The Last One and The First One

May 16^th, 7:19pm - “Sir, please... please, make way for me.” I was wading through the crowd in front of me before the check-in counter. It took me some time to reach the check-in counter of Jet Airways with fewer people in front. I gave him my e-ticket and I-card. He worked on his computer and announced, “739 is closed, sir.” I was taken aback and then asked dumbly, “What?” “Your flight, sir - 9W 739… Check-in is closed. I’m sorry.” It took some time for the truth to sink in. ‘Oh, crap! What am I gonna do now.’ I told myself. “Is there anything that could be done?” I asked dumbly once again. But I knew the answer to that question.

Rewinding...

It was 5:43pm on the 16^th of May and the Delhi bound train stopped at the cantonment station in Delhi. It felt great to be on my way home after a tiring semester back at college. Me and my friend Keshav got down with my entire luggage. It definitely was a pain walking around with all four bags weighing more than 35 kilos put together. With one suit case that could fit a 7 year old inside, a smaller one with stuff more than how much it can handle, a travel bag with one of the shoulder straps snapped still stuffed with a million things inside that made me carry it on just one shoulder, and the bag that had my laptop I started walking down the platform. I tried different orientations of the baggages so that they did not interfere with each other and also not trouble me, but in vain.

We came outside the railway station. There was no sign of a cab. I had to get to the airport to catch my 8pm flight to Chennai from terminal 3 of IGIA. It was almost around 6:30pm by the time we got an auto-rickshaw. We had to pay a hundred and fifty bucks to get to the IGIA from the station. We tried to bargain, but the auto driver would not budge. We got on and reached the airport at around 6:50pm and we had to take a bus from outside to get into terminal 3. I was already getting tensed since time was running out.

The bus dropped us in front of international terminal 3. The worst part was, I did not have my ticket. I was relying on taking a print out from the terminal itself. I had to wait for a couple of minutes before I could give the person over there my ticket details and get it printed. Then I got Keshav’s call, “Man, where are you? I am waiting inside. Come on in. We still have time.” His flight was at 8:35pm, but mine was at 8. Probably, HE still had time I thought as I looked at the clock showing 7:15pm.

“Sir, please... please, make way for me.” I was wading through the crowd in front of me before the check-in counter. It was 7:19pm and my flight was at 8pm. It is common knowledge that the check-in counters close 40 minutes before departure. It took me some time to reach the check-in counter of Jet Airways with fewer people in front. The person in front of me walked away and then it was my turn. I gave him my e-ticket and I-card. He worked on his computer and announced, “739 is closed, sir.” I was taken aback and then asked dumbly, “What?” “Your flight, sir - 9W 739… Check-in is closed. I’m sorry.” It took some time for the truth to sink in. ‘Oh, crap! What am I gonna do now.’ I told myself. “Is there anything that could be done?” I asked dumbly once again. But I knew the answer to that question.

But, suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, he said, “Oh, we still have time, sir. There is still about a minute left.” ‘Thank, God! That is the sweetest thing I have ever heard!’ I thought. I kept my entire luggage except for the laptop for checking in. He pressed some numbers, checked the weight of all the baggages together and announced, “It exceeds the limit by 7 kilos.” Yes, it was showing 26 kilos with some decimals I do not remember. ‘Seven kilos! Merlin’s Beard! What am I, walking around with more than 27 kilos.. A porter or something?’ While this shock was sinking in time was running out and he told me that I had to pay a fine of a thousand bucks. Generally, they allow us to take two hand luggages if they are fragile or small. “Well, then.. I shall take this small suit case too with me as hang luggage.” While I was telling him this and was ready to take the suit case away as I told, he told me, “I am afraid I am not wrong this time. The check-in has closed now.”

Then something weird happened. The guy who checked me in ran ahead of me with my boarding pass almost until the security check. He stopped there, looked around and then told me, “Pay me the fine here and go quickly for the security check. Boarding is at 7:20pm. Go fast.” So, I gave him the money and ran helter-skelter. I got past the security check and ran towards the boarding gates. It took me sometime to find out how to go to the boarding gates. I started running like I was mad. My boarding gate was 42.

