L.E.C.T.U.R.E.S

Attending lectures is part and parcel of student life and it becomes a greater part of student life, when you have three lectures a day for three hours each. This is in reference to our MBA lectures!!  Now that college is drawing to a close, I found myself reminiscing what MMS B did to keep boredom at bay.. :-)

It started with paper ball fights, launched by the back benchers and soon the whole class joined in.. :) The classroom used to be so messy at the end of the day, thanks to the paper balls pouring in from all corners of the class. But it is very much fun!! This was followed by photo sessions, yes the embarrassing ones of others and good ones of the self.. :P Facebook witnessed all the pictures in the first few months. And again much later in the third sem (thanks to Vipinsss and his great photography skills..) :)

 I am sure our profs must be wondering we were so religiously taking down running notes. If only they were ever to lay hands on our notebooks, they would discover the XOXO and Hollywood/bollywood we played during the lectures.. It was a good exercise for the brain.. :P and also all the banter in the notebooks, which helped us pass those three long hours.. Manalee, Daxa and I would always be at it..

Considering the long hours, I found time and convenience to read books. Sitting behind tall people or making people sit in a particular way, so that I could hide my novels, I managed to complete reading a good number of books..!! ;)  Many have read novels and some would study from the library books during the lectures..

One of the fun things to do, was observe the bored and startled expressions of people around.. One of the funniest being Nikhil, who would be gaping with utmost attention, especially in all the RDX lectures and sometimes even during the presentations.. :D :D it was also fun to look at Pratik dumb’s, Neeraj’s  and Chetan Samdadiya’s expressions.. They ranged over a million emotions from surprise to shock to startled, to amazement, to distress to hopefulness for the lecture to get over soon!! :D

The times during the presentations was fun, with people trying to distract the ones presenting and make them laugh.. I have been prey to this for two-third of my presentations.. :P and otherwise too, laughing which comes so easy to me, regardless of the place I am in, got me into trouble many a times.. Got kicked out of some lectures.. :P but when I was on the other side, during the presentations,  I would read my novels, listen to music and watch Big Bang theory with Farzad.. :) or talk/gossip or maybe laughing out loud.. ;)

One of the best value added services of the mobile phone comes to use during long lectures, when you can sms chat with friends outside the class and also with the person sitting next to you.. Sneha, Pooja, Manalee and I have exploited this VAS by sending messages to people in the class from manalee’s new number which no one had.. Our chief target being Neeraj.. :D :D he is a sweetheart! :-) During the Zee campus, we sent messages to Chetan saying its from Neeraj asking him to come sit next to Neeraj.. It was hillarous!! :D :D Chetan was so miffed with Neeraj for the smses.. :D

There was the hiding of mobile phones, books, stationery, chappals and what not.. Also during the break, there was the fighting session in process, seriously it was the time when we were all transported to MET Rishikul.. :P :D Gaurav, Pratik, Rohit and Anukool.. Really don’t know what came over them in those moments.. :D but it will be something all of us will remember, when we think of MMS B.. :-)

Well how could all this go on, without the two greatest loves of mankind, eating and sleeping.. Everyone done tons of it in the lectures.. As for me, eating was not majorly a concern as much as sleeping was! I found myself falling asleep so many times and the most embarrassing moments of all was, when I was caught slipping in my chair and sleeping by Max D’costa, who asked me about the CEO of Microsoft, (Steve Ballmer) in the e-com lecture,  I blurted Steve umm Jobs, Steve toh Jobs hi hoga na.. :P ;) (Sancheti remembered what the question was!! :)..)

Overall, all these help survive the long lectures and the last two years have been a enjoyable time! :) If I missed on anything, you may please add.. :)

Falling into Dimension Z!?!

The first thing that comes as a task when you start your blog is the blog title you need to choose!! Trust me, it took me a good twenty minutes to think of a nice title and incidentally its a beautiful piece of writing from my favorite romantic novel, "The Bridges of Madison County." by Robert James Waller. The story is presented as a novelization of a true story, but it is in fact fiction.

Falling into Dimension Z, is what Robert writes to Francesca, in his last letter telling her how all along he had been falling from the rim of a great high place, somewhere back in time, for many more years than that he had lived in this life. And through, all those years he had been falling towards her!! Well, I'll tell you the TBOMC story.

TBOMC is the intense love story of Robert Kincard, 52, a National Geographic photographer who meets Francesca Johnson, 45, a farmer's wife living in Iowa, while asking around for directions to the Roseman Bridge, one of the seven covered bridges of the Madison County. Franscesca is immensely drawn to Robert Kincaid and surprises herself by offering to guide him to Roseman Bridge and later asking him to join her for dinner. After a nice evening of chatter, food, budweiser beer and Camel cigarettes, Francesca leaves a note for Robert at the Roseman Bridge knowing that he was going to return to the bridge in the morning to shoot more pictures.

Robert finds the note and goes to have supper with Francesca after he finishes work, only to realise that he too has fallen in love with her. They spend the next four days together, while Francesca's husband and kids are away at the Illionis State Fair. However, the grave details of Francesca's married reality stops and finally seperates them.

Robert tries to reason with Francesca telling her that they have both lost themselves and created something else, and they were profoundly in love.

One of the most touching scenes in the book is when Francesca goes grocery shopping with her husband, she finds Robert's truck Harry just thirty feet away at the signal. It is one of the most difficult things for her to do, to let go of Robert, when she could have just reached out to him and left her husband and her children behind. Its then that she realises that she had underestimated her feelings for Robert and that he was right when he had said to her, "I have one thing to say, one thing only, I'll never say it another time, to anyone, and I ask you to remember it. In a universe of ambiguity, this kind of certainty comes only once, and never again, no matter how many lifetimes you live".

Robert sends her copies of the National Geographic, two pictures and a letter in the following years, telling her that he yearns for her and loves her profoundly, describing the way he feels most times as if it were a world that seems to be God-abandoned! Over a period of time, Francesca fills three notebooks with the details of her affair with Robert. Many years later when Richard Johnson is dead, Francesca tries to contact Robert at National Geographic, only to learn that he had died and had left her; his camera equipment, his estate and other belongings including his ashes, which he wishes to be  scattered over the Roseman Bridge of Madison County.

Francesca also requests for her remains to be cremated and ashes scattered over the Roseman Bridge. Its only after her death that her children learn about their mother's great love for one Robert Kincaid and understand how they were the reason for the end of a beautiful relationship! They decide upon having this tale told to the world!! Which brings us to the start of the book..

What Falling into Dimension Z, describes is how we are all racing towards something. Something, which is the purpose we have to fulfill, for which we have been put on this earth! It could be to put a smile on someone's face or invent something or to love someone as profoundly as Robert Kincaid and Francesca Johnson did! However, to find such a love is rare and a kind of certainty which comes only once.. :P considering the uncertainty of relationships in today's times! Maybe people dont know what their Dimension Z is, or maybe sometimes they ignore Dimension Z all along! Hope we all learn about our Dimension Z sooner than later and fall into it!! because that would be the most perfect thing to ever do! :)

I hope no one feel asleep reading this!!! and I might read the Bridges of Madison County yet again, very soon!! Its made into a movie too, Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, though the book is magical! :) :)