JUST BEFORE THE STORM - PART 5: Final year - by E/81/214

Read :
PART 1: First in the batch...!!!
PART 2: Everything was going on so well…
PART 3: Student Clashes
PART 4: Rough seas
The final year is when the student attitudes take a long term vision. They start to dress smartly with some even saying good-bye to their beloved rubber slippers; they start to hang round where medical faculty chicks flock; they try to attend as many lectures as possible and take a lukewarm attitude towards common student activities. Yet, as far as student representation is concerned, the final year students had the highest responsibility. Wijedasa Koonara, Stanly Moremada, Gunapala Gajanayake, Krishantha jayarathne and I represented our batch-mates at the student action committee. Gunapala was the convener.

One thing you realise while spending your time with Union activities is that whereas sports and studies go together very well without any time conflicts, all your Tin-Kiri work and studies always fight for the same time slots and as a rule studies lose. You can consider yourself lucky if you have selected a filed like Production Engineering giving you overlapping subject areas, little course-work and no design or field work. You are even luckier when the head of department has a “you-guys-will-only-waste-my-material-and-machine-time” towards student projects when you ask for guidance. Fantastic!

When you finish all your Tin-Kiri work and finally sit down to study you realise that there are only a few weeks to go before D-day arrives, even that thanks to bitterly fought sequential scheduling of examinations. So, unless you want to show a villain of a personal love triangle that he is wrong in his assessment of your studying capability, turning a four year practice upside down is an next to impossible task. Therefore, I consider the Second Upper pass as just a consolation price for 36 days of studying.

TO BE CONCLUDED WITH PART 6

(Written by: Rasika Suriyaarachchi)