Thursday, February 5, 2009

5 point SOMEone

Could I have had a better topic to start off my blogging or what?! Here I am, listening to 'Get over it' by the Eagles at two in the morning( couldn't have found a more fitting song) and writing the first blog I have ever written. And the only thing that is comes in my mind right now, is me being a five pointer! I study(or, do I?) in BITS Pilani Goa Campus, one of the most prestigious colleges in India. And from what the grading system says about me, I clearly suck! Its an echelon, you know, a system of levels. It is headed by people called ten pointers. So now that I don't have anything to do and I am remotely sleepy, let me explain to you how it goes-
So, as I said, the echelon is topped by a species called the ten pointers. The ten pointers are the A graders. The creme de la creme. The top guys. They are the reason why colleges are made. The whole idea is to make ranks and ranks of ten pointers and convocate them into the society, so that they work in IT companies from 7 am to 12 midnight and raise kids who become obsessive IIT aspirants. Guys like us don't usually hang out with ten pointers. And vice versa. Its difficult to decide which ones hate the other ones more. Nearly impossible. The tenps look down upon the fivers from their ivory towers and smile unpleasant smiles. And the five pointers look up and return them with equal loathing. But that is how the system works. Each of us are in their own places, happy to be hanging in there, the two extremes. The ten pointers happy that there is no upper limit than this, while the fivers thinking I can't possibly fall down below this! And life goes on. You can recognise ten pointers as easily as you can recognise five pointers. Short hair, coconut oiled(that is a must) obese, specs, and they go ambling around alone. You can guaruntee that all the places they know on the campus are the classrooms, library, their own rooms and hopefully, the mess atleast. My God these guys actually go to the professor's chambers and ask them doubts! But then, there is an unspoken mutual pact between the fivers and the tenners. We never come in each others ways, each thinking that is way below dignity. The real problem are the nine pointers.
Now these are the wannabe ten pointers. But they can never be tenners, cause you need to be perfect for that to happen, not a whisker away from it. But these guys never miss the opportunities to round off their CGPA's. Let me tell you how a nine pointer is- Take in all the qualities of a ten pointer, reduce the coconut oil a bit(maybe that is the secret ingredient of being the tenners)and give the guy a ultra proud look with an extra long nose. Viola! you have your very own nine pointer. Now the difference between a ten p and a nine p is of a guy who takes computer science because he actually loves it and a guy who takes up computer science after looking at the placements list. And what's bad is that they actually get in our way. They nose around, complain when we make noise while playing corridor football(what else is a guy supposed to do in a hostel?) whine if they don't get front seats in a lecture, ask questions, silly ones, just to impress the profs, hang out with ten pointers, borrow their notes and loose them, never lend anyone else their own ones, not even a day before the exam! Oh, I might finish this whole page writing this but I have to stop. Moral, nine ps are not very pleasant people to live with.
8 pointers are great. they have it all settled out, you know. How much time to work, how much time to play. If you ever want to be something in life but don't know what to be, get some advice from me- be 8 pointers. And you will lead a life worth living. These guys life is so balanced. They watch movies, fool around, hang out playing guitars and singing songs with us guys. They go to all the lectures. Take notes, but they don't mind if the guy next to them is playing snake 2 on his phone. A ten pointer would have freaked out and a nine pointer would have brought this thing to the professor's notice if they were in such a situation. Maybe thats why these guys never mix and mingle in classes. But the 8ps are so cool! And they let you photocopy their notes too!
The seven and the six pointers are just happy enough to be hanging around where they are. Yeah, they don't have to be in the league of those shameless 5ps with their guitars and long hair. But you know what, they envy us. Secretly. They envy us because of the fun we have. And they envy the 8, 9 and (ofcourse)the 10ps too. Because of their grades. These guys are totally clueless about what to do. Do they chuck their futures and enjoy as much as they ever can or do they grind their noses on Organic chemistry by Solomon and Fryhle until they are raw? They just don't know! And so they think about vector spaces when they are on the cricket pitch with us and play Sweet home Alabama in their heads in maths ll lectures. The difference between the 8 pointers and the 6-7 pointers is that, although each of them give the same time to work and play, the 8ps, work when they work and play when they play. These guys work when they play and play when they work. Told you, they are just so confused.
Now comes the part for which I had to write the whole crap above this- The five pointers. Now believe it or not, but we are the backbones of this system. We make ten pointers what they are. Because its all relative(I wish old Al was here to see this moment). We are the five pointers, and we are kicked around from classroom to classroom and our grades tumble down like a slinky on the stairs. But we are satisfied. We have faithful friends and we hang out with them. We learn so many new things. Like climbing up on the Roof of Students Activity Centre from the outside, guitaring for like five hours straight, sketching prof's portraits from the last bench. Now that requires skill. More stealth skill them art skill I must say. And in this world of grades and placements, we hold our heads high and stand tall and face trouble as it comes. we seize the day. We sieze the night! We are the wheels which run the system. We are the wheels which have to carry the load. We are the wheels who get smothered by the dirt.
But you know what, we don't complain. we have the time of our lives in the college. And we use our brains too! For good things, constructive things. But the only reason we are the way we are is that we do what our heart tells us to do. Now it may be wrong, it may be foolish and it may be taking us completely on the wrong track, but then, atleast we get to drive our own car!
Now for the important thing- and this is for all of us- the 10ps and the fivers- notice the capital SOME in the title. Now that is not a typo. Its probably the most important thing in this coffee fuelled maiden blog. Forget everything I said, no offence meant, about your CGPA's and listen to this carefully. Of all the things in the whole wide world, the one that is really important is that you have to be SOMEone. A five point someone or a ten point someone, it doesn't matter. But you have to be someone. You have to make your mark. There is a place for everyone in the college. The muggers, the wannabes, the cool guys, the slackers, the ten pointers, the five pointers. All you have to do is come forward and take your places. Not happy with the place you have now? No big deal. Strive hard to change it. But please, be somebody. Be someone. You gotta be someone. The college takes in everyone. Life takes in everyone. Its like one big college, isn't it? And then you are expelled from college if you mess things up big time, but this is no time for us to talk about that. Its time to stop writing and publish the first blog ever written by me!!!!!!!!!!!

4 comments:

  1. Waiting for one more AWESOME workpiece....
    Surely we will get it quickly enuf...

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  2. hey .... u wrote the a very sensible post!!

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  3. Very good read. Cant say I agree with everything, but you got it very right in the last stanza. Hoping to read more of you.

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  4. Very nice post. You have made a nice observation, or may be some research. :)But there maybe some other ways to lookt at it too. Nevertheless I am actively following your posts from now ;)

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