Month: May 2017

My fondest memories from my youth (if I can now call it that), are the times I spent flying. I was barely one-year-old when my parents decided that the NRI-kid needed to fly to his hometown, and I travelled with the ‘rents every year to India ever since. Except when I “graduated” from Higher Kindergarten (HKG), and they asked me what gift I wanted, I told them I wanted to fly to India alone.

Ever since, I’ve travelled on the Unaccompanied Minor program of my favourite Airline, Emirates, and on numerous airlines shuttling me on the same route: DXB-BLR-PNQ-BLR-DXB. Year after year. Enough, that the old Bangalore HAL airport became muscle memory. I puked every time in the exact same spot in that airport. And it was always because I overate the night before departure.

But I digress. I shall tell you about more positive things about flying and airports. On my first Unaccmompanied Minor trip, I asked the air hostess to show me the cockpit – an audacious request that she was kind enough to oblige with. Soon I wanted to be a pilot. Then I got glasses and some rumour my mother put into me killed my dreams merely because I no longer naturally possessed 20/20 vision. (Though I am now part of Vision 2020 – whatay! [if you didn’t get that joke I graduate in 2020. Sorry])

Then I wanted to be an aeronautical engineer at one point.

You get my flight/drift. Planes fascinate me.

So flying on my birthday to Pune was pretty awesome. It was full nostalgia. Alone, at the airport. Not a care in the world. Chilling. Window shopping.

Till I saw Subway.

Now, mind you. I was very, very hungry.

My stomach spoke to me. “Buy the Subway”, it said. “You’ll demolish a Veggie Delite footlong easily”, it said.

Then the Subway slogan S became a snake and said, “It’s your birthday. You desssserve a Sssssub.”

So I bought a footlong.

And I was lost. Time slowed in my head, the extra olives, and Southwest sauce merging into a concoction of absolute delight, tickling my tastebuds and awakening my senses.

I bit into the Parmesan Oregano and the tomatoes and cucumbers filled vacuums in my stomach I didn’t even know existed.

Music played, people cheered and broke into a flashmob as my world spun round and round and upside down.

And then the footlong was done.

So I wrapped my Subway and put it into a trashcan.
(Cause I’m an environmental conscientious kinda guy, bro)

And continued to window-shop.

Somewhere, I heard a flight boarding to Nagpur.

I saw Chutney Cheese sandwiches, and for the first time, rejected their thought – to preserve the aftertaste of my Subway.

Then I thought I should check the time. I was surprised my flight hadn’t boarded yet.

Then time sped up.

Horns blared. Whistles were blown. Steel sounds were made. *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*

I sprinted faster than Usain Bolt.

Hell, no McLaren P1 could overtake me.

I ran to the wrong gate.

Perspiration. Tears.

My Subway sandwich flopped in my belly like Pi flopped on his boat.

I cursed my sandwich for it’s deliciousness and not-so-fat-free-ness.

I ran.

I reached Gate 1 at 3.44.

Boarding closed at 3.45.

The lady saw me and asked, “Mr. Rao?”

I smirked in my head. That was the first time a lady knew my name before an awkward introduction.

“Yysysesees.”, I replied.
And realized I botched things up.

I was a minute away from missing my flight on my birthday.

And from the PA system blaring out “Mr. Rao, please report to Gate #1”.

Thank God for my watch.

I blame Subway. I still love you though, Veggie Delite.

I hath completed my second year of University, and that feels fantastic. It’s so rewarding to know two years of this journey are done, because I can look back and recall most moments I’ve spent at law school – and I’m pretty happy about what this place has given me so far. Although I have my trepidations about becoming a third-year & getting into that dangerous “middle batch”, I’m very excited about what the next three years will bring. I look forward to the uncertainty. All I want to do is learn.

I’ve had a pretty swell day. The exam went great, but the post-exam celebrations were lovely. A couple of us went out for pizza, chilled far too long at an ice-cream/dessert parlour, watched Fast & Furious 8, and consumed too many calories for a single day. But, hey, if you don’t consume the calories to burn them off, then where’s your motivation, eh?

