Mood-i

Dec 31st 2008 10:17 pm. The year 2008 almost coming to an end. In less than 2 hours a whole new year starts. What does that mean?. Nothing except that my vacation is done with and the 2nd semester starts tomorrow :(. I may as well end this year with a new blog. What better topic for the blog other than my experiences in Mood-i. Mood-i is the yearly cultural event that is conducted by IIT Bombay. It happens towards the end of December of each year. This year it was from 20th-23th of December. Mood-i is the biggest ever cultural program that I have ever attended till date and the experiences were worth it's weight in gold.

Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the campus on 20th since I had a get together with my close friends at Kochi on 19th. I, along with my classmate Vinu, reached campus on 21st around afternoon. As soon as we entered the campus, the sea change that the campus had undergone hit us with full impact. At first I thought I may have ended up in heaven surrounded by hundreds of beautiful angels, albeit with smaller clothes. The desert that was the IIT (regarding girls that is) has suddenly become Hawaii beach. There were lots and lots of banners and posters on both sides of the main road. All along the roadsides were stalls and Proshows. In one of the stall, sponsored by Ponds company, some kind of game was going on. I didn't know what the game was...but all I could see was that girls were standing on guys feet and dancing. Research is still going on world over to ascertain the amount of heartburn these things causes to unlucky guys like me, who are not so lucky with girls.

Soon I reached my room, took a bath, changed into a new set of clothes and then set out to explore the campus. I soon met up with with our guys Adil, Vishal, Harshad, Ajitav, Vaibhav and Ladha. They had all reached the day before and so were blessed enough to enjoy Mood-i from Day 1. From them I came to know that the Circus, that was supposed to be have been held the previous day got cancelled due to the crowd getting out of hand. This had also resulted in police lathi charge. Vishal recounted his "bravery" wherein he managed to escape the lathi charge by pushing the guy in front away and ran for his dear life.

According to the schedule there was going to be a DJ party on the swimming pool side at around 4:30 pm on all 4 days. Well before the scheduled time people would start forming queue in front of the poolside. Having no other events to attend around that time, we too stood in the line. We whiled away our time chit chatting and enjoying the natural scenary around us, mainly dressed in tops and mini skirts. At around 4:30 pm, the line started moving. Just before we reached the front of the queue, our eyes suddenly fell on a board kept near the poolside entrance
"COUPLE ENTRY ONLY"
Needless to say we didn't wait anymore though Ajitav said we still stood a chance. After all it's not mentioned that the couples should be straight.
But Harshad was determined to see what was happening in the DJ party. He had already made big plans to go about it, the blueprint of the plans being kept classified. But highly placed sources revealed to us that his plan went thus : "Identify a girl standing alone, go to her, and then go around her in a circle of radius of around 10 cm whispering poolside poolside". We never came to know whether he was successful, but we did see a red mark on his cheeks, the next day, which remotely looked like the party symbol of the Congress party.

The 6:30 events are the hightlights of each day. The events are usually concerts by different eminent people. These 6:30 events also have a commong feature. The experience of standing in the queue for these concerts gives you a miniature feel of how people get into a local train at Dadar station on weekdays. The entire "drama" starts with a wait of around 1.5 hours before the scheduled time. It starts with a single line at around 5 pm and minutes before 6:30 pm when they are about to start admitting people into the OAT ( Open Air Theatre) there would have formed around 5-6 lines. At 6:30 pm they start admitting people. Since only one line will be admitted by the security guys, pushing and shoving starts between the guys in these 5-6 lines inorder to form a single line. One needs to rely on one's no-one-get-better-of-me attitude to successfully get in. Motto: No compassion for others. Make sure you get your ass inside if you want to get your seat.If one gets to train himself in this format for a week, then I am pretty sure he would qualify himself to enter the local train from Dadar station on any day at any time. In contrast to this, the ladies-only line makes a mockery of all these efforts we guys put into getting a good seat. The girls stand relaxed, only one line at the 5 pm and also at 6:30 pm. No 5-6 lines like us :(. At 6:30 pm, when the entry starts, they calmly enter the OAT, with no pushing or pulling. ( For the unknowns, Dadar station is an important station for mumbaikars for whom the local metro train is the lifeline. A speciality of Dadar station is irrespective of whether the compartment is empty or overflowing, the latter being the more probable case, the "Dadarians" make it a point to punch each others' face when trying to get in. In case you are one of the unlucky few who have to board from the Dadar station, and you somehow manage to get inside the compartment, there is a high probability that the count of your teeth would have been reduced by atleast one).

The 6:30 concert events went thus : On 21st it was a concert by Kavitha Seth and then another by roop kumar rathod ( Veer Zaara music director) and his wife Sonali (I think). On 22nd it was the Indian Ocean Band and concert by Rabbi Shergill. 23rd was the biggest draw with concert by Mohit chauhan and Sonu Nigam. The Mood-i officially closed with the Sonu Nigam concert. All concerts were good though my favourites were Sonu Nigam and Indian Ocean.

The mornings were full of small small programs and gameshows which were very entertaining. Unfortunately there are so many of them that it cannot be mentioned in just one post. In this blog, I have just touched upon some interesting experiences I had in Mood-i and haven't mentioned much about how much I enjoyed all the events that were there. Even then I should make a special mention about "Laughter Lyrics", where 4 highly regarded comic hindi poets , though I forgot their names, thoroughly enthralled the audience with their sheer comic timings and dialogue deliveries. According to me, it easily stands out from the rest of the events I saw. I will definitely make sure not to miss any part of Mood-i next year.

Time : 2 am Jan 1st 2009. The new year has already come. A very very happy new year for all.

Death race

Have you ever had an experience where you knew, or rather, expected, that the next few seconds may well be your life's last? Well, I had one such experience years ago. It had such an impact on me that I am sure even if amnesia conquers me, it will never be able to get rid of this little piece of memory from my head. This one experience, more than anything that has happened to me till now, have made me realize the beauty of the entity called life.

I think it was when I was around 9 or 10 years old. My father had bought me a new cycle some months back and from then on cycling substituted walking as my chief mode of transport. Irrespective of whether the distance was too small or too far, me and my cycle were inseparable. During that time I had a friend called Naveen. He used to stay in a lane near to my house. His house was such that it was almost like being on the top of a hill since the lane was a steep climb upwards and his house was at the end of this lane. Starting from his house, this lane came downwards and joined the main road. Either side of this lane was covered with houses so that a vehicle starting from his house will never be able to see the vehicles coming from the left or right ends of the main road until the vehicle reaches the path where the lane joined the main road and formed a sort of tri-road junction like a T shape.

Naveen and I used to be very good friends. Since we were in the same class, we used to meet almost everyday. During weekends I sometimes used to go to his house in the evenings. One day he told me in class that the coming saturday was his birthday and that he wants me to come for the his birthday party. During those days, almost everyone in the class celebrated their birthdays by having a birthday party. I readily agreed and so it was decided that I will be at his house at around 4 pm on saturday.

Come saturday evening, I dressed up, took my cycle and rode to Naveen's house. The party began at around 4:30 pm and everyone had a wonderful time. By 6 pm the party came to an end and everyone was saying goodbye to each other and departing. Since my house was the closest, I waited till everyone has gone and then atlast I too decided to leave. By this time it was growing a bit dark also.

After taking leave of Naveen, I got on to my cycle my cycle and started pedalling till I reached his house gate. Since his house was on the top of a "hill", it was a steep ride "downhill". So I let gravity take over and relaxed as the cycle gained speed. Midway through the journey I thought the cycle had gained too much speed and pressed the breaks a little to slow down the cycle.
Nothing happened.
Hmm Looks like the breaks are not in good condition. I guess the cycle needs to be serviced.
I pressed the breaks a little more.
Still nothing happened.
I started getting worried. I pressed the breaks to the full extent.
Nothing.
I pressed the brakes again and again. Nothing was happening.The breaks were not working at all!!!!!!
I panicked big time. The cycle was gaining speed each second. In my frantic efforts, I just kept pressing the brakes over and over again hoping for some miracle each time.
The result was the same.
Since the lane had houses on both left and right sides, I could not even see whether there were any vehicles coming from the left or right end of the main road. The only part of the main road I could see was that part where the lane merged with the main road, ie, the junction, which was straight ahead. I thought of diving from the cycle. but the cycle had gained too much speed by then that I was sure I would crash my head if I did so. I thought of shouting out help. But no sound came from my throat. I was too scared. I had only one option left. Let the cycle continue down the path and hope for the best. Any high speeding vehicle passes through the junction, at the exact moment I reach the junction, and I was history.

Around 5 seconds to reach the junction.
I started sweating...
4 seconds...
I gripped my cycle harder
3 seconds...
One bus just went past the junction
2 seconds...
I could see stars all around my head
1 second...
I now knew it was now or never. I gripped my cycle with all the strength I could muster, called upon all gods whose names I knew, and on reaching the junction turned right. I closed my eyes expecting something to hit me from the left or right.
2 seconds passed...
The cycle was still continuing in it's path, but now on the main road. I checked my whole body. Hmm 2 hands are still there..both legs are intact....Overall I was still in one piece. And I was still alive. Whoaaa I escaped the jaws of death!!!!!!!! It was all the more spectacular because a speeding bus passed me around 5 seconds after I reached the main road. I shudder to think what a delay of 5 seconds would have done to me. I don't know what saved me that day. I guess it was sheer luck. But then it helped me look at life from a whole new perspective. I don't take life for granted anymore. I am thankful for each day that goes by, thankful for each new experiences it brings with it, thankful for the new things it teaches, thankful for the new friends it brings and last but not the least thankful for the chance to enjoy one more day.

