Salsa night

One fine day, or rather night, as I was "busy" doing my MTP (theoretically MTech Project, practically Mega Time Pass) , I got a call on my mobile.

It was our dear old Rishi.

"Oyee Sree, daer ho raha hei, jaldi aana"

Me : "Kaha jaane ki baath kar raha hei bhai"

Rishi : "aree bhool gaya kya...aaj Salsa ka workshop hei na"

Me : "aree ha bhool gaya mei. Nehi yaar tu ja. Mei MTP kar raha hu"

Rishi : "Kya MTP be. Ye salsa hei salsa. Har roz dekhne ko nehi milthe"

Me : "Na yaar MTP"

Rishi : "Dance seekhne ko milega"

Me (tempted, but firm) : "hmm...naaaa...MTP"

Rishi : "H11 se sabi aayenge"

(Hostel 11 [H11] is the PG ladies hostel in IITB)

Me (more tempted, but still firm): "hmmmmm....hmmmmmmm....naaaaaaa....MTP"

Rishi : "Unke saath dance bhi karne ka mauka milega"

Me : "Aisa hei kya. Sahi biduuu. MTP chale bhaad mei. Chalooooooooooo"

We were joined in our salsa quest by salsa "enthusiasts" CP, Kukri, Ajitav and Nazeem. On reaching the location, we saw that we were not alone in our quest. The entire male population in IITB seems to have taken a liking for salsa.

No chance of getting a girl partner now, not with such a screwed up gender ratio of 1 girl to every 100 boys. So what was the next best thing? Well watch the lucky ones dance. Atleast we will get to know what the entire hullabaloo about salsa is all about.

A few minutes later, we heard an announcement.

"Everyone sitting on the benches, please come down and take part in the workshop".

Me : "Looks like the guy making the announcement is blind. Can't he see that all the girls have already been taken up".

(Another announcement)

"Everyone sitting on the benches, please take the person sitting to your right as partner and join the workshop"

I turned my head to the right. I got the shock of my life. Ajitav was grinning back at me.

"Over my dead body dude. No way. Don't even think about it"

Ajitav : "Oyee c'mon yaar, what's so much fuss about it. Don't worry dude, it's me only na"

Me : "Dude, that's precisely my worry"

Ajitav : "Aree tension math le. Come let's join them"

With these "consoling" words, he dragged me to the ground. The only solace was that I was not the only person doing the same-gender-salsa. In fact it was almost an all-male salsa workshop.

The workshop started.

All the "couples" were made to stand next to each other. Ajitav stood to my left.

The instructors shouted out

"In case of same-gender couples, the person on the right will be the girl and the one on the left be the boy".

Crap. My luck sucks. I turned left.

"Oyee you come here. I can't move like a girl"

Ajitav : "Aree kuch nehi. It's all the same, whether you are a boy or a girl"

Me : "Yeah right, maybe for you"

The instructor continued

"The girl will keep her left hand on the guy's shoulder. The guy keep his right hand on the girl's hips"

Me (Looking at Ajitav) : "Don't you dare do that. That idiot will keep saying such things. After all he has a hot chick with him. That's not my case"

Ajitav : "Aree kuch nehi re. It is very easy"

And he proceeded to show me how it is to be done.

Me : "Hehehe......hehehehe"

Ajitav : "What happened. Why are you wriggling and laughing"

Me : "Abee you are tickling me"

Ajitav : Ok, let's try it again

And again we tried.

Me : "Hehehe....hehehe"

Ajitav : "abee stand still"

This went on for sometime. After 10 minutes of salsa I had enough of it. I stopped and returned to the bench. Ajitav, with his undying spirit, soon found another guy, and he continued. Thus went my first salsa experience. I hope even my enemies don't get to have such a salsa ever in their life. I would rather prefer jumping down a cliff.

Life in 3rd semester

Yikes...life cannot get more hectic than this!!! So busy that it's been ages since I wrote my last blog. Now finally managed to find some time to write some crap. In this semester each day starts agonizingly early (8:30 am!!!. Man, I really want to kick the ass of the guy who made this timetable. Making students see the inside of a classroom before the sun rises should come under IPC 302 and the person who made this timetable must be awarded capital punishment. By the way sun rises at 10 am in IITB). My daily routine goes as follows :-

Get up at 8:15 am, then dress up and start eating breakfast by 8:30 am and then reach the class at 8:50 am (for the 8:30 am class). 10 minutes goes into relaxing under the fan after the marathon you just completed to reach the class from hostel. After 10 minutes of relaxation when you are really ready to now listen to what the prof is saying, he would have already covered half the lecture. Since I don't have this bad habit of revising what was taught the previous class, whatever the prof says goes over the head. So back to relaxation till the class gets over. The 8:30 am class is a total give up.

Usually classes go till afternoon. Then I come back for lunch. Gulp food down in 10 minutes and then go back for the 2 pm class. Finally at 3:30 pm all my classes for the day will be done with. Next stop...placement office. (For those who don't know, DPN is Department Placement Nominee. There is a DPN for each department and program. DPNs are responsible for inviting the companies to the campus for recruitments. Unfortunately for the students of CSE Mtech, I am one of their DPNs. Poor students). Since IITB always strives for cultivating a sense of sharing among all the students, they thought it was best that all the DPNs share one phone to call the companies. So there I would stand in the queue, waiting for my chance to use the phone, with nothing better to do other than watching the other DPNs "thank" the company HRs for refusing to come to the campus. After half an hour of useful work done, I manage to get hold of the phone. Now the other DPNs get a chance to see me thank the company HRs.

As if the DPN work was not a handful, last week came the shocker in the form of TA duty. We use a tool called Sonata for our VHDL assignments. And I am the TA (Teaching assistant) for this course which requires the VHDL tool. The stupid tool, which was working beautifully for the last 3 years, saw it prudent to stop working when I became the TA of the course. Now what wrong have I done to this tool to deserve this? Couldn't it have waited for just 3 more months and stopped working when the next TA came over. No, it had to stop only now. Calls and mails from the prof and students jammed my inbox and phone. Aah how I miss those good old days when there were no telephones or internet to disturb your peace of mind.

The experiences in the courses that I had credited too were getting no better day after day. It was raining Andas (eggs,zeros) in the probability assignments and quizes. As for functional programming (FP), the prof and me were certainly not on the same page. But that doesn't prevent me from nodding at his lectures in class. Well I don't stand to lose anything by giving the impression to the sir that I am listening attentively to his lecture when I am actually analysing why Shahrukh Khan movies are better than Salman Khan movies. Who knows, I may actually benefit from this nodding technique...maybe end up getting some sympathy half mark or one mark from sir when I manage to Andafy (meaning getting anda) FP exam also.