Hemlata Patel

1. Avoid campus. Unless, of course, there’s a lecture/urgent book needed from library … Prioritise nerdiness, at all costs.

2. Avoid people. Unless they yell your name, and it’s impossible to pretend you didn’t see them. I guess I’m simply not built to deal with people. Their inconsistencies. Their disturbing potential for lies, hypocrisy, deceptions, superficiality, meanness, selfishness. The masks. I am too relentlessly idealistic. I prefer the world in my head. The world of genuineness, of sincerity, of peace, love, happiness. The fairytale world, where dreams retain their beauty, unsullied by reality.

3. Study at home. STUDY when at home. Nothing more important than studies. Nothing.

4. Eat well. Put on weight before it’s time to go home. Must not freak parents out. Also, must be healthy in order to study properly.

5. Do not over-sleep. You don’t need ten hours of sleep. Stop thinking that you’ve become immune to coffee. You’re not.

6. Heed the call of the alarm.

7. Do not spend your life on YouTube.

8. Do not get entangled in complications.

9. Remain in touch with Hemlata-ness.