Story of a Birthday Gift!

Hey Everyone,
    
      Its less than a month for my birthday. Not sure, if to be excited or to feel sad over entering the last of the so called 'teen' years. With birthdays comes gifts(usually), which is what I am going to focus on. Yeah, I am going to ramble about gifts this time. Its about this one gift that makes me feel guilty, which makes me feel different, which makes me feel happy, which forced me to write this post!

How do you decide what to 'Gift' someone?

Very difficult question to answer.

I am trying to figure it out..I have started to look a little closely..and I think a pattern is emerging....but more on that later...

Lets talk about being at the receiver's end. We all have been there, during Diwali, New year's season, When you visit your aunties and uncles house(even though you dont know their name, they give you envelope full of crisp warm notes..ahh Gujratis..i love em') Your Birthday, Valentine's day(only if you are a girl....if you are a guy..you are on the other side my friend), When you become famous over some other guy's idea you read about on the internet, etc

Over the last 18 years of my life, I have been showered upon by a lot of gifts(not bragging), well I thank my parents and my relatives for all those pencils, eraser, colour pencils, compass boxes, train sets, basket ball, basket ball hoop(one year after gifting the basket ball), video games, watches, ipods(yeah, we're now entering the cool gadget stuff), digital cameras, laptop and many more they wrapped for me. But the most amazing gift I have received till now is not listed above.

Okay I would not drag like How I Met Your Mother(No offense..Its an Awesome Show!) and break the suspense..
I received this gift last year, I am not sure if that person wants her name to be disclosed here. The gift was *drum roll please*...
'A plain Note Book' !

It is an eco friendly 192 pages notebook wrapped in a thin transparent plastic and on plastic was written 'Explore 80 mins of your life :P'
I was awestruck by the simplicity and elegance of the thought. So sober yet awesome, not expensive but priceless, quite but inspirational !

One year have gone by and I still have that book. It is still blank and plain, fresh as it was a year back, untouched. I am not proud about it. Sometimes I flip through those empty pages and feel guilty for not inking it yet, sometimes it reminds me I can always have a fresh start and...
sometimes it makes me write a blog! :)

The Textbook Paradigm

My first post as guest blogger & I'm already breaking into a cold sweat. Not because I don't really have something to write about (I pull off miracles with nonsense everyday), but  because I was told other students/professionals from different streams have been called together to blog for Bucket-Bolt. I don't have  a clue what they're going to writing about (or whether they'll write at all). Maybe some engineering guy can post how to edit html script, cause its ruining my own blog. Wishful thinking on my part?

Coming back to the actual post, it didn't take a mental mad-dash to come up a suitable subject. Seeing what Bucket-bolt's primary business is, books kinda seemed obvious. So, here's my version of The Textbook Paradigm

I'm a nerd & love being that way. There's nothing I love more than my books. Over the course of school, college & now med school, I've amassed a huge library of every damn subject that even vaguely interests me & books that I've ordered especially for me. I proudly display my titles in neat stacks & piles in my room for all to see, like a tribute to my medical degree! I love the smell of new books. Its reminiscent of all the years gone by, every memory like a page describing a fresh year at college.

Every year, I go through the regular routine of making up a list, checking what's available, ordering them from  Bucket-Bolt (I swear I do) & start tagging all the books with my name. From that point on, its all downhill! The books seem a lot less interesting once you have to read every last page. Watching the pages turn from pristine white to beige has to be one of the slowest processes ever. Another particular problem I have is that no one truly appreciates the size of the book you're reading. In my college, everyone turns the book on its side & examines the rows of pages that've turned brown; its a marker for how much you've actually managed to read. Its a royal piss-off, one that should be punishable by the electric chair!

Another particular problem, especially for med students is the "edition mismatch". The moment a fresh edition is published, be sure that whatever you know or believe you know is now of no significance. Medical knowledge changes so rapidly & fresh additions are made at such a rapid pace that you can't afford to rely on an earlier edition. It's times like these when I'm thankful that we have a lot of people around who are more than happy to exchange older books for new. For one, its definitely lighter on my stipend & secondly, who wants outdated stuff lying around? I don't store old newspapers, do I? Though I definitely wish there was a way of transferring all my markings & post-it notes from one book to another. Wishful thinking, again? 

Feel free to comment if you've had something similar happen to you or if you're nerdier than me when it comes to books! Until then, I'll leave you with a hilarious video I found online: