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.

This week has been hectic. But as usual, before I sense it, the weekend is here. And it brings with it the stuff my recent dreams were made of. Namely, the second instalment of Lord of The Rings. psasidhar, please don’t kill me, I went and saw it just now. Yeah, couldn’t resist myself – just bunked office and pushed off for the 6:45 show. Don’t worry, pal, have already planned to declare this week as “LOTR week” – will try for 2 more shows, one on Monday and one whenever you want me to.

Should I review the movie? Naaaah! The re-viewing part, I shall save for Monday. As for the standard opinionated stuff, who am I kidding? The movie was good, period. I never, ever could imagine how anyone would portray the Battle of Helm’s Deep onscreen, or the Ents, or even The Man, Gollum. Gollum, oh gosh, Gollum!! Why aren’t Gollum dolls available in India?? Somebody could make a fortune, you know. Now that’s an idea!! Make Gollum dolls that squeak like Smeagol when you press them on the tummy, or treacherously whisper “Precioussssssss!” when you hit it. I would happily buy out the entire stock and gift them to assorted friends. I think I will go and watch Brain-Dead tonight while having dinner. Methinks part of Peter Jackson’s greatness lies in his quality to make a movie that steers clear of the usual, predictable camera angles, predictable cliched dialogues…tch, what am I doing? Everybody knows this already, don’t they? (They doooooo, yesssssss, they doooooooo. (cough cough) )

Yesterday, or rather, yesternight, was beautiful. Slightly chilled Frooti, roasted papad, Paalak paneer, with Ella Fitzgerald singing Black Coffee in the background – man, her voice – and of course, the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine. An evening that definitely soothed my nervous system a lot.

Sometimes I wonder if life will always be this carefree, or if the Next Big Thing is just around the corner. I have certainly never been this happy, or less tense at any point of my life before. No fear of any exams, no overwhelming urge to drop anything that’s paramount on my mind for the sake of that elusive (and moronic ) something called “grades”. I am glad I am working. I need to work hard, and I am, and I don’t mind, because I am getting paid enough for it. If somebody asks me “Where do you see yourself five years from now?”, I would show him the finger. Five years??? Who cares about five freaking years?? I don’t know what I would be doing after five freakin’ weeks! And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell YOU, mistaah!

Is it – this feeling of mine – the mythical light at the end of the tunnel?? That “thing” for which I have been slogging throughout my life? Or is it the lull before the storm?