A Change of Pace

 We often say that a day has passed by so quickly, or too slow, or eventfully. For some reason, college students(especially since 2020) operate at extremes. Either the day goes by in the blink of an eye or it's slower than a 100-year-old turtle stuck in tar. Irrespective of the pace, the sleep schedule ceases to exist. 

For those of us who watch cricket, we know how a slower ball can trouble the batter. It's the same here. The difference is, the slower ball in cricket remains slow from the moment it begins. Here, the ball speeds up in the middle of the delivery, and you don't have a bat to swing at it, however wildly you may want to.

Personally speaking, school and college have operated somewhat similarly for me. In school, months went by in a flash, while a single evening seemed to drag for eternity. College is no different. 1st year went by in a flash, and in one evening, I've had to deal with words like bureaucracy, linguistic ability, criteria. I still can't believe these words could be combined in one scenario. 

Those words aren't too much trouble by themselves; I've had heavier breakfasts. Put them together, mix a pinch of stubbornness and add the element of slow-motion, and you have yourselves a whopper. Not the Burger King kind, though. Pity. Anyway, back to speeds.

The pace changes from one hour to the next. At 5 o'clock, you're just lounging around. At 6, your arms are moving more than an offended Italian as you try to prove your point. At 7, you're sweating buckets and still beating the Italians. At 8, you get up, inhale your dinner, and then get back to work. All while dealing with other issues which have been around for more than a month now. 

Even in school, there used to be one major problem. One hour, you've placed your keister in a comfortable, cozy chair. The very next, you're running for your life from monkeys who chose to target you as you walked home from school. With a bag stuffed with 5-inch-thick books(Thank you, ISC!). It's great for running practice. For all other purposes, it's a nightmare.

I haven't come to the problem yet. The problem lay in the fact that you weren't the only one doing this. Everyone did this, so no sympathy points. Unless, of course, you managed to get yourself excused from class on the pretext(usually genuine) of some event. In that case, you walked out of the classroom with all the aplomb of Bruce Banner after he thrashed Loki in Avengers. Just delightful.

You know what else is delightful? Apps like Ola and Uber. Unless you're in a hurry. In that case, they just fuel your sense of urgency without doing anything to assuage it. The fun part of using these apps, apart from the convenience, is the tracking. It's like being a spy without actually being a spy. You're tracking, and tracking, and tracking, and the moment they make a wrong turn, you call them up and ask them what they're doing. FBI who? Ola is doubly effective, with less of a life risk.

I can't say the same for this week, though. I mean, who named each day of the week leading up to the 14th of February? Someone get that idiot a life, not congratulations from lovebirds the world over. And here's the fun part. The moment 14th passes, people become punchlines of jokes they don't remember being a part of.  That's when the sane people of the world return to power. It doesn't stop these heartbroken lovebirds from turning into a host of Kabir Singhs, but hey, that movie should've warned them beforehand.

It's been a cracker of a month so far, in the sense that it's been crumbling the moment you touch it. Then again, there's quite a bit left, so there's some hope too. I've gabbled enough for today, I believe. Take care, everyone. Adios!