I saw a sign board saying gates something to something, but it was definitely way too far from 42. I ran once again, ran and ran until I came to gate number 42 puffing and panting. The security people over there stopped me. I thought I was late. ‘Oh my God! What is going to happen now?!’ Then in about a couple of minutes, the let me in. I thought, ‘Oh, I must me the last one in.. There is no one around.. Will I make it or will they shut the gate on my face and shoo me off?!’ Then I saw the air hostesses coming behind me.. ‘Weird!’ I thought. Then, I reached the gate and had to wait there for sometime, when I realized that I am going to be the first one in! ‘Again, weird!’ I thought.

I was feeling proud of myself as I seated myself inside the plane. Well, it takes some guts to check-in as the last person and board as the first one, doesn’t it? My phone was ringing and I answered it, “Ya, mom.. It was fine.. Ya.. Security, check-in all were fine.. Well, all except for that I almost missed my flight..”

The Dark 'Night'

03:00AM, 6th May: At a first glance, you would have thought I had gone crazy. But, of course, who would not, after seeing someone wearing the bathroom slippers on his palms and slapping them together in a dark room. I wouldn't have cared anyways, because my sole motto was a moth-massacre at that time. SLAP! There goes one! SLAP! Another one.. The annoying insects fell prey to my innovative weapon. But they were two many to handle. Should I go for the kill? Or should I surrender and retreat?! I was praying to God for an answer and courage to face the darkest night I have ever had during my birthday.

Three hours back- 12:00AM: 3.. 2.. 1.. Knock.. Knock.. I could hear the retarded call of Keshav from outside the room. "Come outside buddy! It's time to whoop some arse!", he announced. I opened the door and he greeted me with a birthday wish, "Happy birthday, macha!" "Thanks, man", I replied. Everyone had assembled outside my room for a 'kickass' party. I got a call from my home just then and was on the phone. After the call, I came outside and two of those guys lifted me. I didn't know what was going on. May be they were discussing ways to kick my snooty ass. Then Sud and Shounak came charging. My heart stopped for a moment seeing the heftiest guys in the wing running towards me to kick me. But then they stopped. It was Sud who went first.

"Sorry, dude!", he told me before swinging his leg back with full strength. Though being held by two guys by my hands and legs, I managed to mouth a few words, "Hey, it's alright! No need to apolog... OUCH!", before I stopped dead for a moment. 'Holy crap!', I thought. "Ya, now you need to apologise, buddy!" It was Shounak next, "OUCH!" Before I could realise, there were a couple of more blows. And by now, I thought, my bottom had swollen like that of a baboon! But they decided to spare me for a treat.

I met Pras at ANC and he started his usual cribbing about the semester exams, courses and grades. I was waiting.. waiting.. waiting for him to probably wish me but realised that he didn't remember anything about my birthday. So, I told him, "By the way, it is my birthday and I am treating my friends at ANC. You wanna join in?" There was a look of surprise in his face and he hit himself on the forehead. Then he shook my hand and said, "Sorry, man.. 6th may.. Yeah.. Shit, I forgot completely!" "Well, that is is the first time anyone wished me like that!", I said.

After having our fill at the All-Night Canteen, I realised that I had a test the very same day. The dreadful 'Measure and Integration' course was threatening to take away my pride of not making a D grade ever till then in my BITSian career. I was in Keshav's room and decided to resume my preparation for the test. Things were going fine before he decided to take a short nap forcing me to go back to my dreadful room.

My right eyebrow bone started throbbing in pain. That was an awful experience the previous day when I had gone to the bathroom to pee. I saw the floor flooded with water. I just started walking slowing, placing one step at a time in order not to slip. But the inevitable happened. But, one would expect that I would fall. I didn't, because I was lucky enough to grab hold of the wall in front of me. After a moment's satisfaction, I was rebounding due to the impact of suddenly holding the wall in the forward direction and hit it face-first. OW! With my glasses askew, I examined the injury in front of the mirror. It was paining like hell. It was 3am by then and I was just 12 hours away from the start of the test. The best thing I could think of at that time was to study through the night. I was walking towards my room.

