Chilly days are here again and people can be seen covered from head to toe with warm clothes. People like me, who dislike the cold weather, are in deep trouble. I started disliking winter more two years ago as I had morning classes at 6.15 in which I had to take part in practicals.

Chemistry practicals used to be wonderful, as we had to carry out experiments for which fire was required. Standing before a lighted burner used to give warmth. But Physics practical used to be very tedious, minus the burner. In certain experiments, water was essential and feeling the freezing water in the early mornings was something to be avoided as far as possible.

The other most tedious thing used to be the microbus. I wonder why the bus gets so jam-packed that there is no space even to accommodate one’s feet. Some commuters had to hang from the door like chimpanzees from a branch. So the door could not be closed and the chilly winds almost froze me to death. In order to avoid this, I later on started walking down to college.

During the first one week I could never reach college on time but after a week’s practice it became a habit. The famous proverb of the early bird catching the worms used to go against me, as I could not bring myself to leaving my cozy bed. Sometimes I used to dream of the girl in Aesop’s fable. I used to dream of shifting the college to my own home and near my bedroom so that I would not have to leave my bed.

I used to dream of possessing the Aladdin’s famed lamp or the strength of Lord Hanuman as depicted in the famous epic Ramayana. I would dream of carrying the college from its original place to my bedside in one hand and from the other rotate the lab so that I would not have to get out of bed. Those days were fraught with problems like these. Yet, I do not regret them after achieving the sweet taste of success in the examinations. The dreams are still dreams and these days, too, I have college in the morning hours. With the increasing blanket of thick fog in the mornings, I feel nostalgic about the past days. Notwithstanding the chill, Robert Frost’s famous line gets me going. There is no room for complaint as I have miles to go before I sleep.