Two memorable days of my NIT-ian life

DAY-1:

Before I enrolled myself in nit –jsr,I had few interaction with people of other regions of India. I was used to speak Assamese, my mother tongue with its own accent, pronunciation and intonation alone. We have less types of pronunciation than Hindi. We don’t have the difference between “sa”&”cha”;we don’t have the pronunciation ‘Ta’ like in ‘RICKY PONTING’. My casual interaction in English also suffered from the same drawback. As a result, I have to stumble often in communicating with non- Assamese speakers. In this NIT, during my initial months of stay, my friends often couldnot get properly what I spoke to them. I was very much perturbed and sometimes frustration came to me. I was often laughed at by my friends.

Because of my faulty pronunciation I had to be paid for heavily on one occasion. I was a student of 3^rd Sem then. The incident took place around BUTTER. It was the week before the 3^rd end sem of nit-an life. In our NIT students believe in 'one night one fight' method as far as the preparation of the exam is concerned. We the three room-mates used to start our preparation a week beforehand. We used to study till late at night in those days. By midnight we generally felt hungry. We, the three roomies mooted to keep a stock of bread and butter to satisfy our hunger whenever it tormented us. I was first to arrange for it.

I am used to go for walk every evening with Vinay. I decided to go in search of bread-butter during our evening walk. We two went to the shop amidst the teacher's colony at the backside of our hostel-D and I asked for butter. The pronunciation was of T, that of "TABLA". The shop-keeper didn't get what I demanded. He asked what I wanted. I told him for the 2^nd time. He looked at the face of the other customer inquisitively. He too looked confused. Vinay burst out laughing and pronounced correctly. The shopkeeper laughed too and said that butter was not available. I blushed out in shame.

From there we made our way to NIT-store. On the whole way I cursed Vinay for making fun of me at the shop. I tried to learn the exact pronunciation from him on our way. But alas! The tongue that I used so many years for Assamese pronunciation only is not going to change its way of movement so quickly.

The same was the situation at the store. I pronounced the word "butter" loudly. But it was not going to make the correct pronunciation. The store owner didn't got it. Again Vinay pronounced correctly.

The store-owner said-"aisa bolo na..kya butttttter butttter bol rahe ho". There, too, I got only insult.

I returned to my room where my two room-mates, Abhishek & Dhananjay, were busy in evening "adda"with Kalyan, our neighbour. I told them about the incidents that took place over butter. All burst-out laughing. Seeing my blushed face, they became silent. Dhananjay & Kalyan taught me the exact pronunciation by showing me how to move my tongue for it. After a lot of practice I was, at least, able to pronounce "butter" a bit correctly.

I rode to the NIT-gate on Dhananjay's bicycle in search of butter. I went to a shop and asked the shopkeeper whether butter was available or not.

:ha hein----he replied.

What??????? Means he had understood what I demanded……means my pronunciation went correct.

Thanks to Dhananjay and Kalyan

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DAY-2:

AN OLD MAXIM EXPERIMENTED

Early to bed

Early to rise

It makes Jack

Healthy, wealthy and wise

So we are advised by our parents to rise early and to study. It will energies our memory power which will help us to do well in exam and will enable us to stay fit physically and mentally.

But in our NIT, hardly a few students go to bed before 12:00 am. Most of the boys are used to remain awake till 2:00 am watching movies or playing counter –strike. This compels us to sleep till late morning. Reaching the 1^st period 5-10 minutes late is a daily exercise. We feel helpless at home during our stay in vacations as we are bound to go to bed early and to leave the bed early.

Once I decided to start the habit of getting up early in the morning and to study regularly in the morning. I have to prosper in life with healthy body and mind.

I am a boarder of Hostel-I. Through my window, we can have a glimpse of Platina city. The vast plot of unused land between our hostel and Platina city is carpeted with green grass. It is a very beautiful scenery. I used to imagine the picturesque beauty of the grassland in the morning when the ray of light from the rising sun falls on the bed of grass.

So to enjoy this beauty, I got up, one day, at 5 in the morning. I decided to wash my face first and then to peep through the window to enjoy the scenery with my fresh and clean eyes. But as soon as I lifted my window curtains I was shocked. What I noticed left me dumb and my mood off.

I noticed that people are sitting everywhere with some separation in between them starting right from the hostel boundary wall. A close look revealed that they were discharging their internal waste. After completing their morning natural call, they cleaned themselves with a handful of nearby grass leaves. People were doing this batch by batch. Suddenly a bike arrived in full speed with two men. They put their bike in stand by our hostel wall and took their place among them.

Oh shit! What I thought and what I have enjoyed. How a day that starts with such a view can go well for me? At the end of the day I made an oath that as long as I am in this institute, I shall never think of getting up early in the morning.

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JAIMINI BHATTACHARYYA

PRODUCTION & INDUSTRIAL ENGG

2K6 BATCH