My vacation blog
By: Jairam R Prabhu
Tags: Vacation, Academic, College Life, Journal, Education

It has been quite some time since I have been to college. It makes me feel like I’m quite comfortable missing college and studies. Learning never ends after exams. I just kept learning different things which are not connected to a college or the syllabus.

I have a habit of documenting some incidents in my life which creates an impact. It may not be a game-changer but rather like a report on how my time goes. To be honest, I just started to document after I started Blogging. I am sad that I didn’t write it before that and I’m too late to realise its importance. Nevermind better late than never.

The last time I stopped with February and March. I will continue from there, in this write-up.

There were lots of holidays in April. We got approximately one week off followed by a few more days of holidays. It made me lazy. I didn’t study anything much. It was election season and it made me glued to election and politics is my favourite subject to learn and analyse, so I did it. People used to call me crazy, especially my parents. They took politics in a pessimistic way just like any other parents.

From 12–14 April it was the day of IARC certification course examination on UN Rio +24 war and Peace. They had sent us books to learn and write the exam. The Book was very good and pretty informative. I finished reading it in 2 hours and started reading it again. The exam was online. The questions were subjective and perspective based(no right or wrong answers). It was very easy and I was thrilled after writing the exam. I made notes of the book and shared it to others on what all to learn and how the questions will be. I got A grade in the same exam. This was one of the best things MUNSOC club has ever done. The club was just two months old but we had completed many activities within a small time.

23rd was the date of the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala. I voted for the first time. It seemed like a big responsibility to me. That day I couldn’t think of anything else. I kept on thinking whether I voted the right person or not. There was also a lot of assignments to be written, I completed them too. The classes were back to normal and I didn’t feel interested to be in college as it was summer and I am not at all used to attending classes in summer. Also, I felt that the University is dragging the dates on, mainly because many other universities have completed their semester exams and vacations began for them.

The classes were nearing to close. Labs were hurrying up for exams. Theory classes were nearing the end of the semester but still moving. Second internals came amidst the chaos. Soon after a week, the practical exam timetable was up. The exams were okayish, not the best but fine.

After the lab exams, there were lots of functions happening in my ancestral home, so missed classes for a few days. Cousins were also there at the home. At that time, the IARC certificates arrived. MEC got a special mention, which we handed over to our staff in charge teacher. There was a sense of proudness in me when I handed over the momento (As I was the campus ambassador). I got this opportunity as an Internship from Internshala. So guys, do go to Intershala, you have a lot of opportunities there. On 12th May, I went for Blogger-Vlogger Sujith Bhaktan’s India-Bhutan-Nepal trip flag-off from Kochi at Hotel Le-Meridian. I met him and had a brisk conversation, followed by a selfie with him.

The classes were over. There was still 3 weeks left for the exams. I lost my interests in the subjects. I couldn’t learn in the first few days I was in jolly mood watching election analysis and the results on May 23rd. Narendra Modi won the second term, with a bigger mandate. Whether he deserves it or not is the question. I will leave it up to you to decide. I got two of my articles to be published in Paperkin blog which I see as a true privilege. One was on election results while other was on Education system and it’s myths in India. Both articles received an overwhelming response, especially the Education one as anyone can relate to it. I wrote it mostly on my perspective and my personal experiences. The election article was totally unbiased. I didn’t speak for myself or as any party member.

Read my paperkin blog on education

Read my answer on Indian election result analysis

TBH, which University ever keeps the exams after more than a week after classes? To my knowledge none. For the same reason that the timetable is mismatched with other universities in India. I had to make up my mind to study sooner.

Exams began, the first exam- Business Economics was very easy. The next exam was Computer Organization and Architecture which was quite tough for me. I am quite unhappy about it but I never let it affect the rest of the subjects. Other subjects were OS, Maths, OOPs with Java and DBMS. Those exams were fine. Last exam was on 21st. First time in a long time, KTU has completed exams on time. I had also written an exclusive article about how my exams went.

Finally, the vacation was here. I felt like a big burden was off my head and I could relax. That night ASWIN SHANIL had invited me to his birthday party, so had to go there in the evening. I returned back home late at night.

I spent time just like that. I did not go for any internships. I don’t want to go for one just for the sake of doing it or because everyone is doing the same. Some went and some others didn’t, well keeping it there. Just because you need KTU activity points, you go for one internship doesn’t sound pleasant for me to hear.

I just thought of how I have just one month as vacation and how to utilize on something which I don’t do the rest of the time of the year. The best thing which happened was that I completed my Youth ki Awaaz internship. It was a pleasure to experience something like that. Whichever article which I wrote recently was based on the internship. I started drafting more articles to stock them up. I like to write more on Content articles which give facts and information. But as per response many of them hate it. They like more fancy ones, diaries and journal type.