Watching Fast & Furious 8 with my batchmates reminded me of where I’ve been when I’ve watched each of the movies in the series, and the joy that the movies have given me. While I admit that the plotline has several holes, and the action/graphics set overwhelming, it’s so nice to see cars with modifications – and the camera depicting different modifications like “Nitrous” on a particular car. As a car junkie, and a general motorsport buff, the only other time I get that thrill is while playing Need for Speed: Most Wanted. On the whole, this movie has more similarities to 6 than any other, for me: I chilled with friends, somewhere around exam-time, with very few cares in the world. Ate lots of caramel and cheese popcorn, and had an all round good experience.

Today was also my first time in a mall in Gujarat – after studying here for two whole years. And AlphaOne/AhmedabadOne did not disappoint. It’s pretty much a Gujarati version of Phoenix MarketCity: the layout is the exact same. The marked difference is that I don’t need to window shop here.

I celebrate my nineteenth birthday tomorrow, and the first (I think), I’m spending away from my parents (for atleast half a day). It’s relieving not to have exams on my birthday, nice to be around friends, and I’m very, very eager to get to Pune and kickstart my summer holidays.

There’s so much to get done. I have a lot of plans for this summer, and I look forward to sharing my escapades and adventures with you.

It’s been a whole year since I had the experience of a lifetime in my first year and one that defined what my year was. Absorbing that fact, today, took me a lot of time. But you don’t need to hear about that.

Tomorrow, my first set of University juniors write their last exam in their first year. All these time things make me extremely nostalgic. I didn’t give my first-year end-semester exams & opted to head home after my moot, but, it’s crazy to think that you’re done with first-year, isn’t it?

I remember being super pumped that I was done with 1/5th of this journey that Law school is. Over the course of my summer break, through multiple conversations, I figured out that first-year really exceeded most of my expectations. I was very hopeful of continuing/ensuring the longevity of that sentiment, and I still am, today. If it didn’t for you, do not fret. You still have four years left. Something here, within these grey walls will captivate your imagination unlike anything else ever has before – and you’ll be better off for it.

I’ve also come to realise that I take myself very seriously on this blog. I am not as serious in real life. Kindly do not judge me by my preaching/words of wisdom I seem to promote. Also please remember none of what I say here is legal advice. I’ll charge you for that someday.

In other news, I have my final second-year examination in two days. And then I turn nineteen years old! This week should be supremely fun.

I’m very eager for summer. There’s so much to learn and do outside of Gujarat, but only 47 days in which to accomplish those things.

Maybe I’ll even take a nap. Who knows?

Today started off like a morning most people dream of. I got out of bed, exercised, had a bath, came back, read news on the Internet, then ate breakfast, and got down to studying.

Until I felt tired around noon.

A check on my vitals and I figured out why. A tablet and 6 hours of sleep later, I was back to normal functioning. Which was good, I’m grateful for the sleep – but it annoyed me ever so slightly that I missed out on the studying.

See, I tackle/propose to tackle my studying with some method. There’s an Excel sheet on my desktop that reads “Exam Timetable” devoted to how much time I spend per subject. Accounting for my general (un)productivity, I give myself more time than I usually need to cover modules.

The sleep now means I still have a good part of my portion left for an examination that is on Monday.

But no stress. We will stress only if we have not studied and the exam is in less than 10 minutes. Then we will stress.

Maybe we will cry like we did in 7th Grade when we thought we failed a Geography test because we didn’t study for it (but miraculously passed). But we shall not stress.

Another excellent thing to report from Gandhinagar. I rediscovered Sidin’s blog. Now, some of you may ask: who is Sidin? Why do you address him by his first name? Are you friends? Is he remotely important?

To those questions, I present to ye his blog link: http://www.whatay.com

Go, read, be entertained by some wit. Also, see if you can catch aTEDx talk of his regarding skepticism.

I discovered his writing around 2011 – when my aunt gifted my mother his debut novel. It has a joke on every page and made me laugh like only comic books did back then. I remember completing the book in a sitting.