School memories

As usual, on vacations, I have nothing better to do other than sleep, watch movies and waste time. Today I was just lying down on the bed, remembering my school life. I had done my whole schooling from LKG to 12th, at the same school :- St Thomas Residential School in trivandrum. As I was going through my school life, I was seized with a big urge to write a small post in my blog dedicated to my school life memories. There are lots and lots of things which I would like to write about my school life, but then I guess I can't put down the entire things in one post. So here I am putting down in words some of my fondest memories of my school life.

It was when I was in 4th standard. I was one hell of a restless mischievous naughty boy then. The lunch break was the time when most of the actions took place on those days. The lunch break was a horror time for my classmates while it was party time for me. The moment everyone washes their hands and sits down to have their lunch, their horror, in my form, appears. I start from one corner of the class and stops at each lunch box, checks whether the person (I followed a policy of no gender discrimination) had bought chicken or not. If any unfortunate guy/gal did bring chicken for his/her lunch, then they are forced to make their lunch boxes lighter, and my hand heavier, by one chicken piece. Obviously vegetarians were left unscathed. Though most of the class meekly "surrendered" to this torture, there were some other chicken-lovers who put up a brave fight by gobbling up an entire chicken even before I could reach their desk.

In the evenings, when my mom opens the lunch box, she would find a huge pile of chicken bones inside. In order to put a stop to my embarrassing habit, she will make chicken for me for lunch. But then being the smart boy that I was, I ate both my chicken and others' chicken and returned home with even bigger pile of chicken bones. After that my mom knew I was a hopeless case and didn't try anymore "tricks".

In 4th standard, I don't think there was even one teacher who hadn't had atleast one complaint against me. But the one who leads the pack was my social science teacher. I don't exactly remember her full name. Let's call her my SST (social science teacher). In those days, we had a 45 minute lunch break. 10 minutes went for lunch. Remaining time we played football. I guess rugby would be a more appropriate name. I would just roll and roll on the ground, in the name of playing football. Our uniform was made up of a white shirt and gray shorts. Not so for me post lunch break. It becomes brown and brown. Most of the days, the very next period after lunch break is the social science class. The teacher would enter the class. Then she would scan the class. What does she see. 40 white shirts and 1 brown shirt.This is how she tracks down her "favourite" student.

SST : Sree Shankar please get up. Come to the front.
I come to the front with my head looking down all the time

SST : So what happened
me: Nothing
SST : How did the white shirt become brown
me : I was playing football
SST : You were playing football alone?
me : No
SST : Then how come I see only 1 brown shirt.

I would look around the class. Hmm she is right. Do these guys apply any anti-dust lotion before coming to play?

me : I don't know teacher.
SST : Ok do one thing. Take off your shirt and put it on the window grill. You can put it on after the class is over.

I would go to the window grill, took off my shirt and put it on the the grill and returned back to the seat. Now the class looks better. 41 white shirts : 40 half sleeve shirts and 1 sleeveless shirt
(my banyan). If anyone thought this experience would have changed me, then they are horribly mistaken. This routine continued throughout the whole year :D.

When I was studying in the 5th standard, the maths subject was taught by one Mrs Alieyamma George ( I am not exactly sure of the name since most of the teachers in my school had their names as Alieyamma or Achamma or some variations of these 2 names. So I often confuse one teacher with another ). She was an expert in giving pinches. I am sure her resume would contain a degree on advanced course in pinching. She had invented her own method for pinching. It was as follows. She would search the entire triceps part of the hand for the most fleshy part. Once she finds the "weak" spot, it's a nightmare from then on. She swirls the skin at that area. The more she swirls, the more one goes up one his/her toes. Any outsider, on seeing a victim, could easily mistake it to be a ballet dance practice. The ISRO guys could surely have saved a few rockets, which failed to reach the space, if only they had thought of using our teacher's pinch instead of any fuel propellant. Even the rockets won't dare defy her pinch. No prizes for guessing who got the maximum pinches that year. One pinch from her would suffice to answer the question "how many stars are there in the universe".

Towards the end of the year, Alieyamma teacher had asked for a feedback. I don't know whether the above experiences had played any role in my feedback, but this is what I wrote.
" Teacher you are fat. I think you have diabetes"
Actually I don't recollect the above incident. It was told to me by my favourite teacher in school, Mrs Poonam Lal. Had anyone else told me such a thing happened, I would never have believed him or her. I must say I really had some guts when I was small.

These experiences do not even form the tip of an iceberg. Maybe some other time I may write another blog narrating more such experiences.

Wedding bells

Now before u guys jump into any conclusions, lemme clarify...my wedding is still a long time away :D. This is about the wedding that I attended today. The background for attending this wedding is this. A few days back, Jijith sent me an invitation through mail and chat inviting me to his elder bro's marriage on dec 4th. So who is Jijith? He was my onsite coordinator when I was working in Infosys chennai. For those who don't know who an onsite coordinator is, he acts as an interface between the offshore guys and the client who is in the onsite (Usually an onsite is a synonym for USA for most of the projects in our account). Since Dec 4th happened to be the time when I would be at my hometown for vacations, I readily agreed because, though I had a very friendly and cordial relation with Jijith, I had never met him in person. All our contacts were through chats and/or phone. Though he had come to chennai office once, when he had come to India, I was at my hometown that day. So I was not able to meet him then. The marriage was to be held at a place near to where I was staying. So now here was a chance to meet him in person (at last!!!).

At around 10:45 am I reached the marriage hall. I looked around once, hoping against hope to meet someone whom I know.
Tough luck, no one.
Fine, no use fooling around. I went straight into the marriage hall. It was filled with people. Suddenly it struck me. How do I recognize Jijith in the first place? All I have seen of him is a pic that was about 3-4 years old. Well lemme try to think how he looks like...hmm thick moustache, little bulky, sort of long hair ( I think). Gr8 now all I need to do is to find the guy who matches this description. Now that should be simple right.
Aha there goes one a long hair thick mustached guy. He should be it. I was about to approach him when I saw a child and a lady along with him. Whoa he can't have a wife and a child when his elder bro is getting married today, can he? Only 1 explanation for this. This is NOT jijith. Atleast not the one I am seeking.
Aha there goes another one....Naa he's not bulky.
aah there another..and another...and yet another...oohhhh grrr @#$@!#&$%#$
looks like entire marriage hall is filled with long haired little bulky thick mustached guys!!!!
Then suddenly another terrifying thought stuck me....what if he has cut his hair short, cut his moustache and is no more bulky now. Oho, if so how will i ever find him in this "jungle". My dilemma was that I could not even go and ask anyone about this. What will I ask.."hello sir, I don't know either the groom or the bride...I am the groom's brother's friend. Could you tell me how the brother looks like?". People will think I have gone mad.

Then an idea stuck me ( whew, long time due ). The brother would be standing besides the groom once the marriage starts. So I just need to zero in on the thick mustached guy when the marriage starts. Soon I spotted a guy who was a bit bulky, but short hair, standing besides the groom. It should be jijith. Nevertheless I wanted to be certain. Since his back was turned to me, the "mustache clue" was still pending to be verified. Even after 5 minutes, no signs of him turning. I was in my mind shouting "Turn turn..". Guess he must have heard me "shout". He just about turned by around 10 degrees to the left. There....I could see the left end of his mustache. Thus by theory of induction, his mustache should also have a right edge. And since no person in his right mind will ever come to his brother's marriage with just left and right edges of his mustache, it means he should have the whole mustache "intact". Aha the 3rd clue verified. He shud be my man. Mission Accomplished. When he was free, I went over and talked to him. But, unlike me, he didn't have any difficulty recognizing me (wonder how???)

A wedding experience, especially the ones in Kerala, are never complete without a mention about the sadya ( lunch served during marriages). I was going to have one after a loooong time, especially after my torture for 4 months in the iit mess. Even the thought of having the sadhya was mouth watering. I just couldn't wait to get my hands on it (another reason was that I was damn hungry. But then I guess the first reason makes for a better reading rite :D ).

I was desperately waiting for the marriage ceremony to get over, I suddenly saw people rushing towards the food counter even before the ceremony got over. Whoa looks like there were more desperate people than me!!!!And from the looks of it they will not stop at anything before they lay their hands on the food.I guess I need to "suffer" for some more time and wait for the next batch. After 20 minutes or so, even before the previous batch was done with their food, the next batch was already ready at the doorstep of the food counter. This time I too took up my position. Enough of sufferings. Its time for action now. The time kept ticking. People waiting with bated breath on when the door will open.
Tick tock tick tock....
And then suddenly the door opens.
Whoaaaaa whoaaa don't push me..help!!!!
I was being pushed into the room by the crowd in their hurry to reach the counter and book their place. It was as if I was carried by them, instead of my feet, to my seat. And thus "thanks" to a little "help" from the crowd, I managed to get a seat.

Now I was ready to have my first sadya in a long time. I always had this problem, while eating the sadhya, that I could never control how much I eat since they are soo delicious. But this time I was determined to eat only what is needed. By the end of the meal I requested the 2 neighboring people to pull me up from the table, since I was finding it difficult to do it alone. So much for my eating control. Thus today I was at last able to meet Jijith and also have a delicious meal. good day's work :-).

