I can’t help but pull out the cliché card from my pocket to
describe the beginning of a new chapter in my Book of Life. “And how time
flies!” Even though it is used metaphorically but in the ten ‘short yet long’
months at my journalism school, I think I actually saw how time flew. No, not
joking. The clock in its different forms, shapes and sizes haunted me forever
reminding me of those rigid contours of the deadlines. Did you think who really
cares about deadlines? Oh! A journalist, irrespective of the fact if it’s a student
or a professional can surely enlighten you with the real value of time
(timeliness).
Nine months back it was all different.
While doing the
undergraduate course, sense of urgency in life had gone astray. Both the
education set up in the college and mesmerizing beauty of the new city were
responsible for the obnoxious carefree attitude. But you tell me, how a college
student can concentrate when it’s a learnt fact that exams are only an annual
responsibility, when attendance criterion exists only on the
chequered-patterned pages of a register littered with dark red slanting lines
and the assignments are optional. It has to succumb to adventures of the new
city calling it to unravel its mysteries from every direction. And so
Chandigarh ensured that the ‘deadline’ word lightened in my mind dictionary.
The only time it mattered was when the scare of the strict night in-timings of
the PG accommodation (Girls PG, I tell you!) sprang back to life and even a
couple of seconds made a difference.
Then the J-school happened.
There wasn’t even the basic transition phase. Life was dragged
back to the track. But, this time the wind blew in the opposite direction. From
early mornings aided by multiple alarms to coffee overdosed late nights, it was
all hectic. Important Assignments and more assignments were the order of the
day(s) in the J-school. Sometimes it was the reporting, other times the
cumbersome editing. And some days hell broke loose because those days were
based on photography assignments (umm..I am photographically challenged). There
was never any chance of carefree attitude because there were always DEADLINES looming
over our heads. Even for cutting-chai
drinking sessions. As mentioned in the beginning, time used to fly. Especially
during assignments minute and the second hand of clocks made every possible
effort to outrun each other.
After ten months, life has come to a full circle and laid
foundation for the new beginnings. Every moment spent inside the third floor
campus was worth the effort. The super fast software lessons, forcing the eyes
to hear those lectures, taking turns to read the presentation slides in order
to stay alert in the class, surfing and nodding during the discussion to prove
that one is actually present in the class, though being virtually absent. With
the lessons learnt from the past, its time to experience the STRESS in reality.
Its time to learn, unlearn and relearn again.