Well, one reason for which I hated myself for the umpteenth time was my laziness to get the insect net set over the ventilator in my room. The electric bulb in the wing was straight in front of it. There were moths and insects of all size buzzing around it. They had a straight passage through the holes of the ventilator into my room. I opened the door and the tube light was already switched on. If I am not exaggerating, I could have traced the world map on my wall where all the insects were sitting, only that of a strange world.

I switched off the lights in my room and then, SLAP! SLAP!! SLAP!!! The corner of my room was full of dead insects. It was not the first time I had done this. An hour passed by easily and the one heck of an army of moths was never going to subside. I was too tired by then and I decided that if I needed to have the energy to sit through the test, I had to get some sleep. I kept the door open, the lights switched off and tried to get some sleep. It had not ended. They decided to bother me all night. Those annoying little idiots got on my nerves when they finally started finding way through my pants and started buzzing from the inside. 'Oh! Good Lord!', i was praying, exasperated.

06:00AM: Fortunately, the next time I remember being conscious was at 6am in the morning with very few insects around. I was in no mood to study. I opened my facebook account, while listening to music, and started replying to the numerous wishes I got for my birthday. It was around 8am when I realised that I had a lot more to study. But, I thought, effectively my 20th birthday was ruined.

02:30PM: I woke up after a short nap and rushed through the syllabus for one last time before facing the devilish paper. Fortunately, whether I should call it luck or good preparation I don't know, I found one part of the paper easy and solved most of the problems in it.

08:00PM: It was time to chill out after a hectic schedule of 4 exams in 3 days and I deserved some rest. I sat down coolly in front of my comp and started blogging. But, wait! There is a moth in one corner.. SLAP!!!

"I Know What You did Last Semester!"

10... 9... 8... It's here... 7... 6... 5... It's time to bounce back and show those nerds what I am capable of... 4... 3... It's time for a moral renaissance... 2... 1... 0 "HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011", I shouted out sitting in front of the TV and watching the new year countdown in a channel. It was the last week of December and I had been doing nothing for the past 10 days except for playing a simple but addictive game called Plants vs Zombies. It's just this: You have to protect your house from a bunch of Zombies and for that you use plants as weapons. "I had been very bad last semester", I told myself. "But I can pull myself together and bounce back." "I know what you did last semester", told my mind. "You are a useless bloody bugger. You cannot change yourself." "I will show you some change next semester. I will prove you wrong."

It was August 2010. I was proud that I had been attending almost all classes. Then came this damn test 1 series. Six days... Five tests... That changed my entire semester. After successfully screwing up almost each one of them, I came to the conclusion that there is no point attending all classes. Then the BITSian inside me tempted me to bunk classes. So, my daily routine was reduced to waking up late at 10 or 11, sitting aimlessly in front of my laptop, having lunch and dinner and going to Raag room and hardly attending any classes.

Then came test 2, with even more vigour. It helped me successfully seal my fate that I wont be making a GPA of even 7 that semester. The degradation was complete. I totally bunked all classes. I tried to do night-outs that proved to be worse than the idea of bunking classes. Deprived of sleep, and getting momentarily frozen everyday in a horrible winter, I faced compres with little hope that I would avoid a D grade in one of the most dreaded courses called "Intro. to topology".

I almost passed out worrying about my CGPA at that time. Compres were no better than the other tests. But a couple of night-outs ensured that I would get 2 B's and 4 C's securing a semester GPA of 6.67 that would make my CGPA to 7.81, falling from 8.05 by 0.24 units. "Now that 2011 is here, it's time to start afresh." After planning out this semester roughly and concluding that I need to get a GPA of more than 9.14 this semester, I am preparing myself to face a mammoth task of making amendments to the damage I made. I'll always remember what I did last semester...