I AM ALIVE

One of those usual evenings in the Central Lecture Complex with practice proceeding at snail's pace, when my mobile starts ringing at level 5. The screen showed the name "Carol" flashing. I picked up the call to a loud question from the bearer of the name, "HOW THE HELL ARE YOU?" For this expected question, I had only one answer, "I am alive."

Big respects and greetings to the blogging world. February'06 has been pretty happening for me. Starting with my dramatics team scoring at the dramatics event at the IIM Banglore fest, Unmaad'06, coming second place, to a race against time to meet deadlines. The month has been pretty hectic and as an engineer would put it, heavily scheduled. To an outsider, the final semester in NIT Trichy means heaven, thanks to a class or two in a day. But the underlying truth is that one has a lot of other work burdening him/her. When I say work, I do not necessarily mean indulging in activities of pleasure, but activities which are very much classified under the category of curricular. The eighth semester students are confronted by some thing called as a PROJECT which has to be done in the semester and it carries a mammoth 6 credits, which is very, very big. Do you take part in it with full conviction or not is a different matter to debate, but nonetheless. And, as if this is not enough, you have other things to do like, for me, there is The Thespian Society, the Reminiscence, practice for the inter department festival called NITTFEST'06 and many others. Thus, paradox of the situation is, you think you are really free in the eighth semester, but actually you are not.

When all these are eating my head and sanity away, one fine day, I wake up in a strange bed, with a weird plastic gas mask kind of thing, covering my nose and mouth. It did take some time for me to realize that there was a very dear friend and a lady dressed in white and a white cap, looking like a nurse, were beside my new bed. What puzzled me, of course, was that I remember going to bed the night before, feeling very uneasy with myself. It was as if I was a carrying a large boulder on my chest and feeling extremely tired of its weight on my lungs. And that's it! That is all I remember! The next thing I know that I wake up in this totally strange place with all sorts of medical equipment surrounding me and a lady dressed like a nurse standing by my bedside with my worried friend with her. Then it struck me, that the place was indeed a hospital and she not only dresses like a nurse, but she is a nurse.

"What happened? Why am I here?" a puzzled me asked my relieved friend.

"Thank God! Relax now. Last night you were having problems in breathing and gasping very badly for breath. You were brought here and the doctor put you to sleep with the nebulizer. We were waiting for you to wake up so that an XRay of your lungs could be taken. The doctor will be here soon. Don't worry."

Hmmm.. Well, I didn't know how to react to that. Maybe because I was too drowsy and the god damn weight on my chest was causing more fatigue. Later, a wheelchair was brought and I was taken for the XRay. I could barely move. A step I take and I feel spent out. But I couldn't really think. And this is what the doctor tells me, followed by a thousand watts smile, "It is only a normal chest congestion. Don't worry. Apparently, air flow to your right lung has stopped. I will administer some antibiotics. You should be alright soon." A normal chest congestion? Since when did chest congestions be normal? And no air flow to the right lung? Since when did that be normal too? And after all this he tells me not to worry, after all, I should be alright soon. Should be? Soon? How soon? Oh-o! I shouldn't worry... I forgot.

Well, it took two weeks. I missed my one set of internal tests. My Valentine's Day went for a six. And, oh yeah, I forgot, I lost some good amount of weight. Apart from the latter, there was nothing so good about this normal chest congestion. And of course, I had a reason to stop verbal communication because the doc advised me, again with his thousand watts smile, not to talk much. Travel was also forbidden. I other words, for two weeks, I was cut off from civilization.

When I did return from my exile, I discovered that I had loads of work pending. I am sure, Mr Hercules must have been happy to see a contender in me. It was back to the usual schedule of late night working and running to classes in the morning which, eventually, just when you reach the threshold of the room, you are informed that the lecture is cancelled. And to top it all, the internet lab, my favorite night spot, was shifted to an annexe of the Octagon, to accommodate more computers for the growing population of the college junta and security for this place had not yet been arranged. Hence it was put to a 12 hour working schedule, which meant the lab closed at 8:00 pm. My diatribes seem never ending, thanks to the ever generous cosmos.

However, tonight I am a happy man. They have finally put a guard for the internet lab and its back to the 24/7 system. My work has kind of eased, but the frustration still lurks. But why do I have to care now, after all, I can cry in the internet in the lap of night, read blogs of my peers, write my heart out, and then, wait for the next days unfolding; a new set of troubles, new set of ill lucks, new experiences.

Greetings fraternity, Alfi aka hotICE is still alive, with an abnormally normal chest, strangely with both my lungs working fine. Thank you for still being there......