A happy blogger will never make many posts simply because when you are happy, there is nothing to blog about. How many times can you keep saying that you are very happy with the way everything is going? So, in order to be a blogger, being angry with certain things in your life is essential. And thankfully, that’s very common. So, what am I angry with then?

I’m angry with the fact that during this time of the year, humans related to students who are into non-medical can’t think of anything other than studies. Every talk begins with studies and ends with studies. People who are meeting you first time will ask not ask you “How do you do?” They’ll ask you, “How were the board exams and what’s the agenda for the competitions?” During this time, your parents and close relatives will be in an extremely tense and volatile mood and will shout at you if they see you doing anything except studying. It doesn’t matter if you just finished the board exams. You don’t have a right to enjoy. In fact, you don’t have any right whatsoever. All your fundamental rights are taken away during this period and an emergency is declared by the centre, which can be either your father or your mother. All conversations which don’t have the magic words “studies”, “AIEEE”, “competitions” at least once in every sentence are barred.

This is what’s been happening at my house ever since the morning. I didn’t exactly meet my parents yesterday. I met them yesterday morning before my exam. Then they went for their work and I went for my exam. After my exam, I came home and went to my friend’s house. They weren’t home at that time. Then I came back only today morning and by the time I came back, they had gone to work. So, somewhere around 12, my dad called me. The conversation lasted three lines before I switched off. It was something like this:-

Dad – Hey, everything good? How was yesterday?
Me – It was good. How are you?
Dad – Fine. So, what about the crash course now?

And I switched off. Whenever someone mentions studies, I switch off. The conversation with mother went along the same lines except that it got rather dirty towards the end with her getting angry with my attitude and shouting at the top of her voice. Then a friend of mine text messaged me:-

Friend – How was your exam?
Me – Fine.
Friend – So, what about the competitions then?
Me – I don’t know. Parents will make me join a crash course soon.
Friend – Are you okay? You don’t seem your bubbly self anymore.

I couldn’t reply to that because I had no replies. But I was pretty happy that he managed to realize that I was not very happy with the way things were going. But he destroyed the conversation after that by trying to tell me that I should join a crash course or test series soon as it was getting too late.

Finally, when I was getting ready to go get admitted into the crash course, another friend called:-

Friend – Hey, what you doing?
Me – Nothing.
Friend – So, joined a crash course yet?
Me – Yea, gonna go do that. Bye.

So, you see, it’s not only parents and relatives, but also friends. They don’t have anything to talk about except studies and that really pisses me off. But the icing on the cake was yet to come.

I went to the nearby departmental store to buy a packet of potato chipps. Instead of going for my usual Uncle Chipps, I decided to go for not one, but two packets of Cheetos. So I told the departmental store owner to write that down in the account. He looked at me and said:-

Guy – Arre waah, aaj tera flavour kaise change ho gaya?
Me – Bas waise hi.
Guy – I know, ab crash course ka season hai na!
Me – Yeah, right. Uncle aap toh genius ho yaar.
Guy – Aur, exams kaise gaye?
Me – CBSE waale toh theek ho gaye.
Guy – I heard the Physics paper was tough.
Me – Haan sab keh toh yahi rahe hain.
Guy – Tune BITS ka form bhara hai?
Me – Nahi
Guy – Kyun?!
Me – I don’t think uske liye jitney chahiye utne aayenge.
Guy – Kya..80% bhi nahi aayenge?
Me – Lagta toh nahi.
Guy – Matric mein kitne the?
Me – 83%
Guy – Achcha.

I guess he finally gave up because he figured I was a useless not interested in studies kind of a person. The fact that this guy never used to talk to me earlier deserves a mention. One day though, I took my AIEEE entrance form to his shop so I could put an angootha on it. I didn’t have a stamp pad at home. And when he realized I was an engineering student, he changed completely. Now he talks to me every time I visit the shop because his son is also doing engineering currently and he believes it is his moral responsibility to advice me. The parents of every engineering student believe that it’s their dharma to advice an engineering enthusiast. Looking at the number of engineering students in India, if every parent decides to advice me, it’s gonna be nothing short of child abuse.

Talking of child abuse, make sure you check out Elaan, NGO founded in 2004 as part of an endeavor to encourage dialogue on the issues of child sexual abuse (CSA) and incest. The official blog of Elaan is here. I came across Elaan through Amyth. He has decided to put blogging to a good use and I am merely doing my bit to spread it. So make sure you check it out and if you think you feel for it, you can also talk about it in one of your posts. The more people we can reach, the better it gets.