The Year Of Physics...And My Two Weeks

Albert Einstein came up with Relativity a hundred years ago. 'Came up' is really far closer to the truth than you would imagine. And he admitted as much. Creativity is what differentiates a theorist from an experimenter. The leap of ,what you may unscientifically call , faith. The spark that transcends what you can see . (Well I can go on..lol. )

And so, we celebrate that event as a sort of centenary of the birth of modern science. Much cause to celebrate?? Well, to many it is . Especially people who spend their lives furthering our knowledge of the universe. Since I'm hoping that there is some part of my brain that will cooperate with me in my intention of undertaking precisely the same vast and ambitious pursuit as the gods and geniuses that have preceded me, It is quite a significant year for me as well. A beginning of what is to come. (I hope..)

But only time will tell...

In any case ,at long last... The time to write. The past couple of weeks have been really busy. At first I was busy pretending to be busy , which all of you non-pretenders don't realise , is a pretty tough job. Convincing a lot of people that you are purposefully occupied and therefore deserve the right to stay out of class and yet get attendance is quite a feat.

All the time spent pretending to be busy and instead reading, going back home to sleep , listening to music etc. has to have massive repercussions. So, consequently , all of last week , I had to do all that I had pretended I was doing the previous week and all the other miscellaneous things that had to be done anyway last week..right before our physics fest. So I have been running round in circles trying to accomplish everything in time.And I did.

Now, I'm not complaining. This is the sort of situation , I am quite familiar with and consequently , extremely capable of handling. The only problem is that ,everyone else around me seems to get terribly flustered and therefore they try to interfere and/or lecture. And that sort of intrusion into my space is enough to obstruct my functioning on fifth gear. Again, however, it is something that I have learnt to deal with. I can hardly expect everyone else to keep calm when a quiz that is to be conducted the next day , is just beginning to take shape in my brain the night before.

But trust is what it's all about. And trust they must. For god's sake these people know me. Semester after semester they have watched in wonderstruck awe , my skills at negating the repercussions of repeated procrastination. My record , supposedly a product of a semester's worth of lab work , is done ,magically ,over two nights . And sometimes even on one. I think what annoys everyone is that I get away with it. That I am able to handle that kind of pressure. And the fact that they can't leaves them frustrated and itching to meddle in my immense capacity to work under extreme pressure in the last minute.

Well, I feel sorry for them . They do not know the joys of adrenaline rushing through their system . If you're thinking that I am not dependable and might be a horror of an organiser. I assure you , you cannot be more wrong. All the people in charge were blissfully unaware of my progress (or lack thereof.) and my skills at being convincing were employed to convince them that all was well and right on track. And they were happy. And now that it's all over and everything worked out just fine. So am I.

I did my fair share of fretting ,worrying and being tense but it is something that helps in the process. It stimulates the grey cells. A sort of inspiration to get one's butt moving and do something decent.

So, two sleepless nights in a row and I had the quiz and crossie (along with atticus..lol...give the devil her due) all done. And it turned out to be not half as bad as I thought it might. In fact , it was quite gratifying to have people come up and tell us that we did a real nice job. Ofcourse it could have been so very much better , but that's not the point.

And the crossie , I guess to a pro it would have seemed very juvenile..But it was our first time with crosswords , and sure , every clue was'nt of The Economic Times or The Hindu standard , but considering neither of us have ever solved crosswords before , it might be thought quite commendable that we came up with whatever we did. Ofcourse that is a matter of one's perspective. It was, however, the general concensus..and I was satisfied.

One only realises how much work goes into a thing when one is responsible for setting it up. Until then , you are critical of organisers, sarcastic when things are'nt going the way they are supposed , cynical about measly prizes et al. And then you find yourself in a position of responsibility and as might be obvious , your perspective drastically changes and you realise how entirely difficult and complex it can be to manage even a small event.Anyway , it was fun ,and I have learned a lot, even though there were several glitches.

The nicest thing about the two day 'fiasco' was getting to hear Prof. Balakrishnan for a bit...That was so nice.(for lack of a better word) Maybe more on that later. This post is as it is getting too long.

Note to self: Learn to enjoy being in the moment. Even if it means dealing with pesky juvenile boys.

P.S: I learnt more physics researching and looking up stuff to prepare for the quiz than I have done in the past two years. It has been a source of great amusement to my parents to find my nose in a book and me surrounded by more than a dozen books at least count , every night , for the past two weeks. Drink to that continuing is what they say..and maybe I should... lol

P.P.S: Have tried to achieve closure today, as rachel put it , minus getting drunk and leaving idiotic messages on answering machines. A clean slate and all that...Just deleted all messages , mails , phone no.s etc. in a fit of intending to move on and strengthened resolve not to waste any more time thinking about certain people. (Any other suggestions are welcome...).I think I should drink to that as well.

P.P.P.S: And since we are drinking...I need to drown my embarrasment ... Let's commend my dept. on it's wonderful Faux Pas regarding Prof. Balakrishnan. ...I'm sure he thinks we are the most ill-mannered bunch of people in town... I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me when it happened...Atticus and co. You guys , thanks for helping out with everything. Especially when I was about to lose my cool...One more round for that...lol..