My Unluckiest day
This is my 30th article on Medium. With my habit of documenting events in my life, I wanted to share this experience with you all which I feel is pretty interesting. Understand that I have a weird way of expressing my emotions- ie by not conveying/revealing them much. This is not a fiction but something which happened for real.
This happened during last week, days of GECB MUN. I was pretty excited about this event. My friend Adi was hosting the event at GEC Barton Hills, Trivandrum. As said, the theme of the event was climate change (not exactly the environment). I felt that I need to go for this to try something new as well as explore new domain. Most of my friends in MEC MUNSOC also agreed upon this but only a very few turned up to register for the event. Even I was not sure whether I will attend the event or not. Half-heartedly, I filled the form for the first round.
Few weeks back….
On the first allotment which happened after two days, I received an email saying that allotted country was Pakistan. I had given the request for getting PRC but the selection was stuck at option 2. Thus I felt quite unsatisfied, being Pakistan in a climate theme committee would be a disaster as Pakistan was not so much known for environmental stuff other than planting over 10 million trees every year. The problem was- Thar coal mine which was recently discovered, this mine could provide Pakistan with unlimited power for the upcoming 200 years. With the present policy the state will not give up on this mine and it will continue to utilize this coal, so as to meet its energy needs and generate employment. I wanted China so as to balance out stupid climatic policies of the US, especially the famous Paris deal. The US was pretty isolated on the same as well.
I texted Adi, asking him to reallot me China or at least a P5. One of my close friends Hari said that he will go ahead with France which he got allotted already. He wanted a pretty liberal stance. Two days later he messaged me back that you are allotted the USA and it is the only country remaining in P5 set. I felt shocked….. I got the USA the most powerful country in the world for the first time ever. The second reason that it will be a big problem indeed. Adi persuaded me not to change the country rather take it up as a challenge and not decline it. I felt fine, this is a rare chance, maybe an opportunity to do something is possible. So (hesitantly) I accepted it and paid the delegate fees. There was still nearly about 4 weeks left for the event, so I felt I could do anything.
I informed my mom that I got to the US. Uninformed about politics- she enquired me if it is good news or bad news. I replied about Trump and his policies which can be a big hurdle for me. She didn’t respond anything much. In the meantime, I missed quite a lot of deadlines for my research. I had to postpone its beginning due to different circumstances. Also, my dad complains a lot because he finds me in front of the PC. He taunts me every time he sees me. He iterates that my marks are going down only because of this. He also unwantedly use the phrase- “He is always in front of the pc and doesn’t care about anything else”. He is mainly unaware of the knowledge I gain, and the hard work I put behind my blogs. I am the editor of MUNner’s daily on the medium which is a weekly blog of MEC MUNSOC. Along with that, I need to keep my personal blog release updated every two weeks.
I started to prepare only just two-half to three weeks ahead of the event. I started to download a lot of PDFs, environmental laws in the US, case studies, news reports, UN reports, etc. I stored the links, believing that I may open them when required. The Background Guide was released. My committee is UNGA and agenda- Climate change remonstrations and the necessary actions. The goals and expectations of the committee and the resolution mentioned was vague and quite generic. I asked Kavith saying that agenda was confusing and what all exactly does he mean in by the guide. His reply was astonishing, where he referred to the crisis being included to make the committee more dynamic apart from the usual discussion. Being in the USA, I felt that this will be a golden chance.
Also read my latest post of august.
I got a continuous three days of holiday in the fourth week of August, which I planned to make the best use of. I utilized my laptop maximum. I started writing the perambulatory clauses of the DR, and other things like authors, sponsors, name of the committee, etc. I also downloaded white house statements, news reports printed copies, UN docs and even started to write chits. But the challenge was that I caught a cold, and mild throat pain. I thought it was the end of GECBMUN for me. Each day from then on was crucial, I started to research by keeping the guide parallel, each time I felt that I missed something, I looked into the guide and started surfing. The biggest challenge was the internet for the laptop. I don’t use data packs. I use home wifi which is unlimited. Unless I am on a trip I don’t take up cellular data. This time I wanted it badly, so I decided to take 10 GB for 10 days, for free. I recharged on 30th so I could make maximum use of it. Luckily my health improved and confidence started to build up. My tickets weren’t booked on time. My ticket was on a waiting list. There was no certainity on how I will go if not this train. To my surprise just an hour before publishing the chart, I got a confirmation message. I felt relieved. On that day I spent 3 hours in Design Project class, surfing and downloading documents. I don’t like to make MUN speeches prior to the conference, but rather note down points on my research diary which I maintain for such stuff from my class 12th. I reached home and continued to surf till 9 pm on Friday. The packing was done by Thursday. The train was at 11:20 pm sharp.
