A lot can happen over an end of the year. Especially if it is the final
month of the year based on the various incidents I witnessed so far in my life.
So, this year's December hasn't surprised me much. I had a gut feeling that
something new going to happen and it will make most of us or me personally to
get a life changing experiences.
- First
things first! I started my first internship as a post graduate
student.
- Lost
an irreplaceable woman of Tamil Nadu.
- Next
we got hit by a cyclone name "Vardah"
- Then
I attended an autism campaign conducted at my college.
- Got
my 1st semester exam results.
- Now
regaining myself with the festive and holiday spirit.
December started by an Internship on weekend basis. It is still going on
so I can't exactly say it was fun and frolic but it is going on well. Every
place I went for an internship I get these blank stares from the people in the
workplace as if I am prohibited to work there. But eventually as the days
passes they get used to us "interning" I guess.
2nd week of Dec, 2016: Shock of many people's life I guess. The death of
former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu was officially declared. Jayalalitha was
her name and I can proudly say that she was a very bold and brilliant woman who
achieved so much in this misogynistic society. It was hard and unbelievable at
first to absorb the news of her death as her sick condition was telecast for
prolonged period of time. Some say her death might be a conspiracy. On the very
next day of her death announcement, her corpse was displayed for the public to
pay their respects. The most annoying part was the sad background music these
TV channels played during the live telecast of her funeral. On her funeral the
whole city was silent and standstill. Most of us were shocked, mourning, confused
and many other unexplained emotions for the loss of such an irreplaceable lady.
It still saddens me to think about her death but everyone is mortal and has a
purpose in their life. Death indicates either we didn't achieve or try to be
purposeful or our purpose as a human has been fulfilled. Either way it
indicates end of this life. So, let's find infinite purposes to live before
that end finds us.
3nd and 4th week of Dec, 2016: The super amazing cyclone named
"Vardah" came to Chennai to greet its citizens the power of Mother
Nature. So, eventually we got another set of holidays as the weather people
announced it is dangerous for public to roam around outside the houses. My mom
took this statement too literally. I was happy because we had confusing
assignments to submit on those days and government announced holidays due to
natural calamities which meant we didn’t have to submit or produce any fake
reasons to cover up the results of our procrastination. We enjoyed until the
electricity went off. We tried to watch the speed of the wind and waving
patterns of the trees.
It was magical to see cyclone of this kind for the first
time in my life. But my mom kept on yelling at me and my brother to get inside
the house to be safe. Technically, we were just watching from the porch of the
house which is grilled with metal rods and well-secured enough to protect us.
After few hours we got bored and spoke to while away the time. Then, darkness
prevails for days and tried to be super careful about not to wasting any
candles and curtailed usage of gadgets. It was annoying to do nothing, not to
go outside, getting bites from mosquitoes and sleepless. Lots of trees were
uprooted and we got some more holidays as bonus. Life was boring suddenly. We
were out of topics to discuss, no electricity and no work to do. At last one
fine day we got back our electricity. We were feeling like the caveman who saw
the fire again.
The next thing was both internet and TV was not working. Holidays
without them in my house are as same as living without electricity for me. Fate
is like water, when we solve one problem it finds another way to pass on another
new problem into our lives. We paid our bills and waited for a day. Nothing
happens. Meanwhile, my brother by chance finds out the cable wire was detached
and fixes the TV connection. College finally starts. We were informed to attend
an autism awareness campaign and asked to wear blue clothes as a colour code
for the occasion. The first thing was a walkathon at Marina beach. I took a bus
and reached the spot. The trees were lifeless without any leaves in its
branches. I walked to reach Gandhi statue the reporting location. I met and
greeted my classmates with great joy. We posed for the press. They took photos
of us campaigning. We were given blue caps and blue LED light. I absolutely
love LED lights for no reason. Then, we started to do what we were
supposed to do - "Walking"
We walked and few people noticed and most of them were clueless. A dog
also walked beside us with a cheerful smile. I noticed few people walking with their
huskies and I was the only one who was ecstatic about them I guess. We walked
and reached the finishing spot. We were given water bottle, fruit Juice bottle,
a small palm size box containing sweet and savoury snack. Later most of the
people dispersed to go home. Few of my classmates remained to try out mannequin
challenge and it was a fun experience to do at a beach I guess. I later had to
take a crowded bus to reach home. Every muscle twitches with agony till the journey
inside the crowded bus stops. I rested as soon as I reached home. The next few
days we attended a choir performance by autistic kids, watched documentary on
autism, music performance by autistic children, listened to the debates and
speeches with regards to autism. It was one of such moments you feel blessed,
confused, happy and melancholy all at once. I am happy that I had an
opportunity to get awareness about autism and to meet such special children.
