The Times They Are a-Changin'

For the last two months I have been working on a VERY LONG and VERY DETAILED report on the naxal insurgency in India. I have looked at over 500 pages of incidents related to the naxals, read hundreds of reports and books, read several analytical pieces, scoured over government websites, met scholars, politicians, defence and security analysts, written several commentaries myself, analysed their history and developments, political and military strategy, their weapons and cadres, their training, funding, logistics, tactics, trends, procedures, casualties, the state's response towards them and several other facets of the insurgency. And last week I finally reached the final stage of my report- working on edits I was given, and making appendices and adding the final chapter!

Simulataneously, my class on Nationalism and Multiculutralism (the only class I took this term- and I am so glad I did) was wrapping up as well. After weeks of discussion on the creation of nations, on nationalism, on multiculturalism and state policies, on race and ethnicity, and transnationalism and supranantionalism, there finally arrived the final class on social resilience and state policies of social resilience.

The course has been the heaviest course I have taken so far (other than IR theory) as it is primarily a theoretical course and the required reading list runs 8 pages long! (most of those reading being 200 page books!) When a course is near its end, a term paper is around the corner. So for this course, I had due a 5000 word term paper on one of the set broad questions. I chose the first of those questions- "All Nations are Willed Creations. Discuss." I chose this because firstly I am interested in the modernist and post modernist ideas of the conception of a nation. And secondly because I am writing my dissertation on a Nationalism-related empirical study, I have already read several books on the subject (several out of the hundred on my reading list). So I was well aware of all the literature out there on the subject, and felt I knew enough to add to it. But, of course as I started writing so much new literature was discovered and in the end I read three new books just two days before the deadline, and spent 16 hours straight, writing furiously with no sleep or rest. But 28 pages of writing, a 4 page bibliography, and a 6800 word count later, I was done! This has been the hardest paper I have written but I think i might just have done it well (will find out when I get my grade this week!).

So after these two epics (allow me to exaggerate) were written, all I wanted to do was disappear. And it all turned out so well, because the girls (henceforth the term for my most awesome four friends at work/school) had planned a weekend in an isolated beach in East Bintan, Indonesia for us! So off we went at an early 9 AM for our weekend of long walks on the beach, walking to another island in a very very low tide, over-consumption of cheap Indonesian Vodka (that was blue in color), excellent food, lovely bamboo hut to stay in, lots of swimming, and of course lots and lots and lots of love, laughter, and conversation. How much I love these girls !!!! I decided to lend my camera to a friend and go camera-less, because all I wanted to do was relax with the people I love, and read my book, and swim in the ocean. Of course when I saw the sunrise from my window- I wished I had my camera :(

Anyway, now after a well-deserved break, its back to the grind. More reports, more work, an exam next week, interspersed with prayers for an A on the paper. Such is my boring life.