End-Sem Days (and nights)

"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world". - Oscar Wilde.

Being an ardent believer in the above quote or rather being a self-confesssed hopeless indolent night owl, having embraced the quote as my mantra I took up the arduous task of completing my 1st semester university courses.
The preparation always starts with the struggle of moving my backside from the couch and pushing myself towards the study room. With sleepy eyes I reach for my phone - earphones plugged in - playlist - Motivation. The much needed factor. Having played the entire list , feeling motivated enough, I decide to plough through the impregnable fortress of reading material piled up dauntingly on my desk. Just then I hear the dinner call which my forever hungry gastronomical parts compel me to answer. So far my achievements for the day include- reading the newspaper, watching repeats of Big Bang Theory and listening to the Motivation playlist.

Dinner smoothly leads on to Dadagiri (Its Sourav Ganguly, people!) . I try to convince myself that the Googly riddles will activate my brain cells and help me study better. The guilt does not leave and neither do I from front of the TV set.

Around midnight as the world around me prepared to doze off, I arose - Sleeves rolled up, targets decided, to-do-list prepared. MISSION 1ST SEM. The plan seems fantastic!
Well, now. Time for some midnight snacks. The labour put in making that plan must not go unrewarded. Time to take a stroll around the sleeping household.

Its 1am already. Self-pep talk - Now I must get down to study.
But, not before googling How To Study When Under Time Crunch?

Having read a bunch of weird articles, turned maximum number of Google Search Result links purple, I decide to hit the books - studying comes much later.
I stare at my reading material with dyslexic eyes and thirty minutes later realise that it's not helping.I start reading it, marking it. Good going! I have finished reading one full handout. Yay me! Wait. There are five more left - err, from the same chapter.
#Realisation - This is why college kids miss school days. Sigh.

A look at the watch- 2:45am. -- Loo break. A short one, I promise myself.
Fifteen minutes later, I am back - ACDC playing Thunderstruck in my head.

The birds outside, who am I fooling, the crows outside have woken up and are doing what they do best - crowing. The crowing is interspersed with the occasional train horns from a station somewhere closeby. At one point, I romantically fancy that the minstrels of this dark sleepy hour have conspired to engage in a concert for me - the night watchman's whistle, the train, the crows and the ticking clock - (Yes, Pink Floyd, I know)

Romantic - or maybe lunatic. Whichever.

Its 4am already.Nevermind. Night is still young - party with the menacing handout of Andrew Heywood.An additional hour of drudgery with the sound effects still pouring music to my ears.The 5am azan, sounded from a mosque distant or close floats across . I close my eyes for a bit and stretch. After a 30 seconds debate in my head I opened the windows and disturbed two sleepy pigeons who flapped their wings and flew away. Romantic or lunatic? Whichever.
The cool December morning winds brush across my face. I like the chill. A strange energy. Sipping coffee while watching the neighbourhood wake up, the apparent peace only broken by a baby's shrill cries from a home nearby.
But maybe this is peace much adored where it is much better when broken by baby cries for food than cannon cries for human fodder.
Good Morning.