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The driver corners the car at the University Gate. I bid farewell to Baba, Junaid, Henna and Herra, and then tell the driver to pick me at 12: 30. Despite that I am 15 minutes late from my usual time, the university is deserted and has the calm of a sea after the thunde
rstorm. Even the morning today is a bit dim; but that’s because of the heavy cloud cover, or to a greater extent, because of the Day Light Saving Time. So it is actually 7 in the morning, and not eight, and at this time I am supposed to be having breakfast and not strolling in the University. The university is said to enroll 3,000 students but I see none. Why?
This is because we are having vacations, “a time”, as defined by The Common Sense dictionary “for leisure, traveling, and introspection.” At the NED University of Engineering and Technology, the word ‘vacation’ has a completely different meaning. Vacations are defined precisely as “the period of time for lengthy assignments, impossible yet compulsory projects and test preparation.
So here I am, in the University, under the farce called Vacations.
It is a long walk to my department, and longer still to the Central Library. Step followed by a step, which is followed by an infinite series of steps, and I reach my department.
A duo of blood-thirsty dogs enter the scene, and leave; jogging with their tongues out. I keep walking, destination Library, another canine enters the scene and leaves. Then we have the battalion of crows, combing the air like a pack of gangsters.
I reach the Materials department, now there were only 2 blocks between me and the library. Curiosity changed my destiny; I found myself spinning from one department to another, in search for the Mechanical Department: NOTICE BOARD. All I wanted to know was Antash’s standing in the Mechanical department. For this all I need was his Roll number, which would be at the NOTICE BOARD.
I keep on searching on. Ten minutes passed. No success. Two more minutes passed and I still had no success; I was losing out on both patience and energy. A minute more of searching, and “Yes”, I found it. Right in front of me, there it was the “Mechanical Department: NOTICE BOARD”.
I focused on the first year section, scanning keenly for the magic word: A.N.T.A.S.H. N.A.J.E.E.B.
Ouch! There was no list of students on the NOTICE BOARD, unlike our NOTICE BOARD; which displays a lot of personal information about the students (e.g. test marks, attendance, etc.). Instead there were pinned: boring survey assignments, Picnic ORIENTATION notice, and Test Reminders.
Dejected, I headed towards the library. Outside the library, again I see Zero humans. On the stairs, sitting lonely in a corner I did find one guy. Finding the library locked, I asked him for the DST Library timings. He said its Nine. I had fifty minutes of waiting to do, so I took out my dirty green register and wrote this piece.
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