...mixed emotions

Couldnt have come up with a second post on the same day if it wasnt for the little 'get-together' we just had. Continuing from the previous one, had an awsome nap and the bloody headache was as good as over. By the time i woke up, the idea for a party had already been sealed, signed and delivered...kindof, and my task was appointed to me the moment my eyes were open. Apparently i was incharge of food relief program and had to travel some miles, literally, to take care of that. Again, the weather was as brutal as it can get here, but still, nothing can beat a long walk on a chilly evening with your best friend forever aka the ipod. With the rhcp, pf and others keeping me entertained, the task was successfully accomplished. Really, many a times the conditions dont seem to matter a bit if you are enjoying, which is the keyword here. We all know what example einstien gave to explain relativity. So, back i was, and the bash started. Nothing new that can be mentioned here which most of you dont know. Engineers have more or less limited ways of going about their celebrations, be it birthdays, farewells, convocations or just yet another hang out. Strangely enough, four years down the line and after numerous such occassions, never have i felt that things should change. Yes, the variation is there, but more often than not, things remain the same and never has the fun part been compromised upon. So i finally had to revert to the 'monk' for helping me out in somethings, and as usual i am out of my misery, dont care if its for a while but feels nice. Anyways,this was the farewell party of a close friend/senior and this is the particular flavor i dont like being in. Mostly we never get to see the person throwing the bash because by the time people wake up the next day, or the day after it, the person is long gone. Only after a spree of such happenings does one come to realise that the number of people have reduced significantly and now there is no big group, which is what it used to be, left. But it was just now that i realised that its not far when i will be in that place, when it would be me who will be leaving this place, for good, and after 6 long years. Cant feel more emotions running through me at the same time as i do when i realise this fact, every single time. There is lot to look forward to, lot to see, feel experience and do but guess this will be one thing most difficult to get over with. I still do have about 6 months left, but considering the pace at which time goes by nowadays, i dont think thats going to be that long. Alongwith this, there are the conflicting thoughts which hope this to end as soon as possible so as to make a new start in a new phase, a clean slate, so as to say. Cant say that there isnt anything or anyone to look back to here, but life is about choices and one's thoughts too make a choice to get inclined one way or the other. In my case they're still oscillating. Maybe i know that even being sure about anything wont help so i might as well just go with the flow and let myself go through whatever is thrown my way. With this and a lot in my mind, i stumble back to my room prepare for yet another day ....minus one more friend.

...bad day

reeling under terrible headache,reasons of which I will soon address, I manage to find a cozy corner in library, hoping to involve myself for the rest of the day in what dickens supposedly called his best work before finishing off another one which was already underway. Coming to the headache, the primary reason being the turn of events the previous day, which apparently i cannot address, the chilly, bone numbing cold wave and the sad news that from this day henceforth, i shall be one of the people who, i can say, are the ones not particularly liked around here and finally the general gloomy mood that is usually prevalent. Day began as usual with skipping the breakfast and attendence-marking routine and some snacks afterwards at alpahar. Little did i know about the surprise waiting in deptt office. The worst fears had come true, no not the back, but i am now supposed to assist a lousy prof to take lab of stupid facchas. Making things bad, its a three hour nemesis every week, and making it all even more worse, its the same prof who taught me the same subject in my first year; deja-vu, with a difference, and so much for my plans of having a nice, quite, relaxing last semester here. With this burden on already heavy head, went for the tea, hoping to drown some of the stress...yea its tea in morning, something else later. Anyways, moving on, I pick up my outing gear(read lappy, notes, novels, food and other tidbits) and end up at the place I mentioned initially. So, the literature to be finished was called "Indian Summer" by Alex von Tunzelmann. Franky, the name sounded like that of some persian ruler, but the photograph on the last page revealed a smart, charming and attractive looking girl, who, i can say, has managed to pull off one hell of a book at her very first endeavour. The book is predominantly about the lives of three people, namely nehru, mountbatten and his wife, edwina and how their lives, their actions and relationships get so coincidentially intertwined that it shapes the very foundation on which india and pakistan were carved out. Mind you, this is not another of those history text books which keep on blabbering the facts chronologically which making much sense out of it. For me, a story was never so beautifully told and it is possible many many times to actually get so involved in it to think that it is a work of fiction, only later to embrace the factuality of every miniscule content. Has everything that makes a great book-storyline, awsome plot, great characters and every emotion possible, documented and narrated in perfect symphony. The volume of the book, frankly, was kindof intimidating to begin with, but this one turned out to be an absolute page turner and a MUST read for everyone who do some serious reading and even more to those who can never help condemning the founding fathers of indian democracy.
Took some time to reflect on content i had just finished, only to realize that the only thing i could actually reflect was that the headache had gone from bad to worse and Mr Dickens would have to wait to endow his thoughts on me a little longer. Unable to bear the stress any longer the first thought was to seek advice of the great "monk" which i knew "definitely" would help me out of my predicament but decided to let the idea pass. Even the warmth of library couldnt hold me back now and after yet another round of caffine i proceeded to the "kitchen", and finally got down to write this post, hoping that by the end of it, at least some of the pain mush subside. Hate to say this but after two rounds of home/room-made maggie, apple syrup and a movie, nothing has helped and i still feel almost the same..goddammit. Dont want to visit the 'monk' again, considering our increased interaction over past few weeks.Anyways..hope to go through the rest of the day without stumbling on any eccentric course of events or detrimental news, which, actually has been the case for some time.
...twelve days into the new year...there's yet a 'happy' thing to turn out...

