by Ramdev Kunnappally

Ramdev Kunnapplly,final year mechanical engineering student London south bank university makes an earnest attempt to write about the busy schedule of a working student. An interesting piece about the stress and pain of learning while earnign. There are nearly a lakh Malayali students who tries to find both ends meet. Ramdev is the son of Kunnappally Ramachandran, a famous Malayali journalist.(ramdevs@hotmail.com)

I am not a UK citizen so I think the name would've been better if it was an Indian Londoners diary, or perhaps an Indian Student's Londoners diary. There is so much difference in the life style of a student and a normal citizen. From what I have seen and experienced unless or otherwise we students from India or any other country are not rich, have to work hard for a living here in the second or maybe the third most expensive city in the world.

students from different continents in front of their college.

Especially for students like me who have a big bank loan hanging over my head like a Damocles sword ready to pounce at any second. The bankers (SBI, Kottayam) take a small amount of life out of me every month (Rs. 4000) as interest for the overseas education loan. What I am going to write doesn't really mean it is just full of hardships here. There are many advantages of living alone. I feel great when I realize that am supporting myself. I do save money every month for my funeral. Buy whatever I need without begging anyone for money. When I make quite a bit of savings I give an additional support to my family financially which I think is a wonderful feeling. I think students in India and all over the world should start doing part time jobs. This will enable them to support themselves and help their parents. Above all this will let them learn to live.

It is a hasty and hectic life here with no time to think and no chance to make mistakes. A good balance of joy and sorrow, which you can miss immediately if you go holidaying some peaceful places like Kerala. I experienced this and was worried when I was back home.Anyway a reason behind writing something this piece was to change the perception of many people in India or at least 10 or 15 of them which I can reach through this group. Many people in India conceptualize that the life I or many like me enjoy here is so great and posh. Well it is not so. I am just going to take you through one of my normal days; I think that's more than enough, 19th of July 2004.

Woke up a bit late, 10.30 am, not very normal. I am normally up before 9 am. There were many reasons behind this late arrival of light in my head on that day. One is that I went to bed so late cause of my late homecoming the day before from work place. I came back home and was indulged in a big fight with someone, just on the internet, I was playing pool online! I do that quite a lot nowadays and find it quite intriguing and time consuming even though I don't have much time to play pool.

The second reason was that I didn't enjoy a good sleep. My roommate, who is an engineer by profession, has taken a PhD in Snoring. I may find it easier to sleep in the Kashmir border to Pakistan, than with him in our room. Got used to the high decibels of sound he produces every night while he is sleeping. The last reason is that my roommate also believes that he is a great singer and sings for me in the morning normally at 8 am when he comes out of the shower. So even if I am sleeping I have to fight with all these disturbances happening around me. I always find it easy to sleep when he goes to work at 8.30am. Anyway at 10.30 am Good Morning Ramdev.

Normally the first thing I do is to slide on to the little cushioned chair in front of my friend's laptop and get online on yahoo and msn messenger. Then change my status to AWAY. Then I stumble into the toilet but this time I found another flat mate of mine, deepu intruding the toilet so decided to spend 15 minutes more with my quilt. Teeth's are cleaned and back to the room. A very normal and necessary inspection of mobile phones, ignore the miss calls and then put them to charge. It is really amazing how some very rare people in this city lives without the mobile phone. It is so common that every single person in this city has a phone except for the very rare outcasts without phone. Well after putting those phones for charging I felt more organized.

Rasa Travancore Restaurant where students work to earn their bread and butter..

A coffee or tea is always required to wake me up completely. A coffee with nice cookies is always a good combination with pool online. I always love to eat the cookies which I buy for half price from Iceland near our home. They are like breakfast for me or many. I also do find myself always loosing games whenever I am eating and playing. I tend to concentrate more on the cookies and coffee rather than aiming the cue. Later on when I was in the kitchen again for some nibbles with my brains working properly, found three packets of sugar in the one and only one kitchen in our little home. This is due to the lack of proper communication between the people who live in the same house. There are some friends whom I might not see for days.