At 10:30 I headed for the station, which was just at 3 min walk away. I didn’t want to print the tickets, thinking that the one on phone was enough, but I decided to keep a back-up print. My dad accompanied me to the station. The train was late, by a few minutes. I saw that it was cold outside and the entire place was foggy. I got on the train, I stayed up till Ernakulam and then slept. I kept an alarm for 5:30 am, on knowing I will reach at 5:50. I was excited so much as I was going to Trivandrum which was my favorite city after Kochi. I am fascinated by its road and rail. Sometimes jealous on seeing that it has no traffic jams, unlike Kochi. I woke up in the night just to make sure that the luggage was fine. I kept my shoulder bag on the berth and used it as a pillow and kept the dress bag below the seat. I woke at 5:25 am, I saw that I kept an alarm will ring in 5 minutes, so I dismissed it and lied down in calm. I suddenly realized that the train had reached a station, and all the passengers were getting down. So I opened the window and looked outside and checked the station name- I assumed it was Trivandrum central as I hadn’t worn my specs as it was kept inside my bag. The name of the station was blurry. I decided to get down anyway, then an announcement comes on. I confirmed that I reached the right place. I got down and called my friend in Trivandrum to pick me up. Within minutes he reached the place and picked me up. I reached home and started to prepare myself. Anyway, there was no point in sleeping again. So I decided to do research and complete my fellowship documentation. I turned on my phone’s hotspot for the first time and connected it with the laptop. For a few minutes, it worked all cool, but suddenly after minutes the network range was gone. I got up to check if phone data had some issue, but I found that the phone itself had been faulty. It was logo hang.
I got impatient and nervous knowing what to do. I called up home and informed them that my phone is faulty. My mom then consoled me and asked me not to worry about it. After bath and breakfast, I headed for the GECB campus. The campus was located quite isolated. It was big though, I walked in quite confused not knowing exactly where the venue was. Suddenly I noticed the banner and went in. I registered for myself and went to the hall where the inauguration was to take place. The block was big and it had an elevator. Even my college building has no elevator despite with 5 floors. I saw a lot of unfamiliar faces in the hall, I knew none of them except Noel. After a brisk wait, I met Kavith, Nakul, and Anagh. Btw Jerin who was supposed to chair was not there, instead, Anagh took up the task. With nervous delegates, I also started to surf. A few minutes later, Inauguration was completed, the committee was about to start and then lobbying starts during the tea break. China was not there, Russia was a second timer. Hari enters the room, quite confused because he came late. I sat in the second row. EB started with ROPs and later speeches began, first-timers well self-competing for their names to be added to the list. This was a complete shock to me, this had never happened ever before. I couldn’t make my opening speech because I had nothing to say, I waited for someone to make a mistake and from there to build up to something. Most of the delegates don’t know what foreign policy is, but rather are self-convinced that you need to save the planet without proper research. Most of the Arab countries are of the opinion that petrol and diesel cars should be banned. Most of the solutions were vague and were impractical and illogical at the same time. My motions on Paris deal, protests in France got failed. People were voting upon the motion, on who put up the motion rather than, whether they really want to discuss it. There was a verbal spat between me and Hari on yellow vest protests. I and Brazil formed up a small bloc of developing countries. I didn’t have the phone, so couldn’t connect. I went home to really put something solid. I made a google doc on wifi and shared it with them to make a working paper. Some of them filled in and some of them didn’t. I kept working till 1:30 am to make the operative clauses of the DR. I didn’t have the phone, so couldn’t keep the alarm to wake up at 6:30. I randomly slept in an assumption that I will wake up on time. I also had to pack up my dress because I will be going to the station directly from the venue.
My unluckiest day is finally here, I woke up with a shock, but saw that time was just 6 something which was soothing relief. I slowly started my day, planning up the strategy. I left for the venue at 7:30 thinking that breakfast time could be used for lobbying. I started to convince people to bring in new motions and what all to do in committee on the final day. To my surprise, Aswin, came from Kochi to GECB just to see the MUN. As expected no one voted in support of my motions, but support to my working paper was good. Russia didn’t turn up today. I presented my working paper in the committee, this gave bait for people to call me anti-planet, anti-humanity etc. The EB called it a US ploy to keep the delegates of developing countries with me. But it wasn’t because my stance was clear. The stance of other countries was on seesaw because they themselves weren’t sure of where they exactly stand. The bloc almost collapsed, the support I had, ended then and there. I felt annoyed and didn’t know what else to do ahead of DR. I had it prepared, but no one was willing to be signatory saying that it would violate their policy, but it won’t. The opposite bloc was gradually getting their support and had almost 90% of delegates support them. Their agenda, was false propaganda- ‘Giving aid to developing countries’, which will never happen. This was a super flawed idea, with ones like putting carbon tax, banning petrol and diesel. The DR of theirs hadn’t even met proper points as mentioned in the guide.
