Dated: 28th November 2010
Time: 2.30 pm
It’s freezing out here as I sit in my couch thinking about my future. The weather doesn’t trouble my thoughts though it does trouble my nose(sorry ,bad cold) and my body.(what the hell! its pouring like crazy and I am shaking all over) I was wondering what I had to do about the cold when I suddenly came up with this idea of writing about this trip that I had today. It was then that I heard my mom screaming at the top of her voice. Oops. Complication 1: I was late for lunch. I was just starting to write this bloody passage. Why is it that my mom always finds the supremely correct time to disturb me? So I groan as I get up from the couch. Complication 2: my sister is at the laptop before I could even get my ass out of the place.
So I went, had my lunch and I am back to tell you this interesting thing that happened today. So first let me give you the preliminaries as to why I had this trip to Ramanathapuram in the first place. I, as some people know and most don’t, have a great passion towards English language. It fascinates me that this language can grip me so much. People around me will let you know that "books" are my best friends. I am the most contented person when I sit reading a book. The world around me just doesn’t exist. I bungee jump into the world of the book I am reading. Okay I think I have given you enough information about my passion for English. So I decided to take up something to do with English, like journalism, communication courses etc. But I was not exactly sure which of these courses will help me the most. I keep dwindling on the idea of taking visual communication and proceeding to journalism (journalism is my ultimate goal, really) but my mind is still not fully made up. It was then that I got to meet this wonderful person called Amrita. I will get back to describing her later. My neighbor, Mrs. Geetha promised me to take me to her colleague's house who was actually a HOD in god knows what department (Ranjani is that auntie’s name). So I took down her house address and set out to her house with my dad in a scooter (I repent taking the scooter now!)When we are half way through rain starts to play its drama. We stop our vehicle near a bus stop and decide to take shelter under it till the rain gods have had their go at us. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, why 20 minutes passed but there was no sign of the rain showing any mercy on us. So we call up Nagraj uncle (our driver) and ask him to bring our car. He was there in 5 minutes and we continue our journey. It was pouring cats and dogs( sorry this might sound clichéd but how am my to explain what happened without missing the essentials?) so we go left and right in winding lanes and then I see her house NO 40 , Arumugam Nagar, near Vivek super market.
We enter into her house. Mrs.Ranjani was quite thin and her age could be anywhere between fifty and fifty five.She had short wavy hair all over her face which made her look like a cute kid! The first thing I notice about the house is that it had lots of paintings on the walls. We were waiting in the hall while aunty had a few errands to run. She was back with in five minutes. She showed me her first daughter's paintings. I was in total awe when I look around the house. (That girl must be damn good). She tells me about MOP Vaishnav and its method of selecting students. She also tells me about a 5 year literature course in IIT and she insisted that I apply for it too. Then out of the blue she tells me that her second daughter is doing BA journalism in MOP. Geetha aunty hadn't informed me earlier that she was doing journalism. I was hoping to talk to this daughter of hers to get more familiar with the course, when she meekly walked out of her room towards us. First thing I notice about her is that she seemed very friendly. She had a very charming smile. She was not only thin in stature but was also tall! (Come on, it’s not fair. how can I be so short? I think this has got something to do with the genes! Ok enough of my personal description, let’s get back to the subject in question! ) The chat that I had with her for about half an hour made me decide what I wanted to do. The conversation goes thus:
Amrita says," hey hi, how are you doing?" I say," am fine. How is college going on?" it was then that she gave me a full fledged idea about journalism. "College is good. The professors keep us ticking. In the first semester you have history of press. I really don’t know why we need history in the future. We will have to remember a few dates and facts about what happened in the past. That was the worst thing I had to go through. You just have to pass that paper and you will be fine. And you will get to know some basic concepts of journalism. It’s damn easy and pretty interesting. In the second semester you have videography, photography and technical education. And then they ask us to make our own newspaper. They give us the roll and get us involved in it. We have to go interviewing famous people, take photographs and print it all together in the form of a paper. Its all very interesting." says Amrita, using both her hands vigorously to help me get the feel of everything .I keep commenting that it all sounded very interesting. For that she says "it is interesting but it’s damn scary". I ask her about the interview that she had to face to get into MOP. She says "they just ask you basic questions like your passion for English. They will want to know if you are there to pass your time or if you are seriously contemplating on journalism. They will then ask you the line of journalism that you are most likely to specialize. I told her that I wanted to specialize in print media. You have to collect all the articles that you have written so long and file it together. This serves as a portfolio. This will help them know what you are actually made of". I keep nodding my head, taking in every word of what she was saying. Then I ask her about the hostels. She says," the hostel's pretty good. The mess food is quite ok. But there is this pain-in- the- ass curfew. You have to get back to the hostel by 6.30 in the evening. if you come a minute late they will ask us to throw in fifty rupees and let me tell you, when you start living in a hostel you become the world's most kanjoosi ( it literally means a miser) person. You will be broke by the time you rip yourself away from the fifty rupees note". It was so funny that I couldn’t stop laughing.
She was so free and she made me decide one thing "BA journalism at MOP Vaishnav its going to be, after all". She asks me to feel free to give her a ring when need arises. She tells me that she freaked out before her interview and so she could give me tips to keep calm. I tell her that in 5 months time I was to become her junior as I walk out from her house.
