Say E for Exams!

"Remember Remember, the sixth of November for that is when my
semesters start.
And I find no reason why my exam season should ever be forgot."


This is just a famous statement from an epic movie called V for Vendetta, that I morphed a little to suit my troubled semester scenario. The big month has passed. We dreaded the month, we fought our way through it or rather crawled our way through it, but heck, now we are done, and boy, aren't we happy! I have said enough and more about my fancy educational system, but eventually when it all boils down to the big picture, we sure can't do much when we come to our exams, but put our hearts into it and give it our best. On the whole, I'd say I did a decent job. Frankly, for the kind of effort that I could muster, my class topper would have done better writing with his left hand, but hey, I am strictly not the kinds who choose my second revision over the final six balls of an action packed cricket game. I choose all fifty overs and then start hunting for my books.


It was a bright start, my first exam. See, there's this thing called effort and then there's thing called luck. When it comes to Anna University, you either give the former a full hundred percent, or spend your life at the church asking for a lot of the latter. Unfortunately for me, I give my best when it comes to the former, and then the latter is given in generous measure to everyone else in class. As usual, my percentage hovers around the same old vicinity. This time around, I can't really say how much of the former I gave or how much of the latter I got. Basically, I just hope both strike a chord. But then I realize that means I am again asking for the latter, because hope is just a decorative synonym for luck isn't it? Wait a minute, this is too confusing.


For those of you who have no clue what I study, I do Electrical and Electronics Engineering. If you've gotten through reading the entire name of my course in one breath, I suggest you give professional singing a shot. Everyone says that my course is comparatively the toughest. Because every other person who asks me for my course cracks the same 'You're gonna be an electrician?' joke. If so many of them have struggled to pass and landed up as electricians, it must be a tough course. Maybe it is, but I guess I'm doing quite fine and dandy. The only problem is, the dorks who frame the question paper somehow psychologically track what I know. And quiz me on the rest. I mean, the dorks are so thorough in their work that even if I study the book inside out, they ask what's out of portion and stump me again. At the end of it all, I'm done now and I'm a happy man. And hey, I think I might make a good electrician. I correctly fixed a bulb on the holder and all last week.

My phone - The I-phone!

There! I've said it aloud. Now don't mock at me for announcing that my greatest fantasy is not some Hollywood celebrity woman with pink lips. Its the I-phone. To make things worse, the I-phone just got released in India. Unfortunately for me, the price is a little high for my budget. I am exactly a 30,870 rupees short. Fine yes, I have only a hundred and thirty bucks in my wallet, and I owe a couple of friends frugal amounts too. I was helpless. See, when the I-phone 3-G came out in the international market, it cost a little less that dirt. In today's rate of dollar conversion, it came to somewhere around nine thousand. I was like 'Whoa, that phone's mine'. I took all the massive price drop, stock exchange, dollar depreciation and all into account and calculated the Indian market's price to be close to atleast ten grand. And then it all happened.


Vodafone and Airtel are cheats! They promised the world's equivalent of goodies, but they never said they would take half your inherited fortune in return. The prices speak for themselves. A whopping 31,000 bucks for the 8GB and just a five grand extra for doubling your memory space. You Oh-so-clever people, now who will even go for the 8GB one? They would always pay that extra surplus and get the 16GB one. Extra revenue for those fashionable Indian tycoons. They should have just informed us that the I-phone's entry would be only for those Forbes India Money Minters' hot daughters and punk sons. The normal humans like us can keep fantasizing. And how!


The standard nation wide survey conducted by M.P.P (Murali's Poll Plaza. Its an international critically acclaimed psychological survey scheme that scans people's faces and deduces answers. Its 97% accurate.) shows that 80% of all I-phone users do not have any clue about 70% of the I-phone's applications. This point, yes this very point shows why people have money and they don't know what to do with it. Lets take a quick example. This business magnate whose name I refuse to mention, was one of the first who queued up to buy the I-phone. (It was actually his driver who stood in the queue all night, but this guy just took his place in the morning to pose for the daily papers.) He picked up the phone, unwrapped it so quickly like one of those toy-train sets to eight year olds, and then switched it on. The glee on his face spoke for itself. Then the stand up comedy started.

1. Muthu, where is that pen thingy which you press on the screen with? (He was referring to the stylus, which the I-phone does not provide.)

2. How do I make a call? The green button is not there! (To which the driver said 'It needs activation saab')

3. Can I atleast play games? Where is Snake? (Three onlookers were giggling so loudly, they could hardly suppress themselves.)


Then the man left, much to the relief of the Airtel office staff. This is why I wonder how money saturates in the hands of people who never know what to do with it. They either buy fancy cars, bikes or gadgets which they can never imagine complete utilization out of, or stock it in banks and multiply the amounts so they can start wondering what to do with it afresh. I really hope Dad increases my pocket money. If I start saving by tomorrow, maybe by 8017, I would have bought the I-phone. Donations are welcome.