Sleepless in NIFT

4 0 clock in the morning....darius’ song “colourblind” makes a feeble attempt to keep us awake. The fear of the rat eating into my new sarojini sweater makes me pile up all my clothes on my already messed up, tiny bed. Besides that...a compass lies dangerously close to my butt, one of the colour pencils is already broken coz i luckily missed the compass and sat on it instead. The room is packed and nauseatingly messy.

My roommate’s working religiously on a paper mosaic assignment (10 by 10”) we have to submit by 10 in the morning. Funny, how the number 10 seems to be quite a favourite with the college. For those who don’t know, paper mosaic is the technique of cutting bits of coloured paper and pasting them on paper. (Insane. I know) I still haven’t tired of thinking whether the faculty confuses us for some machines whose sole purpose in life is to sit up like owls overnight and work. But owls are better off anyway; At least they sleep during the day. I guess we must be a new, evolved breed then.

Here comes the call of the faithful roommate who stays up all night with me, sharing my torture. She needs an eraser. Firstly, NEVER, EVER ask a niftian for an eraser. We will have the longest range of painting colours in every possible tint and shade, the latest most expensive set of colour pencils, an H to a 10 B pencil...drawing inks to photo paints to all the swanky new stationary one can think of.....but NEVER ask for an eraser. An eraser is officially jinxed. An eraser, you see, has this amazing ability to vanish from the face of the earth just the second, no, the millisecond, you ask for it.

Since my roomy had already committed her sin, an intriguing and enigmatic search begins for the ever illusive, eraser. This is the precise point when you want the whole world to have ringtones like the blessed cell phone. Well, since we have no such luck, I begin brushing through piles and piles and piles of magazine paper, pastel sheet, crepe paper and a lot more I don’t really remember right now. I’ve stacked and unstacked paper, turned a 360 degree on my bed, pushed the pillows and blankets off, half dangled down the bed running my hand like a blind person on the floor...finally with a nasty curse I sit back down and there is another poke on my butt. Voila..like always it’s been there all along.

It’s 5 o clock now. After 5 hours of trudging through my assignment, I’m not even half way through. Paper mosaic can get torturously slow. I grab at the last few strands of patience I have left, straighten my back and get to work. My eyes are popping out with fatigue and both of us desperately search for any silly subject to talk about to wad off the sleepiness. We make fun of each other, cull out any wit our already tired minds can pull together and try to crack funny jokes. The stress is on “try”. I guess we have already reached the heights of lameness by now. I’m pretty sure I’ll get enlightenment one day. But the easiest bet is to bitch about people. You don’t have to think...You take one person you don’t like and you scrutinise them from each and every angle, add a little more from your side, or simply... just rip them apart. Also, the pent up frustration adds to it.

I think the world would be a hard place to live in if all people were nice. Bless the bad ones for a change.

6:30. The usual ‘I hate my college’ ritual has begun. 7 o’ clock is the official deadline for us. Before 7 o’ clock its still night. After 7 o’ clock it’s day. That means panic. Panic big time. 3 hours before the submission deadline, our cursing has increased tenfold...cutting paper furiously quick...one hand in a packet of chips and the other sticking paper. It’s funny how shortage of time makes us multitasking super-humans. I always thought we have something supernatural inside us. NIFT just somehow brought it all out. J

7:30. We’re hurrying down the road, hugging ourselves in the chilly morning wind. Deeksha, is the lifeline of all niftians bad at time management. That could, in the end, include all unless someone’s a superhuman all day long, irrespective of whether it is 7 am in the morning. Deeksha is the only place in the whole of Gautamnagar market that gives print-outs at decent rates and thanks to the never ending projects and presentations we have to give, it is jam packed any time of the day. Especially when you most urgently need a print out. So to avoid the usual crowd we head towards deeksha 7 am in the morning to get peaceful printouts for a nice change. We’re actually done in record 15 minutes. Oh happy day. Had I slept for the past two days and had the energy... I might even have skipped.

9. Panic is on the all time extreme. I’ve just finished my assignment. Not slept so technically we’re not going to brush our teeth. I grab my wallet and rush out of the hostel towards the stationary. Have to get ring-binders for the other THREE submissions I have to submit at 10. For all the hair-fall, the immunity problems, the dark circles, the one thing I’m not worried about is getting fat. Despite the junk food we have. Obviously, since I run around so much throughout the day...I think that’s taken care of pretty well.

I miraculously return before time and stuff my sheets in the ring-binder. Its 5 minutes to 10. My roommate’s still working and finishing other submission tasks. I rush to college. Don’t even remember what I was wearing. It’s weird how people imagine niftians go to college all dressed up and swanky with D&G glasses propped on their faces. I’ll just say one thing....dream on...
I reach college... they tell us we need all the submissions in one whole packet. We run to the nearby Cafe coffee day to ask for some huge bags, no luck. I curse. Again. I’m muttering nasty things and then i run down to the station get a huge chart paper, wrap them up and reach the submission room. Yes, I’m already late...but dare anyone say they’re not gonna take anymore submissions I would’ve strangled them right there. And miraculously the submission time has been extended till 2:30. Tragedies of my life...don’t even get to strangle people. Volunteer...anyone?