Delicious Indecision

That lovely feeling is back. Well, it’s not quite like in the school days, when the end of exams meant the end of it all for a while, and the arrival of summer holidays or a new session. In college, the practicals follow, and until they’re all over, you’re not quite done. But it’s still nice to have finished the theory papers; today I mined and warehoused with, I believe, considerable success, and finally, I can just feel blissful without being troubled. I’ll worry about the practicals when they come around.

The end of the exams leaves students with a heady deliriousness. The boys hooted, shouted and howled on the bus today, as if they were being collectively murdered. For the first time in four days, I noticed the hills gleaming emerald under the bright noon sun. The sky is cloudless and blue, true, but today I can be happy with just anything.

I walked home from the bus stop, my head full of things I wanted to do. Here’s the list: I have to go through the ‘pleasurably painful’ process of choosing between Leon Uris and JRR Tolkien; I want to write, watch TV, read blogs, sleep- and at the same time, do absolutely nothing. But this is one bit of confusion I can do with, as long as I end up doing something.

There is a new Cadbury Bournvita advertisement on TV. It’s about a mother waking up her son (who, I suppose, cannot be more than eleven or twelve years old) so he can study all night. When the boy asks his mother why he needs to study at night, she replies that she wants people to notice her and say, "Look, there goes Ravi’s mother!" I think this advertisement is absolutely ridiculous. Ravi is too young to be studying all night and depriving himself of sleep, in the first place. What does he do the rest of the day, anyway? If adverts really have the amount of influence I believe they do, mothers will probably be quoting from it to make their children study. Why on earth do we give so much importance to exams and degrees? It’s more about how well we score than how much we know. As for forcing kids to study and pressurising them to do well, I think responsibility comes naturally as students grow older and realise the amount of competition they have to face. Pushing children to fulfil their parents’ dreams is very unpleasant and not fair in the least. And the situation doesn’t seem likely to change in the near future.

I climbed the steep slope homewards, my calf muscles screaming and reminding me that I’m- sigh!- not getting any younger. I came home and switched on the television to find out the score. What a mistake that was! Today hasn’t been a good day for sports news, because I read in the papers that Justine Henin lost 2-6, 0-6 to Serena Williams. Now how often does that happen? Looks like a little bit of Roger Federer’s newfound vulnerability is rubbing off on Henin.

I think I’ll stop now and find something to do. Or I might do nothing. Oh, I know, I’ll probably spend the evening trying to decide what to do.