The Day The World Changed - Forever...

The league of extraordinary gentlemen : Richard Gatling of the Gatling Guns; Irene Joliot-Curie, the nobel prize winner; Yao Ming, at 7 feet 6 inches; Jesse Owens; Nathan Bracken;  Nuno Valente... And of course - me. Every one of these aforementioned illustrious people graced this world on the twelfth of September. Wiki went on to mention the less known - King Francis I and Fernando Cesar de Souza; the unknown - Ricky Rudd, Yang Mi and Stanislaw Lem; and the notorious - Gerald Stano, an American Serial Killer. But, as they say - #*It happens.

They said "Sweet 16" when I was 10, and I knew that 16 was the age to be. Many years later, when I finally turned 16, I was informed that "the awesome age"  it was not 16 but 18 - the time you become a major. Well, I am not stupid you know... Once bitten, twice shy. I had already been bitten twice. I had rightly discovered then - there were no "awesome ages"...

Well September is the month of birthdays - and not a single day has passed, since the first of this month, devoid of chapos... Ah well, today's different. Today's wierd - Its the day when I offered to treat everyone to the delicacies of the Cautley Canteen only to be politely turned down... (Of course only after having mentioned that they would be delighted to accept it the day-after-tomorrow) How often does that happen? And often is a guy let off without the mandatory GPL? But it truly is an experiance, not too pleasant, but an experience nevertheless to celebrate (so to say) your birthday on the day of a TS.

My first resolution was drawn before the stroke of midnight - I will cease studying at 0000 hrs - so as to not suffer the disgrace of studying into your birthday. And I also decided to complete this post before retiring to get my dose of 8 hrs before the exam. All of this behaviour may seem bizarre and eccentric, I know... (I've had people staring at me strangely) I don't know what has come over me... But let's just say that I'm hoping - birthdays are lucky for you.

Its time to hit the sack now and begin the new year, and what better way to debut this year than writing a test when you are half out of bed.

La Roue A Tourne

Abey line me chal - One of the first lines that I heard in IIT-R. It was one of those highly dreaded lines drowning the spine in shivers.White shirts, black pants and leather shoes were all around, with a few people hurrying to buy the set in Civil Lines. The Dress Code: The shopkeeper made his fast bucks and the seniors had their share of fun. In fact, I remember the few who bought 3 sets of those to avoid laundry problems!

I delve into those days long ago when baths were regular and laptops -luxuries. The times when every face was new and there existed this deceptive feeling that we had entered the most-fun-phase of our lives (not totally untrue though). But then, the first semester of college leaves you with impractical expectations for the times to come which seldom is met, if ever. And soon it had dawned upon me that perhaps college wasn't anything different after all... It all had come down to routines and schedules.

But now times have changed... We have come a full-circle and the quizzers will be quizmasters soon. It has taken me a little while to realize the full implications of these changes. Now the very same faces which I once saw filled with trepidation are on the prowl. The prey has become the predator - it seems to me. Ofcourse, I don't have a violent bone in my body, but it was fun nevertheless when a kid came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder and asked whether I was a freshie; I merely said 'No', but I still don't know if he heard me as he had fled the scene before I said anything more! (The next kid didn't even last that long when 'Mr. Athletic' asked him - 'Tere ko hum facche dikhte hain kya?)

The sophomore year seems to have other benefits as well. No more poster sticking for me! Well I don't mean to undermine the task, but it definitely isn't the most pleasurable job... Not only does it hurt your pride, sticking stuff on walls with everyone staring at you, but I hated cycling up Mt. Central Library (I don't want the meillieur jeune anymore!)

And recruiting the juniors seems to be fun job as well... Well, the new year has begun and I've begun to count the enormous number of changes (most of them seem to be for the better, but I'm a firm believer of Murphy's laws). But whatever happens, good or bad, definitely La roue a tourne!

Needles, Omiprazole and Related Sufferings...

Well, I admit to committing the crime... I confess - I ate that ice cream, blissfully unaware of the fact that orange-flavoured ice lollies may hospitalize you for a couple of weeks. Maybe it was a message; I was cribbing too much about how boring the holidays were getting and the tiresome lack of variety in what I was doing... But this wasn't quite the kind of change I had in mind.

With doctors dumbfounded as to the cause of the ailment, they also seemed to treat me as this wierd specimen with a one of a kind sickness! Needles, Omiprazole, bad nurses (who never seemed to realize if fluids were to go in through those tubes or blood was to come out...) and endless hours of television passed during which I gained a substantial knowledge about which MPs were already with the UPA and who were required to be given 25 crores... (In fact I can bet that I know more about that July 22nd trust vote than Sonia Gandhi!) The stomach pain often seemed to be diminished; Only later did I understand that it was because there was more pain due to the needles! 'Everything Is Relative'...

The intense pain actually did fade out after the initial couple of days; All was over was what I believed... But NO, it was the beginning. Many days and many more litres of IV fluids later, I was 'discharged' only to be advised to stay on a liquid diet for a few more days. Here I must mention that though I never realized the time passing as nights ran into days and Sundays into Mondays as I lay in that room, oblivious of the world that lay outside, I finally understood that my holidays were about to end; especially when all my friends left the city... (Again, I don't understand why the IIT system has to be so kind by bestowing upon us more holidays than we need.)

But then again, I would never be able to explain the last two weeks as they seem to have been 'Shift-Deleted' from my holiday time... Well, these holidays have had its moments and then again the valleys (like the one I find myself in right now). And hence I've taken time-out in order to type this post out and the recent happenings... After all, all my readers get pretty restless when I don't post for such long stretches. But now I gotta go, I've got a mountain to scale. So cheers!