So half my management course is over already. That was fast, now wasn’t it? And we have an ongoing 10-day vacation before the elective terms start. My original plan was to spend large part of this vacation in Bangalore catching up with old friends but thanks to the incessant rains and the accompanied flooding, my plans were ruined. I hate it when that happens.

I am still trying to salvage the holidays by doing as little as possible everyday. We also found a way to convert our apartment into a theater every night with the help of a projector. Take a look at my movie reviews page here. I’ve watched all the movies for October 2009 in the list since the vacation started and will continue watching more movies till the vacations end.

So, a lot happened since the last post. Here’s a gist: Term 2 ended. I took a four vacation and visited home. Term 3 began. All hell broke lose. Term 3 ended. The world was beautiful again!

In the five day break last week, I tried to make the most of the beautiful world and I chose to mostly do nothing to enjoy the days properly. I did, however, watch a cult Hindi movie, Gunda, which was nothing short of a classic. Scene after scene of pure unadulterated, unintentional comedy.

And on Saturday, not only did I find this clip on you tube of a hillarious scene from the movie Clerk but my flatmate, Amit, also ordered the movie which is finally available after years of wait. Yay!

Moving on, the weather has been phenomenally good in Hyderabad for the past den days or so and the greenery in the campus looks livelier than ever before.

Term 4 began today and the usual grind has started.

I realized something the first time I stepped out of the college campus. That if you live in a campus for too long, the campus becomes your whole world and all the small problems within the campus seem big and extremely important. But only when you go out and see that there’s a real world outside can you put things back in perspective. Which is why I’ve made a point to go out once a week so that I don’t lose touch with reality.

That’s not saying that I don’t like the world inside the campus. In fact, I love it! I don’t remember ever working for as many hours a day as I do now. My life here so far has already shown me that I’m capable of much more than I thought. This might come as a surprise to some of my friends here, especially my study group mates, but I actually enjoy working on the assignments at weird hours of the day. Whats scary is that I’ll have to leave this make believe world in around 9 months and go back to the real world.

In other news, I have a great (at least I think so!) view from my bedroom window. And just so you all could agree with me, here’s a picture!

Also, the part of Hyderabad I’m in isn’t too bad. Its pretty close to the upmarket areas of Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills which have some of the best hangouts. But I still miss Bangalore, particularly my neighborhood of Kalyan Nagar and Banaswadi.

Profuse apologies for the lack of any posts in the last one month. One of the primary reasons for it was my struggle to juggle everything. There are just too many things to do and very little time. Between the classes, social clubs, professional clubs, case studies and assignments, there’s never enough time to do anything else. I do manage to listen to some music and watch episodes of Lost to keep myself sane. What makes time management even more difficult is my disturbed sleep cycle. For some reason, I am sleeping more than I used to. I blame Hyderabad’s weather for it!

But now that the first term is almost over and I have recovered from the slight (yeah, right!) humbling caused by the mid-terms, I think I’ve finally figured out the right balance that I need to maintain to extract the most out of my one year here. I’ve set some goals for myself and I will try to get involved in most things that will help me achieve that goal. Nothing too serious! Just the things I need to help me grow. I’ve been active in the Running club, Toastmasters club and Dance club and think it will stay that way though there might be few additions in the later part of the year.

There’s an upcoming term break next week. Hopefully, it will help me rejuvenate and prepare myself to play the game.

How different and consuming the past two weeks have been could be gauged from the fact that I did not listen to my iPod even once, which by the way, is the longest I’ve been away from it because no matter how busy I might have been, I always found time for it.

It has been a happy journey so far. Meeting so many talented and diverse individuals and trying to remember their names has been the theme so far.Things will change from tomorrow though as the first term begins. I’m all set to soak in the college classroom experience once again.

I’m all settled in this new routine but I’ve made sure to incorporate some of my old daily habits for the sake of having some familiarity.

Although the school is technically in Hyderabad, this place is a world in its own and could have been . anywhere in the world. I’ve only been to the city thrice and am yet to explore all the touristy places. I guess it’ll happen in due time.

Wow! Lots of scattered thoughts. Just give me some time and I’ll put it all together. I’m off to breaking my iPod abstinence now!