...of Dante's Sins and IITR

...well, another day of strenous research and classes is over and i sit now, relishing some great tracks and parallely musing over yet another chain of thoghts about this great place i have been living in for quite a time now. Realised that although most of the inhabitants here take the first opportunity to indulge in the blame game regarding literally almost everything that makes this place what it is, they do, almost everytime, manage to turn a blind eye on the pros of the whole system and the values on which its based upon. I tried to fathom the whole philosophy and suddenly could relate almost everything to the concepts of The Seven Sins advocated by early Catholic Church which were based on some saying which goes on like this ... "six things the Lord hateth, and the seventh His soul detesteth" and later came to be known as Dante's Seven Sins. I realised that the first conversation that occured between the great people who sat down to make the rules which will define the whole adminstrative mechanics here for the times to come wouldve been somethin like this..
GG(great guy) 1: hmm...nice quote..
GG2: so, wat should ve concentrate upon, the hateth part or the detesteth part...
GG3: dude...m pissed off, ma wife is sleepin with that bloody driver...
GG1: lolz...no wonder, u spend most of ur time with us, watz she supposed to do...
GG2: cmon guys...lets concentrate..its the matter of future minds and its our responsibility to nurture them...
GG3: i dont kno man...i cant seem to think of nythin rt now, i hate everythin...
GG2: ya rt man...me too, frankly this place sux, so lets make it a hell for everyone who comes here...i vote fr the detesteth part...
GG3: ya..me too..i think i sould leave early today....i vote for the same
GG1: (dejected) so be it...its democracy all right...wat can i do..

and so wouldve begun the procedure that decided everythin that goes around here, based on the Seven Sins that god detested and which each and every victim/student coming here would be relieved of till the time he/she(...i will be concentrating on the he part mostly) leaves this place. So lets begin.

1)Gluttony: lets accept it, we are all gluttons in one way or the other before coming here and rarely has been a case where anyone gains weight after prolonged consumption of great mess food where the populated menu is just a decoy to make you feel that u can eat at least one or the other 'dishes' which are there. As time passes by, parents just stare in amazment how much their poor laadla baccha had been workin so hard that his weight has dropped so radically, meanwhile the baccha tries to gobble up as much food as he can when he goes home. Take that for all that nagging you did to ur mom if she ever made same meals continuously two times. Coming back here, slowly but ever steadily, the urge to eat diminshes and by the time we leave, food had lost its charm and we are extricated of our foodily desires. First Sin...check...

2) Greed: so u wanted to have everything in your life, kiss those thoghts goodbye now coz here, u can want watever you want, but wont get it unless u are willing to go through excruciating pains for it and are stalwart enuf to face the consequences.first and foremost, the greed for nice lookin opposite gender, which is also manifests itself in framing of rules for other sins and we will be coming to that too,greed for an awsome net connection, for possessing a bike(...u thought u'll get a pulsar we u get in a college, how's that Atlas feel now), for a better room, for grades, for a nice job,for "P", "T", "VP",BC,MC, for thomso, for cogni, for sleeping hours at stretch and we all kno wat more. Moral...greedy or not, we'll kick yer arse...,Sin two, check..

