My Routine

Life in college (I’m not referring to days before exams) mostly falls into a routine that seems duller by the day. I wake up to the sound of the commonly reviled alarm and go to class after my morning rituals- picking up my copy of the newspaper on the way to the department being one! Mostly, the slew of lectures begins at 8.30am. Considering engineering college standards, this is an early hour. So, the class strength being low in the first hour or students’ dragging themselves into the classroom, with unkempt hair and heavy eyelids twenty or even thirty minutes after the lecture has commenced and teachers frowning at them are not uncommon sights. Trust me, there are teachers who wonder why the students are so inactive in the first hour, which is supposedly the time when we should be alert! After a couple of hours of taking notes (or at least pretending to) comes the eagerly awaited interval which I spend trying to do the crossword in the newspaper with my bench-mates! After a lot of discussion and searching of the dictionary, we fill up a few (read: around five) grids. By now, it’s time for the next two lectures and then, lunch break. I then cycle back to the hostel to have the awful food and rest for a while, or try finishing off any pending homework. On most days, we have the 1.30pm lecture, which most of us aestivate in due to the Trichy climate (and NOT because of the “heavy” lunch we had- like some teachers assume :P)! At two, we have the ostracized two-hour power cut every day. So, our labs timings are now from 4 to 6pm or even later. Honestly, I wish the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board officials would be a bit more considerate and reschedule the power cuts to a more pleasant time of the day. On days when we don’t have lab, I try to find some means to kill time during the power cut (because sleeping is out of question). The evenings just fly away while chatting with friends, laughing over the day’s anecdotes (trust me, that's what keeps most of us going!) or writing the practical record or some assignment. Oh, and at 8 we have roll call. Considering the population of our hostel, it has become a half - an - hour- event nowadays. Well then its back to the record or assignment and then finally sleep. “Tomorrow is a new day” has never seemed more ironical for it begins with the all-familiar alarm!