People generally don’t believe me when I say I love travelling by bus. The reason? My personal space, unchallenged by anyone else. No noise, no annoying beggars picking at my clothes. No unneccesary stops. No jolting awake every half-an-hour or so to check if the luggage is still in place. No smell from the loo infiltrating your consciousness. Just the soft drone of the bus, and maybe a B-Grade movie for 3 hours. But that’s ok, I can take that. Give me a bus journey anyday over one by train.

Almost missed the bus to Bangalore on Friday. I was standing at a place which was a corner away from the place the bus was supposed to be. Luckily enough, a kind samaritan ran to me and asked if I was waiting for the bus to Bangalore, and if I was, it was there, not here, and oh, yes, could he have a tenner for some chaai-paani. Kind samaritan, my foot!

The guy sitting next to me must have wondered what exactly I was doing reading all those printouts. Yeah, am not ashamed to say it, but I mugged the ppts inside out, that was (at that time) the only way I could boost my confidence. Stopped for dinner at some godforsaken dhaba somewhere, and discovered that my cellphone still worked when my father called me up. My poor parents never really have got used to my going off to assorted places without the slightest bit of pre-warning – right from the RECW random-cul-fest days. :-)

Met The Cimmerian. Hasn’t changed a bit.

Discovered the perils of travelling in an autorickshaw in Bangalore. I knew my office was paying for everything, but couldn’t help wincing as the meter ticked towards 99. This is so funny! I don’t hesitate spending so much when I am buying books, but paying an auto anything above 50 bucks – eeeeeeeyikes!

Man, Whitefield is a long way from MG Road.

The ITPL complex where IIIT-B is located is awesome. The one thing that really struck me was the serenity of the place, no pollution, no loud cars, even the music in the buildings was soft ( and lousy!) The complex has three large, beautifully designed and imposing-looking buildings called “Discoverer”, “Innovator” and “Creator” . Funny names, but suits the mood. Too many companies, so the security was really something!!!! I mean, this is the first time I saw 3-4 guards patrolling along the same corridor. Seems the security has tightened post-Iraq.

The lecture: was ok. Won’t boast too much, won’t undermine myself too much, but ok, I didn’t falter, I didn’t stammer, and I didn’t have too many butterflies in my tummy inspite of learning that the other person taking the same course (the .Net part ) was someone named Yeshwant Kanetkar. Have to admit that the IIIT people are more class-room-friendly than us RECians. I mean, most of us used to doze off once the class crossed the 45-minute mark., and sometimes even before that. But these guys not only stay wide-awake for three hours, they are also astute enought to ask the right questions, interpersed with some oddball ones, but that’s ok, I guess. !

The other highpoints:

madhavn, I love you. You know that already, right?

Planet M. The one music shop that manages to make me ashamed of being subjected to the Music World onslaught in Hyderabad THREE outlets, and no decent music! :-(( Kaadhalar Dinam, Jodi, Mudhalvan, Ratchagan – the latest ARR additions. I had the cassettes, then the mp3s, and now I own the cds. Hoo ah!!

My sis. Finally got around to meeting her.

Found some beautiful stuff at Blossom Book House. (Uddu, I love you for showing me that place). An autobiography of Lillian Gish, A biography of Kishore Kumar, Stephen King’s ‘Everything’s Eventual” and “The Green Mile”. And (drumroll) “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” by Michael Chabon. It won the Pulitzer in 2001, and totally contradicts my no-prize-winning-critically-acclaimed-books rule. Umm, fact is, this one has a special storyline. (Eh heh heh heh)

And no, I didn’t gather no moss.

is here!

I leave at 8:30.

An hour ago, I just found out that that the three lectures involved three 96-slide presentations. Heh heh heh, so I can safely bore the poor guys to death now. The best thing in lecturing is the ability to keep talking inspite of the vacuous stare you get from all and sundry. You have to talk, and they have to listen. Bow wow wow.

Also two lab sessions. Hmmm, this is getting interesting, isn’t it?

All I need is some Frooti to put those pesky butterflies to sleep. And my Discman. And the Bombay Dreams cd. And a hug.

See y’all in Bangalore!!!!!

Right-o.
Holiday yesterday, so inevitably, went off to see Chicago for the third time with psasi, and enjoyed it as thoroughly as I had the previous two times.

The Psychelone was there, and true to form, he quoted something that seemed to make sense, and also put paid to any arguments I might have had to the contrary.

“If we can eat three meals in a day, what’s the problem in seeing two good movies a day?”

Off we went then, me and The Psychelone, to The Two Towers again. Sadly though, I drifted off to sleep sometime after Gollum and Frodo and Sam reached the Black Gate. Woke up just as the final attack on Helm’s Deep was about to begin. Sheeeeeee!!!!! Am ashamed of myself!

I just discovered that IIIT videotapes all lectures on-campus and stores them for posterity. Fresh bout of lightheadedness….it’s one thing making an ass of myself in a class, and another thing to have it archived!!! I think I will ask for the master-copy of the tape from the faculty.

The ticket to Bangalore hasn’t come yet!

It’s been ages since I started “The Great Indian Middle Class”, and I haven’t been able to find the time to complete the darned thing. Read something called “The Midnight Penthouse”, a collection of writings, essays, interviews from Penthouse magazine (yeah, that Penthouse magazine). Really good stuff by Henry Miller, Germaine Greer, Asimov, Norman Mailer, to name a few contributors. None of that, except for the saucy writing sometimes.

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.