End of an era

All right all right it is just the end of the semester and not an era, but c'mon what's life without some harmless exaggerations :). So, finally, after months of toil, hard work, and studies by my classmates and a little bit by me also, we have finally reached the end of our first semester and now it's vacation time!!! For me,it will take sometime for this feeling to sink in. Even the feeling that I am studying in an IIT itself has not yet sunk in, let alone this one.

I really don't know how I feel about completing (somehow) the first semester. It seems just yesterday that we had all gathered in the Kresit hall and were introducing each one of us to each other. That day it was a hall full of strangers. Now, whenever I think about it, it was a hall filled with new found friends, some who have become very close in a short span of time. I must say time really flies fast.

I feel great on completing one semester, and looking forward to spending a few days of rest at home and catch up with all those whom I missed, and I must say I missed them a lot. Yet deep inside me I would miss this campus, even if it is for just a few days. It was truly a wonderful journey till now and hopefully it continues to be the same.

There were some memorable events that happened the whole semester. First would be our CR elections, where Aadi somehow managed to become a CR. This was followed by a "small" period of inactivity by our CR. A series of constructive feedbacks (read shoutings and name callings :D ) from our friends "inspired" him to perform his CR duties in the right spirit. Now he's doing fine :D. What all some "constructive feedbacks" can do!!!

Then there was the freshers' day party which was a special one for me (read blog posted sometime back). Description of the IIT life is incomplete without mentioning the night outs we have on the previous day of assignment and project submissions. Then there was the dept trek, the trek to our hilltop inside the campus, the volleyball tournament that we PGs won, the football matches we have in the evenings, the cursing of the mess food in one voice during lunch and dinner (usually bkfasts are skipped as a life of an IITian starts after 12 in the afternoon) and many more such sweet memories.

My last exam was over yesterday. It was one hell of a paper. It now ranks first in "my screwed up papers" list. But then who cares. Screw ups are a part of an IITian's life. We also had our birthday celebrations yesterday, to celebrate the birthdays of our classmates who had their birthdays on October and November. It was such a grand "finale" to sign off our first semester. Hopefully the joyride continues in the 2nd semester also. Will miss my friends and the campus till then.

FRIENDS or enemies

It's exam season in IIT. Wherever you look, one can see the smoke from the overheated heads of the young minds. Some interesting changes happen during exam times. Night tea is available for free after 10 pm. Earlier the internet used to get disconnected after 12 am, now it is extended till 4 am so that students can "study" online. Selected stationary shops and photostat shops will be kept open till 1 am. Fewer people are seen on the roads. All in all everyone and everything contributing to building a big scary environment.

But there was one guy who, even 2 days before the exams were to begin, was yet to show any signs of being "affected" by these changes. Yup, that's me. Yeah he did welcome the night tea change - he got tea free now....he welcomed the internet change - he could download more movies now. He didn't even bother about other changes. Why would he want to bother with photostats when he doesn't even know what to photocopy.

One month before the exams were to begin, I had downloaded the first 2 seasons of the famous FRIENDS comedy series. I had seen random episodes of this series at home when it was telecast on TV . Since then I had always wanted to see the entire series in the right order. So thus started my journey into the deep unknown unexplored mysterious adrenaline packed (c'mon no harm in a "little" exaggeration, right?) world of FRIENDS. After watching the first 2 seasons there was no stopping me. I immediately downloaded the next 3 seasons. The fact that exams were just a week away had least impact. In fact I noticed a worrisome trend as the exams were nearing. Somehow my watching rate was becoming inversely proportional to the number of days remaining for the exams.

2 days left for exam.
Exam to study for : Digital Image processing.(DIP)
Priority : Very high
Reason : Had one of the biggest screw up in the history of IIT during the mid semester exam of the
same course
Priority actually given by me : Very low
Reason : 5 more episodes of season 4 pending :(

So a "crisis" has definitely risen. Friends or DIP.
Things favouring Friends :
1) There are 2 days still left to study :D
2) Mentally prepared to getting screwed up again. Somehow what the prof teaches mostly goes over my head.

Things favouring DIP:
1) Only 2 days left to study :(
2) Accept the challenge to mentally prepare myself to not to mentally prepare myself to get screwed (if that makes any sense)

Since the factors favouring DIP were unprecedentedly high, I had no option other than to start preparing for DIP. I opened the book and started with the chapter image compression.

"Image compression is blah blah blah.....compression techniques are used in variety of applications and and and....will Ross and Rachel break up...na they can't break up right, they are so great together....and hoho, that chandler is funny"
"Whoaaaa dudeee what the ****, concentrateeeeeee."
I was like" hey who's this".
Then I realized it was coming from inside my head itself.
"C'mon dude we need to see the next episode and see whether they are really breaking up"
"Hey hey now who is this"
Again I realized it was coming from inside my head itself.
Oho 2 contradicting voices from the same head. Only 1 explanation for this. It's the white angel (WA) versus the Red Devil (RD) contest once again. (Do I watch too many tom and jerry shows???)
WA : Image processing is tough
RD : But FRIENDS is funny
WA : You need to get a good grade
RD : Na, u can always make it up in others
WA : RD sucks
RD : I rock.

Me : Aaahh stop itttt you two....I will watch FRIENDS for 10 minutes and then study...what harm will come in not studying 10 minutes.
Next "10" minutes went in watching a whole 25 minutes FRIENDS episode.
Fine at least now get down to study...it was already noon and have done nothing yet
Back to image processing...

"There are different types of compression techniques : LZW compression, the JPEG compression, GIF compression,Rachel compression, Ross compression...Aaaahhh not againnnnn"

Now I had some serious trouble. I just can't concentrate on my studies as long as I have the FRIENDS series pending (and I had 5 more seasons to go, that means 24 episodes in each season and each episode around 20 minutes). O crap I need to do something about it.
I packed my bags and went to the lab (each mtech guy gets a personnel PC here).
Things started getting better after that, though concentrating was still tough. But since I didn't have FRIENDS in my lab PC, I had no other choice than to continue studying.

This was my routine for the next 2 days. Go to lab, sit there till night and then come back to the room. Soon the exam day arrived. I went confidently to the exam hall. 5 minutes later the question paper was distributed. One look at the question paper and I knew it....It's screw up time once again. The 2 days time that I had sacrificed for the sake of preparing for this paper could well have been "well utilised" at finding out whether Monica would really get a boyfriend or whether Joey would pass his audition. Suddenly from inside my head came the reply
" I told ya so".
Yeah I know. RD is always right. Fine whatever, I need to go back to the room and make up for the lost time and find out the answers to the above questions before my next exam.See ya.

Inner reflections

All my posts till now were of non-serious genre. So this time I thought why not a serious one. Yeah ,me and serious, it sounds oxymoron to most of the people I know. But then hey, lemme atleast give it a try. Through this journey of life, I have encountered many wonderful people who have been my source of inspiration and at the same time my source of fun and happiness. I want to dedicate this post to all of them.

Some of the people I have known at some point or the other, will tell that I am a jovial fun loving person to be with, while some may say I am a non-serious guy, loves teasing people...while others go a little more forward and tell that I am an immature guy who likes making fun of others. It's not always that the people have told me these things, though sometimes they do tell. But mostly it is the impression that I get when I am with them or may have heard from others.

I am one person who cannot survive without friends. Friendship is one thing I treasure a lot. Different people have different methods to express their affection to the ones they love and care. It maybe just a smile for one person, for someone else it may be buying gifts whereas for others it may be a hug and so on. For me it's none of these. I have this peculiar character that the more close I feel to a person, the more I tease him/her. Even now, there are many people, whom I have known for a long time, who doesn't know this or, to put it better, haven't realized it.

But there is one major problem with this character of mine. I always assume that all people are easy-going or take-it-easy characters like me. I often tend to forget, that people are different and that I may actually end up hurting some people's sentiments due to this, though I may not realize it. And this is what hurts me most. And it's very hard for me if I come to know that knowingly or unknowingly I caused hurt to others since,whenever I tease my friends, it's due to the feeling of closeness I feel, and when that ends up hurting that very closeness, I feel guilty about it.

These types of miscommunication occurs mainly due to my crossing the invisible laxman rekha. Though I would love to have that line at infinity, that is not possible in the practical sense. I may not realize it then when it is happening, but later on I somehow get the feeling that I did cross the line. For some close friends, the line to cross is far and I can go a long distance before I reach that limit. But for others, the limit is reached too fast and I cross it even before I realize it.

Some of my close friends really put up with me even after I tease them like anything. One of them is Roshini. She's my neighbor, in my hometown, and is now happily settled in US with her hubby Vikas. She is a great dancer and has a great passion for it. But I tease her precisely on her dancing, making all kinds of silly comments on her different dance steps. I don't know whether it's true, but I had always got the feeling that though I am teasing her, she understands that it's really my way of telling how much I appreciate her dancing. Maybe I am wrong, but she has never given me a chance to think otherwise :).

Some of the closest friends that I have are the ones that I made in college. Yegnesh, Ashok, Murali, Varun, Sabari, Vinod, Rajappan, Komalan (Some are nick names :D ) are some of them and these guys are very close to my heart. When in a group, we make fun of each other and laugh at each one's expense. In fact in the group I end up being the target often, though I am "left alone" when sabari is there in the group :D.

In our class in IIT, 3 people whom I tease a lot is Aadi, Prashima and Meenu. Though Aadi has never told me anything as such, I get the feeling that he sometimes gets hurt by it. Aadi, sorry dude if I have hurt you in any way. Same goes for Prashima. She is one of the most bholi bhali girl that I have come across. I tease for almost anything. If she goes to library I tease her about studying too hard though I too go to the library, if she comes in jeans and top I tease her saying she is trying to impress someone and so on. She does smile through all these comments, but I really don't know whether I have ever crossed the line. As for Meenu, I think she somehow knows how this is how I am since, I guess most of her college friends have the same character :D.

