....times were changing

I've been wanting to say this for quite a while now... but probably never got the right forum to express it. This blog, I guess is a nice place to do so.

I have just completed my 3rd year in Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. Presently I am doing my summer training in Navi Mumbai. The total duration is of 2 months of which half is already over.

Was that so difficult to say that I needed a forum and all that... Of course not, that's not what I intended to say. But I think an introducton to my present whereabouts would be necessary anyway.

When I used to be in school, (I will avoid the phrase "When I used to stay at home") I always wanted to be independent. Being an only child I was always the centre of the universe as far as my parents were concerned. I somehow did not like that state of affairs too much. At least some things about it. I despised having to go to sleep at proper times, especially when I was nearing the end of a thrilling book or movie. I did not like being bossed over all the time.

I slowly developed this feeling that if I were to study in a hostel away from home, many of my woes would automatically go away. When I got admitted to college I knew it was near home but still quite 'far' from it, that is as 'far' as distance was concerned. I do not remember quite clearly what my feeling were at that moment even though it was just 3 years back. It was definitely a mixed feeling. I was sad at leaving home, leaving a beautiful neighbourhood, leaving a few things half-done or not done well. But I was leaving them.

And I was also eager to leave - I wanted a change. I wanted some adventure. Something bigger than just studies and expectations of people and routinely falling sick. I somehow thought that with the freedom that I would get in college, these issues would get solved. And so it did. At least for the first semester. It was easy going. Making friends was easy. Time sailed through. everything I touched, almost literally turned into gold. But then this otherwise beautiful
dream was awaken by exams, tension, illness, hurt ego-s, friends behaving otherwise.

And then came responsibility.

I remembered when I was at school I always fell sick the night before the last exam. This started here also. Only here there was no mother to spoon feed you to the exam.

I was free. I could wake up till as late as I wanted to. In fact I regularly remained awake till the break of dawn with nobody to force me to sleep. Which left classes either unattended or attended in half sleep.

I could sleep those extra 15 minutes in the morning. But who would wake you up after that?

I could get away without bathing for a day. I could skip it for months altogether. There would be nobody to care.

I could bunk labs as I wished. But could I. Most people did not do that. But again, some did.

..... times were changing.

As someone put it, "You can oversleep peacefully only if someone elder to you tells you its alright to do so."

But then who was there elder to us to tell us... We were growing..................older.