Between Slumbers: The awakening

          The second wake up call I had which awakened me into the Blogosphere was literally Anand's call at 7:30 on a Sunday 18th December 2011 asking for an Address of the Church near Santhome. This prompted me to visit the Church of St.Ignatius of Loyola  nestled within the luxurious greenery and amidst the effervescent youthfullness of the Loyola College ,Campus..

          The Latin Mass by 5 Jesuit priests reminded me of those celebrations we used to have at our hostel every Christmas and Easter. The uniquely caricatured priest who wore the Denim shirt and the white Dhoti making a religiously anti-traditional style statement was one among them. He brought back those Campus memories but in a way he defined how a Priest teaching Visual Communication should be(I think he is one of a few such men and let alone priests). The VisCom course ,which is supposed to churn out Glam idols or divas and the ones designing the Entertainment industry ,which I consider as the most of the materialistic pursuits can find the anti-materialistic god's men training them here.

          The constantly recurring feeling that I got wherever I went in the city of chennai that I will meet an old acquaintence beyond every corner reiterated its credibility once again today. The prologue to the above is an entire array of instances like meeting old buddies at Big Bazaar  chennai, Marina Beach at 7 pm, Chennai Airport Kingfisher terminal at 3 am, a Share Auto chosen by chance at 8pm... and these kind of happennings continue to happen which reminds me time and again that the City never forgets even if you pull away from her.........

          This feeling which I just mentioned found its next example when I turned back from the Church Bench after the mass and looked down the familiar aisle to see a familiar face...Unexpected....My 2nd Year B.Com Loyola Hostel Room mate..From room no:256 ,6th Block....Now that was something ..had a long chat with him about the new Loyola and his pursuits in the MSW Dept. Got to know about the sad demise of the erstwhile Hostel Director who got angry at the slightest of pretences and also the news that our block in Charge Fr.Louis had become the new Director pushed in another set of memories in me ... I took a walk among the buildings and through the huge portals of the Main building .The campus which was being ornamented for the next visit of the NAAC accreditation team still bewitched me with her untold mysteries from infinite lives of all those who gazed at her since ages.Gaping at her with friends at nights in the cool december airs never helped me solve its mystery and I understand that it was never meant to be solved but to be pondered by generations who come to learn wisdom from her hidden layers...(and to future students there is a mystery in every layer of Loyola)..

PS....

Though this is intended to be a part of the series of entries penned under the name " Between Slumbers" this is the second one which is also platformed on my bed and in my Choolaimedu stay....

An Ode to A.B.L.A.Z.E

INTRO:
                  The credit to this write up goes to Mr.Jagdish who made us prepare this report.....But this was not submitted on the author coming to know that none of his friends had any plan to complete the same..Any way i had to put it up for the benefit of ABLAZE... and here it is...

THE BODY:

                The decision to come to Hyderabad was to quench my thirst for a B school style of polish that i needed to complete my formal education in style.Now as fate makes his each movement unpredictable and adventurous ,I was made to understand the need for toughness in my attitude  by him making me wait for the next attempt to actually be a Chartered Accountant on the second day of the course.This brief stay awarded me with a lot of friends who went through the same grilling process as i did in the pursuit of becoming a CA even though it meant sacrificing the normal pleasures of a college life. In a way the brief stint in Coe brought my feet back firm on the ground.This was because of the revelations i had of the real life experiences of my peers and their stories.

                Above all i got to meet with those privileged lot of rank holders which eventhough reminded me of the elusive rank, i got to know that their ways were not much different from mine. We were put through a few technical sessions and informal sessions which were supposed to send our stage fears jumping fences..The facilities which were available were above all expectations .The only catch was that the course consisted of mostly vegetarians who had a very low tolerance limit for NV food which was decided to be not given.Even though most of my batch mates got througfh the Nov attempt and ended up calling themselves CAs proudly i never felt bad for my losing . The sessions we had ,made me realise that the need for bouncing back from failures was the quality i lacked and the natures design actually was to  make my attitude straight and my mind tougher.

THE SESSIONS:

                The sessions were good and they kind of built upon the information which we had already amassed  in the course of our exam preparation.This also helped me guage the amount of updates that are required for a chartered accountant to remain competent.The kind of experiences that each person had in his/her articleship were quite diverse and worth knowing.The informal sessions gave us a kind of kinship  and also did its job of giving us a much awaited platform like in Bschools.The first week consisted of certain extempore sessions, a debate and a GD.The second week along with its very informative sessions had a hectic schedule of mock interviews, PPT presentations ,group discussions and various team building activities.This bit of late night preparations ,waiting for interview turns and practicing really gave us a taste of how a management training is really done. Allthemore the chic and beautiful campus of COE revealed its vibrant colours and hospitality to us during these exhilarating exercises. The Yoga sessions which started from the second week of our brief but energising stay in this heavenly abode were taking us all back to those classes we had in our school days.Even though the number of attendees for these sessions kept on dwindling day by day there were staunch suppporters of this ancient wisdom who kept the spirit alive.

               

                I was engaged in the english vocab and story narrating exercise for the second day wherein  we had to make a mark above the previous day’s presentation of the girls which was quite  excellent. We ended up earning a standing ovation for our skit cum narration style of the story. All the teams who were engaged in the variety of activities we were supposed to perform in the mornings were quite excellent.W e were able to realise the hidden talents all of us had failed to recognise in others.The third week was a little less lively than the previous one .All those souls who were deprived of that self pampering morning slumber got back to their former lazy selves.A few ardent followers of self discipline still made use of the yoga sessions and other facilities in the early mornings.

                

Casinoes and Roadies:

                 One most important thing that is worth mentioning is the kind of night life we enjoyed at COE. It will be injustice to the members of the “Casino Royale” on my part not to mention of them. One can say that it was the most happening place in Coe after the conference room. We moulded professionals into story narraters. We created mock sessions to reveal the observational and imitation skills within ourselves that we ended up recreating all the idiosyncracies we found among the participants of the programme and the faculties as well. Thanks to Mr. Viabhav we had a set of really rocking GDs conducted with corporate etiquettes about all the crucial issues we were facing in life. We had group interviews conducted in Room 301 under the auspices of Durgesh and Amit which drove all our inhibitions running for cover.

                The cultural events we had was the highlight of our course. Eventhough we were accused of having all our activities in the last two weeks revolving around the PROFEST 2011 we went about practising for the day undeterred. And it is with great pride in our unity that i would like to proclaim that we rocked Gachibowli of its well laid foundations that night. After a roller coaster ride filled with emotions coming one after the another we had no time to stop and think because we knew we had to make every second we were spending in hyderabad count. The seventh vada’s arrival was the most happening day we had in our lives. We rejoiced for the Merc, we cried for our past ,we sent people flying into the sky for their success , we displayed our seventh vada in style during the Devils advocate..

                When the day of our departure arrived the whole campus filled up with emotions which found its way out at the gates. We spend the whole night awake spending with our inseparable friends not wanting to waste time in any unproductive activity and definitely not by sleeping. By now sleep had become a thing of the past.The last day had various impacts on each and every one of us and i leave its description to each and everyone of my ABLAZERS