Thank you Sayana


I am not sure when I met Sayana Russel or talked to her for the first time in college; maybe it was one of those countless times I have borrowed lunch from folks in class. I could never resist a culinary treat :) .I am eternally in debt to them.

But what I do remember is those gleamy eyes behind glasses glued to the lecture in intense concentration; furiously taking notes even when the class was in absolute mayhem!!! It always amazed me how she could concentrate that well in class and I sometimes wondered if she practiced meditation ! Did you?

At this point I should go and on the record say that it was due to her generosity that I; and many others I am sure managed to clear their certain papers in time. Why generosity well as I said before Sayana used to take notes almost like a religion and for that matter had one of the best notes in class. They were one of the most photocopied notes that I am aware of , photocopied again from photocopies.

There was a demand from new teachers for Sayana's last year notes if I am not wrong :-) ;so that they could save the trouble of preparing lecture notes.


Well it was sometime in third year when we were talking and I happened to mention my back papers; ranging from power systems to electrical measurements; which were all in my own words intentional failures for writing it better next time.!!!

(Well we all know what that means, never got time to open the damn book . Or was trying to figure out the syllabus day before the exam to find out what al to study, and then the whole syllabus was Greek and Latin and finally figured will do it later. I was hopeless in keeping notes. In first year I had notes and did manage to pass in every subject .With the exception of maths and computer papers which I by my liking for the subject I scored high .
This trend continued in subjects like microprocessor and Digital electronics which I used to like and had this nightmare with subjects like electrical measurements where you go on in length and length about the different meters and their construction. Be second year I had quit spending money on notebooks and had not very clear idea about time table and what class came next , So I resorted to buying foolscap sheets in 500 bundles and writing on them by subject , These notes which were usually folded and kept in jeans pockets, usually were forgotten in canteens, mess rooms ,INH hostels , movie theatres and sometimes washed by the Dhobi or found by my mom in the washing machine. All this I took it in my stride and finally during exam times I had to resort to Photostats again. It was third year now and drastic measures were in order; I had bought a single file which was a one file/book for all subjects where you could insert the lectures by any dates. I think the system worked for sometime until I forgot the file somewhere which was later found from the telephone booth after the semester exams got over. )

Ah coming back to the narrative as we were discussing this list of targets that are on backburner I casually mention that I don’t have notes for these subjects and my efforts in trying to write notes and Sayana offered to give me her notes. I thanked her took the notes the next day which she promptly brought, Boy they were organized, clear and very neat and if you get notes like that you actually want to learn ! . No surprise I passed those exams with a reasonable figurs partly because by now my list of backlog has grown so big that I sometime had exams in the morning and afternoon on the same day.

After the exams I totally forgot about these notes and I thanked Sayana for the notes when the result came out next semester. Along with the compliment for passing she said she wanted those notes back. I had not anticipated that she needed this book back ;in any case in my classic casual style I responded that I will bring it tomorrow. That day evening I looked for the notes and I couldn’t find them and I am not sure something came up and this totally slipped my mind.

Ah after a week of patient waiting ( By now I assume some faculty had asked Sayana for those notes and she promised to give them )she asked me for those notes again .

Sayana : Abhi those notes
Abhi : Ah I couldn't find it Sayana
Sayana : Well Can you find it
Abhi : Do you need it ?
Sayana : Yeah I need it
Abhi : I don’t remember where I put those
( By now there is a look on Sayana's face as if thinking .
" Pottan athu kondu kalanju kanum" and I notice a temper about to erupt; and shades of red coloring the face; I notice that in time and adds.. )
But I will look for it over the weekend.

What followed was a frantic search in the hostel through all my books and papers , cd's and computer parts .with no luck . The next day I expanded the search to all hostel rooms that I frequently visit including Sanoop, Harish , Jaison, Asif , Anup, Anish (Yeah ! ) , Vineet(Current ) and Shyam's . I finally found it in Shyam’s room and I did return it the next day very casually without causing any more panic about how the book was almost lost until to this day!

After that incident too Sayana had generously lend her notes to me and this time I had made sure that they remain in my room and were one of the very few things that were actually kept in my draw safely .

I don’t think most of us got to thank her for all those wonderful notes, but here is me saying Thank You Sayana