I ran this blog on Blogspot back then and vaguely remember attempting to mimic his writing style by being conversationally humorous. I failed gloriously but understood how tough it is to portray comedic imagery, if we can call it that.

A couple of things: I have a terrible sense of humour, say every pun that I think of, and occasionally am able to make people around me laugh. It’s quite satisfying. At one point, I dabbled with the thought of attempting stand-up comedy (at an open mic) – my fear of getting a tomato thrown on my jeans scared me away, so for now, that remains an unfulfilled dream. Maybe next year.

Every time I write though, and I actively try sneaking in some form of humour in these posts, I come to realise that it is tough to belt out jokes when you aren’t feeling ‘in the mood’ to be funny, so to speak. Second, you realise that some references work only in your head, and are based so much on personal perception and experience, that it is likely the joke will not make anybody laugh – since it is not a generalised experience or view.

Which means that people who successfully create pieces of humour: stand-up comedians, writers, etc, are able to tap into the general experience, and common themes of a general experience, add their own personal views and create nuanced imagery that makes people laugh.

That’s what makes Sidin cool.

But chuck that – in addition to being supremely funny on the Internet, he writes Cricket pieces for Cricinfo and pieces for the Mint. That’s something I admire and aspire to reach with this blog or some form of writing someday: to be able to write about things I love on multiple platforms.

I squirrelled away from answering questions, so: I don’t know why I address him by his first name, I think it’s because of his Twitter(?), no we aren’t friends, and yes, he’s a little important in terms of the inspiration he’s been behind me writing a whole lot more. A small bit of appreciation and doff of the writing hat to you, Sire.

The only negative to all of this is, a that he supports Arsenal, but I can forgive that, methinks.

I still have my entire portion left to study.

It’s infuriating not knowing things. I understand that this has begun to become a recurring theme in my blogposts, but this is literally keeping me awake on a Friday night.

I’m not proud to admit it or anything, but I didn’t have an opinion on a lot of things before I came to Law school. As a 12th Grader, I always thought I knew what big words like feminism or feminist theory meant, and I thought I understood nihilism and cultural relativism – essentially abstract concepts, really well. Merely because I was able to slip these words into conversation with individuals who had a similarly flawed understanding of these phrases, and therefore fed into the comfortable cycle my brain got accustomed to: “Yeah, you got this”.

As an MUNer, I thought I understood the canons of pre-emptive self defense and armed attack, and also had a belief that I was quite well-read on the Middle East. In hindsight, I now realize that a lot of my views were based on relativism, contained perhaps a little more nuanced knowledge than the average person, and fed off of popular opinions on Facebook.

When an Indian lady was denied abortion in Ireland, I thought, “Hey, that’s incorrect”, especially considering she passed away, but, my brain never stepped up further beyond that – to look at a bigger picture regarding the abortion debate. I supported sentiment my friends carried. But that was it.

I’ve never been one to use social media to express opinion-based sentiment, nor am I a terribly outspoken/activist kind of individual, which also enabled me to cop out of conversations and discussions pretty easily – a small statement in support or against a particular view, and I was done.

Today, the Supreme Court passed a verdict on the Nirbhaya case, confirming the death sentence for all 4 individuals who were accused and convicted by the Sessions Court & the High Court.

This sparked a lot of sentiment in my head. Principally because I could recount that I was a 9th Grader when the incident took place, and I’m now at the end of my 2nd year of law school – marking nearly 5 years since that cold night in Delhi. This raised questions of delayed justice for me.

But beyond that, I realized how little I knew about the death penalty: that, after studying courses on the Indian Penal Code/Criminal Procedure Code/Constitutional Law-I & II. I realized how futile my second year had been in terms of introducing me to the concept of the death penalty, though 3 subjects of the 4 I mentioned above had massive scope to do so. The post regarding the education system is a different one, but it made me question what I felt about the death penalty.

So, naturally, I logged on to Twitter. Found out what popular sentiment was. Read through the tweets trending on #Nirbhaya.