3) Sloth: you thought that u can be an indolent smartarse and the escape the red tape here..wake up, time's up and face the not-so-sweet picture. starting with the first class, you kno implicitly and sometimes rather explicitly that there are a hell lot of credits for attendence and the crap-work which subsequently decides your impression with the prof, which further paves way for you in you respective deptts. many(..read 99%) of us fail to see this underlying theory and so, miss out on the first step and the whole world crashes down. After that its not for grades you are fighting for, its to make it out of here in time and there are no second chances...ppl with a curse called 'back' can visualise the picture better, with the marathon starting from deptt, acads, dean office, prof and ya...sometimes a fine. More 'lucky' ppl get the so called summer term and ya ther's an ever sweet..The Year Back. Lesson to be fetched....that "shraman vina ka kimapi sadhyam" was meant to be taken literally else everythin will be made "asadhyam" for you..

4) Lust: this is the most intersting part and i guess the GG3 just mentioned above came up with the proposal for rules regarding this aspect. Initial proposal was to have an all guys place so that the libido oriented predicaments could be curtailed altogether, but then he had a brainwave...why not teach them not by depriving but by rousing their desires and them crushing them. And so from then onwards, year after year, fresh batch of newbies arrive with burning desires which are extinguished relentlessly for the saddist pleasures of the ones who have them at their disposal for the time they are here. But, smart as the kids are, decided to put the breakthroughs in modern technology to use and thus began the stupendous task of collecting porn and other stuff which can even now be found on the most archaic of pc's here. The collection which now surpasses hundreds of GB's is a testimony to the vaccum which we and our forefathers have always been devoid of. But for the hard work of scientists and Moore's law, the civilisation here wouldve so long ago perished, or at least become smthing else.Its because of the characterstic human(...read male) desires which are 'relatively' easy to quench(:D :D) that we have survived this atrocity by learning reroute it, at least for the time we are here...
Quote from one of the forefathers: Dude, nothin beats the real thing.. :P
Sin four .... saved..i mean checked...

5)Wrath: hmm..so u were a big-shot at school and used to beat yer fellow buddies and not-so-buddies to pulp on the slightest hint of revenge. In short you were the guy whom other talked about and said "saale vo teri g*** maar dega, dont mess with him". Come here, and u see on the other side of the 'banging', figuratively, of course. All that anger in you is now slowly turned to humility. Starts with, for some, cutting the attitude for votes, and then as the xams approach, for the notes. Then the vicious cycle continues and before you kno, you are on ur knees for quite a lot of things,for the post in thomso/cogni/shirisht/sangram, in front of the almighty prof for saving ur butt from attendence/acad back, in front of Proctor for that birthday (DP) bash or for the real bashing you were involved in and ya, very rarely, in front of the girl you'd like to propose but as mentioned...rarely. So the implicit inclusion of anger management in the curriculum makes sure that we turn out to be quintessentially placid and modest citizens...aah engineers that the country is looking for. The anger my friend, has blown away in the wind...
i humbly check out the fifth sin...

6)Pride: Basically the one above and this one are not that different, as both of these adjectives of yours( if present earlier) are brought down in more or less the same ways. Here also, your self esteem and pride are put to ultimate test, which you are destined to fail, its just that you never realise that untill its too late. The things for which we get down on our knees, stated in the "Wrath" part, emanates in perpetual and relentless begging, most it being done in the remote and secluded chambers of our tormentors which is never again talked about, and only the consequences are later seen by the outside world, sometimes propitious and more often than not, disastrous. Another thing is the spree of apology letters if ever u manage to get caught after a screwup. Their sheer language is enough to bring tears to even the most stone hearted ones, and all that not because you want to but you just have to. But the core objective is accomplished...ur'e not proud of urself nymore and wont ever be, in your murky depths of your heart you will always know.....always...

7)Envy: hmm...dont feel lyk sheddin my views on this one...be my guest...

...well, thats all I could come up with after a deep thought session and will be grateful to anyone who can improve on this and can mention more anecdotes or citations to make this theory more concrete...
adios...

..of star wars and iitr..