We still haven't got back the internet and heard rumours that results
were out in the college intranet. My classmate calls me and confirms that we
really got the results and few even got arrears. I had to check my results or else I will go insane. So, I went right away to the internet office and gave a complaint
to check for the problem. I came back home to find my dad telling me casually
that he got a message stating we exceeded the provided megabytes for our
current plan. If he had told us earlier we would have used appropriately but
his presence in this house became a rare occurrence due to his business
problems and forgot to inform us as if he forgot our existence. Later, he was
persistent about changing into new internet plan and ordered me to come along with him.
After that walkathon, autism speeches and results dilemma I was super tired but
I had to obey to avoid conflicts.
I went to the same office where I gave complaint not long ago. We sat
opposite to an old woman. She asked us the phone number and I was blinking. My
dad stared at me with an expression as if I should have been memorized with
such details. My dad tells the number to her and she gave an obnoxious stare at me. I came because my dad dragged me in the name of "Awareness
of how things are done" and he was least bothered to know if I was ready
or wanted to come along after all the tiredness I was enduring. Now, he expects
me to answer something I have no idea about. She enquired about the
Internet plan we were using in a very annoyed yet raised tone and again I was
blank. Usually this stuff was taken care by my dad's ex-staff and now we both had no idea. She was expecting me to answer but I was not prepared as a lot was going
on in my head and I was dragged to that place without my interest. Eventually,
my dad also didn't know and suddenly she yells at me that I should be well
known with this stuff and girls younger than me are much better at this. This
also I am not capable to do and how am I supposed to live in this world and all
such unnecessary things all of a sudden.
I lost my mind, self-control and my sane self. My temper was boiled so
much as her rapid accusations towards my incompetence increased and it reached
to that point I finally cried. Water welled up over my lower eyelids and warm
tears rolled over my cheekbones. I tried to hide and wipe out and to my
surprise she saw me crying yet it didn't stop her inhuman behaviour. She was
not ready to realize her mistake and start helping us (customers) which she was
supposed to do instead she started a fresh new topic to criticize about -
"my emotional stability" Now, my dad did the talking and changed the
plan. After the work got over, with the same teary eyes along with a pressuring
lump in the throat and great courage I trashed her for her beautiful criticism
towards who I am. I reminded her that her job was to serve the needs of the
consumers not to judge or criticize or belittle them for her own sick, wicked
enjoyment. Not all consumers are well aware about most of the things they use
and they must be ready to help not interrogate the customers in such impolite
and unpleasing manner. And the funny thing was I apologized to her for my
crying but she never even gave damn to say sorry out of courtesy. I guess we
can only try to make them realize but can't actually change them unless they
want to. Even though so much was going through my mind, I was proud that I stood
for myself and spoke what I felt needed to be told. Never let others bully or
belittle you - Lesson learnt.
I still continued crying at home. My mom consoled me. My dad was furious
that I cried for no reason as if adults aren't supposed to cry. Like as if when
puberty hits us, our tear ducts should have been disappeared. Well some people
can never be understood. But still I didn't have my internet back. The next day
a guy came to check for the fault and finally it was the fault of a cube sized
device called splitter. We bought a new splitter and attach the wires of modem
and phone, Viola! Internet was back. And I checked for my results and I passed.
I cleared all my subjects in 1st semester and secretly felt like all those
crying was somehow worth it. I have this superstitious notion that When you are
sad you will be returned with equal amounts of happiness in return.
Then, Christmas happened, ate a delicious black forest cake, saw lots of
movies (in my laptop), visited beach, New Year arrived and now gearing up
myself to tackle even more complications of the future. All these incidents
took me by surprise and surprisingly occurred on December, 2016. That explains
why I took so long to blog again. Anyways, Hope to kick out all the scummy
memories of 2016 and ready to welcome lots more refreshing experiences in 2017.
Oh, yeah! Totally forgot...
Wish you all a very Happy New year!!!