One guy, in our class, who is my baap in the teasing department is Adil. This is one guy whom, I know, I can put my laxman rekha at infinity . I tease him like anything and he gives it back to me with interest. But mostly he wins the contest :D.

Last, but not the least, this post is intended for all those people who I may have ended up hurting with this stupid character of mine. I am really sorry if I have hurt you guys in anyway. Just know that the more hurt you may have felt, that much more I loved you guys.

small amusing foolish stupid

We all have our own small incidents, which may not be big enough to write about or important enough to tell others, but yet may amuse you when it somehow crosses your mind. I too have my collection of these small incidents some of which are amusing, while some are foolish and stupid. I am writing about some of these here.

On one beautiful ( This I am guessing :D) saturday morning, I got up around noon. Having nothing better to do, I thought why not take a bath (What a timepass). The previous night I had the usual struggles of my life, finishing off a damn assignment and so had slept late. Having got up soo "early", I was still not fully awake. I took my bucket and soap and went to the bathroom. I hung my shorts on a hanger, outside the bathroom, and went inside to take a bath. Soon I was enjoying the cool waters from the shower.

After finishing my shower, I reached out to take my towel. Nothing came to my hand. I turned around. Oyee where is my towel. Then suddenly it stuck me. O great, I forgot my towel. I guess I would be the first person in this world who would have forgotten to take a towel while coming to take a bath. While the outside world was enjoying the beautiful day, I was foolishly standing inside the bathroom, with water dripping all over me, wearing nothing, not knowing what to do. Well, the only option left for me was to dry myself with my shorts.
Wow great, now that's on the hanger.
But hey, but that's just 10 metres away.
Maybe...just maybe, if I could run outside and get hold of it....
But what if anyone comes into the bathroom at that exact moment...
Well no risk no gain...
After weighing the pros and cons, I decided to finally take the plunge. I peeped outside. Hmm coast clear. And then,with all the strength I could muster I ran outside, got hold of my shorts, got back into the bathroom just in the nick of time as at that exact moment when I reached back inside, a guy came in to pee. Guess I won the race ;). I dried myself up with the shorts and then had to return to my room wearing the same shorts. People were just staring at me, but then I didn't care...I had prevented a greater catastrophe from happening :D.

This happened just yesterday. It was the last of our diwali holidays and some of us were playing football in hostel-6(H6) ground.The time was around 6:45 pm. The lights were very dim, but the game was still on. There is a small forest like area just outside the boundary wall. The wall was so high that it just about reached my waist. Suddenly I heard some grunting from somewhere near the boundary wall. I turned around to see something big standing just on the other side of the wall. The light was very dim and the fact that I had short sight made the matters worse. Somehow it seemed to me that a lion was standing on the wall. Suddenly all those stories of panthers entering the campus popped inside my head. My first reaction was to just shout out "lion lion" and started running towards the room. Everyone else just stared at me for a few seconds, unable to comprehend what was happening, then everyone turned their heads towards the wall and then they started laughing.
Oyee it is a hungry buffalo you idiot.
Imagine the stupid sheepish look on my face on hearing this. Man where did I ever get the idea of a lion in the campus.

There was once a "Save electricity" campaign in our campus. Some of us had volunteered for this campaign. As a part of this, we were to stick awareness posters in the hostels, wherever we thought people mostly frequented. The obvious places were the toilets and canteens. To kickstart the campaign, we gathered at H12 at around 12 in the night. We were divided into groups and each group was assigned one hostel each. My group was assigned H7. It was a very big group : 2 people. Myself and a senior. We started exploring H7 and started sticking the posters at places we thought caught everyone's attention. Whenever we saw a light was on which was unnecessary, we switched it off and kept a count of the number of lights we switched off. After almost an hour or so (man this is the first time I realized how big our hostels were), we were almost done. There was a last poster to stick. By now the count of switched off lights was about 24.

Senior : We will stick this last poster in that toilet

Me : Sure.

After sticking the poster
Senior : So we are done.

Me : Not yet. The light is still on. And that makes the count 25.

And then I switched off the light
Suddenly there was kicking of doors from behind us.

"Oyee bhenchod kaun lights off kiya be. Lights on kar"

Me : Oops looks like the toilet was not empty.
We just switched on the lights and ran from there as we didn't want the bathroom guy to know the source of darkness in his bathroom.
And yeah, count is still 24.

There are more such small incidents. Maybe I may put them in another post some other day.

The assignment tsunami

The first reaction of a person getting through IIT is "Yahooo (maybe google will be better) I have reached the top of the world...."..well herein lies the problem ....when u reach the top of the world from one side of the world, the momentum takes you down through the other side. This,in short,tells you the life of an IITian (atleast as far as Mtech goes). Well my story is no different. I can't forget the day when the results were declared and to my pleasant surprise I got through ( I had already started preparing for next year's exam). Well that is how I reached the top of the world.

Now comes the interesting part-the sliding down part. Once in IIT I made this grand plan of playing one sport each day, seeing 2 movies a day, go out sight seeing mumbai each weekend. 2 weeks later, I still didn't know the nearest bus stop to our IIT campus, already submitted one assignment, screwed up a quiz and knew each corner of the our department lab like the back of my hand. Now that will give you an idea of how much I executed my grand plans.

One of the things that I hated most when I was in Infosys was the night outs that I had to spent inorder to meet the deadlines. There have been times when I had to sit till 6 am in the morning to complete the work. When I resigned Infosys, one of the things I was happy about was that now there will be no more night outs!!!!. But what do I see when I reach IITB. There are practically ONLY night outs. The day before the assignment submission, the lab is filled with our class. Even people with laptops are forced to come to the lab since there is no internet connectivity in the room after 12 am ( How cool is that :( ).

Till around September beginning, life was ok-ok. Though work was there, it was manageable. I could watch around 1 movie per day. The real attack started soon after the month of September started. Beginning of 1st week of September my workload read 0 assignments to do, no quizzes, 3 movies pending to watch. By end of 2nd week of September my scorecard was 5 assignments to do,1 quiz to prepare for, 2 movies pending. By end of 3rd week of September 2 assignments done, 3 more to submit the next day, screwed up the quiz, ended up facing a surprise quiz in another course and deep and creative thinking (read sleeping) during class hours. O yeah 2 movies still pending.

The most irritating of all the courses is the software lab. We need to break our heads on mundane assignments like Latex, HTML,Ruby, Ruby on Rails (Now which egghead can think of such a stupid name for a such a stupid application). Sorry for all these technical junks, couldn't help it. It was just last week that we had submitted our assignment for Ruby on Rails (ROR). The damn thing was soo confusing that my hair count have reduced to half due to the constant plucking of my hair each time I go mad trying to make sense of what was happening in this goddamn application.

Since ROR had become such a headache, we guys had no choice but to cooperate among ourselves to finish it off. Some guys will do one set of problem whereas others will try out the remaining. If in the very highly unlikely case that the puzzle(ie, the task) was cracked, it was time to rejoice for all. Our motto was :- One for all and all for one. In between we had some interesting conversations

Me : Alpha charlie come in, alpha charlie come in

Adil : Alpha charlie over, alpha charlie over

Me : Alpha charlie, what's your position, what's your position

Adil : solider down, soldier down

Me : Alpha Charlie, hold on to your positions, we must not give up.

Adil : I have given up. Contact beta charlie. Mei tho jaa raha hu sone ke liye.

Thus goes each day in the life of a new Mtech student. Life is hectic, definitely, but I guess it's worth it. After all IIT is IIT. :).

The invincibles

The professors in our campus are really unbeatables. Most of them are soo good that they can give their counterparts in MIT a run for their money. Obviously they are the best in our country. Most of them are damn good in what they have specialized, their degrees speaks volumes of their abilities. Most of them are PHds from highly reputed institutions.But in this post, I want to express in a comical exaggerated way some interesting features of some of them. For obvious reasons, I won't name anyone :D. Most of the descriptions given below are based on what my friends have told me since I haven't taken up those courses taught by them.

There is one professor who loves the blackboard very much. So much so that if a bomb explodes, he will run out of the class carrying the blackboard. I am sure if the blackboard was given a chance to write the exams, it would have topped the class for that course.

Then there is another prof who speaks soo fluently in english, but hates seeing anyone smile/laugh in the class. My friend was once a victim of this and from that day onwards he laughs with his mouth closed (Now don't try to imagine it. No one, who hasn't sat in this professor's class will ever be able to do that).

Another prof has this super duper ability to make even the most insomniac person go to sleep. I have a gut feeling that he must be hired by the pharmaceutical companies for testing their new sleeping drugs to test whether the drugs can match his efficiency.

There is another prof who gives marks for class participation. Anyone raising his hands in class is eligible for these marks irrespective of whether the person really had some doubt or whether he lifted his hand to scratch his underarm.

One prof speaks soo fluently that there is a hot debate among students whether he speaks Russian or French.But everyone agrees it cannot be English.

One extremely talented prof is very fond of english alphabets. He makes sure that he somehow uses all the alphabets in all the mathematical formulas and derivations.
Here is an eg:
"Consider a function F containing 2 variables b,c. When you apply a function H on this function, you get function G. Keep applying H on F and you get functions M,N,O,P....". Once he finishes up the english alphabets, he starts attacking the Greeks. "Take alpha, beta, gamma...". Thank god there are only 26 letters in english. I shudder to think what would have happened to we poor souls in his class if there were over 100 alphabets.Whew.