Episode I.....to VI
...a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away....there existed a planet called earth and in a place even far away in it, was a place called roorkee, wherin dwelled a race of living beings called iitians in the republic of iit roorkee, which was subdivided into so called juniors and seniors who till now had survived in perfect symbiosis. Trouble started when the federation(read admin) decided to invoke its powers and put and end to this equlibrium. Turmoil now engulfed the republic with the federation now putting a blockade to the small sub-region of rjb and deciding to transfer the power of authority to its inhabitants, reversing the balace of nature which had since long existed and flourished. While the congress of seniors endlessly debated this alarming chain of events, the federation continued to endow the juniors with endless autonomy. They now began their final assault to take over the republic which the other race had so long ruled and being the natives, had efficiently maintained the proper order of things. Ironically, the race being now suppressed was in the majority, but now had to follow the orders with servile obidience. Any attempt of rebellion was bound to be crushed by the all transcendental federation with expulsion from the repulblic and heavy fines. The transfer of power continued and the luxuries which the seniors once enjoyed were slowly snatched from them. The republic was swarmed with the inhabitants of that puny region, of whom the seniors were now terrorized. They were everywhere, and it seemed that their population always seemed to be on an increase. They sucked up the most valuable and scarce resources of the republic (...net) and even the means to access those(..lib and cc compus). The places which used to be the get away spots for the seniours after a laborious day were now filled to the brim with the juniors who treated almost everyone, except the fellow beings of course, with absolute impunity. The republic was in utter chaos with the balance now disturbed to the limit and the frustration of the majority of the inhabitants escalating by each passing (..earth) day. There seemed to be no hope and the republic now seemed to be doomed forever...and worse of all...no bloody jedis existed there.
Maybe this is how george lucas wouldve pictured the scene here if he was among the 'senior' race here. Obviously i cant say for sure, but looking at the scene here for about a couple of weeks now and right now, myself being in one of the places which earlier used to be my get-away spot(..lib) i barely managed to get a seat. on top of it, all the blabbering that goes around makes it a hell. Well, i dont say i too intend to do any relevant work here, but still, peace of mind is something that i always found here, not to mention the privacy. Now, just finished off with yet another movie of star wars series and had an awkward feeling, as in being spied upon, turned around to find a couple of jerks staring at ma screen. They did buzz off when i gave them a nice stare but seriously...wtf. nyways, i have to finish off the complete series by the end of the day and so will get on that...
and ya...Yoda seriously rocks.. :)

..of pool and party

...well, since the so called 'dissertation' work has be procrastinated indefinitely, the days are getting better and better, though sometimes it does get a little stodgy at times sticking to the usual routine...not that I am complaining or anything but i guess fun also should come in assorted flavours. Well, on the other hand should be glad to get at least this much from a place like this. ok, the day begins with a couple of early morning bangs on the door (..this time the early morning IS early, its 7.30) and then a couple or maybe more lovely phrases aimed at me to bring me out of the slumber. Next stop, the swimming pool, with the strongest of intentions and ambitions to do smthin extra at least this time. twenty minutes into it, the stalwart ones amongst us decided to take the plunge from the first tier of the jumping board (..i dont kno what its called, will refer to it as this only). Well..i like heights and i like water...didnt know how both combined can turn out, so decided to put my dear life at stake and go with it. very soon realised that things look 'very' different from the top, and especially when one has to take a leap from there. one guy goes, two, three....and lo, its me all alone staring at the murky waters below.friends seemed to be cheering and shouting something and was nice to know that people are encouraging me but when the words did start coming clearly, got to know that those so called 'friends' were telling me which of my belongings will they keep if i dont make it through...huh..'i want the compu'...'i will settle for speakers' and other things, which were anything but encouraging. anyways, when u gotta do it, you gotta do it.a deep breath, closed eyes and a posture suggested by the trainer in mind, took the leap. well, the posture suggestd was something like this- keep the body straight, arms to the side and open up the arms wen u are into the water and DO NOT open up the legs. i got the point about the legs part, no one wants to hurt their 'precious' for some fun's sake but didnt pay that much heed to that keep-the-body straight part, consequently landed on the butt, which at that time seemed not to give much trouble but became somewhat pain in ass later...literally. so after getting that initial confidence, went through it a couple of times and tried not to give my other parts any trouble for the day. this concluded the beginning of the day, after that the usual breakfast, attendence, movies, sleep, movies, sleep etc... then just as another round of movie was beginning, another one of those btech guys called up(..dammn these ppl are really becoming smthin to handle nowadays, wonder what was with them all these years). so there was this grad party that was being organised at some new hotel nearby which supposedly had a pool also. tell you what, this kindof proposition seems somewhat unbelievable in a place like roorkee, but after a few confirmation calls, it was established that the hotel really had a pool and it wasnt a hoax call to pull in participation. conincidentially, the customised deptt tshirts also arrived and turned out to be nice. so at about 7 or so, 40 or so people in similar dress marched out for the destined spot. i choose to take the less tedious way with my(for the time being) ride with doggy giving me a company. the place turned out way way better than my expectations and was quite spacious, tidy, and the pool, though not that clean, was good enough for a party of this sort. the rest of the company had already reached and some were busy undressing for the occassion while others chose to lay back and enjoy the sight of so many of their companions taking bath at same time and with each other. as for others, and me included, we decided to be in the part of the group which was in the water. then began the water sport fest, with a variety of events, many of then never ever seen before and participants unconditionally taking joining or leaving any event as they liked. the list includes, something like water polo, only in this one, there was no goal and one could pass the ball to anyone who had the choice to either pass the ball to anyone or throw it out of the pool or even bang it on anyone outside the pool. the person possessing the ball could also try to keep it to himself and bolt in any direction he wanted till eight to ten people buried him and took the ball and the same thing again happend to the next guy. i couldnt figure out the rules but i guess there were none...but who cares as long as all were having an awsome time. then there were diving events where we tried all sorts of flip-flops and jumps and tried hard not to land on the guys in the water, as they were either busy with the so-called-water-polo, or were taking swimming lessons, just relaxing, trying to pull someones shorts down, throwing others in, or just sipping on to drinks and spectating. below is me and mogli taking a backward fall together, more were there with upto 5 people at a time, unfortunately cameras werent good enough to capture the spectacle.



