A fortnight before exams , everyone was petrified , terrified , mortified because it were “exams” , apparently the most toughest phase of an engineer’s life , where the whole syllabus of the semester  is to be covered  in just a couple of days rather in nights and for some exceptional cases in hours.

I was wrong en masse , the trouble was  not the exams period , it is the post exam period that is killing me. Sitting comfortably in my AC room watching  Jim Carrey’s The Truman show  a message popped on whatsapp , it was from a friend asking ” Chuthiyo mein kya kar rha hai? ” . Since me myself had no idea what I’m doing I replied vaguely “Hawan kar rha hu :3 “

He  was not the only  one who kept on asking my summer  plans (which never existed !) , there were others too who were more interested in my plans rather than minding their own businesses. I logged onto facebook and there were messages already waiting for me asking “Internship kaha kar rha hai? ”  “Batra, Internship Kaha lagi” and some less formal ones which cannot be shared here.

Seeing how few of my friends are offline/inactive on facebook , it is not wrong to assume  most of them are busy dieing with their trainings/internships. And yeah why not , we are landing into pre-final year , a year of minors , a year of compulsory internships , a year of campus internship(for lucky ones) and finally a year where subjects would reduce by one (pheww!) . So it’s not a bad idea to spend time to do some productive things , Here are few things I have decided  after consulting the most important people in my life i.e I. me and myself :

  • Learn to code 

This is just a murky definition of code. This may include learning to code algorithmically and efficiently or may also include trying hand over some of the unfamiliar languages such as Python to develop some application/games(packed with APIs)  either via codecademy or coursera’s rice university interactive python  classes.

  • Doing a MOOC 

Online learning is the new future and MOOCs -‘one course , many brains ‘are the new way to learn. Among the online courses there are two MOOCs I have shortlisted : Modelling and simulation with MATLAB , Autonomous Navigation for the flying Robots.

  • Developing a blogging.writing habit

So you got it why I’m writing this post

  • Joining a start-up 

This might be a big deal and could certainly make a difference in one’s life. The best way of learning something is by doing it . And  working with product development start-up could actually teach something amazing

  • Reading Books and then reading some more

From Psycho Cybernetics to Freakonomics to Autobiography of a yogi there’s a long list of books I would like to read 😀

  • Getting back in shape

Oh , unhealthy food Y u so delicious ?

This is the perfect time to get back in shape and lose some pounds , Android Apps like Noom and My fitness pal  can probably help.

  • Movies and TV Series

How , how such a thing can be so last in my bucket list ? There are some of the mindblowing movies (infact many of them not in IMBD’S top 250) I’m going to watch . Inspired by the question 

http://www.quora.com/Movies/What-is-a-great-movie-about-self-discovery

The list is increasing  fast and so are my notifications whenever someone answers this on quora . 

That may look like a small number of activities but I think if done with 100% effort , this is probably the best way to spend time productively in summers. Albeit there can be some changes in the list too because as the saying goes “There can be a change in plan , provided there’s a plan” 😀

Thanks for reading!