With the University postponing its exams to the first week of January, city students will be busy studying on New Year's eve. CITY STUDENTS' FESTIVE HOLIDAYS ARE JUST A BLUR OF TEXT BOOKS, GROUP STUDIES AND REVISION SESSIONS

While the rest of the city is busy making grand New Year plans and heading out to party destinations, students from OU and its affiliated colleges are cooped up indoors, busy poring over their books. With OU postponing the half-yearly exams for the third time, the students' party plans have gone bust. Their festive holidays are just a blur of text books, group studies and revision sessions, complain students, who label OU as the biggest "party pooper of the season."
Lavesh Makhija, a student of St. Mary's College, is ditching his usual New Year's night out for a studyin. "My family is heading out on a vacation and I am going to be left home all alone, studying on New Year's eve. All my grand plans have gone kaput and this has dampened my holiday spirit. The only plans I have for New Year's eve is a group study session with friends. And I can hardly call it a celebration."

A few students, who are being forced to go over the same textbooks over and over again thanks to the constant rescheduling of time tables, have bid a final goodbye to their New Year plans. Krishna Chaitanya a student of Muffakham Jah college, says, "The exams were first postponed because of the GHMC elections and twice because of the bandhs. My holidays were sad and now my New Years plans too have been ruined. My college has not even issued a revised time table, so I have to be prepared all the time."

Shravya Kona, a student, couldn't agree more. "It's not fair that we have to suffer due to the political tension. I can't enjoy the festive season because my parents are pressurising me to study and not party."

Not only are youngsters slugging it out when everyone else is partying, but they are also worried about the fate of their next semester. Karan B., a student from CBIT says, "We were informed about the rescheduling a night before the exam. With the semester still not over, we will hardly have time to complete the rest of the syllabus. We are going to rush through the lessons to make up for the time lost and we will be at a disadvantage."

Ashwath Vyas, another CBIT student agrees. "The schedule of the academic year has been disrupted.The next semester will end much later than it should.  This means students who planned to study abroad for a year will have to cancel their plans."