The started very early today, exactly around the time I ideally want it to. I woke up at 6:15 AM but after some more napping I finally got up at 6:30 AM. I followed the routine and it all went like clockwork. Though, there was just one exception. I had almost forgotten to shave my beard before taking the bath. I quickly turned off the shower and asked mataji to hand me the razor. I shaved as quickly as possible while shivering in cold and using the hazy mirror. I went for a French cut beard because Mung had asked me to, though I realized I look like Walter White from the series Breaking Bad. I ignored that and went on to take a bath and shampoo my hair. Everything was going well until mataji noticed my beard. She didn’t like it at all. I was looking too old. I figured it would be counter-productive to the idea of impressing some good looking women with my looks. So I went on with my trimmer machine to give it some mutton chop beard variation by cleaning out a column from between, but it didn’t work either. In the end, I just kept my stache and cleaned up everything else.

I quickly finished my breakfast, made my hair and got dressed. My goal was to look like the younger version of Aravind Swamy. I failed, on the pretext that I need to be bulkier to actually nail that look. I was getting late, I quickly left and took a rickshaw to the metro station. Shortly after, Mung and his college friend boarded the metro at the RK Puram station, though I had to travel from the last coach to his, through a lot of crowd. I helped him revise the topics, I memorized some things for him too, I was supposed to help him after all. I made it to his campus, it was decent looking. Though, the security and rules were pretty absurd to begin with.

I wanted to get a bottle of water, I naturally went to buy the cheap plastic 1 litre bottles. Though, they forced me to buy the glass bottle, which wasn’t even a complete litre. I paid the amount, cursed the whole idea, and carried the whole bottle like a mace. I met a couple of Mung’s friends and we helped him revise the topics. Apparently, it seems like some of his friends were kind of happy to see me because I was understanding their topics well enough. Well, it won’t be surprising if someone is able to understand what they read about last night.

The practical was starting up, it was like good old times, Mung and I, in a classroom together, doing our thing. He interchanged his allotted practical with someone else so that they both could solve the one that was easier for them. He got the one named APM (abbreviation for Advanced Progressive Matrices). Long story short, it was just another IQ test, where I was given some random shapes and patterns, and I had to guess the missing value. Most of the answers that I gave, I was feeling that my answer is correct. However, it was just one question whose patterns I couldn’t make out. Turns out, out of the 36 questions, I got all the 36 questions correct. It was funny that I was wishing to be in the intellectually superior category, but then turns out, I actually do belong to that category, at least according to the test. Mung was laughing about it, he was calling me insane, kept asking if I was crazy or something. He even asked his teacher what to do about this, because he wasn’t getting any wrong answers from my responses. Even his teacher seemed amused. All in all, his viva went great, I helped him out where it was needed, and it was a fun experience sitting in a class with him again, right beside him, after so long.

I did look decent today, made me feel powerful and confident. Only if I didn’t have a huge glass bottle in my hand all the time, I’d feel much better. On our way back home, Mung and I were discussing fighting techniques. I hope we start practicing martial arts soon. We probably will start studying together after 2 years too, if all goes well.

Another really cool thing happened in the metro after we parted ways. I was sitting in the metro and I realized that some of my work might get delayed to some extent, I figured I could catch another train and visit a friend whom I had promised to meet before leaving and was relatively close to the station I was at. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I did all this thinking just a second before the door was closing and impulsively stood up and walked out of the metro. The door closed right at the moment when my foot had just come out of the train. It was a pretty dramatic scene, given how calm I was while executing this feat. Probably nobody noticed a ghost passing through anyway. Unfortunately, the friend wouldn’t be available till late evening, so I took the train back home instead.

It was a good day indeed.