They leave in the morning for their jobs when I am sleeping and they sleep when I am back from my work. Amazing isn't it? I do think about this sometime and I am quite sure this never might happen in an Indian home in India. It can happen in an Indian home in UK. Let's get on with my life, feels like I am wading away from my course. Even though I myself bought the big packet of cornflakes the day before couldn't commit myself to eat them in the morning. Got back to the room and found my mobile phones charged and ready to be used. One was just a casual personal call and the other one was for money, the current ruler of the world. One of my three bosses agreed to give me the cheque on the coming Thursday. Believe me nothing happens in this city if you don't open your mouth. You can stay numb and find yourself being utilized and fuelled for their income. I was also waiting for my 2nd year results from university. They were supposed to reach me by post today. But hasn't yet. Tried to call my Course Director, the man who gives no as an answer as normally as he opens his mouth in front of me. Anyway found his voice message annoying and hung up frustrated.

Then the daily routine which I have been through the last 1 year - in case I don't have to go to university. Ironing clothes, I hate that, only because our iron box is dodgy. Anyway did iron clothes for my evening shifts and left a small amount of clothes in our little washing machine which is a bit dawdling. Takes almost 3 hours to wash the clothes! After checking post again to make sure my marks didn't come decided to go to university and get the marks.

Nothing but Optimism : Author Ramdev

By 12pm had a shower and was charged and ready to go, me, my phones, my ipod and nothing else. Then when I was just about to go my friend requests me to stay home for half an hour and give the keys of the car we rented to someone who was coming to collect the car. He wanted to sleep peacefully after his nightshift at the Hotel he was working as a receptionist. He works at night and sleeps during the day. Wonder when he lives? He does live believe me it is another lifestyle which I might make another short story on. By 12.45 pm as I found no one coming for the keys decided to leave. Also I had to leave the car keys with my sleeping friend.

Headphones on my head, phones in my pocket as I walked towards my first destination my stomach showed signs of disapproval. It was just empty, couldn't really help now -just ignored. Try not eating your breakfast one day and enjoy the feeling that I might go through many times in a week or a month. You might think that I avoided my breakfast, not really. My body is really bored with cornflakes or bread and egg. If you are not providing it with a change in the menu you can find yourself not eating or restraining yourself from not eating without any provocation. Above all the main reason is time, someone to cook and persuade to eat like a mother is very essential I think to lead a healthy life. After living here on myself I am so proud of my parents for their forgiveness, caring heart and love they have shown for me when I was inhuman, irresponsible and foolish at many occasions.

I would praise all the dads in this world for managing I mean proper management of a family. You wouldn't really know how the money might come and how it goes. DADS AND MUMS DO A GREAT JOB! As I closed in on the bank I could see some people standing outside the bank in an orderly fashion. Great it was a long queue to get to any of the three beautiful cashiers. They are all nice ladies, no men in the bank I go. Thought about a moment queue or go. Queued in the end. Paid the money at last after 15 to 20 minute of queuing. I had to buy some gel for my hair after banking. Found 3 for 2 offer and was tempted. Bought three packets instead of one. Gel for a lifetime thought as I walked out of the shop responding to the companies offer.

A London red bus took me to the university which is just ten minutes from where I live by bus or on foot. The buses can sometimes be slower than walking cause of the traffic. My usual routine when I get on the bus is to scratch through my black bag and get a book to read. This time I found that I forgot my Arundhati Roy so had to make myself bored with a physiological thriller which is not really a thriller. I think you guys should read her 'God of small things'; it is just awesome. I don't really have words for that book. The way she has described or detailed on our Kerala and its minute hidden beauties makes me feel so great and proud about where I am from.

I was very confident and happy about getting the results this time because the exams were easy . So I walked straight into J200 (Engineering faculty office) and asked for Abdur. He promised to me last Friday that he will give my marks if I don't get it by post today. He requested for 5 minutes and came back in less than 5 minutes with sad news, I didn't fail. He said my marks couldn't be assessed as I had a BFS on my account. BFS: Bad Financial situation. It might just be 50 pence that I owe to the university. I tried to argue but he was right and there was nothing he could really do to help. You have to keep in mind the amount of money I pay here for my studies is about Rs. 4.5 lakhs per year. The service and welcome that you might find for this money from some people at university are really worth laughing and rioting for. Reluctantly I walked to the payment office which is literally 200 mts away.