Before I end this post, I really would like to thank all these professors who will shape my future. It is such a refreshing change , compared to my Btech days, to be taught by people who knows what they are teaching and that too the best in what they teach. Thank you dear profs :).

Chak De PG

There are lots of events that are held in our hostel. One of them was the volleyball competition. There were about 5-6 teams that were competing in this. All the team members were UG guys (UnderGraduates). So there was no team to represent the PG guys ( PostGraduates ). So the organiser approached one of my friends and he agreed to cobble up a team. After we discussed it among ourselves, 6 of us from Mtech 1st year computer science batch managed to form a team. Anand was made our captain. Now he was the only guy in the team who knew how to play this game. (We actually had to ask him all the rules minutes before our first game got underway ).

So thus we formed a PG team and our match schedule was put up. Our first match was against the team representing the fifthies (5th year UG). The match was to be held at the volleyball ground inside our hostel. Special arrangements like putting up floodlights were done for this competition. And soon the day when our first match was to be held,arrived. And then our match started.

There were 6 of us..All from our class.From Left to right : Anand our captain (the blue dress), Saurab(red dress next to Anand), vishal, Ajitav, me, Akash.Since most of us were playing this game for the first time, our first game was very funny. I will recreate some of the scenes that happened that day. As usual it will be a bit exaggerated :D.


Ajitav : Everyone take up their positions

Sourab : Mera position kaha hei be

Ajitav : Jaha court mei space hei ,waha tera position

Sourab : Sahi tactics hei be

Game started. The ball comes into our court.

Anand : mine mine mine mine....
Hits the ball back. Again the ball comes back.
Anand : mine mine mine mine....
After 15 minutes :
Anand : mine mine mine mine....

Ajitav : Abee kya mine mine, ab mera mine mine...and he hit the shot :D

Once the ball came to me. I hit the shot and it went outside.

Ajitav : c'mon guys, play well, we can win..by the way score was around 20-2, with them leading.

The ball came to our court, Sourab hit the ball and it went out. He comes to Ajitav.
Ajitav was getting very desperate by now.

Sourab : Yaar ajitav, ball ko aise marna hei ya aise.

Ajitav : abee tu mere ko hi maar.

And by this time the first set got over and score was around 25-5

Anand was playing fantastic with his big smashes. But he wasn't getting much support from the remaining guys. We often end up hitting each other's asses instead of the ball. Another time when the ball was coming everyone shouted mine mine mine...and then each of us hearing the other guys call mine mine mine, left the ball with the result that no one hit the ball. But somehow we managed to pull up our socks and won the 2nd set. That gave us some amount of confidence that we too can give those guys a run for their money. But that confidence was short lived when we were bombed to pieces by the opposition attack in the 3rd set. Thus we lost our first match. But hey, we won a set playing our first match guys!!!.

Our 2nd match was held 2 days later. By now the fame of the PG team had spread to every corner of the hostel. This match was against the sophies (2nd years) . But this time we got an additional member in our team. Praneet was his name. And he is Mtech 1st year Electrical engineering (I think). We were not very sure how well he plays and so initially he was a substitute. The match started. And as usual we lost the first set. But that day we were playing better than we had done in the first match. So though we lost the first set, it was by a narrow margin. In the 2nd set, it was a comeback of sorts as we came from behind to hold the set. The 3rd game saw a see saw battle. In between anand made a change and brought in Praneet. After sometime we realised that he actually plays the 2nd best in the team, after Anand. Thus his addition to the team improved our team performance. At one point they were leading and at other times we were leading. The score reached 21-20, we leading. They score 2 points in a row. Score 22-21 they leading. We score one more. Score 22-22. Then Vishal delivered 3 killer serves in a row and yahooooooooooo, we won our first match!!!!!!!!There were huge celebrations among ourselves. The underdogs defeated the abovedogs( or whatever you want to call the opposition team ).

After this match, there was rain for the next few days and so no matches were held. and since we didn't get to hear anything from the organisers we thought maybe we are out of the competition on account of our first match loss. But a few days later we were told that our semifinal (yeah we reached the semifinals!!!!) match was the next day. Unfortunately that day, due to a pending assignment submission I had to miss out of the match. After the assignment I got back to the hostel. By then the match was already over. I asked Vishal what the score was. He looked at me with a dejected face. I got worried and asked "Kya hua yaar"
Vishal : "Hum jeet gayeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" and burst into a big smile
I was like wooooooooooow, we did it again!!!!!!!! And this time, believe it or not, it was in straight sets. The underdogs were in the finals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The next day was our final match. Since we had a good winning combination now, I offered to be the substitute. We were going to be play against the best team we had seen so far in the tournament. We had seen their semifinal match and they were simply superb. But now we too were not bad. anand and Praneet as usual the champs. vishal had improved a lot. They formed our front "army". They ensured that most of the balls coming into our court were handled between the 3 of them with the others providing the back support whenever the ball coming into our courts gets out of their reach.

The game started. Both the teams were equally good which meant long rallies and thus a good eye feast for the audience. The cheering was rocking high on both sides, with PG cheer squad performing better (obviously :D ). The first set was closely fought, but in the end we won it. The 2nd set too was nothing less than a see saw battle, but we were always in the lead though by 1 or 2 points. Towards the middle we accelerated our performance and we reached a score 22-15. But after that they started scoring continously and was begining to close in the gap. The score read 22-21. Then we scored 2 quick points. They scored 1 more point.Score 24-22. Tension mounting. Our team serving. Anand served, they returned..after juggling in our court for sometime Anand went for a smash...the ball went flying to the other court zooooooommmm. We won the poiint, the set, the match and the tournment!!!!!!!!!!!!!We created history (don't ask me why). The underdogs have won the "prestigious" Hostel volleyball competition. Soon after we were given our trophies:- a Rs 20 food coupon!!! woow can anyone think of a better trophy :D.
But that day will always be a memorable one. We bunch of first timers got together to win a tournament no one expected us to win. The main credit for this goes to our star Anand though the contributions of others were by no means less. It really does feel good to win a tournament as underdogs ;).

The day I screwed up :D!!!

For those who don't know, Onam is a state festival of Kerala. It is what Christmas is for the people in the West and Diwali is to the North Indians. In IITB, we have a mallu ( people from Kerala are generally referred to as mallus ) association called MCA (Malayalee Cultural Association). Though Onam this year was around 2nd week of September, due to the ongoing
examinations and other logistical problems, it was shifted to 1st week of October in IITB.

As a part of this some of us, including me, were asked to do some programs. So to decide on something, we gathered at Anish's room. Anish, incidentally is my school teacher Vinay Bhai teacher's son :). Since we had not had much time to think upon any new idea , due to our hectic studies schedule, we decided to do a comedy dance which Anish and his friends had already done in college. The theme was a funny dance sequence involving all the leading malayalam film stars.
He showed us that video. Man it was such a hilarious video, not because of the script as such, but due to the exceptional talents of the guys who did that dance. But now the question that arose was whether we bunch of guys, who have never done such a thing in our whole life can match what was done in the video.

But then our main aim was to present something, irrespective of whether it comes right or not. So we decided to go about it. Initially it was just 3-4 of us. The plan was to meet every night from around 10-12 for practice. But after 2 days, I felt I was not a good fit and was in a way spoiling the entire show though I didn't tell anyone that I felt so. There was also a secondary
reason that I was feeling too lazy to go for the dance practice from 10-12 in the night :D. But I too wanted to contribute something. So I put forward a suggestion. I would write a script and then 3-4 people can perform a skit. I felt I could come up with a decent script though my acting skills were a big question mark. By this way, we could also add an extra program
for the onam day celebrations :).

So it was decided that we will have a skit and a comedy dance. But being the lazy guy that I am, I kept postponing writing the script till the last day :D. Two days before the D-day, I got a phone call on my mobile.

Me : Hello, who is this

From the other end of the call came the reply, Hi this is Praful. I am in the coordination committee of the MCA.

Me : (in my mind) Trouble!!!

Praful : So is the script done.

Me : Err...hmm...cough...cough....isn't it a wonderful morning today

Praful : What..hmm yeah but what about the script

Me : O yeah the script...hmm...err...hmm..aahhh...errr...O yeah O yeah the script right...it truly is a wonderful morning right

Praful : #@$#^&$%#@ scripttttttttttttttt

Me : "O yeah the script is done no worries everything is taken care of ".... and I kept looking helplessly at the blank sheet of papers on which I meant to write the skit.

Praful : O gr8. Then we will meet on that day.

Me : (in my mind) Should we?

And then the D-Day arrived. In the morning, we had some games like musical chair( a very
tough game to play ) and tug-of-war. In the afternoon, we had the special lunch which is called the onam sadhya. It was such a heavenly feeling to have eaten it after 2 months of torture in our hostel mess. Anyone who might have observed my eating would have thought that I may not have eaten for the last 1 month ( though a weighing machine would have given a conflicting answer). After the lunch, everyone returned to their rooms. The cultural programs were scheduled for 6:30 pm.