Then I downloaded the judgment and read through it. It kept me hooked, right till the end.

But I wasn’t convinced. I had hoped to gain a little more insight on my views regarding the death penalty by reading through the case, but it didn’t really help me. So I read some more.

And some more.

Until 2AM in the morning, when I remembered I had an exam to study for.

The point is, I still have no opinion on the death penalty. I know the argument for – slightly, and the argument against – again, slightly, but I haven’t firmed up which side of the table I’d prefer dining with.

This would have been okay, in 2012, for me. As a 9th Grader, I don’t think I would have cared as much. But I think it’s despicable now, and I hate myself for not spending more time thinking about this issue.

So there, I’ll admit it. If there’s a debate on the death penalty, I’m likely to sit in a room filled with intellectual individuals in silence, as they debate.

This is very annoying, and my list of summer reads has expanded by a couple of Indian and American judgments, in addition to a book by Albert Camus.

Should you have any recommendations to solve this information gap that exists in my brain: between society sentiment and my own worldview, kindly help. My conscience and my soul will be eternally grateful.

On that note, I should go study.

 

This is the first time I have written a draft to a piece I was going to post on this blog. The ambition – when I started this blog, my sole purpose was that I would ensure unfiltered content. My brain, to my hands, to you. Why this was important to me, was because I wanted to ensure a very conversational tone, and stop being high-snooty, secret-y about who I really am. It’s very easy, in University, and in life, in general – to put a mask on, prevent people from digging through your layers. I didn’t quite enjoy doing that with people. The blog became my haven.

This draft, therefore, is an important step back. It’s still very raw, very unedited, but this story is very personal, and therefore, I thought it best to take the time to write it out – see what it develops into, and then see if I want to publish this in parts or as a single piece. (Edit: It’s a single piece)

I needed a year like this in my life: one that threw up continuous challenges, got me to question my passions, my ambitions, my outlook toward things – re-evaluate and re-assess if you will. I needed it because I was very enthusiastic in my first year. As a fresher, the whole experience of University was so fresh, I loved it. This year has seen me grow as an individual, and I feel that, honestly.

If you’ve read 230 odd words of an introduction, you might as well read through the rest of it, by the way. I’m not going to structure this like mad, but I’m hoping to be able to expose my emotions as best as I can. This is a good time to write this piece because I have a week of second year left, after which, when I go home, I won’t care enough to write this – of this sentiment, I am certain.

I was so scared when I came to this place the first time. Just moving away from home to University, was extremely scary. I wasn’t homesick, as much as I was nervous of floating into the crowd, and becoming one among several products of this place. Especially since the batch size here is almost four times as the NLS, I was sceptical about whether I would be able to forge my own path – or whether I’d get stuck into the trappings of a system and become formulaic in my approach to things – something I vehemently despised.

More importantly, what I was very worried about, was that I wouldn’t know everybody I shared a campus with. Over 5 years, one individual in Law school sees 9 batches pass out. What was enjoyable about school was that there was some form of connection with everyone you wore orange and blue to school with, and I wasn’t sure the same could be said here. With 9 batches, 200-odd people per batch, what I told myself, very naively, was that I would strive to connect with as many individuals as I could over the next few years. Only because I was in such a phenomenal atmosphere, and there was so much to learn from people around me – especially considering we all shared the same space. Differing perspectives, different views. A small goal for me in my first month was to pick up the names of all my batchmates and at least attempt being comfortable sharing a meal with every single individual in my batch. It was a start.

As the year progressed, however, I realised I didn’t know the names of so many of my fifth years or didn’t have any connection with several of them, and I understood I had gone into a spiral of failing at one of the things I really wanted to do in college. Meet people.

So I vowed, over summer, that I would do so with the new incoming batch. Become an individual people could talk to on campus, about anything, everything – because it is so important to have someone here you can talk to, especially in first year, when everything is strange, unknown. Again, more importantly, gain a bit of knowledge from my “juniors” – the first time I’d ever use those words.

