My decade long liaison…
I first discovered this place post my 12th grade. A few months into basic sciences depressed me and I decided to give the medical entrance another shot. Honestly I am flummoxed as to how people manage to ace it in the very first attempt. 12th grade is super hectic as it is without the additional stress of the entrance exam which is a different ball game altogether.
I didn’t do very badly in the first attempt. I scored a distinction but was pretty much useless as far as making the cut was concerned. So began tuitions and mandatory attendance in the local library. The place is amazing I must say. It is a complete floor open 24/7 dedicated to students of all age groups who are looking for an undisturbed serene escape into books.
That is one place that won’t make you feel like you haven’t made it. At any point there are students acing, struggling, juggling(various subjects) at the same time. That is one place that will unintentionally motivate you to put in the efforts since everybody else around you will be buried deep into their study material doing just that.
People there start their day latest by 8 in the morning and clock 12 hours straight almost everyday. One thing the place teaches you is consistency. There are no occasional library users only diligently industrious ones. They honestly would put people like me to shame. My maximum capacity was 10 hours from 10 am to 8 pm and if any day I chose to clock a marathon, I would end up compensating subconsciously by dawdling away time or oversleeping the next day.
We mostly studied in pairs or small groups. It made the process more bearable. The canteen allowed group discussions only for a short while( which would often take hilarious turns) before we would be cajoled back to our seats by the staff. Hence we sometimes carried our discussions to the stairs below until the boss would come and send all the academic banjaras scampering away book, bags, dignity et al.
A handful of coffee breaks interspersed throughout the day was mandatory. It kept our adrenaline fueled and allowed time for a much needed banter though banter was also the reason why some people spent most of their time there(hence the need for extra strict rules).
There were an array of colorful personalities there. One type was the ‘Every minute to be accounted’ kind. They seldom left their seat, their lunch break lasted all of 10 minutes max, almost negligible coffee breaks and as a birdie told me , they also solved questions as they brushed every morning. Now, I don’t care how I get branded but I am not turning into one of those Type A over driven unidimensional personalities. All work and no play makes Jackie a dull girl :D
The next kind was the overachieving sorts almost similar to the above but with a twist. The additional quality they had was ‘hysteria’. They would have already studied all day long at home at least for 7–8 hours and then would turn up in the library and cry bucket full of tears. The rest of us would act like agony aunts and pacify them. After their tearful soiree they would go back to studying in full fervor while the rest of us who would have just about started studying would have wasted a few hours of our time. When they would go on to hit a sixer in every test , we would be struggling to score singles. Modus operandi unraveled, we decided to prioritize ourselves too.
Then there were the super studious yet social butterflies. They would be up to date with their lessons but somehow used the library for socializing. They knew almost anyone and every one there. Honestly, I would be slightly skeptical about them . They had this way of sweet talking into your world and unknown to you confusing and manipulating you into their web of games. Please, stay away! As they say in Hindi ‘Kaam se kaam and kum se kum kaam’ translating to ‘Be professional and interact as little’.
The next mention would be the seniors in the library. Good part about them is that they were usually friendly and helpful. So any query we couldn’t solve amongst ourselves was routed to them.
Finally, there were the over-competitive ones. They made sure to compare test scores even if they were the local classroom ones, defended their answers vehemently even when they were at times wrong. It was a matter of academic honor to know stuff better than every one else. They usually made my study group. In fact we all could be best described this way.
So, from cracking the State entrance exam to all my study holidays during my undergrad years and then cracking the post graduate entrance, it was a decade long liaison with our library.
