This summer was in one way the last holiday season of my life.. unless i have to drop out once more :)
We had to be on a summer training to get a feel of the real mechanical engineering. The training was as good as my knowledge of mechanical engineering(close friends should have realised that it was an intended pun). The end product was that it was over before i could learn a thing... just like most of my courses here at kharagpur ;)
But then this is not why I would label the two months at Ranchi for the summer training as "Prelude to reality". I hope that my "real" life is in no way similar to my study life.
The similarity lies in the fact that it was probably for the first time that i had to do things on my own... (I have a really good mom who has made me a spoilt brat n never let me do a thing on my own :) Well.. i have been in a few hostels now but then u dont need to worry about too many things there as well.
The first day, we (me and Anguli) had to search for a room to live! The first place we went to was like a stable.. (not exaggerating!) There was no fan in the room. A toilet that probably even animals wud not goto! And the source of water was a tube well! Saying no did not take a thought. We were paying for the hotel room so had to settle down to something fast.. Thankfully we got something that at that time seemed to be heaven... A room with an attached bath n kitchen(which of course we would never need) and a FAN :D.. This was heaven.....
(I hope this is not the way I go around searching for a house to live on the 'real' occasion.)
But not for long. The summer had come. Oh and even in this one we were supposed to drink water from a well! A well in a city like Ranchi! Well what can I say? btw, we had not realized that the room we were in had an asbestos roof!!! How did we not? The days were like hell. fell sick for 5 days :( .. lived in Jha's house for 2 days and Vijayan's for another couple. Enough was enough.. we had to change the place..
Thankfully we got a much better room. This was a house made of brick roof. Thank god :) But then there was no water to drink again! There was one tap... It was the worst multi-functional device.. It was supposed to provide water to bath, wash and drink... Shit... how could we... I mean how could anyone do that! Thankfully for Vijayan, we din have to spend too much on water... He used to bring some for us daily :)
(I hope that this is not the way my first/second place is in the 'real' world :))
I generally dont see too many movies. And specially if they are bad prints of English movies dubbed in Hindi. But the boys(preparing for JEE) living next door were the fans of such movies... I had to see movies that i would have died but seen. (and that too dubbed in Hindi!!!) Those were tough hours. Both Anguli and me could not say no as they were like kids. Atleast 5-6 years younger.
Now the food.. Generally Ranchi is a decent place. But unfortunately for us we were living in like say what Ghaziabad would be to Delhi. The whole area had one decent hotel. That was it. The other hotels were the ones where there is an earthen tandoor on the entance and the seats of wooden planks, with a couple of images of Gods and food costing you not more than 10 rupees per plate. I guess i dont need to say more. We at times had to remain hungry but would never dare enter one of these!
(I hope this is not the food I have to eat in the 'real' world)
This is all personal. Now the professional part. Well it was even worse. Not comfort wise. But if I get such a professional future, I would die out of suffocation, if not lack of earning/promotion. We had a 6 day week. We were supposed to reach at 8:30 in the morning. Do the training till 10:30. have a break and return at 1:00, work again and leave at 4:30. All this is so good. The first day we reached HEC at 10:30. Stayed there (if that is what training was supposed to be) for 1 hour and came back home. Every day the 'staying' hours (read working hours) kept going down :)
Every week the no of working days would keep falling. At the end of the training of 8 week, we had hardly worked for 2. That too if a day at work counted for 1 hour.
(I hope that this is not how my office is. That i hate it and decide to not go there.)
btw, have you ever seen a very bad movie with a good promo... I guess loads of them.
But have you ever ever ever seen a good movie with a bad promo? Please hope that this one is. Otherwise I will be of no use just 1 yr from now!
I hope life doesnt end before I learn something from it :)
PS: 1 This is not the whole story. This is only a scene from the whole novel.
2 Dont pity me. I am not wretched.
