My typical weekday "WAS/IS" - 1

WAS: In India
IS: In US

Waking Up

WAS: Alarm - 5AM, I have never heard it ringing throughout my life in India. Mom wakes up first. Around 5:15AM, she will (try to) wake me up. Always it will start with pleading for 5 more minutes of sleep. It would finally be atleast 2 or 3 more “5 minutes” before I wake up. Usually the count depends on the assignment or record submission for that day.

Next, run directly to the bathroom. Brush, blah blah (censored) and take bath. Scarcity of water is so bad in chennai that I can’t use more than a bucket of water for bathing. In the next 5-10 minutes I will be out.

IS: Alarm - 6:20AM. Wake up to switch it off. Wait for couple of more snoozes. And then with eyes shut, walk directly to the restroom. Reaching the restroom unhurt is a big challenge for me. Every other day I end up banging on the closed restroom door, closet or the wall in the pathway leading to the restroom.

Post-Restroom Session:

WAS: Pull out all the clothes from the closet. Look for the best one. Usually end up wearing some t-shirt/Shirt in blue (my favorite color) Mom starts about me wearing the same shirt all the time (Needless to say, not a morning passes without this phase). After the end of that mini war, go around the house searching for watch, notes and stuff.

And then start scribbling something for assignment/record (who cares about what we write, what professors really want is title, first line and last line correct.) The most important thing is figures (Don’t mistake me, I mean… diagrams :P). Better the diagrams lesser the theory part.

IS: With no drive to wear flashy clothes, pull out some decent T-shirt/Shirt and a jean.(At least in College, we had so many junior gals to impress. But in office, almost all are committed/married, so what’s the point in wasting time to select a good one :P)

Breakfast:

WAS: Being south Indian. Its mostly rice stuff like idly or dosai. Sometimes roti too. Having spent so much time in getting ready for college, having 2 or 3 of what mom has cooked and a cup of milk is a big deal.

IS: Sometimes cereals, sometimes bread but mostly one or 2 nutrition bars, that’s it. It was heaven in India, diff stuff everyday, at least different sabjis, sambhars or chutneys...Miss home made food A LOT

Packing food for lunch:

WAS: Who knows what mom packs. Just grab the lunch box from the kitchen and run.

IS: I usually cook once in 2 days (evenings). So get the plain rice, mix it with whatever I have cooked or pulav or roti with sabji. Half the time I end up eating in the office food place with collegues.

On my way to College/Office:

WAS: I have got to be in the Train station before 7:10AM, so run all the way to station from my house (just 2 blocks away from my place)

All fun starts now. Board the train with my gang of friends.We used to have so much fun teasing and pulling each other’s leg. We will be the cynosure of all eyes in that train compartment. We talk about cricket, music, professors, movies, rumors, affairs(nothing to do with political affairs, this is something diff, hope you guys got it :P), "The Hindu" crosswords and almost everything under the sky. In parallel, continue scribbling something for assignment, practicals observation or record.

IS: Pretty lukewarm, listening to some music in my mp3 player (I love keeping myself updated with all recently released movie songs and pop albums)

First hour in the College/Office:

WAS: Unless otherwise we have something to be finished, its usually standing outside the classroom enjoying the beauty (Once again don’t mistake me, i m talking abt the beautiful construction of our department building and the surrounding lawn area [:p])

Out of blue, someone will come up with the assignment or class test we have that day. Get the papers from someone who has already finished. We have our own way of writing assignments. Copy the first 2 sentences and then skip next two and this goes on..Our only motto will be to make up a few pages, instead of not submitting anything.

Finishing it in the last minute is incomparable to anything. Whats the thrill in finishing early and simply waiting to submit the assignment?. Writing till the last minute is fun. We won't know exactly, whether we will make it or not. Thats the thrill i am talking about.:D

If it is some kinda class test, even more fun. Divide the unit into parts. Each one of us take a part. Read through all the main words in it. During the test time, share our knowledge [:P]...we are the true followers of the famous proverb "Coming together, sharing together, working together, succeeding together"

IS: Check emails(gmail/yahoo), orkut messages, cricinfo, sify, cnn and at last the office email id (see!! How sincere I am). Grab chocolate milk and get back to my desk and then check the calendar for the day’s deadlines and meetings.

Connect the earphones, start listening to some music (i have a pretty big collection of songs) and in parallel I do start some office work.. (Oh!! something is wrong!! I guess its fair to put it the other way around, Start working and in parallel listen to music :P I don’t want my sincerity towards work to be doubted)

Music and Work goes in parallel. Sometimes I would be so immersed in music that I have missed calls from my co-workers. I remember my mom asking me to do one work at a time. Not to listen to music while studying or writing stuff.But I have always managed to do all my work with music on (Let it be assignments in USC, work in office, writing emails, whatever it is). Music for me is like brain for any human body. Irreplaceable and without it, you are nothing. I listen to all kinds of music. Absolutely no bars with respect to music.

Remaining Pre - 'Lunch Session':

WAS: Once we are done with all our assignments and records for the day, next comes the newspapers and magazines phase. When I was a student, I have never missed a single magazine. Let it be The Week, India today, Frontline, Outlook India, Sportstar. you name it, I must have read them all. (All thanks to Ravi and his library membership)

In parallel, I do take notes. I am one of those guys who take notes properly (Very handy when I got to write stories in examination, usually just glance through them a day before examination and write own story in answer sheet) Believe me, it works, my stories reaped me very decent scores eighty-five odd)

During intervals, we walk all the way to the canteen to crunch/drink something, meet all other department friends over there, return back to the class some 10 minutes through the next period. Magazine session continues. In between, we do have the chit exchanges (mostly something teasing professor, rumors, gossips or plans for the weekend or some crap or the other), this was the one which kept us awake most of the time. Papers used on this chit exchanges are usually more than what we use for our class notes.

Last half an hour before the lunch is the deadliest time on the whole day. We will be very badly hungry, feeling sleepy and to peak it all, the professors tortures. I don’t know how the worst professors of our dept were assigned that hour every other semester. They always have these crappy lectures, class tests and stuff. It will be like testing our patience.

IS: Mostly we won’t have our project meetings in the mornings. So it’s more of staying in my room. Slowly I will start catching up with the project works, writing reports, emails and stuff.Similar to chit exchanges in college, we have this msn msgr chats here. Actually it is for exchanging the work related stuff. But we use it “effectively” for non-work related stuff. It’s similar to our college chit exchanges, over here its teasing abt our boss or some other colleague, sharing rumors, about some movies, what I did yday, what’s for lunch and stuff)

Morning session usually runs like crazy. By the time I start getting into my groove, it will be noon.

To be Continued .......

Please leave ur comments..Thanx :)