It's 5 pm in the evening. All your labs are over. You let a sigh of relief as you realize it's a Friday and you have no classes or labs for the next two days. You and your lab mates decide to pass by the lecture hall cafeteria to have a cup of coffee. With every sip of the coffee you have, you notice the influx of a large gathering of students and a couple of professors into the cafeteria, all of whom have come here to relieve themselves after working hard and tirelessly the past week.
With the cup of coffee in your hand, you move past the common grounds of the four hostels. Your seniors are playing cricket in the old basketball court and some are having a really nice time chatting and giggling at the H7 canteen. You too meet up with a couple of friends and decide to have a friendly talk with them before proceeding to your room.
( Common area between the four hostels with the old basketball court in view )
You freshen up a bit, and decide to go for a game of table tennis. After a few games or so, you come back to your humble abode. You then decide to study for an hour or so, but at the back of your mind you are eagerly waiting for the post-dinner meeting with your friends.
These meeting sessions constituting endless amounts of talking gibberish, preparing skits (which you regret later), gaming (UNO, werewolf, resistance or anything we can get our hands on), snack-munching or even merely contemplating your very niche existence on this planet, typically last between 4-6 hrs.
At the end of such an exhaustive session (at around 3.30-4 am), you sheepishly decide to eat something heavy and then go to sleep with the intention of skipping Saturday's breakfast meal.
( One such fine Friday night with the homies )
Well yes, this might seem embarrassing and unhealthy as a young student, but the reality is this is how I typically end up spending my Fridays with my friends at IISER.
How does a student typically spend his weekend here at IISER Mohali? Well, this is an experience that varies from person to person. Still, I shall try my level best at providing you with an overall picture.
Saturdays are days when students generally clear their back logs or doubts that have accumulated over the past week. This is also the only day of the weekend when professors are available in their office, so they utilize their day accordingly. In the afternoons and evenings students are found everywhere in the campus, some sleeping in their rooms, some studying in the library, some playing sports, some engaging in interesting club activities or some simply taking a delight in the campus walks along with their buddies.
Sundays are distinguishable from Saturdays from the fact that most students tend to spend most of the day leisurely and take most of the day off to prepare themselves for the upcoming week. I personally find Sundays to be different as there is a long queue during breakfast for the never-ending supply of plain and masala dosas from the H6 mess.
Many students tend to go out of campus on outings, to watch a cricket match (at Mohali Stadium if there is any) or to buy basic grocery items/essentials from nearby markets and malls in the weekends.
( One such trip to Sukhna Lake on a rainy day )
However, the picture changes drastically if it's a week or two before mid-sems or end-sems. If you happen to visit the library on such a weekend, I doubt you would even get a proper place to sit and study (sometimes not even the sofas meant for temporary relaxation). It's hard to find someone without a book or a laptop on such a day. In the hostels, from my experience I have seen people group studying on such weekends in their rooms and it is really effective if you have good and intelligent peers to assist you.
Well anyway that's how we generally tend to spend our weekends here at IISER Mohali. I will try to add anything substantial in the future, if necessary.
That's all folks!
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