Intro

This blog as might be apparent from the title has to do with running, biking and basically other outdoor individualistic sports, sometimes extreme, such as rock climbing . But don't be surprised if you find articles on work, personal life, music and even philosophy, this blog is an exception in this aspect in the blogosphere of running blogs and I am trying to revamp the blog to make it more runner friendly. You might want to look at the sidebar titled 'categorised', which as is obvious, categorizes my posts into different areas of interest.
The other thing that might interest many people is a section on 'running videos' and 'general videos' on the side bar, which I keep updating now and then.
I plan to bring in more posts on running and biking, with some added colour, so as to make them 'complete'. That's about it for now.
As a post-note, I have run a half-marathon, but I am yet to attempt a marathon, which through some concerted effort and time should happen in the future, but that ofcourse is not the culmination of this blog, it would on the contrary be something to jumpstart this blog onto new vistas.




Sunday, October 16, 2005

Bad bad day

We all have our share of bad days..But this I consider close to the worst day I have ever had..
I had a self-study mid-sem exam on thursday..Just another quiz, all I had to do was get the required notes and mug through the night(last minute cramming) and I would ensure getting a score around the average of the class.
Now the time was 9:30 pm and I realised that I had to do something about getting the notes. The 'lost' series, which I was watching seemed too intersting to even think about the quiz...Also, the quiz was at 5pm the next day and common, I am in the 5th year..grades don't matter anymore..But still my conscience was hitting me...So I messaged one of my frnds and asked him about it..
Me: machan do you know wht to mug for tomorrow's quiz..it's at 5pm rite?
R: yeah, Other than the text book, I have nothing else with me.
Me: Textbook, what textbook?
R: Oh, don't u have it....there is a shitload to mug man
Me: (psyched)..Do other junta have it? How much do we have to mug from it?
R: I guess so..There are relevant portions from each chapter dude..
Me: Macha..I need to xerox it da..can u give it to me..
R: Ok..but get it soon..come fast..

I hurried to R's hostel, got the book and as I approached the taramani gate, where I normally xerox stuff, ..I thought to myself, worst case scenario, the xerox shop would be closed.Well, it was about to getting closed..I asked the shop guy, why so and he replied that he had had a long day and was closing early due to 'ayudha puja'...But wasn't ayudha puja yesterday? It was but they were taking it easy today...I tried convincing the guy that it was urgent..but in vain.
I returned the book to R and asked him when he was going to sleep so that I could take it from him then. I got the book from R at 2am, man the book was huge...600 pages to browse through...and somehow managed to do some mugging till 5am after which I couldn't hold my sleep and hit the bed...
I woke up with a jolt at 9am..I remembered that I had to xerox the book now and return it to R asap. I hurried to the same shop and he promised me to get it done by 10:30am.
When I arrived at 10:30am , I saw the guy there repairing the xerox machine...Oh hell!!

Me: what happened...have you xeroxed the book?
Shopguy(SG): No, there is some problem with the machine..
Me: Why didn't you tell me before itself?
SG: I didn't know sir.
Me: (reality strikes) Ok how long will it take...This book is my friends', I have to return it asap.
SG: Don't worry sir, half-hour for the machine repair and 10 mins for your book.
Me: What??...Ok do it fast..I am waiting here..

Meanwhile I was getting tensed up, I had to mug, my friend had to mug and nothing seemed to be happening.
Finally, at 11 am the guy starts xeroxing the book and...'shriek'..the machine stops..I ask him, what's happening? The guy says nothing...opens the machine and takes out a crumpled paper..
After xeroxing every 3-4 pages the same thing keeps happening....I get frustrated and tell the SG to stop xeroxing so that I can get it done elsewhere..
As I leave the shop to go to an adjacent xerox shop...the power goes out..Great!! Now what do I do...It's 11:30am, I have a class at 12 noon, which I can't miss due to shortage of attendance..and what about R? One of the guys fagging there nonchalantly, suggested that I go to our own xerox shop inside IIT, 'technographix'..

Me: But won't it be crowded ?
Nonchalant guy: Don't worry machan, pass on an extra buck and your job will be done...