Cheers,
Aishwarya Kumar
Time: 2.30 pm
It’s freezing out here as I sit in my couch thinking about my future. The weather doesn’t trouble my thoughts though it does trouble my nose(sorry ,bad cold) and my body.(what the hell! its pouring like crazy and I am shaking all over) I was wondering what I had to do about the cold when I suddenly came up with this idea of writing about this trip that I had today. It was then that I heard my mom screaming at the top of her voice. Oops. Complication 1: I was late for lunch. I was just starting to write this bloody passage. Why is it that my mom always finds the supremely correct time to disturb me? So I groan as I get up from the couch. Complication 2: my sister is at the laptop before I could even get my ass out of the place.
So I went, had my lunch and I am back to tell you this interesting thing that happened today. So first let me give you the preliminaries as to why I had this trip to Ramanathapuram in the first place. I, as some people know and most don’t, have a great passion towards English language. It fascinates me that this language can grip me so much. People around me will let you know that "books" are my best friends. I am the most contented person when I sit reading a book. The world around me just doesn’t exist. I bungee jump into the world of the book I am reading. Okay I think I have given you enough information about my passion for English. So I decided to take up something to do with English, like journalism, communication courses etc. But I was not exactly sure which of these courses will help me the most. I keep dwindling on the idea of taking visual communication and proceeding to journalism (journalism is my ultimate goal, really) but my mind is still not fully made up. It was then that I got to meet this wonderful person called Amrita. I will get back to describing her later. My neighbor, Mrs. Geetha promised me to take me to her colleague's house who was actually a HOD in god knows what department (Ranjani is that auntie’s name). So I took down her house address and set out to her house with my dad in a scooter (I repent taking the scooter now!)When we are half way through rain starts to play its drama. We stop our vehicle near a bus stop and decide to take shelter under it till the rain gods have had their go at us. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, why 20 minutes passed but there was no sign of the rain showing any mercy on us. So we call up Nagraj uncle (our driver) and ask him to bring our car. He was there in 5 minutes and we continue our journey. It was pouring cats and dogs( sorry this might sound clichéd but how am my to explain what happened without missing the essentials?) so we go left and right in winding lanes and then I see her house NO 40 , Arumugam Nagar, near Vivek super market.
We enter into her house. Mrs.Ranjani was quite thin and her age could be anywhere between fifty and fifty five.She had short wavy hair all over her face which made her look like a cute kid! The first thing I notice about the house is that it had lots of paintings on the walls. We were waiting in the hall while aunty had a few errands to run. She was back with in five minutes. She showed me her first daughter's paintings. I was in total awe when I look around the house. (That girl must be damn good). She tells me about MOP Vaishnav and its method of selecting students. She also tells me about a 5 year literature course in IIT and she insisted that I apply for it too. Then out of the blue she tells me that her second daughter is doing BA journalism in MOP. Geetha aunty hadn't informed me earlier that she was doing journalism. I was hoping to talk to this daughter of hers to get more familiar with the course, when she meekly walked out of her room towards us. First thing I notice about her is that she seemed very friendly. She had a very charming smile. She was not only thin in stature but was also tall! (Come on, it’s not fair. how can I be so short? I think this has got something to do with the genes! Ok enough of my personal description, let’s get back to the subject in question! ) The chat that I had with her for about half an hour made me decide what I wanted to do. The conversation goes thus:
Amrita says," hey hi, how are you doing?" I say," am fine. How is college going on?" it was then that she gave me a full fledged idea about journalism. "College is good. The professors keep us ticking. In the first semester you have history of press. I really don’t know why we need history in the future. We will have to remember a few dates and facts about what happened in the past. That was the worst thing I had to go through. You just have to pass that paper and you will be fine. And you will get to know some basic concepts of journalism. It’s damn easy and pretty interesting. In the second semester you have videography, photography and technical education. And then they ask us to make our own newspaper. They give us the roll and get us involved in it. We have to go interviewing famous people, take photographs and print it all together in the form of a paper. Its all very interesting." says Amrita, using both her hands vigorously to help me get the feel of everything .I keep commenting that it all sounded very interesting. For that she says "it is interesting but it’s damn scary". I ask her about the interview that she had to face to get into MOP. She says "they just ask you basic questions like your passion for English. They will want to know if you are there to pass your time or if you are seriously contemplating on journalism. They will then ask you the line of journalism that you are most likely to specialize. I told her that I wanted to specialize in print media. You have to collect all the articles that you have written so long and file it together. This serves as a portfolio. This will help them know what you are actually made of". I keep nodding my head, taking in every word of what she was saying. Then I ask her about the hostels. She says," the hostel's pretty good. The mess food is quite ok. But there is this pain-in- the- ass curfew. You have to get back to the hostel by 6.30 in the evening. if you come a minute late they will ask us to throw in fifty rupees and let me tell you, when you start living in a hostel you become the world's most kanjoosi ( it literally means a miser) person. You will be broke by the time you rip yourself away from the fifty rupees note". It was so funny that I couldn’t stop laughing.
She was so free and she made me decide one thing "BA journalism at MOP Vaishnav its going to be, after all". She asks me to feel free to give her a ring when need arises. She tells me that she freaked out before her interview and so she could give me tips to keep calm. I tell her that in 5 months time I was to become her junior as I walk out from her house.
Cheers,
Aishwarya Kumar
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