After returning to my room, with all the brain power I could muster, I somehow finished the script By 5:50 pm :D. Though there were around 5 characters in the play, I had no choice other than play all of them myself since there was no time to call anyone and tell them what to do.. And the 1st rehearsel would be the actual play ;). Soon the programs started and within half an hour the announcement came....please welcome Sree Shankar & party to the stage. I was like "Oyee what party, even I didn't know there was a party". As soon as I entered the stage I applied for an anticipatory bail..."Since this is the first time I am presenting such a show, please bear with me if it is boring"

With this I started my skit. I introduced the opening scene to the audience and delivered the 1st 2 lines. Then bang!!!!!!!!!! nothing was coming to my mind...blank.......I kept quiet for 2 minutes on the stage...then started mumbling something to myself...then unknowingly turned to the audience and said "So what were the lines"...and even before I realised my mistake, the audience were laughing. I decided to gobble up the lines I forgot and continued with the remaining plot.
Even after 2-3 minutes of play no response from the audience. I increased the momentum. No use. Tried to increase the momentum more. Maybe it was due to the law of physics, but the momentum got too much and I started getting confused as to which character should be delivering which dialogue. In the end I was as confused as to what the play was as much as the audience. And by the time it ended, everyone woke up from their sleep :D.

And thus I realised one thing. It's not a very easy thing to make mallus laugh, especially without any preparations. But then when I think of that situation now, I start laughing. This will be one onam which I won't forget in a hurry.But the best part of the day was that the dance by Anish and others were a huge hit. It was really a credible performance considering the short preparation time, and the relative inexperience of the team members. All in all a great day for me which I will remember for a long time.

The dept trek

Whew atlast I am finally able to put a blog . This month has been the most hectic in my whole life and indication are there that it is just a trailer. The movie is yet to be released. Anyway somehow I am cramping in this blog.

Every year, on a beautiful day in september (usually) there is a dept trek organised by the CSEA (Computer Science and Engineering Association) guys. This year too was no different. This year it was fixed on Sept 21st and that was 2 weeks before. The place was called Duke's nose point in Lonavla, near Pune. As usual the week was jam-packed with all the crap assignments and quizzes (in fact the next day there was to be a quiz).

But since I had already sorted out my priorities (and u can see assignments and quizzes at the bottom of the list) it was not much difficult for me to make a choice whether to go or not. But for some others, who are striving day and night to keep up the good name of IIT bombay as the technological leader, they had their assignments to complete.

And then the D-day arrived. We were asked to report at KResit (name of a bldg inside the campus) at 5 am (Why does it always have to be sooo early :(...). Since I have this very good habbit of not waking up early, my friends were planning to break my room door down at 4:30 am (Highly placed soures confirmed to me that the order for a new door had already been placed the previous day). But somehow I did manage to get up at 4:30 am that day. The guys from Hostel-6 (H6) where I stay, are the guys who were most enthu about going for the trip, especially the guys in the wing where I am staying. At around 5:30 am (we guys are very punctual :D ) we somehow managed to reach Kresit. But then we saw we were really one of the first few to have come. The students from other departments were also arriving in small groups. This went on till 7 am. But even after 7 am, our class rep (CR) Aadi hadn't come. (Actually he had a very good reason not to come which he told me later). everyone in our class was shouting, "abee CR bhag gaya kyaaa". People who had registered for the trek had to pay Rs.100 and this money was collected by Aadi. Rumours were flying thick and fast as to why our CR hadn't come yet. "Abee dar gaya hoga trek ke naam sunke".."Nehi re paisa lekhar goa gaya hoga"...

At 7 we all had a great filling bkfast...2 idlis :'(......At around 7:30 we proceeded towards our destination. There were around 150+ people in total. It started raining soon after we started. But still it could not down our spirits. The journey to Duke's point was through Mumbai-Pune express Highway. The landscape was beautiful and people were busy taking photos. In between Ithe journey, I saw my roomie Sheiku, busy rubbing his phone on his pants. I thought the poor guy's mobile may have got wet. After an 1 hour or so the big boy was still doing the same thing.

Me : abee sheiku, kya hua re
Sheiku : mobile ke andar pani gaya yaar..kitna bhi wipe karu, pani jaa nehi raha hei
Me : oo lemme see..after seeing his mobile...oye bhudhu, pani mobile ke andar nehi, tu pani ka photo liya hei
Sheiku : Oooo....tho mei teek hi bola na...pani mobile ka andar hi hei na
Me : @#%$^&#@*@!











We reached the place around 9:30 am. We had another round of wonderful breakfast there...this time 2 dosas....but this time it was a wonderful sight..all the 150+ people standing on the roadside and having dosas.

We were given our lunch beforehand..in case we felt hungry during the trek...even now when I think of that lunch, my mouth starts watering...1 biscuit packet and 2 bananas....
Finally we started our climb




It was such a terrific weather, the likes of which reminds me of shimla and Kashmir (where I am yet to go by the way). All the guys/gals started climbing with gr8 spirits, but midway through the slopes started getting steeper and going was slow. There was a particular path where everyone was climbing in a line...maybe the first time where college folks maintained a line!!! On top of that I was also carrying a heavy bag on my back..imagine climbing almost 90 degrees with 10kg on your back...one guy falls, all the ones below that guy are dead ducks.

+
But despite these odds, or rather thrills, we managed to reach the top in one piece. But when we reach the top what do we see....our 50+ year young professor Ranade has already reached the top along with his wife and with his granddaughter who would not be more than 8 years old have managed to "beat" us to the top..hats off to you sir!!!

As soon as we reached there it started showering like anything...with no umbrellas and a don't-care attitude most of us enjoyed the glorious treat of nature in all it's glory...though it got too cold afterwards with the rains and the cold weather and occasional breeze, it was a lifetime experience, after spenting around half an hour at the top of the hill, we started our descend. The descent was surprisingly simpler than we had thought. And in matter of around around 20 minutes we were back on the ground in one piece :). We had a lot of photo session after reaching the ground, just to convince ourselves that we did reach back in one piece.





After this wonderful trekking we got into the bus and got going god-knows-where. At some point the bus stopped. Even after 5 minutes the bus didn't move. As I was wondering what was happening, I happened to see a small waterfall and the students in the front bus started getting down from the bus and moving towards the waterfall. I too got out from the bus. As I approached the waterfall some of them started jumping into the waterfall. Suddenly I too was seized with an urge to do something crazy and without thinking anything just jumped into the waterfall without changing the dress or even removing the shoes...and I must say it does feel good to do crazy things at times :)




After some 1 hour or so I had decided that the next day it's going to be me and fever for companionship. Since that meant skipping the tension of writing the quiz scheduled for the next day, the prospect of being down with fever was actually sounding good :). But unfortunately nothing of the sort happened and the next day I ended up screwing up the quiz as best as anyone could. :D

Exam Fever

Atlast exams over!!!!!!!!!!! Yahooooooo......
My first experience with IIT bombay exams came to an end today and I realised why IITs are IITs and others are not...Unlike in UG where I had to increase my electricity bill by sitting throughout the night on the eve of the exam day, here almost all exams are open book, ie, you can keep open your lecture notes or text book in the exams....but apart from increasing your shoulder muscles by carrying the heavy text books to the exam hall, it isn't much helpful...most of the questions are application types where one ends up cursing the creator for giving only one brain (which by the way is also underutilised) . Though I felt this experience only for 1 out of the 3 exams I wrote (Other 2 were relatively ok types), my friends who have taken up other courses would vouch for what I just said. Anyway here is my experience in that one paper.

Paper : Digital Image Processing
Time : 2:30 pm (Can anyone tell me a better time to conduct an exam :(......)
Date : 10th Sept 2008

Sir distributed the paper...I scanned through the paper...wow just around 5-6 questions.
Total marks : 75

Q 1)
What do you get when you mix blue and yellow paint....
haha wat a stupid question..u will get a blullow paint right..
oops that option was not present...fine mark something...

Q 2)..........bouncer....................

Q 3)...........clean bowled..........

Q 4)..........retired hurt............

By the time I returned the paper I guess sir must have thought I was a member of "Save trees Keep answersheet clean " society.

So thus went my first tyrst with exams in IIT. Hoping for better results next time (and that is just 2 months away :D)

CR elections

As mentioned in my previous post, we had our CR (class representative) elections last friday. The 2 (yeah just 2 out of 90+) contenders for the post were Neha and Aadi. CR basically acts as a connection between the department and the students, so it was an important post. The candidates had already mailed their manifestos and the election was supposed to be held at around 9:30 pm.

On the same day, at around 6:30 pm we had a program called college masti (or something like that). It was the program that was to kick start Mood Indigo, the cultural fest in IIT Bombay. The program was held in OAT (Open Air Theatre). We had a rocking time with many RJs anchoring the evening. It was non-stop masti, fun and dance for 2 hours. It was the first time in almost an year that I was experiencing such an evening and I made sure I made the full use of it. After the show, I was completely drenched in sweat and I looked like a maniac (pic: Me and Vishal after the show :D). So imagine the looks on everyones' face when I entered the room. They were like "Oyee bathroom se seedha bhaagkar aaye ho kya ".

This time around a comparatively considerable number of people had turned up (whew finally). Some of the seniors had also turned up, in particular the CR of our seniors, to ensure the smooth election process. And finally the "show" started. The plan was as follows...Initially both the candidates present their manifestos and explain what they will do if they are elected the CR and then later on there was a question answer session where the candidates will be asked questions. Initially Neha presented her manifesto and then Aadi. Then came the question answer session.

It was decided that questions will be asked to Neha first. One senior told Aadi to stand outside the room. Poor guy looked confused. He was like "He's asking me to go out..no way dude, not in 100 years...Oyee I am the candidate, I want to contest, I won't give up even if u offer me 1 crore rupees (by the way I would have done so if I was offered that much)". The senior sensing that Aadi was about to cry told him "don't worry beta daddy will call you back when it is your turn to answer the questions, ab tum bahar ja re". Aadi boy looked very happy "Aah I am still in the race". Then the question-answer session started. I will reproduce below some part of the question-answer session. I have taken the liberty to exaggerate it a bit :D.