well, after a few hours into it, just when i was about to leave, took a dive and bloody did it too well, went in the water as streamlined as possible, and just wen was feeling good about it....bang..my head and the pool floor. so much for the diving and jumping. blacked out for a sec or two, surfaced up, figured out the up and down and other directions, and ya the head had a nice bump on it till now and hurt like hell. it turned out to be the last thing i did in that stupid pool. wouldve been better off sitting up there, sipping the drinks and munching on the snacks. changed after that, and took up the next job that was waiting...being the dj for the night. one thing is sure, the more the people the more it becomes intricate to fabricate a playlist that suits all and if u're not a pro dj, almost everyone will come to pour in their 'expert' comments and opinions about the next track to be played. anyways, i had to manage with watever collection i had left(...thanks to the HP service center staff) and with all kinds of requests coming in every second i found myself devoid of some of the basic you-have-to-have songs for the party including 'in the end', 'in da club' and sorts like that...not to mention some of the essential desi ones, wonder when there will be a demand for some trance... anyways, the retro collection with all sorts of dj dolls, vibes, bombay rockers, vikings, dj's at war and some of punjabi ones was able to satisfy the audience....well at least for some time coz when people want to change the song every thirty seconds or so and also want good ones to keep coming and coming, you simply run out of good ones, and that is when you get the looks, frowning faces and more of those 'expert' comments....yaar aadat chala de, tere paas garam masala nahi hai kya, abe yaar sab bor ho rahe hai...what the fuck man...and when you ask someone else to do it, the they disappear at that first mention of it or, worse, put their 'ideas' into action. m not sayin that am the best of playlist makers but sure i can do better that quite a lot of people. anyways the dancing arena shifted a couple of times with the intensity of dance escalating everytime. after the final few tracks, had a group photo shoot....below is the one ..



then had the pic with our backs toward the cam, just flaunting our tshirts thats all....



..had a nice dinner afterwards, the best part being the dessert, which was, for me and champa, chocclate sauce with a tinge of ice cream, and for others.....where the hell did the sauce go...luckly, the waiter brought another bottle and i was full till then. champa got down with his guitar afterwards with some nice chords and everyone joined in...the more is not always merrier, really....jst kidding, it was nice with everyone singing and enjoying the last get together of the batch. I do have to stay here but there wont be the people with whom i have been here all these years to share the feeling. will really miss the times i spent with them. all in all...really great time, today and all these years but ya...couldve been better...way better... :)

..as good as it gets..

