There was a time when I used to be nice for no reason. Nice with everyone. I have changed myself since then. The urge to help out anyone in need is dead.

I feel ‘used’ when I help anyone out. I am assured that this process of being kind is a one way process, and the people around me have nothing to offer when I am stuck; not even a consideration of my feelings.

Nobody stood by me when my first year teacher bullied me. Nobody stood by me when everyone cheated the test in Second year whereas I was the lone man standing. Instead, they tell me to go with the system. They say this with a commanding voice, as a group; encircling me time and again.

The problem is that their hands are not clean: they cheat to proceed. For a few marks in a test, they put their dignity at stake, but I can’t. I am disgusted of them, and their rules of the game.

Okay, enough of this frank talk.

Today’s Thursday. Thursday feels like Reinforced Concrete design day. We have two consecutive periods of this subject, and then their is the design class of the same subject on alternate Thursdays. RCD is dizzying. It conceptual, and seems to have an infinite course matter. And if you haven’t gone through the last lecture, it feels like I felt today: crazy guesses and failure.

I was having one of those ‘Happy for reason’ days today. Today, I thoroughly enjoyed. I took my risks to be happy.

Structural Analysis period was full of teary laughter. Ma’am Talat took ten minutes of her period gazing at the book. Ali and I kept laughing, as Ali kept saying, “Hello miss. Are you there?”

Finally, she rose from the book. We stopped the giggling midway. She was to do the impossible today: work on an unsolved numerical. Yes we reached to the answer, but after a lot of twists and turns.  A lot of diagram gazing, contemplating, erasing. Concept building and its bulldozing. They were 50 minutes of excitement.

Next up was Sir Jaafri. Now he is a seasoned entertainer. He took a surprise test today, and reminded the students, “Those who do not sit for today’s test, will suffer.”

Ten minutes later, the test was forfeited. He began his teaching: Reading from a UN report.

At the end of the day, we had traffic analysis practical. It shined our day. We counted the vehicles at SITE intersection. The practical is a nightmare for the girls who cross the road like the proverbial chicken. They appeared to be on a suicide mission. Ali and I clapped hands, and joked,”It wouldn’t matter if we lose a few girls in this practical.”

The place we were scheduled to analyse traffic was ideal: one vehicle every five minutes. Good time to discuss future plans, the past, and finally politics. On the other side of the road, two of the girls were standing in sweltering heat, extreme traffic. Time for another joke, since the next car would come after five minutes, “Who advised them to become engineers?”

As we were enjoying the situation, our traffic teacher arrived. He requested us to swap places with the girls, since the place was hot and accident prone.

End of fun? No. At our new place, we had even more fun. We talked with the common man, then a pathan, and finally with the police. We talked big, with Ali constantly saying that he is going to make  ‘underpasses and flyovers’ at this place, and the people looking in awe at first, and then being irritated with his rhetoric.

At the end of the practical, we bid farewell with our new friends, and returned to our university.

Oh, I missed the rickshaw accident. The road went jam. The rickshaw was on the floor, tilted 90 degrees. Lots of fuss, honking; but no fatalities.

Tomorrow

Business communication marks will be posted. Lets see how well did our Toyota presentation go.

Thursday, March 25, 2010 // Mood: High , workday // 0 comments //

About

Arif Samoon is a Junior Design Engineer at Techno Consult International. He completed his Bachelors in Urban and infrastructure engineering, from NED University in 2011. He loves his digital presence. Loves to code, write, and design.