Everything I dislike comes in the form of empty boxes. Let me explain.
I hate this uncertainty. Most of my friends who’d applied to the US have started getting their accepts or rejects. Not me. Last month, I got an admit from one of the places, though not from one of those highly ranked ones with a bankable funding scenario. Naturally, I am not even considering it. But what about the dozen other places I’d applied to? Most of them claim that they need some 2-4 weeks to review my proposals. But that they have been claiming for the last 10 weeks or so. And I actually sent the stuff more than 2 months prior to the deadline because admissions were supposed to be on a rolling basis. The sooner you applied, the better chances you had. Now, finishing off everything 2 months before the deadline is not a matter of a joke. Not to mention the exorbitant price I had to pay to the Blue Dart courier services, which made so big a dent in my pocket. Mom believes in the “no-news-good-news” principle. She is naive enough to think that since they haven’t sent me a reject either, they must be spending all their weekends and free time going through my seemingly impressive credentials. Not that I’d vouch for it.
So the moment I enter the main gate of our apartment, my eyes are automatically glued to the letterbox for some promisingly fat stamped envelopes. From telephone bills to electricity bills to LIC Policy mails to credit card offers to invitation cards for weddings and funerals to the free pamphlets for catering services, home delivery, and high income job offers working from home, my letter box seems to have it all. I have a weird habit of taking out the contents of the box, deftly using my two fingers without a key. And it’s highly frustrating to use your skills to take out some pamphlets instead offering mehndi and facial at attractive prices from the local beauty parlor. The same goes with my e-mail inbox, which is inundated with blog comments, orkut scraps, personal emails, yahoo group emails, emails conveying the news of admits/rejects of friends, and of course spam mails from unknown Bobs and Richards who want to share their inheritance with me and ask me for my bank information. Not to mention those emails from the grad secretaries stating- “We have received your application which is being reviewed by the department. It will take us 2-4 weeks to get back to you.”
My life is turning out to be one of those huge empty boxes these days. Of course this gives me ample opportunity to write philosophical blog posts that none wants to read. Someone wanted to know my reasons for not replying to blog comments nowadays. It’s nothing but the very fact that I am too tired to even open my mailbox most of these days. And I don’t see much point in sending one week’s stale replies to the comments. Okay, excuses apart, though your comments mean a lot to me (I still compare it with the number of comments Munnu gets), the lack of replies are due to the sole reason that I am emotionally too tired to communicate with people these days. Hopefully this phase is not going to last long.
Correction work is something else that has a story of its own. With the final exams just over, I have been making and breaking records by correcting papers for some 6-7 hours at a stretch everyday. Try that when you have to read and mark every answer 50 times. 3 subjects, 3 classes, 50 papers in each. I’ve been amazing myself with my resilience. And what are you supposed to do when you have to correct some weird answers like this?-
Q: What kind of a triangle is triangle ABC where angle A is 30 degrees and angle B is 40 degrees?
Ans: This is an impossible triangle, since a triangle should have at least three degrees.
Q: How do you measure the length of an object using a ruler worn at its edges?
Ans: No problem. I can still manage.
Q: How can you prevent the spread of water-borne diseases?
Ans: By not drinking sewage water everyday.
No wonder the empty boxes on their answer scripts are being adorned by zeros and the single digit numbers.
God, please fill up my letterbox and mail inbox with some news I have been looking forward to. I long to be my old self once again.
sunshine.
I hate this uncertainty. Most of my friends who’d applied to the US have started getting their accepts or rejects. Not me. Last month, I got an admit from one of the places, though not from one of those highly ranked ones with a bankable funding scenario. Naturally, I am not even considering it. But what about the dozen other places I’d applied to? Most of them claim that they need some 2-4 weeks to review my proposals. But that they have been claiming for the last 10 weeks or so. And I actually sent the stuff more than 2 months prior to the deadline because admissions were supposed to be on a rolling basis. The sooner you applied, the better chances you had. Now, finishing off everything 2 months before the deadline is not a matter of a joke. Not to mention the exorbitant price I had to pay to the Blue Dart courier services, which made so big a dent in my pocket. Mom believes in the “no-news-good-news” principle. She is naive enough to think that since they haven’t sent me a reject either, they must be spending all their weekends and free time going through my seemingly impressive credentials. Not that I’d vouch for it.