My stomach surely missed breakfast and lunch. Had a talk with some one over the phone in the office and he said as I was late to pay the fees there was a block due to this on my account which prevented me from using many of my privileges like getting my results for the exam. But at last I convinced him how impatient I was for my marks. He agreed to email someone in that building within the university to take the block on my account and asked me to wait till next morning for my marks. I wasn't ready for this something within me said you are getting the marks today whatsoever. Back to where I started the quest J200. Told Abdur what the problem was and he checked the system again. 'Please', ' sorry' and 'thank you' were used consistently in my conversations all through to get things done. These words are used like you open and close your eyes in order to make people do things for you. They are like the money in your conversation to buy things.

The block has vanished and my marks were visible not to me yet, just for him. I could just watch him through the glass. He printed them, sealed and put it in a nice white envelop and pasted the envelope. Why did he seal it because I just tore the white nice envelope as soon as I got it and found my assumptions were true. Did pass everything with mostly 50 to 70%. One of the marks showed 40% for a subject that I at least expected 70%. I was sure there was a mistake and emailed my tutor and lecturer about that straight away from our university lab. (Glad to say I got almost 55% after some days which still I am sure wasn't right for that subject. But I had to accept that for many reasons. They didn't even give me an apology for their mistake).

As for the marks I think they are not bad for someone who works 5 days (almost 35 to 40 hours) and studies a full time course. Please bear in mind there is only 168 hours in a week. I work 40 hours, sleep 35 hours. Spends 40 hours in university. At least 15 hours travelling. Doing this and that consumes at least 20 hours. I eat at work mostly so forget that, I don't spend time on that except for my sometimes breakfast and lunch at home. I don't really have time for myself I mean to do things which make me relax mentally and physically. Anyway then I developed some energy from the sight of my marks. Found my mobile phone and called some of my friends to tell the good news. They didn't get their results yet so my marks where the best in the class for them.
Then I called Usha a friend of mine who works with me and told her the good news. For her who was bought up here in UK news like this are worth more than anything. Just another excuse to party! Agreed to go for a drink with her just before work to commemorate the victory of a future engineer into his final year. She picked me up from Kings cross in her nice but little car in 15 minutes. I had to get the tube to intersect her at Kings cross. Went to a local pub near our work place. She insisted on paying for the drinks and then decided to play pool not online this time, on real table where I am so stupid. You can find the pool tables in most of the local pubs in London. I found myself far better in real games this time coz of my great experience of 500 or more games online. I think I won for the first time in my life on real table because she pocketed the black!

Almost at five got to work place. She works in the branch opposite to the branch I work for the Restaurant chain. She is a good sisterly friend. She has given me a lot of support mentally to go on at times I felt giving up. My best friend here I think. I enjoyed working in the South Indian cuisine cause of the food. I have never missed home food here when I am at work. Money is also not bad. At 6 went for my early dinner cum break. I have 2 dinners there and this helps me to keep myself going even after 15 hours of work. Was a really busy day at the restaurant. It was just me and the manager working on that Monday which is normally never busy. But that Monday was really busy. People were really famished and came to eat rice and curry. They ate, they drank, I served, I poured. I think I was charming on that day and gave them a lively atmosphere and they left lots of tips. I remember looking at the watch when it was 7.30 pm and the next time I looked it was 10.30 pm. We ran around in the restaurant like mad chickens, just me and the manager. I was really tired for some reason than normal. I could feel my brain not responding fast enough to my commands as it used to. Somehow made it to 12 am after the dinner at 11.30 pm. The tips made me happy. As it was just two of us we had a good total each. I jogged off to the bus stop with phones in pockets, headphones on head.

I normally have my only one cigarette for a day from the corner shop and made no difference to it this time. I waited for the red bus and after 15 minutes of waiting my rescue came as bus No. 243 which took me to Waterloo and from there to home on another bus which I don't remember. I was home at 1.30 am. I couldn't stop myself from drinking some cold milk and dipping my cheap cookies in them. I was really tired physically but did play pool as always when I had cookies. Sometime due to the tiredness you can find your eyes closing but I doubt its sleep. Just too much physical strain for someone who is used to the pampered atmosphere and red carpet treatment at home. At 3 am after chatting to Johnson for I think 15 minutes decided to call it a day. Slides back into the safety of my quilt, into the audibility range of my friends same old snoring!