THE MIDNIGHT OIL

One week to go before the final examinations start (or maybe less than that for the more daring ones). Tension starts to creep onto your mind and the worry whether you can at least deliver a decent performance in your examinations starts to eat you up. It’s a period when suddenly we become self motivators, giving ourselves confidence boost by creating an imaginary bubble around ourselves that the situation is not that much out of control. We curse ourselves for allowing yourself to fall into the trap again and yes then the damage control starts with the great thought in our minds “There is always a next time,  this won’t happen ever again.” In fact pages on facebook have been created on this very real yet unattainable thought. (Personally this crunch situation always reminds me of the Indo-Pak Kargil war of 1999 where India cursed itself for having allowed the intrusion along the Line of Control(LOC) for which we had to pay a heavy price but the difference is that the Indian army never had to curse itself again for this unlike us.)

Already one paragraph down and I haven’t yet come up with the main issue that I want to highlight. So students start to prepare for their examinations, the routine gets all upside down. Generally students who used to sleep in the 10-12 pm slot now suddenly develop an habit to stay up late (2-4 am) and study. I don’t know whether this is psychological or what but studying for your examinations especially during late night makes you feel as if you are the one who has written the course book in contradiction to the reality of being the one who has actually struggled to even read it. I think it is in mind only that we feel so because the thought that “I am studying when the rest of the world is sleeping” makes you IMAGINE that you are working your ass off (working hard). Now the truth my friend is that this is not true. The actual scenario is that you had been just sitting on your ass for the past two months whereas the rest of the world was working their asses off even then, they are doing it today and will do it tomorrow also. That is why I say “God is fair.”  So it is NO BIG DEAL that you are staying up late for a week just to study that to for yourself that to because you didn’t do so before when you had to.

Two paragraphs down and my main issue is yet to come up and it’s here finally. You stayed up late studied hard with full concentration and instead of your normal routine of sleeping at 11 pm you slept at somewhere 2:30 am in the morning. I say good job done. But this is just one side of the story. The other side of this unique coin (which is the main issue…finally) is that earlier you used to get up at say 7 am (considering a normal 8 hour period of sleep) but now you get up at 10 am. So my question to all is that eventually what is the point of studying late?  Ultimately you were getting a sleep of 8 hours earlier also and now also. Students get up late with AUTHORITY as if they had been working in a Hitler’s concentration camp and finally have been freed. Parents yes how can I forget them, they create hype about this issue more than the students themselves which ultimately persuades the mind of the students.

  

A typical scenario is something like this

Dad: It is 8 o’clock already why is he\she still sleeping?

Mom: Let him\her sleep. He \she was studying till 3 am.

Dad: Oh! Is that so? Then let it be.

You: Zzzzzzzzz…….

Now I can understand the psychology of the parents that ultimately they are ‘PARENTS’ but my friend what about you?  Don’t you think you should make up for all the fun you had earlier by working your ass off a bit more harder because when results come your parents are the one to screw you, a harsh reality. Practically the real motive of studying late is to cover up for the time lost, not replace it. So if you stay up late to study (I hope you study at least at that time) and get up late also then I would say NO BIG DEAL.