...nothing worse than waking up to a summer morning in roorkee, which i am realizing for about a couple of weeks now. Today was no different, with the unbearable heat acting as the alarm, and even sleeping in minimals didnt helping in any way that might be thought of as comforting. Ya well, after that, the daily routine of marking the attendence (young and sincere researcher in makin ....u see) and again weeding out any thoughts of a tentative reasearch work for the day, decided to go back to my havenly abode, which, to my dismay, was still as uninhabitable as before. Few minutes into giving it thought, i concluded that a little comfort can be sacrificed for another leg of hibernation and thus did some adjustments to make the conditions bearable(dont ask abt those..) and after a couple,well, a couple of couple hours later woke up to the second basic necessity that drives the human race...food (well, we all know the first one..). Had another tremendous mess food, seriously guys..i mean it...one has to appreciate this....its an art to keep anything so constant year after year...even when its lousyness.. and maybe inculcating at least this in us, we can make ourselves into better engineers, afterall, its one of the few things which are actually 'practical' here. Nyways, had a couple of hours off after that too(man..its too good being a dulla here) and finally my body eventually in to the stress of so much relaxation. So had to get up, only to find out its that time of the day when everyone else is off. So went to the market, did some research on smthin i had to buy..and ya, as i have an awsome ride for the vacations, that toiling in the sun and that endless walk dont seem to pull the spirits down for any kind of an excursion, even when the sun keeps the potential of baking my ass to cinder. Romaing here and there aimlessly constituted a part of the day, or the trasition of the day to the evening, which i hoped to be a bit more forgiving in terms of wheather. Was at a senior's room when a sudden thought to clean up that room propped up. The so called thrash that came out of there constituted of about 30 odd bottles, some cans, bedsheets, clothes, newspapers which have been used to diverse purposes(..."diverse"), and loads of different things that cant be described...for all those who know wat room i am talkin about its good, for those who dont....you DONT have to know. Anyways, suddenly the skies started showing eccentric but welcome colours, the dark ones. Its kindof usual here, one moment everything is clear then suddenly the opposite. Was clear that we had a bit of rain and maybe a little sandstorm at hand. The latter arrived earlier, and trust me, it was anythin but a 'little' one. So being a bit crazy myself, decided to put my bike driving skills to test, and just to make sure that i dont die alone, called up jojo to take the plunge. Well, i must say this, that one single round around the campus will always be the toughest one of my life....and even jojo's. Had sand flying around by the tonnes, seemed like bucket fulls of it were being thrown and we were being tested in a wind tunnel, trees were getting ripped apart and not to mention the debris like the broken branches and other stuff that the wind could lift at that time flying around like in zero gravity. Realised halfway that this was a bad idea, but had to go through it, and finally did do it. Found most of orifices in the body (....that are exposed, of course) filled with sand, the hair full of it, and the clothes having changed their color to brown. Obviously, shower was the next thing on the mind when suddenly God fulfilled this wish also, and then again the two gone-nuts buddies started off, only time picking another initially-somewhat-unwilling-but-finally-convinced alien(...read as jaadu) with us. After a few rounds of some stuff(...lol) , and choclate, there were a few rounds around the insti, with the rain beating down so hard that it actually hurt plus the temperature suddenly taking an unexpect and abrupt dive and so it was finally a combination of hard hitting rain, screwed up visibility, trees lying on the road, shivering wind(...yes..we came to the level of shivering...funny considering my intial state in the morning) and three freaks....and ya...no horn on that bike too. So after a single round, the possibilities seemed high and great and the next stop decided was GC(again for those who kno, good...who dont....no point in readin further). Crossing the iit main gate gave one realisation...riding in these conditions outside was the second most stupid idea of the day...but now that the decision had been made, what was done couldnt be undone. Roads outside were more brutual with their approach and didnt seem to make it any easier for us with that almost zero visibility( and did i mention that this was about 7..when usually its all sunny here). Finally did make it to that place, had to take a little pit stop...not to take rest but to look at the flow so strong and the level of that body of water so up the mark. It was one of the most powerful flow i had ever seen and with the rain still strong it didnt seem to ease down anytime soon. Anyways, after enjoying the view there(..i mean whatever was visible) we again decided to go on the road by that canal for a few kilometeres. Now, we had a narrow road, with that overflowing canal on one side, no-one-knew-what on the other side and occassional vehicles comin in from the other side, which never helped a bit coz of my specs (..and ya..no one else knew how to ride.. :) ). So the only thing that DID help was the lightning..yes...everthin was in full flow, even the freakin lightning...the thunders just made everything visible momentarily so clearly as if it were lit by the halogen lamps. It helped but we all know what happens when we get a flash of that halogen straight in our eyes....now imagine happening again and again.......and yet again. So eventually after realising that we shoulnt test our fate more after a few near misses, it was a u-turn and the same thing repeated all over again...one thing we were still more worried about was that shivering and it became so bad at a point of time that the muddy water splashed on us from the puddles seemed like heaven ......u guessed it....coz it was relatively warm. Back to square one then, took a real shower and again, the water that in the morning seemed a bit cold was like a sauna then. Then gave the bike a rest and grouped together some more people, so that the total headcount now was six, and went with one thing that was left to make it an awsome day...yep...the food and what better place to go than baadshah (...please close this window if u havent been there....), for the people who DO know what i am talkin about, they would be aware of the fact that the place is a heaven for the non-vegies and what the term saasta-aur-tikau really means and they also know what is the meaning to get a bill of six hundred plus there.... so thats wat happend at the dinner, the whole thing closed down, we were the last ppl to leave, we spent about and hour and a half there, and ate at the most alarming rate and to the most exorbitant quantities...and ya..some of the menu items were not available else the result woulve been smwat more severe. After a nice walk from there, came back, and since till now the electricity hadnt been restored, decided to go back to that cleaned-up room i mentioned earlier only to find out that the empty bottle count had increased and was actually escalating as we sat about and had some conversations. The individual dicussions converged into one final topic, which is kindof considered hot nowadays...politics. I decided to stay out of it due to some inexplicable reasons but was overhearing each and every word and ya....was one of the most hilarous ones i have heard (...sincere apologies to the participants). Finally, had another round of campus rounds in the awsome wheather and with the cold and shiver no longer being a problem and rain settled down a long time back, was much much more pleasant. Came back to the room, started a movie....had an awsome dialogue in that - to think like a woman, think like a man and take the reason and accountability out of it...( ..srry ladies...guys..high five) and ya the name of the movie was .... As good as it gets...indeed...

