'Table'au

It's mid-sem time. Again. (It's, touchwood, the last time, Yippie!!!) Anyway it's that time of the semester when, if I do anything else, I feel enormously guilty but at the same time I don't want to touch any books. But blogging, as I realize, is a reasonable moderation. And I am right now in no mood for movies/serials/novels/sleep. And above all, I am in no mood to think. So I go hunting, scavenging rather. I prowl on the 20 odd blogs that I read regularly for any ideas that I can "leech" on to. Sandy's "My Table" (read this first) tempts me. Soon I decide that I am going to use the idea completely. To avoid nasty comments from all the doubting-iyers of the world, the first thing I do is take a snap of the table. The truth, captured in the All-New-Canon-A-70-fully-automatic-thoroughly-digital-dizzyingly-costly-shamelessly-borrowed-camera, shall set you free. That is the extent of my originality in this post.

Why am I doing this?? Heck!!! I have a table that is as interesting/myriad/rusted/rickety as any other in this place.

Why are YOU doing this?? 'Coz the one thing that you ought to be doing right now is much much crappier!!

Right then. Here I go. Grrrr!!! Smack Smack. Slurp!!!

-The Tablecloth: Originally meant to be used as a bedsheet. Probably the bestest, cleanest newest, costliest sheet in the house before it was sent packing to Kharagpur. Moms never change.

-The Computer: HCL, Pentium II, 4 yrs old now. Subsidised by generous and highly successful alumni. Am not so sure if it was orignally meant for making jobless-bloggers out of IITians. Presently so dusty, it could have been just brought in from Arizona. In many ways, a war-veteran. And in many others, a roommate, a soulmate.

-My sleek black Platinum JBL Pro speakers that Srikanth has been so generous to lend me. He now has a brand new 5.1 stereo. (Sigh!!! Why is everything so green suddenly??)
-My old white Vintron Madonna speakers, that are lying unused as I am yet to decide who I am going to be generous to.
-Not-My black headphone-mike set that JD has lent me for my voice chat sessions.

-A half-empty (yes, I am a pessimist) 500 ml. pet bottle of PEPSI. (of course, with the inevitable +100 ml. free, even if your dil didn't maango more in the first place)

-Two pieces each of "Karuna Professional" guitar strings 1 and 2. Once again sent from home. I regret giving up guitaring almost daily now.

-A TIMEX 'aqura' wrist watch. With the wrist clip broken. The oldest item on the table. The first watch I ever had. Class X. Birthday gift from Mom and Dad. The dial still shows the right time.
-A maroon and faded-gold alarm timepiece that my friends from high school gifted me when I first came away to this place. This one doesn't work. And there are other alarms now. But...you know...it's as good as a diary.

-A bound practical book, that is currently supporting the old mouse. Probably bought it in my second year. Notes, reminders, mobile numbers and targets written all over the cover. Not a mark inside.

-My wallet. Five hundred rupees within. Four hundred rupees without and under it.
-My cell. Nokia 2600. Not even a month old. The newest item on the table.
-The remaining pieces of my old cell, Samsung R 220, lying in the box that it originally came in. In a way, it's another diary.

-One black Luxor marker pen. One black sketch that now writes in brown. A hang-around-your-neck pen that I won at Spring Fest 2006 by buying a copy of The Telegraph and shooting 3 balloons.

-A pair of mittens, once again, borrowed from Srikanth, for the winter that I wish was still here.

-An empty can lying behind the monitor that once contained nuts that I ate in one go. This one came from Golu's room.

-Two boxes containing used/discarded CDs, floppy discs (yes, it's not a myth, there were such things in the past), LAN card, mother-board, reciepts for the hardware and the like.
-An A4 sheet, containing a reminder list of the things that I needed to talk to someone, on the phone.
-4 plastic glasses that were originally brought in to hold some soup during the winters until the teeny-weeny intellect inside me realized that plastic melts.
-An application form laying claim to my dual-degree assistantship of Rs. 5,000 p.m.
-Grade-sheet till the eigth semester. It's a JD Salinger story.
-Spare A4 sheets, white and green, to scribble on.
-Somebody else's certificate that I have to hand over to.
-Spare xerox copies of my ID card and a few fee reciepts.

-A makeshift rack made out of the top of the CPU box. CAT score card, admit card and call letters from 5 IIMs stare accusingly from inside.

I tried reading Sandy's article and my own draft as a stranger. Here's what I thought:
-Sandy's table is bigger than mine.
-Both of us need to clean our tables, and if the analogy holds, our rooms too.
-Both of us need to borrow less.
-I should be more original. Next time, I'll try a dissertation on my dustbin.

-"Blog me about your table, my friend and I'll blog you who you are..."