While setting out on this ambitious endeavour, I failed to account for a couple of things. First, I forgot I had multiple excuses and commitments that had already been planned for my first month as a second-year. Why do I call them excuses? Because, in hindsight, that what they are. I was busy enough in my first month to avoid a lot of interaction with the first years, especially when they just came into college. By interaction, I literally mean just getting to know people. Second, I failed to realise that there existed public opinion and a notion of cliques that had formed within my batch within the first year. This, I understood over a period of time. Perception is very key, and can hugely affect the way people interact with you in this place. Especially since we share the same space – everyone has an opinion about everyone. Law students are judgemental – is that a surprise?

What this meant, was that I barely knew any first years in the first month. I soon interacted with a couple as the months progressed, but I then sunk into my moot (something I’ll discuss later on), but that meant that I withdrew into a rabbit hole. While I now have a few friends from the junior batch, there aren’t as many I’m comfortable with, or know.

Is this a regret? Yes.

Why? Because I missed an opportunity to know people. And that’s a sinking feeling, especially when there have been multiple opportunities. I’m an extrovert by nature, but this is one of the things that I see in my second year that is reflective of introverted tendencies.

But it’s okay to be an introvert! Why regret it? Of course it’s okay to be an introvert, I recognize that. But that’s not who I was when I came to this college, and I don’t want to change the extroverted part of my nature. It’s something I quite enjoy.

My mother often jokes that she worries that I have no friends. Now she has more reason to believe it’s true.

So yes, in summary, I’m disappointed with how I didn’t chill/hang with my juniors. It’s a learning though. I still have three years with them – hopefully that changes.

Let’s talk about other things, for this is becoming a very long piece.

Let’s talk about what happened after my first month in college. Moot.

For new readers, what is a moot and how do I feel about mooting? It is a simulation of courtroom proceedings where law students argue a fake case with real law and pretend to be lawyers which we will be in five years. I love it. It’s fun, and I like the thrill of learning things I didn’t know before.

This year, I participated in a fancy moot. It is fancy because it attracts lots of worldwide participation, is on Public International Law, and is very competitive. I committed to participating in the moot somewhere around June or July, I can’t quite remember. Let’s call this moot Barbie.

So, here’s the thing about this moot. It was a dream of mine before Law school happened, and I was attached to it from before I decided to study Law, so I possess some form of emotional/sentimental attachment to this moot.

As I mentioned earlier, it is extremely competitive, and sees cutthroat participation in India to escape the shackles of this country and go show off argumentative skills in America. Crazy no? Except only 4 teams go. Last year, my University was one of the 4, it was great.

In first year, over the course of my previous moot, what I developed was this love for the art of mooting. I enjoyed doing it, and therefore, participated actively and became very enthusiastic about the entire thing. The amount I enjoyed it is more than I’ve ever loved any other activity, and I worked hard toward it, under some very capable guidance. It taught me lessons I’m carrying with me for the rest of my life, but changed a lot of my attitude towards “work”. I stopped being lazy, as I once was, which was something even Board exams couldn’t shake off in the 12^th. Eventually, we did well at the moot – an extremely satisfying feeling.

What changed this year? This time around, I loved it so much, I wanted to enjoy the process of participating in Barbie, but on a crazy level, for the first time, I participated in Barbie wanting to win Barbie. That was the sole focus for me. Winning. Making it big.

This, compared to the first-year that just wanted to enjoy things. That change in attitude made a marked difference to the way I prepared. I zoned out of everything else over the course of preparation, and immersed myself in Barbie completely. We lost.

While I had enjoyed the process loads and learned a lot, because I approached it with the mentality of having to win, the loss was tough. I had failed in winning over Barbie, which was tough to take in.

It’s taken a while to get over.

What did I learn out of this? I’m not a guy that cares about winning. As long as I’m having fun, all that matters to me is doing my best. I’ve never really been a “winner”, in terms of getting medals, and other such things. This doesn’t mean I’m not competitive. I am. But, hey. What’s the point in winning if you don’t enjoy it? That’s the ethos behind the way I’ve approached things. The small change in attitude meant such a massive change in my work – it was crazy.