...almost over.

Like always, it started off like just another dp, one of the numerous ones so far and one of the last ones with the people i have been with for so long. Thought of avoiding it for a crappy reason called the quiz but just couldnt do it, maybe coz as this sem is getting over, i feel close to my friends more than ever and always do feel like being with somone or the other. So the party began as usual, the usual toasts, discussions over modern and classic bands, movies, stories related to kota, btw,these ppl from kota DONOT stop once they begin with their tales and if the combination is with alcohol then its better u just listen...never interrupt. Moving on, discussion about some movies commenced, particularly over 'gulal' and recieved quite some inputs of varied sorts and some obviously more prompting then others, which were, well, just hilarious. After the end of it all, as usual everone scattered in their own domains with their, relatively close fellows. As for me and few friends, we decided to hav our dinner and meanwhile started talking on the times we had spent together all these years and the memorable incidents, which seemed so trivial at that time. And after being into this talk for not more than twenty minutes or so, comes the realisation that, well, its almost over now. All those years, those trips, sudden plans, fights, talks, dreams...everything suddenly seems to possess a whole new feel to it....nostalgia. And when you realise that the time that you have right now is really the time that is going to be the best time (at least it will be on the top with any other fav moments) that you will ever have, then you begin to cherish the moments more and more and all the 'friends' and the time we spend with them becomes more and more fun, even if maybe we have had this much fun earlier also....but this 'one-of-the-last-time' aspect gives it a whole lot of meaning altogether. I too had been involved one of the best trips of my life which was planned while preparing for end sems and was as spontaneous as it can be...and while the same thing happend today also, it felt like more exciting and had a completely different feel to it...mybe coz i was smwat high, but i dont think that it was the case. Its the fact that maybe there wont be any such thing ever coming our way which makes it a different touch than anthing that has been till now. Some people tell me that its no use thinking about feelings and being sentimental regarding emotions coz if u think logically, its all in the mind and wen u think logically u can actually stop thinking about everthing. In a way its fine but i guess i choose to be this way and i prefer anything that takes me close to the people i think about...for however time it may be. So rt now, would really be looking forward to having a great time before everyone leaves....and after that too.. :)