The last time I posted here was when I was having a great time, feeling relieved and looking forward to having a wonderful week. It turned out to be my imagination, and that too a wild one. The next few days shaped out in an extremely unpredictable manner. The days (and nights) were awfully tough but I must admit that I had a wonderful time. The cause is, yet again, a coursework and another deadline.

As usual, the most amazing, unpredictable and unfortunate things can happen near a deadline. If having delays on tube is usual, then you may end up in a train that stops after every two minutes if you need to meet at imminent deadline. If having to queue for printers, or the machine running out of ink is normal, then an abnormal print with mysteriously missing images is a possibility minutes before submission deadline (yeah, it DID happen!!!).

Such were the state of affairs in the last couple of days. Not only that, I (and most others) were spending nights upto 11pm in the lab and getting back early in the morning. Thankfully, the ordeal is over. Those of you aspiring to get in this or related courses, beware that analogue electronics is tough. Not only tough, but a pain!!

Looking back at the past few days when most of us were stuck in that lab, I admit that it wasn’t all that bad. This little period also cultivated good friendships and working relationships among the members of this course, since most of us were always flocked together for many hours. The pictures below are some of the memoirs from the penultimate night (before deadline). Thanks to my coursemate PF for the images.

Welcome to the Torture Cell!

That's 10p.m. but no one cares about time!

this one is self-explanatory!

That’s all for now folks. I need at least a day off and as usual I hope to be regular (which I’m sure I won’t be).

Note: I’ve finallllyyyy updated my About page, in case someone wants to know more about me.

Cheers!

Deadlines are cruel and yet important. Some and most people don’t like it. But it is true that without deadlines work will never finish. Working on a project one wishes for the time to pass as slow as possible so as to be far away from the deadline but there comes a stage when you just want that D-Day to come (and go) so as to liberate yourself from that project. This post is somewhat about that feeling.

Never in my life before did I wait for Monday so desperately as I did last week (for today). The past week has been an epitome of extreme stress, torment and sleeplessness. I had to submit two heavy courseworks today and I feel so relieved at the moment as if a boulder has been taken off my back. I had been stretched well beyond my regular thresholds of work and stress during this time. So when they say on the prospectus that it is hard to find time for other activities when the term commences, believe it!

I actually wanted this post to be about the new term which officially began last week (but effectively this week), but I think it is a good idea to give a feel of how hectic things can get here.

Imagine spending 12 out of the daily 24 hours in the lab working on the same thing trying to figure out new ways of doing the same thing and then going back home and spending another 5-6 hours doing the same before falling asleep. And then waking up the next morning and doing the same. This wouldn’t have been so bad if the thoughts were restricted to one project. I had to think about three courseworks in parallel switching from one code to another without having the luxury of break. On top of that nothing seemed to work or produce the desired results without sucking the brain out. And when the desired outcome was actually achieved the next stage was writing reports for all courseworks - something that all engineering students dread.

But the misery is over - for now at least. I have successfully met the deadlines and I should be thankful for having very supportive project mates. I feel so relieved right now that I can’t even think straight.

I can say with certainty that I’ve never been pushed so hard in my entire lifetime and the stress leves experienced in this duration are probably the highest. The gradient of this learning curve has been extremely steep. Having started only three months ago I already feel like I’ve learnt so much. I was dumbfounded when the courseworks were handed out but having been able to do them is a personal achievement.

I am now looking forward to having an enjoyable second term with less subjects (And trying to forget about the miserable week by sleeping as much as I can).

Note: I highly doubt that I have readers for this blog but if somehow you do follow this space please accept my apologies for not updating it in the past couple of weeks. The reasons are obvious and I will now make an effort to have this blog up-to-date.