In the aftermath of Barbie, I’ve become a bit of a recluse. I find work to keep me busy, because I don’t want to talk to too many people. A lot of this is down to the fact that I am worried that I will combust at some point. This isn’t an emotion I have felt before, so I dealt with it by finding other things to do – and that worked out pretty well.

What I’ve gotten figured out is that I really want to win Barbie, but I love her too much so I’m not going to let the winning bit guide every fibre of my being, if I ever get to participate for Barbie again.

What else has happened this year?

I haven’t attended as many classes as I did in the first year. When I first came into the University, I promised myself I’d loot this place for all the knowledge and information I could extract out of it. A large part of that, for me, was in attending classes and taking down notes. This year I had a lot of attendance exemptions, moot work, and other Committee/Internship work. I missed a few classes because I slept through the day, just to catch up on sleep – this happened to me post Barbie a lot.

That sucked. Again, as an individual, I hate relying on second-hand information, so having to scavenge for notes is  not a process I enjoy, and learning from someone else’s notes feels like I’m cheating myself – I question what I did the entire year while staring at someone else’s beautifully crafted notes.

Additionally, it’s a horrible feeling to know that you haven’t listened to people attempt to drill some Law into you. When you like something, you try to take it in, however you can. Think of drugs and the extent people go for those – injections, inhalation, digestion – lots of mechanisms, just to get the drug into your body. I feel the same way about the Law. I love it, and I really just wanted to attend classes and be as excited by every lecture as Rancho was in his first class in 3 Idiots.

I attach a lot of blame on that for how non-interactive and set in stone classes have become this year, but I think a lot of this is down to me as well.

That’s something I hope to return to again next year. The pain of waiting to see if your exemptions have cleared is not something I quite enjoy, especially one day before examinations actually begin. Unnecessary tension.

A lot of negative emotions, as you can see, so far. I’ve changed too much from who I was in the first-year, and this second-year version of me is not a part of me I’ve enjoyed, or been completely comfortable with.

Let’s talk about positives now.

I’ve developed and forged a few strong friendships. In the time that I sunk into a rabbit hole, a few individuals did reach out to ensure that I stayed sane through everything, and that I didn’t lose too much of who I was in the process of working. It isn’t something they were successful in, but I found out who I had become attached to in this University. Just a bit of comfort out of the year.

I’ve taken on a couple of challenges: like this writing thing. And they manage to brighten up even the worst days I have over here. Which is a satisfying feeling.

And I’ve discovered myself.

In a very weird way, I figured out some more principles I love about life, and the way I approach life. See, what I now appreciate, truly, is the fact that I know that I’m not being true to myself, and who I am, if I do things the way I did them through the course of the year. That’s something I’m grateful for.

Finally, and this is the conclusion of this piece,

I realized the importance of time. A lot of things happened this year that taught me that I really need to enjoy my time here. Nothing else matters to me. I’m investing five years of my life here. The least I can get out of it is a bit of laughter and some friends.

I know that this piece is extremely long, but if you’ve read it till here, thank you so much. I’m grateful you read this rant.

My seniors have now reached their final few days being a student on this campus, and that evokes a couple of questions from me, their junior. This piece attempts to capture those emotions.

As I interact with people from outgoing batches, the first thing that hits me is whether they realize, at the time, that they’ve spent a total of five years in one place. Heck, a lot of people haven’t lived in one city for five years before college. This place becomes home. Does that realization hit? Do you ignore it to prevent sentimental attachment? I remember that around this time last year, I went down to the first floor (where my fifth years resided), and looted their rooms as they packed up (with their consent, of course). I found treasures: books from their second year, outdated Bare Acts, notes which would come in handy, and iron that was passed out from one fifth year, to one first year, to another (therefore spending a total of 10 years in the University already). It’s insane how nostalgic this entire thing can make you feel.

Do flaws in this place become bigger? If so, do you possess ability/say to correct those, or suggest corrections? As permanent (temporary) residents of the campus, do flaws of this place become bigger, or do you start feeling attached to everything?