So the moment I enter the main gate of our apartment, my eyes are automatically glued to the letterbox for some promisingly fat stamped envelopes. From telephone bills to electricity bills to LIC Policy mails to credit card offers to invitation cards for weddings and funerals to the free pamphlets for catering services, home delivery, and high income job offers working from home, my letter box seems to have it all. I have a weird habit of taking out the contents of the box, deftly using my two fingers without a key. And it’s highly frustrating to use your skills to take out some pamphlets instead offering mehndi and facial at attractive prices from the local beauty parlor. The same goes with my e-mail inbox, which is inundated with blog comments, orkut scraps, personal emails, yahoo group emails, emails conveying the news of admits/rejects of friends, and of course spam mails from unknown Bobs and Richards who want to share their inheritance with me and ask me for my bank information. Not to mention those emails from the grad secretaries stating- “We have received your application which is being reviewed by the department. It will take us 2-4 weeks to get back to you.”
My life is turning out to be one of those huge empty boxes these days. Of course this gives me ample opportunity to write philosophical blog posts that none wants to read. Someone wanted to know my reasons for not replying to blog comments nowadays. It’s nothing but the very fact that I am too tired to even open my mailbox most of these days. And I don’t see much point in sending one week’s stale replies to the comments. Okay, excuses apart, though your comments mean a lot to me (I still compare it with the number of comments Munnu gets), the lack of replies are due to the sole reason that I am emotionally too tired to communicate with people these days. Hopefully this phase is not going to last long.
Correction work is something else that has a story of its own. With the final exams just over, I have been making and breaking records by correcting papers for some 6-7 hours at a stretch everyday. Try that when you have to read and mark every answer 50 times. 3 subjects, 3 classes, 50 papers in each. I’ve been amazing myself with my resilience. And what are you supposed to do when you have to correct some weird answers like this?-
Q: What kind of a triangle is triangle ABC where angle A is 30 degrees and angle B is 40 degrees?
Ans: This is an impossible triangle, since a triangle should have at least three degrees.
Q: How do you measure the length of an object using a ruler worn at its edges?
Ans: No problem. I can still manage.
Q: How can you prevent the spread of water-borne diseases?
Ans: By not drinking sewage water everyday.
No wonder the empty boxes on their answer scripts are being adorned by zeros and the single digit numbers.
God, please fill up my letterbox and mail inbox with some news I have been looking forward to. I long to be my old self once again.
sunshine.
5 comments:
First !!
May God bless your letterbox soon.
As for the kids, let them be. A particular thread on orkut will tell you that some profs can be worse.
And what do you think would happen to me if I were to compare the number of comments I get on my blog to yours? *smiles*
Tension matt le re.Maine suna hai mote logo ka admit thode der se aata hain , but aata zaroor hain.keep the faith lallu.in other nuggets of wisdom , its C L I K , you agree na ? ..kya ...you said 'NO' ?!
Hey Sunshine, Don't worry hopefully u will get the news u are waiting for soon. :) I will pray.
Abt the kids. Are tum yeh sab padati ho unko.. Kya bolne ka tumko..:):)
Take care.
Ha ha..
Cute post!
Good luck sunshine. May the sun always shine on you. Though I have come to believe that in every transaction, both parties are to gain. If a US univ does not accept you (as many companies have been rejecting my job application these days), I think the loss is as much theirs as yours.
Good luck to them! hope they can find someone atleast half as good!
" It’s nothing but the very fact that I am too tired to...."
I didn't knew, rather realize and now that I have, feeling apologetic.
Relax sunshine. Take your sweet time..
Joe/
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