out of it...till then u wudnt know the best part of it.!

Priya said...

aaaha.. naan padikkure padippuke podhum podhum nu irukku!! :)

..p..

BB said...

@ Priya

Ade Ade Ade thaan naan edhir paathen!

Sindura Rajashekar said...

Kalakara!!!

BB said...

@ Sindhura..


Nandri koori widai peruvadhu ungal Barathan!

Coloratura said...

I find the older I get, the more I want to study and know... and why not? There is so much to do and know, not enough for one lifetime if you ask me... so I think I might have to come back again to get it all done!

Anonymous said...

naalu varsham undergrad course seiradhukulla ... aiyo! padippa? escape-aana podum

BB said...

@ Colorautura

Ofcourse...there is so much in this world thats interesting and its impossible to know all that...but once you get to know that you are best in what you do....the saturation is reached once we know we did our best and there are other palces to explore...some choose more education...some choose life education....:)

BB said...

@ Gayathri

Naanum appadi thaan irundhen...appram thaan therinjudhu...adhu sappai matter! :)

cutefreaky said...

un life history vilakaaama irukku..mikk a nanri.. padicha udaney.. nekku..thookam varathu.....aaaaaaawwwwwwwwoooww( kottavi)
tata
sukku

BB said...

@ Sukhanya...

Idhaye...oru autobiographyynnu oru book ezhudi irunda..kaasu kuduthu padichirpe...naladhuke coulumn illa...! Adanaaale thaan innum PhD panname iruke nee...!:)

BB said...

@ Uma..

Ofcourse I feel lucky..there are only few here who are still a student and has no burdens in all possible ways...so am so damn lucky! nyways...ofcourse when you know that your thoughts directly affects in someone's positive progression..man that feels good! Eternal student? Oh yeah!

gP said...

hye barath. good post. language should never be a deterrent for communication. thats why we have english. its not fair for people to presume we must know certain languages just because its spoken by many. Maybe we all should go with the 'tools' rule. If something is a great 'tool' to acomplish a task, then use the 'tool'.

Whens a new post coming bro?

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

"“6 X 7 = 44”, I said as the Evert in my mom demonstrated her forehand skills to my Cerebellum!"
hehe...nice one!
We are all students of life.Will be so during and after worldly life.
Have you noticed we learn more being students (of life and things that go with it) than "formal students" (as in enrolled in some school)?!
Does all this education really matter B.E/S, M.S?? Does it help in the formation of a good person? Do schools take any step in this regard?
Also, let me quote "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

BB said...

@ jsea

I think school does play a significant role in character development...we learn life as well as other stuffs from school!

"Imagination is more important than knowledge" good one!

An educated imagination leads to more knowledge!! isnt it?

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

How many times in "School" have we thought? (I m not pointing fingers to anyone), imagined? (except thinking of how to copy homework, creative ways of giving alibis).
And how has this helped?will help?
And before we go on with this discussion ( sorry, it s not done yet), how do you define education?

BB said...

@ Jsea

"the activities of educating or instructing are the activities that impart knowledge or skill"

Whatever may be the form..let it be chemical engineering or how to lose a girl in 10 days...anything for that matter! knowledge transfer in an effective manner is what education is all about...

Creativity is a by product of the conjunction of education and individualism..its up to ones way to derive what they want to...if we are more creative in copying...well there we go..you are more eductaed by your peers than ur master :) simple!

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

One more word in :-"skill"
You hv got where I wanted to go.
So you mean to say education is just about skills and knowledge?
What about "think", "realize" then?

I can lose a guy in a (one)day without even going to school to learn it!

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

Creativity a byproduct of individualism, I agree.
But education?

BB said...

Remember I said

"An educated imagination leads to more knowledge!! isnt it?"

Knowledge and Skills are the primary products of education...you are skillful in applying the knowledge that you have...

you know how to lose a guy in one day...but how to lose it without getting hurt...is what you learn as you progress..you dont have to go to school for it...but if you consider a place you learn as a school then you cant do it anywahere else...

creativity is byproduct of education and individualism...if you dont have knowledge in the first palce...you would never create anything new...!

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

How about our fore fathers who invented things? Did they have any prior info/knowledge?

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

I guess we are nearing the finish line.
Education = skill+ knowledge+ creativity, as you put it.
If education is knowing,(we all know our history lessons (dont we?)), why dont we learn form it?
We still wage wars.(again not pointing fingers).
So education fails, isnt it?

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

"...but how to lose it without getting hurt.."
whats life w/o getting hurt?
http://j-sea.blogspot.com/2005/10/wowwhat-ride.html

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

* doesnt it?

BB said...

Well...life is nothing without imperfections...but realizing it more important than any other thing...! isnt it?

BB said...

Education can never fail...its the people who fail to learn from it...again it could be the educators mistake as well!

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

Did you notice? We are actually alternating b/w posting comments on this blogpost and the other!
Its become more conversational now.

BB said...

@ Jsea

Yes it is:) I know civil engg is taxing :)

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

So we fail to learn from education. Agreed?
Why need something when you dont use it?

BB said...

and so is chemical!

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

More than taxing! Ask me abt it!!
Btw,how did you get yourself updated?

BB said...

:) you misunderstood...its us who fail to learn...just becos a few fail to learn...doesnt mean that its worthless...its the ability of few to disregard something that could change their perception in life...you cant base your conclusion based on such a small sample space..!

BB said...

Updated :) there is this called...gostats...it gives you the ipaddress of the blog visits...arvind friend civilengg ip...I guess after this..its easy to understand!

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

hmmm..
Well...dont go by that!

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...
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Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

What about thinking and realiztion issues, you havent addressed thm yet

BB said...

@jsea

well...elaborate your question! can you!??

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

Sure can!

Jyothsana Chandramohan said...

You ready?

BB said...

anytime!