And lastly, do you feel regret? While this is extremely subjective, and I understand that, a lot of people have told me things they regret: not writing enough, writing too much, going crazy for no reason. Are these regrets make-believe? Or does time go so fast that you forget what you came here for?

And lastly,

Are my questions putting you into existential dread?

If so, I apologize.

But, I’m three years away from a final day as a student in this University, and if my next three years are any similar to what this year has presented, I will be wailing as I leave. I’m already so attached to such small things in this place.

The problem with the snooze button is in its existence. I blame my inability to wake up on time solely on its presence in the Alarm function on my phone. The fact that I am aware of its function means that I tap on it – and my snooze function is set to 4 minutes, but in my state of half-awakedness, I possess the marvelous ability to reset the snooze time to 2 hours. It’s excellent.

Yes, I am aware that there are applications which have an ability to override the snooze, and ban you from using it. In my sleepy stupor, I am a formidable foe. Nothing stops me. I uninstall the application and nod off to sleep.

My parents can call me to wake me up, but I speak to them properly and go back to sleep. It’s beautiful.

I hate it.

I’ve tried everything – solving Math problems when I wake up, having to walk around to scan a barcode, having to walk outside my room to take a particular photo. I accomplish those tasks and wander back to dawdle on my bed.

It appears like the only solution available on hand is the bane of my existence: a scheduled 8-hour sleep at night that leaves me feeling fresh when I wake up.

Amazing.

Wow.

 

It’s the end of Global Poetry Writing Month, a challenge I participated in, writing poetry daily through the month of April. This means that I’m back to writing normal daily blogs from today. First, though, a couple of answers:

Why does that suck?
Because I can’t resort to Haiku when I feel low on inspiration and therefore want to escape from writing.

What did I get out of the challenge?
Absolutely nothing but happiness.
Some days were crazy, I never thought I’d struggle so much to figure out things about a particular theme. It helped me figure out that my brain is far more complicated and disorganized than I am as an individual, because it doesn’t categorize information in slots (though it does that with conversations). But it was absolutely beautiful. I learnt so much reading around the poems I was writing – learning about different styles, watching different pieces, understanding rhyme schemes, poem structure. It’s just been a great learning experience.
I also learned that my range of vocabulary is quite low, as compared to what it once was, or what I thought it was. As a child, I was told by teachers that I was learning new words rapidly – maybe it was the reading habit I was forced into, maybe it’s the spelling bee, but I feel like (a) they were trying to motivate me, (b) there are no other compliments a nerd will blush at, and that’s why they said those things. This month was an eye-opener that way – I struggled to find words to express what I was feeling, though I knew a word existed in the dictionary, and did rely on Google a few times. Maybe the 52-in-52 will help me regain some of that.

Wow, are you a poet now?
No, I never was, and I never will be. I enjoy writing these things on the Internet, so if you can find a word for that – which doesn’t demean/degrade people who are incredible poets (Happy Birthday Radhika!) by putting me in their company, great, I am that.

So that’s what GloPoWriMo has been all about. Lots of fun.

What has sucked, however, is that I have not completed a book in the last week, which marks a dent to my 52-in-52 Challenge. The only flipside to this is that I was some 4/5 books ahead, which means I don’t have much catching up to do.

What’s been up in the past month?
I assume people reading want to know about what’s been going on in my life, but even if you don’t, you’ve read this piece till here, you might as well find out.
Not much, really. I have been chilling, enjoying the final days of my 2nd year, and whining away in a pile of Case Laws I do not fully understand (yet) and provisions that are merely getting stuck in my head for the purposes of an examination.

Yes, it’s end-semester season again.

I’m hopeful of writing a more fun/humorous post tomorrow, but I thought I’d use today just to play catch-up.

As always, and this is something I cannot reiterate enough, a massive thank-you to people who read my attempts to rhyme throughout April. I do not believe I succeeded in writing a poem with a consistent rhyme scheme, but thank you for following along. I hope you’re inclined to read my normal blogposts too (I’m humorous, I swear).

Till tomorrow then!