I have found Happiness
It was this time that I spent a whole 8 days continuously at Kalu Sarai, not coming back to my home for the weekend. Now, I am back and I remember how these days went by…
Thursday, November 27 - Friday, December 5
The Situation: We have our first All India Test Series exam on Sunday, the 30th.
The Scene: I have decided not to take a look at Calculus; for I had just given a Phase Test on the topic last Sunday. Have decided to study Mechanics seriously; for our Physics faculty has assured us that reading (or rather learning by heart) his notes will lead us to score good in the exam. Kept Chemistry for the last hour revision; as that’s what is enough to score decently in the subject (in my opinion, of course). Dushyant and Agam are just studying Physics. And Manoj is ready with almost everything and is quite desperate to play cricket.
Here comes Ashish to our room while Agam was off for gym. Manoj asks him to visit us at night after 10’o clock to play cricket with him. I get bewildered and ask him rather rudely not to come and play as I get disturbed because of their play. He leaves. Afterwards, Manoj tells me that I shouldn’t have misbehaved with Ashish and asked him directly to not come to our room. I feel bad about my behaviour.
Some time later, I fix my eyes on a little book titled ‘Your Happiness is in You’ by S. Devaraj which was lying for many days in our room. The co-incidence: the book was gifted to Ashish on his Farewell for class X. I start reading it to get my mood into right track. The book tells me about the happiness that lies within and how to achieve it. After reading about 40 pages, I decide to apologize to Ashish and do so. Yeah, I feel happy now.
A new experience (with eggs): It’s 29th, the election day at Delhi; so almost the whole of Kalu Sarai is on holiday. Yes, our tiffin service too :(. We call the tiffin service and they tell us that they are sending each of their customers breakfasts that day and there won’t we any lunch or dinner. So, we enjoy a new kind of experience at Kalu Sarai. We manage with tea and patties for the lunch. At night, we (me, Dushyant and Manoj; Agam is sleeping) sat out for something good to eat as dinner for we have our AITS exam the next day. Roaming from here to there, Dushyant and Manoj settle on boiled eggs for dinner; I keep on waiting for them to finish for I don’t eat eggs. So, we move again and set out for IIT Gate where, they say, happens to be a parathe wala where I can satisfy my appetite. So we are here and I see an overpriced list of parathas of various varities. My friends are interested in those omelettes and me, I am watching them enjoying the so-called holiday dinner. It’s out of control of my patience now (and hunger), I too order an omelette and give up my long term (since birth) record of being a pure vegetarian.
The AITS day: It’s the AITS evening, and, as usual, I am cursing myself for doing silly mistakes and bad exam strategy. I am finished with ‘the Happiness book’ this night. The Happiness book is showing its effects and I am improving my communication with people and have been able to settle differences with Dushyant with a usual talk on the walk. I am a lot happier than before.
The Dream: On 4th, I go to submit my IIT JEE 2009 form at IIT Delhi campus. I submit the form and get amazed to see that I actually forget to darken the circles for the Mother Tongue field, the gentleman at the submission counter corrects my mistake and signs me the _Acknowledge Card. _I walk out of IIT with a burning desire to see the IIT Computer Sci. Lab’s Infrastructure and big dreams of how my life will change if I join IIT…
-Kartik