Me : As you must have seen till now, the class participation from our side has not yet been up to mark...so how do you propose to change this

Neha : Yeah, u r right, our class participation definitely is low,we must do something about this.

Silence for a minute

Me : O wow tat is great..but what is this something that u r planning to do.

Neha : I like motivating people. I will sent mails across to all informing them of so and so events. We should not be like this. We should be more active in all events. This is not right yaar. Even I have come here for studies. But that doesn't mean we should only study, we need to take part in all events.

Thus her question-answer session went on for sometime. After that it was Aadi's turn ( by now he had already made up his mind that the seniors have made some grand plan to keep him out of the race by making him standing outside. He was racking his brains for a counter-strategy when the seniors called him in. O gr8 now no need to waste my brain power)

Someone from our batch asked a question. " We do not get internet connection after 12 in the night. As a CR of our class, how would you try to resolve the issue"

Aadi : Well, personally, I think internet till 12 at night is good enough.

Everyone in the room gasped. Oyee atleast ye tho bol ki I will try my best to sort it out. Kaha ka CR hei re tu.

Me : Atleast during exam times we should be able to access internet right.

Aadi : I think people tend to see more films during exam times. So I guess during exam time internet should be cut by 12.

Everyone was like " People see movies during exam times???who gave him this idea???"

Then Prashima asked a question " There are some people like me who are introverts and a bit shy. So how do u plan to bring take us along"

Aadi : Hey, don't worry about that, i have a way with girls ;)..so rest assured

Aha bada aagaya Romeo...:P

Then rijurekha (I think) asked : Since girls stay in a seperate hostel, how do u think there will be good interactions with other members of the class

Aadi : a very good question
After 1 hour of thinking....
Aadi : A really good question..hmm the answer is....hmmm...
After another hour
Aadi : I must say u really asked a very good question..the answer is simple..hmmm......

abee ye century khatam hone se pehele answer bolega kya.......

After that Aadi did manage to answer the question though I don't remember exactly what he said.

And so on and on it went. After that elections were held. Aadi managed to win the elections. So he was made the technical CR (whatever that means) and Neha was made the social CR. All in all a total time pass session

Freshers' Day

So finally that day was arriving....the freshers' day...which each fresher looks forward to. I don't have any memory of my UG ( I guess I bunked the class that day :D). But then I remember my UG days only for the friends I got, nothing else. But in IIT, I had come with the determination that these 2 (hopefully!!!!!!) years I am going to make it my best. So I decided chalo y not do a skit that connects with all the students ( The thing is I used to wet my pants when I see a stage during my school days. So really had no idea how this is going to be :D). This way an idea came to my mind to do a comical skit based on the some of my friends in my class. So I called up Aadi and told him whether he is fine and can do a part. He said fine. So got 1 guy. Have to get one more. People may think what's the problem of getting a guy from a batch of 90+. Dude....this is mtech 08 batch. Finally Vishal also agreed for doing a part. I also somehow managed to get an "actress", Jayalakshmi, also to play the female characters.

Thus the "team" was formed. We just had one hour or so to practise as we had extra classes ( I will kill the guy who introduced this concept of extra classes) today, which was also a saturday (supposedly a holiday ). But after practising for some time, the others started losing interest
. They were not sure people will feel anything comical about this. After sometime, we decided to drop the idea. So for the freshers party, from Mtech1 , we had 2 songs by girls ( Shubangi aggarwal and Riturekha Sen (they were such sweet songs, though don't ask me what songs they were...I was hearing it for the first time ), Poems by anup Kulkarni (he wrote them :) and they were awesome) and then a mixture of new and old songs by our 3 dudes Ajitav, Prasanth Borole and Saurabh Sohoney ( they had a great mixture of old,new,romantic,fast numbers)).

So the program finally started. according to the schedule, 1st Btechs show their programs, followed by the Mtechs. The Btech guys had a variety of programs in their kitty...2 good skits, 2 dances, variety of songs, good poems, a comical adaptation of ramayana...So when compared to all these, I thought mtech guys paled a bit in comparision, though whatever we performed were awesome. But I thought we should contribute more. So when the program was going to end, I informed my CR that I want to do the skit myself. i don't know how I became so thick skinned at that moment, but something told me to go and just do it. And then my show began. I have given below what I presented, but the actual fun was in actually enacting it out than just reading it. Still I am producing below what I did.

The scene was one person each from our batch will enter a room to talk with a guy sitting inside the room. We will consider the guy to be the registrar. We will address him as Reg.

Aaditya Joshi : Walk in

Reg : Hey why are you crying, what happened, don't worry we are all here to help you na. i know you will be missing your parents and others, but still..it will be fine. don't worry.

Aadi : Abee who's crying.

Reg : ( Looking closely onto his face) acha shakal hi aisa hei kya

Chandan Iyer walks in

Chandan : Sir, I have a doubt to ask. How many courses are there for Mtech.

Reg : Don't worry my boy..u have lots of courses to choose from...around 30 (looking very proud as if he teaches all the courses )

Chandan : (Looks disappointed) Oyee sirf 30??? Btech ke liye around 60 hei,phir bhi Mtech ke liye 30????(After thinking for sometime...)Lagtha hei PhD courses bhi lena padega mere ko

Reg : ( a fly goes into his mouth which was wide opened with shock)

Next Neha Jain walks in

Neha : Hey hi, good day eh?

Reg : Yeah sure

Neha : I am from Indore..Where are you from

Reg : O great, I am from Nagpur

Neha : What..You are from nagpur..U r not from indore?How can anyone be not from indore...I am a die hard Indorian..and u r from Nagpur...What bigger crime can happen..tumhei tho goli se udana chahiye

Reg : Watches her walk off and then checks his entire body to make sure she hasn't cut of any of his body parts for the great crime of not being from Indore.Whew lucky escape.

Next Rishi Chander walks in

Rishi (talking to his friend as he walks in ) : Machine vision (name of a Computer science course) is the future. If you don't know machine vision, then you have no vision. I have seen machine vision labs in IIT delhi and IIT kharagpur and by induction theory I proved that IIT bombay should also have one. (then Rishi sees the Reg). He raises his hand..."Sir I have a doubt"

Reg : Yeah tell me...

Rishi : Where is the bathroom...

Next Devshree Sane walks in

Dev : Sir, is there any boat clubs in IITB

Reg : No

Dev : (Looking shocked and covering her mouth)..Oh...OOOOhhhhh....OOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhh

Reg : Is something wrong?

Dev : A senior told me that 50 years ago there was a boat club in here.

Reg : O sorry I don't know...U see, I was not born then.

Next Jayalakshmi walks in

Jaya : Sir, i want to tell a PJ (Poor Joke)

Reg : (shocked) wat???

Jaya : sir plz plz plzz i want to tell a PJ.

Reg : (Sensing no escape).. Ok fine go ahead

Jaya : if PJ is poor joke, what is P+iJ (mathematical notation for complex numbers)

Reg : (After thinking hard and scratching his head and plucking out some hair ) sorry I give up..what is it

Jaya : A complex PJ..muhahaha..hehehhe...hohohoho...(rolling on the ground and laughing)..suddenly she looks up and see our Reg loking blank..."Y r u not laughing"

Reg : err sorry throat pain...

Our last man Debojyothi walks in

He walks in playing cricket shots...

Reg : what is ur name...

Deb : Debojyothi....dada rocks...

Reg : Kiska dada

Deb : Aree saurav ganguly re...

Reg : Acha..tho tum west bengal se ho

Deb : Yeah..Dada rocks

Deb : So how many courses are there in Mtech..Dada rocks

Reg : ( Thinking...lagtha hei bechare ne aaj subah bathroom nehi gaya ) around 30

Deb : o good...but dada really rocks na...

During the entire skit, the audience were laughing and clapping was like anything and after the skit got over, there was a great round of applause. It was a great feeling to have done something good, and that too something which was not at all planned. At the time of leaving, many guys (known and unknown) came over to me and complimented me for the good showing. It felt too good...just out of the world

krishna janmashtami

The last one week was a very hectic one...due to the intermittent class timings the procedure was the same throughout...get up in the morning...have breakfast...1st class...come back and have lunch...go for the next class...come for snacks...then the next class or 2 and then tat's it...end of day...go to sleep. We have been given so much assignments that, leave studies,completing the assignments is itself a big ask.

In between all these assignment chakkar, yesterday was janmashtami. It is a big time celebrations here. In our hostel also there was matki fod (break the pot) and tug-of-war events planned for the night. There was also an event occurring in our computer science department...that was the CR (Class Representative) elections. CRs basically act as an interface between the students and the department and so it was a very important one from the dept point of view. People were asked to nominate themselves to stand as candidates. But the response was pathetic. Even till the last moment only one person (out of around 90) had given nomination. Towards the end one more nomination came. Thus we had 2 candidates contesting...Aaditya joshi and Neha jain. In this context I must really congratulate both of them for the enthu they are showing in an otherwise very do-not-care attitute of our batch.

The candidates were asked to come out with their manifestos of how they would go about doing their CR duties. Then there was going to be a soapbox session (where the cadidates explain their manifesto and the people from our batch can question the candidates) followed by elections. The problem was that the CR election and the janmashtami events were clashing in their timings and I had to choose between them. I choose the elections, with a heavy heart (as I really wanted to see it). But I thought the former was more of a responsibility than a pleasure.