I had submitted the DR, well on time but not discussed in the committee as it was turned down by motion. The EU bloc took more time but had just fewer clauses and they were late to submit. It didn’t have enough content on Social Media, Broadcast media, Paris deal, Environment laws etc., which I had on my DR. My DR was turned down without even checking the contents. This pained me a lot, a personal hatred towards the USA cannot make your part clear. You can’t judge a book by its cover. The EU bloc DR was passed. Besides, I tried to delete their causes and tried to scrap the DR which failed too. Majority of the delegates, who voted “Yes” had a lot of issues with DR, which they cleared during their rights speech. They should have given a ‘No’ rather.
The committee ended and prizes where announced. To my disappointment, I got only Honourable Mention. I expected a lot more. Rather the best delegate went to Pakistan, which gave me a shock. It shows that even a first-timer can be a BD. But she was diplomatic and adhered to constructive problem solving of the agenda. It was getting late and I had to catch up the train. After the photo session, I boarded the bus to Central Station. The bus took a lot of time to start and head to the station. After a wait, the bus took off and reached the station at 2–3 minutes late. I ran to platform 5 with the bag, unfortunately, I missed my train. The train which I had reserved a sleeper seat. It was so painful and seriously demotivating. I took a general ticket for the next train and ran again to platform 5. I boarded Malabar exp. The general compartment was the last one, so I to run till the end. I boarded the train, the seats were already occupied. I stood somewhere in the middle of the coach and kept my bag upstairs. My heart calmed down, I started to become emotionally down. I didn’t have a phone, I couldn’t inform at home about this. I felt very bad about this. I recalled the moment when I didn’t even call when I had my phone to not being able to call when I badly wanted to do so. I was still in my formal attire, as I couldn’t change.
With an emotional mind, I asked a random stranger to give me his phone to call home. He gave me the phone, I dialled, and the phone got connected. I couldn’t speak anything, there were no words coming out from me. The only thing I spoke was that I missed the train and I got into a UR coach of next train. I got a reply to find a seat, I don’t remember anything else. With a heavy heart, I went near my luggage and saw that there was seat vacant and I sat there. Mixed emotions and thoughts came up in my mind. It included not performing in MUN as I expected, losing my phone, to not speaking at home too, missing the train. Everything overlapped together. My first lobbying, first DR and working paper experiment was a total failure. I had no other option but to keep glueing into thoughts, as I had nothing else do. I didn’t eat anything on the train as I was not in a mood to. Also, nothing much came up for sale. The train stopped at every small station and it irked me so much. It was getting late to reach home and I had a college the next day. The coach started to get filled uptight as time went past the clock. I didn’t get up from my seat ever since Trivandrum. From eight people on a section, it went up to ten. People started to get on the top, covering up the fan and light. Getting out of the seat was the biggest issue. There was not even a single spot left free to keep foot firm on. The corridor was extremely full that people started to sit on the floor, and the door couldn’t even be opened properly. I got up from my seat since the train swept past Kalamassery and the struggle continued till I got down. This was my first experience in UR. I reached by around 1–1:30 am. My father was there in the station waiting for me without even a clue. Hats off to him for his patience and dedication. I reached home and saw mom. I sat on the sofa and she asked me what happened at the event, why didn’t you call and why did you miss the train? I was out of words and started to weep. I explained to her a story in the best way possible, she consoled me and ask me to keep hope. She later gave some food, after which I slept. Next day I woke up late and decided to go to class late and only after lunch because I didn’t want to miss the System Software Lab. I reached the college late and was in the lab the entire afternoon, I utilized the time, by showing the output of programs to the evaluator. I had decided to write this blog on the train itself. All bad experience happened at a consequencial pace just like a domino of cards.
Just because of a few bad moments, I couldn’t claim it was a total failure, but the amount of knowledge you gained and the lessons you learned is more important. I got new friends like Nebhu, Dheeraj and Irfan. Never knew that Nebhu was a big fan of MUNner’s daily blog. Also, met new people and my WhatsApp contacts have increased. Learnt to do kinds of stuff, without going for someone else’s opinion. I experienced four days without a smartphone and 2 days without internet. I started to be calmer than usual and stopped getting angry on the small stuff, maybe no one wants to hear my problems, Ah I don’t care. The laptop was my saviour, I never take laptop usually, but unwanted greed for a MUN prize forced me to take the laptop. My greed for prize didn’t work, neither did my lobbying, or convincing thing. I understood that both are not my cup of tea and I will revert back to my research style MUNning. The sad part is that I didn’t get China which was vacant, and also Pakistan won the BD which I didn’t take it up. My only request to the railways will be to put more additional UR coached on Malabar express which moves like a passenger train and probably on many of such trains. One of the most important lessons- Nothing will go as per schedule so book a train that is at least an hour after the schedule and book the train in advance.
I decided to go for CUSAT MUN which will happen this month. MECMUN is around the corner, the fellowship is taking its turn and new blogs will be coming up.
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