The things engineering has given me and the ones it never got from me

For starters, i have completed my engineering, to my own surprise, in a duration of 4 years. The thing is the profs at my college always thought i could never live upto their expectations and vice versa: they were profs after all. My first semester drove right by and literally caught me napping as i landed with 4 kts out of 5 subjects. That seemed to open my eyes a bit, but then again i can't give upon my sleep so easily. How i managed to clear 8 out of 9 papers in my very next attempt remains an insoluble mystery till date. What's more surprising is how i managed to avoid further kts after that in all my sems, all but one [5 th sem=1 kt.] Engineering has given me a lot of sleepless nights, thanks not just to studies and the assignments but also to the amazing revelries i've spent with my engg friends. Yeah. Apart from the shite loads i had to study, no matter what time of the year; the crazy and, at times, mathematically improbable number of sheets to copy my assignments from, and the uninviting sight of vivas and the profs affiliated with them, engineering has also given me the one thing i could never do without-my beloved friends. The good times i've had while in engineering such as the night outs, late night drives, stay overs, booze, rock shows, and the works, i attribute not to engg but solely to my once sober-friends. The four years we've spent together was quite an eventful period; the profs, too, would vouch for that as we made sure they too had an equally eventful time-we are quite just in that aspect. All in all, i've had a blast in engg and created a small one in my chem lab once as i mixed sodium with water, much to the dismay of only the lab assistant; the prof couldn't say a word as i had proven him wrong since he'd always say- aap toh lab mein kooch karte hi nahi. Now talking about the things engg never got from me. Well i forgot to tell you that i suffer from partial amnesia, which i only realised when i was in my first year. Or was it the third? So i'm guessing i'll write about what i could have given back only when my memory serves me right again. Didn't get me to write that at least. TSEC rocks, or so they say.

the first attempt [heartfelt]

My life begins on Monday, just like the rest of us, but I am always left with a feeling of longing for more everytime my week starts. I wish, sometimes, that life came to a standstill and I could live in that particular moment, for a lot of such moments. Moments such as the ones when I am with my friends taking a walk by the sea, when I see the clock on a sunday morning and it reads 10 a.m., when I am reading a nice book sitting at my balcony, only to name a few. I think my problem has always been that at most times I have expected for more, wished for more; not that I don't appreciate all that I have, but I always feel that certain moments in life are so priceless that time around such moments should stop moving so as to relish a limitless joy just staying in them. My philosophy in life, based on what I've seen, what I've learnt and what I've experienced, is that every man's day comes: one just had to wait and watch how big that day is going to be. A beggar's day would be one when he has enough money to own a hut on the street where he would beg for alms during the day time and sleep on during the night time; a corporate's day would be one when he would earn himself a much-wanted contract. So it doesn't matter how big the day is. The wait to see how big it would be could help you to move forward, but eventually during the journey called "life" one would realise the importance of the feeling of achievement rather than the achievement itself. I believe, in life, every experience, and not just the happy ones, ought to be remembered and given their due importance, because it's not just the good times that make you the person you presently are but the tough times contribute equally to that cause. We, selfishly, tend to remember only our good times--the ones we cherish, seldom remembering those tough times which have been quite elemental in shaping up the character we possess today in our lives. Although there have been times when I'm down, times when I think I have been kicked the hardest amongst all by life, yet I've always respected and loved everything life has given to me. We've often heard the term "rat-race" and found it easy at all times to relate it with our present day lives, but the way i see it life is more of a "dog struggle". We've been living lives, quite literally, like dogs for quite some time now. Each day we go to our workplaces, most often than not, unhappy with the way things have been going there; we travel in trains daily knowing deep down that we can never consider ourselves completely safe, and even after knowing that we cannot do much about it as we have to earn our daily bread and feed hungry mouths. No doubt we earn well at the end of the day, but do we realise that each passing moment in time is also one passing out of our lives?