But when I reach there for the elections, what do I see...just about 20% of our batch have turned up and the election required atleast 50%. It was such a pathetic response that I felt a sense of anger towards the general unresponsive attitude of our batch. We waited for some more time and then decided to postpone the election. I felt kind of irritated because I had to miss the hostel events due to this and now even this is not happening. Crap!!!

Me and my roomie, sheiku, slowly made our way back to the room. But when we reached the hostel, we were in for a surprise...the events have not yet started...yahoooooo!!!!!!!!!!
After 10 minutes or so the events did start. The first one was the matki fod. Here what happens is that there will be a pot tied at a height of around 5 meters from the ground. People will need to form a sort of pyramid. First around 8-9 people huddles together, with their hands on the shoulders on their left and right guy. Then 3-4 people climb of top of this "base" and then a 3rd person climbs on top of these 2 layers and try to break the matki. This was my first of a kind experience for me.

The event got underway. Me and my friends Vishal and Nirmal (from electrical dept) too joined in. Most of the guys, including me, took to the arena in just shorts. It was decided that 8 people will form the base, 4 on top of them and then a 3rd guy on top of us to break the matki. As all of were discussing of how to go about it, suddenly a bucket of water fell on us...."abee saale bhen**** teri maa ki..." shouts came out from the group...For me this water business was unexpected and I was totally drenched...

I was at the base (fat people are not allowed to climb others shoulders and break others hands :D). There were 8 of us. The water kept falling on us from the 2nd and 3rd floor....and the swearings kept coming out...The 2nd layer started forming. Everyone was shouting "Alareeeeee govindaaaaaaa"...The moment a guy got on to my shoulders I was like "O man this guy weighs a ton"...but the spirit of alare govinda kept all of us going....in between the guys on the top floor started pouring hot water...the swearing too got hotter....the water was soo hot that the cry of "alare govinda" was replaced by "aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh $#&#@#%$"...we could even see smoke rising from the ground once the water touched the floor...

But we still kept on going...The 2nd layer was formed. (the guy above me seemed to have a special ability to increase his weight every second)...The last guy started climbing...by this time the "pyramid" already started shaking :D...suddenly..."dim dim dim...." before I knew what happened my shoulder suddenly felt light...then only I saw it...the 2nd layer and 3rd layers were now on the "ground floor"...one on top of the other...one guys head was inside the pile on the ground and his 2 legs jutting out...everyone started laughing out soo much...the ground had turned so much muddy with water that we were all covered in mud...

This went on like this for some 4-5 times,climbing and falling, before we successfully broke the pot. Cries of joy exploded out and it was all round celebrations. People were kicking mud on each other..photos taken...as for me it was such a good time...never in the recent past could I remember myself to be covered in so much mud and still enjoying...This was followed by tug of war. All in all it was such a gr8 day..one of my most memorable.

Enthu

After the first week or so in IITB we had a meeting of all the hostel inmates. This meeting was mainly for the freshers so that they can get to know how the hostel functions, what all events occur and so on.

The first guy came forward to speak. Let's call him Mr A. We are the audience (Audi)

A : Everyone please look to your right
Audi : All heads turned right...we saw the TV...Oh yeah fashion TV was going on...err he wants us to see that??

A : No no not so right...a little more to the left
Audi : All heads again turned left...back to facing Mr A

A : ##$@$%#Q@ not so left ... fine i will my self say it...can u see 2 trophies on the table to the right
Audi : He did all this circus to show us 2 trophies???

A : These were won by our hostel for the last intra-hostel cultural activity. It was won by students who had enthu (short form for enthusiasm) .We are not looking for talent, we want enthu people...enthu is what drives us to reach the goal...if we have enthu then sky is the limit ( I could see only the roof in this room)...if we have enthu we can do this if we have enthu we can do that this enthu that enthu..enthu here enthu there....I started wondering whether,after he was born, his mother fed him 1 kg enthu instead of milk....

Anyway after the "enthu" meeting got over, I got some of that enthu and registered for the TT (table tennis) competition in the hostel. The schedule was put up and my match was the first one. I went to the TT room, took the TT racquet. The "umpire" said, so let's start the game. I said, "helloo, what are the rules"...He2 was a bit surprised and asked "haven't you played before"...I said, naa but I have lots of enthu u see....

The game started....and ended...in space of 2 minutes....the result was an upset victory...upset for me and victory for my opponent...I don't want to tell the scores here...but I still have my enthu left...anyone want some???

My classmates

It's been oner month now since I have been in IITB. By now I have met some interesting people. I just wanna say some few words about some of them. This post is just for fun..so if the characters in this post happen to read this, plz don't kick my ass...

1) Aaditya
In person, this guy looks so different from his orkut profile ..the first time i saw him in person i thought he was about to cry and was thinking of going and consoling him. But I realised later that this was how he looked always ...he is a very bhola bhala type..and a very friendly chap....and guess wat..this guy is in top 10 in his university...he has yet to give us a treat.

2) Vishal.
This ex-lecturer of some university in gujarat is a gr8 guy to be with...but nowdays he has got into this bad habit of studying beforehand,the topics that the professor is going to teach for that day...hmm guess i need to do some real advicing...he has loaded his first semester with all the network courses he can take with a single minded determination to get into CISCO (a company specialising in networks)...just imagine what will happen after 2 yrs if,by chance, CISCO ,decides to take a break from recruiting...hmm someone is really gonna get pissed off...

3) Sumair (my roomie)
He is one roomie anyone will pray to get...a guy with a good sense of humour and thus total time pass when we are in the room...though theoretically the laptop is his, practically it's mine..since I don't let the poor guy use it...Since he's a muslim, he's legally allowed to have 7 wifes
(You r dead buddy!!!) and he is planning to take full advantage of it by trying to fill up all 7 slots...Sumair (aka sheiku) is currently doing his 1st year project...how to fill up the first slot...he has already decided on his "target". The code name for this target is "subbu"...all the best dude...

4) Rishi
Now this is one guy who i will never forget.....the sanjay dutt of our class (He has a musafir type moustache), this guy is never short of doubts...so much so that there are reports that one particular prof (can't reveal his name) has lost half his hair plucking it out each time he opens his mouth...he can stun people with his ability to solve anything under the sun with induction theory (which even einstein can't do...whew) and his billion dollar doubt in every course is "why there is no machine vision course in iit bombay" (machine what???)..but the best thing about him is even though people tease him about his doubts, he takes them in his stride and laughs along with others..it's a rare gift dude..keep it up...

5) vinu,anand,raj paul, kuriakose,jayalakshmi
These are the mallu group of our batch. If not for these guys I would have missed my home much more.

6) chandan iyer
Now this is one guy who, if it were possible, would have taken up all the courses that were offered (around 10-20)...but (un)fortunately due to timely advices he has taken up only 4..poor guy he's heart broken ......he always there to help others and u can be sure i am going to make the maximum use of this...i am evil..

Unfortunately, other than jayalakshmi, i don't have any contact with the girls group...hopefully in the days to come this will be recitfied...

Independence Day

"Knock Knock"....
I looked at my watch...7:30 am...who the hell wakes up and then knocks at the door at this time and that too on a holiday...

I opened the door.."Flag hoisting ke liye aa jao" (Come for the flag hoisting)
As I look to my right and left of my room, I can see all my neighbours are punished the same way...That was then I realised why it was a holiday.... It was august 15th that day...our independence day. Suddenly a thought came crashing on to me...Oh no..the speech!!!

The previous day we had received a mail about the independence program that will be held in our hostel that day. The itinerary for the next day was very much inviting and I was soo "excited". It follows in the below sequence..

The hall manager comes
The hall manager hurls the flag
The hall manager speaks
The hall manager leaves

Wonder where others come into picture in this program.

I dragged myself, half asleep, to the flag hoisting function (did I brush my teeth that day???)
The function started and the above events started unfolding in the the exact sequence...half way through the speech, I started from where I stopped...back to sleep...who said only horses can stand and sleep...

I was having a wonderful time in my dreamy world (surronded by lots of angels btw :D ) when I was rudely brought down to this cruel world by claps all around me. The manager had finished his speech and our national anthem started playing on the background after which the function got over. No use going back to sleep now. Fine, then let me go and have breakfast. They must have made something special today. I entered the mess with all expectations...I looked at the menu .."O man not poha again!!!"What a start to the day....

Most of the people had gone home for the "mini vacation". As my travelling time is around 32 hrs by train, that option was ruled out for me (Y not plane?? dude I am a student now..remember?...and students are supposed to travel by train...who said??...I said). So thus started my first boring day after I joined IITB.

Somehow the day dragged on. Laptop usage was out of question since my roomie had to complete an assignment. So no films, no internet, no friends on a day which is meant to celebrate one's independence. Well by evening, I had enough. I decided to go and play badminton. The court was about 1 km away (yeah the campus is big guys!!!). When I reached the place what do I see...the place is locked up!!! Can my day get anymore worse!!!

But I was not ready to give up. I said "Fine, if no badminton then atleast tennis". I returned back to my room (another 1 km), took my tennis racquet and went to the tennis court (another 1 km). I could see people playing. Whew my day was not that bad after all. The courts were full and I waited for my chance. After half an hour (Or was it???I really think my watch was running slow that day) I atlast got my chance to play (finally!!!). I took out my racquet, and was about to walk to the court when......it started drizzling...then raining heavily...I stood there foolishly and looking at the sky and jumbling whatever came to my mouth. I came back to my room in the rain (another 1 km)

What an independence day!!!