I don’t believe this.

Yesterday, I had been asked if I wanted to go to Pune again this weekend for another series of lectures. I gracefully declined, the reason being, I thought I needed a weekend of laidback music, nice ‘n easy comfort, maybe a movie-viewing spree. The excuse I gave, however, was that I would be in Bangalore for the Rolling Stones concert. Excuse accepted. Life went on.

Until an hour ago, when my boss called me up. The conversation went something like this:-

Him: Hey! When’s the concert?
(instant mental reaction: concert? what concert? oh, it must be the rolling stones concert. that’s the only one around )
Me: Ummmm, it’s on saturday…no…on Friday…I think.
(basically i had no idea when it was)
Him: (puzzled silence) Oh! I thought you were going there. Aren’t you?
Me: (improvising) Uh…actually I was, but I decided not to.
Him: So are you going or not?
(click click click. I remember yesterday’s excuse. Things start falling into place)
Me: Uhhh. I dunno. I thought I was going to, but plans have changed because it got pre-poned. And I also have lots of work to do on Friday.
(thinking – I hope it’s on Friday, and not Saturday, and I don’t make an ass out of myself)
Him – Ohhh! (sounds pleased. A dedicated beatzophreniac makes the boss happy. Gotta remember that.) No listen! How would you like the Concert sponsored by the company?
(moi – dumbstruck!)
Me – D-uh!
Him – Actually we need someone to go give a lecture in IIIT Bangalore. So you can get your trip and stay all paid for. All you need to do is go do this, and you can go off for the concert. So what say?
Me – Uh, I …..
Him – Hey! Aren’t you taking someone along with you too? Don’t worry, we can sponsor both of you.
(i start thinking of psasi, and things start becoming clearer)
Me – I was going with a friend of mine, he works in Juno….
Him – Oh no, no, no. I mean somebody from the company…
(D-uh?)
Him – Needn’t necessarily be from the Engineering team.
(I get his drift :-P )
Me – Uhhhh, I gotta ask.
Him – Yeah, you do that.

OK.
So two hours and a meeting later, things are this way.
I am going over to Bangalore.
Will be staying until Sunday, would like to board the train Saturday night and come back on Sunday morning, but that might get too hasty.
The concert – back-seat. Will go if i get tickets and have the urge to spend money.
Two marathon lectures cum labs at IIIT on Friday and Saturday.
Resist all temptation to visit Music World, Planet M, and other assorted dens of vice.
To madhavn: Eh Heh Heh Heh.
To fus: Eh Heh Heh Heh.
To yellosonja: Eh Heh Heh Heh.
To everyone else: Eh Heh Heh Heh.

What was it they said about the best laid plans of mice and men??

Came back from a two-day meeting with my juniors from Warangal. Standard feeling – a sense of homecoming. Would be crazy if I felt otherwise. REC Warangal (the big marble letters in the entrance saying N-I-T doesn’t change a thing, it’s still REC Warangal for me ) is just the same. A lot of faces are missing, of course, and I know for sure that when I am there the next time, a lot more faces will be missing. Good that I went and met them.

Highpoints:
1) The smell of the trees. It rained on Saturday afternoon, and I was sleeping in Kaancha’s room with the windows open. Could hear the drizzle, and feel some of the drops beeing blown inside the room and on my skin. I believe the word I am looking for is “oooooooh”.

2) I checked, and verified. 108 days to go, . :-) It was still curd rice on Saturday, though.

3) Getting a used AMD 500 Mhz computer (minus monitor and UPS ) for 2000 bucks. \:D/ Also the vcd of Yodha. Yippee!!! :-)

4) ettukali. Major surprise, da. Wish you had told me earlier, I could have gotten the Blue Oyster Cult mp3s for you.

Among other things, one small thing I discovered I had missed was the ambient noise of the hostel – more specifically, the tenth block. At any given point of time, you can hear the crackle of static from the TV room, the slam of the cricket ball hitting the door, and people shouting “Out!!!” or “Go go go!!” or whatever… Random doors being banged. Music from some room, often three different songs playng from the same wing. Running water. The sound of bikes revved from afar. Funny, nowadays I can’s sleep without a small sound waking me up, and to think I actually slept through all my final year. There’s also a funny smell in almost all the rooms. I think now I understand why my parents got so mindnumbingly psyched when they saw my room in the Final year.
Bah! Civilisation has robbed me of my adventurousness – or at least a part of it.

Didn’t go around the blocks much. It’s the end of March, and it’s hot.

Scary revelation: I had to consciously think which block the Third Block was. It hasn’t even been a year.

Happened to come across Daskar, our English prof from the first year. Seems it’s his last year as editor of the College Magazine ( no, Institute Magazine, he corrected) and he’s planning to bring out a cd along with it. True to form, he asked me if I could write something about life after RECW…..you know, standard boy-meets-the-Big-World types. Thought I would copy-paste some stuff from my LJ, but don’t want to get lynched. :-) Will have to remember to send him a polite mail sometime.

Among the lowpoints was the news that all club activities were suspended until September. And no Branch events were being allowed too, the CSE people aren’t being allowed a Valedictory function. Everytime I feel that our Hallowed Authorities can’t get any worse than this, there’s nothing dumber they can do than this, they go and do something that beats all previous achievements hollow. Big, dumb, stupid, narrow-minded nincompoops!!!

I will miss you, guys and gals.