The 5th Semester

Except for ‘no company’ for dinner, it was a fine evening. Finding no identifiable faces at the food court, I sat on a ‘just-till-now’ empty table. Soon, I had my senior citizens all around me. As I couldn’t jus’ stay silent till the last morsel and leave dumb, I asked the most ‘frequently asked question’ a junior asks a senior- “Sir, how is 5th semester??”
First; he giggled and stopped abruptly. Then; gave that let-the-cat-in the bag- out- look to all around. Finally, raised his eyebrows and spoke-
“Are you interested in the railways?”
That was strangest ‘reply in question form’ I ever heard.
“Well, I …yes, I guess.” I said hesitantly.
He bent forward and as if repeating a rhyme and rhymed-
“Mangala
Ernakulam-Nizamuddin- 10:30pm and 2:00am
Trivandrum- Kurla 1:25am and 5:10am. . . ”
and continuing the unfinished giggle continued “Oh! Don’t you worry kiddo, you’ll figure that out, very soon.”

Exams get us crazy, each one of us, at some point or the other. Well, I admit; they drive me crazy at more than jus’ some point; in fact many.
In the 3rd semester; a year ago, as it seems, I went out for a jog in the rain jus’ before the Pathology exam to let out some steam.
It was so cold that I had goose bumps, flattened by falling drops. Cold stares from fellow mates added to the cold. Undecipherable stares from strangers under the umbrella and the ones enjoying the hot tea with no Pathology exam the next day, added further.

In the 4th semester, I bicycled off a few miles in the lightened dark headed towards Parkala road; not able to withstand the joy of the downhill ride, after the pathology exam.
Each of the times, I jumped off my study chair and put on my sneakers with my innocent roomy watching with his eyes wide open, to pump blood to the already pounding grey-white matter. While my good meticulous mates persevered on understanding- how and why a guy’s life can get so fucked up when his 9 and 22 chromosomes throw their long arms around each other, I took off a few minutes to breathe heavily and bathe in sweat all over. Sometimes, to think of nothing, I just think of what I was doing.
I moved my body from one foot to another, transiently suspending myself into the dense air, feeling it momentarily, with ear phones plugged into my ears to distract me from my own thumping heart, synchronously beating with another in the head. My hands were swinging along but opposite. My cramping legs still moved for my naked head to feel the chill in the still air I was pushing through.


In the 5th semester, I stayed home and continued to read, unbothered of my growing lard.

They are over. Today, I traveled a 100km to reach one of the most hyped Sunset view points of the Western ghats at the 14th hair-pin bend Manipal-Agumbe terrain, in an another attempt to discover myself considering the PET [Post Exam Trauma].
I sat there enthralled, rejuvenating myself.
I could see the perfect ball, I bet, made with one single perfect stroke, on the most diversified shades.
Now I know the obvious reasons why Lord Hanuman mistook it for an Orange.




Photo & company courtesy- Tejaswi




Masel(piece of good luck in German) for the upcoming.
p.s. Rock, we will.
#There is a reciprocal translocation of the part of the long arms of chromosome 22 to the long arms of chromosome 9 in the Philadelphia chromosome. It is associated with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).

#I did figure it out. The rhyme was the Udupi Railway Schedule. The signor must have heard the same rumbling snore of the night trains, time and again, that, curiousness took him further to know their names which pass by. Good for him, he did really burn the midnight fluorescent bulb. Good for me, I always had my 6 hour slumber ;D