I completed reading one special book, which I read and made me happy. It is an informative type book and not fiction. I also read other small books too. I started reading a politics textbook, which was easy to follow up and loaded up with information.

At the same point, MUNSOC has released its Blog series Munners daily on medium. So do follow it for a variety of subjects.

Along with that, I started watching Hindi news on Youtube, by an awesome Channel The Lallantop. The anchors are highly informed and dedicated in their approach.

I was waiting for SpotOn!, the awesome event which I won last year. I wanted to participate in it, so I started drafting 3 articles soon after its posters were out. Finally submitted it 2 days before the deadline.

The next big event that happened this vacation was Christ DOC MUN, in Bangalore. It was a short planned event. Planned almost at the last moment, although I wanted to go for it for quite some time. A big reason for that is I wanted to try a MUN outside Kerala. The second reason is why Bangalore? I had been to Bangalore 6 years before, so I wanted to visit it again. The last reason is that, Christ University, which is one of the best Arts and Commerce College in India. The event was held from 20–22nd July.

Christ DOC MUN

ASWIN SHANIL, Kavith Viswanath, Safal, Joseph Jose and I were in the Continuous Crisis Committee. The agenda for the same was Nuclear Non-proliferation and Nuclear Terrorism:2022. It was a futuristic committee. The most different type of committee I have participated in till now. I got to represent the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. (Un)Fortunately, I didn’t get any prize, neither did someone from the Kerala Circuit. The biggest reason why I didn’t get it was because I didn’t have enough materials to make my speeches. The Foreign policy and your country itself isn’t what they evaluated us upon. They also looked into directives as well. I didn’t have a laptop too, so I couldn't refer to many International agreements. The MUN was really a great learning experience. The guests who were invited to the ceremonies were also amazing.

Apart from MUN, the Bangalore trip was a success. Went to a new place, learnt a lot, experienced a lot, met a lot of people, tried new foods, visited my cousin and had a memorable train ride.

Apart from these events, I read a lot of fact books, and I am presently a political science textbook as a prerequisite to International Relations studies. So those, wish to learn more about Political Theory, do read the class 11 and 12 NCERT politics books. I also took the time to revise my class 12 physics concepts. Also, to my surprise, I got IEEE Power and Energy Magazine delivered to my home.

Some other ways in which I spent my vacation include, doing what I like(apart from blogging and reading ofcourse), I tried to cook something different like cooker cake, pizza, noodles, variety dosa etc, (I started to cook ever since I was in High school, I can handle the gas stove, cooker and oven well, but handling Knife is still my weakness). Apart from eating, cooking is also kind of my interest. Being a vegetarian, I try to know more about a variety of dishes and some North Indian street food which are my favourite. It is disheartening to see non-vegetarians taunting vegetarians, but the truth is that the moment you go to North/West India, you get tons of sweet-spicy vegetarian dishes you may not have seen in your life. I believe that I drove around 300 km in my car from April to July, mostly by shuttling in and around the city.

Sorry to bring in about the MUNs again. The MEC MUNSOC club got the ultimate recognition it can. It is now recognised by the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) and Millenium Campus Network(MCN). Also, 13 of its members (including myself) got Millenium Fellowship. Other fellows are Vivek R, Harinarayanan Shaji, ASWIN SHANIL, Alan Sebastian George, Niranjana, Giridhar Govind, Noel Thomas Bejoy, Alan Antony, Anand Raj, Rahul, Rose and Joann. The poster was posted on Instagram and FB pages of MEC MUNSOC.

On 29th I went for the school publicity of The Illuminati Quiz, to be held on August 10th at Bhavan’s Elamakkara Hall. So be there for the event that day!

So with this, I am concluding this blog. This vacation has been quite different. There are a lot of things which I didn’t cover in this blog because- some of them I will include in a separate blog, while some others, I don’t have proper details through which I can convey to you in the best way possible. Leaving that aside, I wish my next academic year will be fruitful enough. The biggest highlight of next year in my perspective will be the Millenium fellowship Project which we will be doing under the guidance of International Organisation as well as the upcoming MUNs. With respect to academics, this year will have more core papers and I will be missing one of my Favourite subjects- MATHS.

My tip this time will be- Keep aside some time for yourself, (Not in career perspective) but for hobbies. Do what you like, whether it is sports, dance, reading, writing, playing games, movies etc. This will help you to have a calm and energetic mind. You may not understand what I am saying it now, but once you end up landing in a job, you may not get enough time for spending time to do what you like. So it is better that you do them when you get time. At the end of the day, these memories stay with you longer.

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