This is my last resort as there is no othe xerox shop within a 5km radius....I hurry to this place and is heavily crowded, so I frantically convince one of the guys that I need this book xeroxed urgently..He asks me to come at noon...I am like wow..That's real fast considering so many pending books to be xeroxed.
I go to technographix at noon on my way to the class and the guy has just started xeroxing...I curse myself..I tell him that I would get back to him at 1pm after the class...
After the class, R asks me for the book..I tell him that I will get it to him soon..Now R is a real cool fellow and he doesn't say anything, but obviously he is as pained as me...He just replies saying get it asap.
I rush to the the xerox shop and the guy has not yet done the spiral binding of the books..I had given up by then and waited till the guy finished spiral binding it. I cycle back to department, and return the book finally to R with a lot of apoligies...R just smiles and says, atleast you got the book xeroxed..
I get to back to hostel, have my lunch and go to my room..I am really tired after whatever happened today..Just no energy to even open the book..I lie down for half-hour..and by now its 2pm..Three more hours..I managed to do what was possible in those three hours...Get a broad idea of what is there for the quiz by quickly browsing through the whole book real quick...
The paper was for 50 marks and fortunately for me 2 of the questions were general which I answered from previous fundaes from courses and for the others, I used my imagination!!

This incident, I think is a lesson in procrastination..Even if I had gone to the tarams xerox at 8:30pm, I wouldn't have had to put myself through the trials and tribulations I went through..It was a series of worst-case scenarios resulting in an effect which was orders of magnitude more than the average case scenario.

12 comments:

pushkalAn& pattabhiraman said...

karthik....
procrastination is the hinge of all virtues...
btw..as far as i know .. graham bell was a great man.. he gave us telephne and most shops ve a phne ... and i m sure iit campus has one too
u should ve the habit of calling up the shop b4 u take a huge task there
at the end of the day ...
u learnt ur lesson .. !
be happy atleast now u did !!
cheers
pushkala

The Thinking Runner said...

You've made a great start, but wait till you get into your fourth year of grad school. You'll find out what procrastination really is.

Arbit said...

@pushkala: The xerox shop normally closes at 11pm..so this really was a wcs and here I don't get to know its festival time unless it is a major festival like deepavali or pongal.

@kalai: Yeah rite now...this incident has shaken me up..may be it wud be funny later on.

@Thinking runner: I think I have a faint idea of wat u are referring to..I recently postponed coding of an algo for 2 weeks for my mtech prj. only to find that it wasn't so tough.

NaiKutti said...

was it the economics one???... we guys had a similar experience with that course... after the end sem when the grades were out, we found that more than 50% of the class got a E and some 30% managed a D... :-)... hopefully u don't land up with these grades ;-)

Arbit said...

No..this is a civil self study course..prof is pretty peaceful:) My worst grades were in FM, my minor..:)

Pradeep Kuttuva said...

hey..

u remind me of my own xeroxing adventures..of notes..and finally project submission dude..real last minute..and then they crib saying that the cover was not the right one for btech...got shit pained..at the whole world...

but then dude..remember the n+1 sem rule...u always procrastinate...

prem said...

O god! I can hardly believe all this happened with u.
But man, really, i can imagine u going through all this....with that typical tensed face of yours

Arbit said...

saale, bolega tu, kyon nahi...neways abhi to life he giveup hogaya..got to do something

Arbit said...

@cecila Hmm..yeah

appalam vadaam said...

u just did not do the same for an end-sem.... it really sends shivers gosh - of not graduating, wondering what face to show to one's parents, wondering all the pain they had taken & we had taken to get into one's insti...

EP/ UK said...

hey nice blog da...and true, procrastination sucks! but it is one of those things that is taught by the iit culture, the sooner you learn it, the better coz you get rid of it earlier in life...forget my assumptions
avinash

Arbit said...

hey thanks da..Things are moving fast now..thanks to my procrastination in prj. work.

Kennenisa Bekele with the WR

Robbie Mcewen and steve o'grady - The 'Nudge'