The morning of the last day dawned upon us, and we were all mourning. It was, after all, the last day. I decided not to use the toilet, apart from brushing. I really didn’t want to spend an extra few unnecessary minutes with those mosquitoes, especially when I could take a bath at home. But then, thinking of that made me reflect upon how soon I was going to be at home. Groan.

Me and Karthick packed real quick, and headed over to the Married Scholars’ hostel. The plan was that Ashi, Bakri, Liggy and I, along with Ritu ma’am, would go to View Point, early in the morning. Unfortunately, we found that they had not been able to get the bathroom, because the people with whom they were sharing it, had gotten up before them and reserved it for a while. So, unfortunately, our plan for going to View Point had to be cancelled.

This was more unfortunate for the girls than us, because we had already been there, done that. They hadn’t even been there once. Anyway, Karthick and I had not had breakfast. Food was directly delivered from Subhansiri to the Married Scholars’ hostel, because the latter did not have a mess and kitchen of its own. So, when breakfast arrived (aloo paranthas), ma’am got us both a plate as well.

Our last meal in Guwahati. Sob…:’(

There were two ways of going to the airport. By the bus, which was at…I think…8:30, or to take a cab. Ma’am didn’t want to take any chances, so we took the cab. While we were waiting for it, I found the ‘g-newsletter’. It’s not a newsletter by Google, but one for IIT Guwahati. A survey had been conducted about ragging, and it was found that around 59% guys enjoyed it. There were several other statistics like how many people endured physical ragging, verbal or no ragging at all. There were also separate polls for girls as well.

Anyway, the cab had come by now. But we realised that we had not got our Techniche bags, that everyone else had got. So, the 4 of us marched off to Hostel Manas. Meanwhile, ma’am caught us up in the taxi, and told us to get in, because there wasn’t too much time left. So, then we drove to Kameng, picked up the other guys, who had been waiting for over an hour, then went to Manas, where Ankur was there to give us our bags. We bid him farewell, and proceeded to leave…

…except that the taxi driver got kinda lost in the campus. A bit of doubling and quadrupling back later, we left. It was very emotional.

We crossed the Bramhaputra one last time and waved goodbye to the policemen! When, we finally reached the airport, we realised we were way too early…typical Ritu ma’am. It was an Indigo flight.We checked in, and roamed around the airport. Then we hit jackpot.

Sort of…

We found these 2 little shops, selling handicrafts and all. You know, the kind you’re likely to find at an airport…not so great quality…overpriced stuff. But we had no other choice, and I badly wanted to take something home. So, I ended up buying a small fan (the one which you hold in your hand and wave), a painting made of bamboo (so technically, I can’t call it a painting), a hairclip for my Mom (also bamboo), and a little mantlepiece display of a couple of typical(?) Assamese people.

By now, our flight was boarding, so we went for security check. There, there was a bit of alarm. Karthick’s', Shikhar’s and my school bag were taken aside for inspection. I’d got mosquitoe repellant, which apparently wasn’t allowed. The mystery was that I was allowed to keep it in the bag, while coming from Delhi to Guwahati! Shikhar had a geometry box with compasses (even he had got it in his schoolbag, from Delhi).

Karthick’s was most amusing. They were asking him to take out his pair of scissors. The funny thing was that he didn’t have any. He hadn’t even got any to Guwahati! So after arguing for five minutes, and proving that we were, after all, students, and couldn’t do much harm, we were allowed to leave. Nevertheless, there is no proof that students are harmless. We are quite capable of wreaking havoc, anywhere and everywhere we go.

The flight was entertaining…more so than the one to Guwahati. But it was also short…or we must’ve felt so because we didn’t want to leave. The four of us played Truth or Dare, but dares were limited, because we didn’t want to irritate anyone else. So we introduced situation and burn house, instead. I’m not going to reveal any more details.

The one thing I can comment about Indigo, is that they’re pretty focussed. Their main priority, is getting the plane into the air on time, and landing as well. So, even though there was a delay at Delhi, we landed 5 minutes before time! Plus, their air sickness bag was funny…it just said ‘Get Well Soon’, in big friendly letters. We had to buy food, but at least there was some, unlike the JetLite flight. No Cafe Coffe Day nonsense on this flight.

When we landed and got off, I was moaning big time. I hate Delhi weather…makes my hair go nuts. All frizzy and curly. Again, for the short distance to the terminal, they insisted on the bus, which was making nothing but wide-radius circles. Collecting baggage took some time, unlike last time. We all bid farewell, and went home. Now began the pain of writing at least some points about the trip, because I needed to write this mammoth series of posts, and I wouldn’t remember a thing after the exams. Oh yeah, and the exams are over. Dunno how I’ll do…

And I’d like to wind up by saying that it was a simply ‘gaargeous’ trip.

Tags: Guwahati, IIT, Symposiums

The agony…oh the agony

The amount of trouble we had to go through for this. Aishwarya kept telling the counter dude to ‘check again’. We pleaded that it was our last day here, but nothing worked. We even offered to pay extra. Nothing worked. Anyway, another kindred soul told us of another theatre we could try. By now, the taxi had left, of course, so we had to take 2 autos. For 80 bucks each. The funny thing about the autos of Guwahati is that they had small Doors, with a metal frame and cloth canvassing. With a little window in the middle.

Anyway, the theatre he told us about was pretty low class and was only showing Hijack anyway. By now, even the auto drivers took pity on us, and one of them found out a newspaper from somewhere. It said that Rock On was showing at that hall near Pan Bazaar as well. It was the first hall we had checked out. The thing was that we never walked up to the counter and asked the dude, we just assumed it was showing Hijack, because the posters were of Hijack.

So, all of us, charged up, got into the autos, and told them to take us to the first theatre. Unfortunately, in all the excitement, we forgot to ask him how much he’d charge, giving him an opportunity to fleece us. Anyway, for the first time, I was cursing at traffic. It really was slow. The show was beginning at 5:30, but it was already 5:25. Darn. I also took picture of the other auto (which had Bakri, Ashi and ma’am). Got only 1 decent one.

Eventually we did reach that place, and found that it was showing Hijack after all. As I said, all that trouble, all for nothing. Then came the problem of going back. We realised that we had to take the same autos back. He was willing to go, only if we gave a total of 700 bucks, for both autos, from G.S. Road to that other theatre, to IIT, Guwahati, with the third theatre falling on the way (sorta).

While ma’am battled it out, I talked to Ankur Tyagi, back in college, and asked him about any further cineplexes. When he heard our story, he ‘tch-tched’ in pity. I also asked him if there were any VCDs we could borrow from the hostelers, but he said that we probably wouldn’t get Rock On. Sigh…

Anyway, we got into our autos, and proceeded to IIT. As we passed the bridge, we saw the most spectacular view. a mountain, somewhere over the horizon, was blocking the sunlight from coming over at one point, and the light was pale in other parts and well…it’s inexplicable in words! Couldn’t exactly take a pic, could I?

When we eventually reached back, we paid off the autos, and then proceeded to View Point. The girls and ma’am had still not seen it. However, the path wasn’t well lit all the way to the top, so ma’am wasn’t willing to take us up there. I would’ve liked to see the campus lit with little dots. I also discovered taking pictures of the moon could be fun. If I increased the exposure time to a few seconds, and held the camera quite jerkily, I get a long twisting ribbon of silver!

So the only thing we could look forward to was the closing ceremony, which consisted of an array of fireworks. We didn’t want to miss this one, like we missed the laser show… We marched back to the audi, where the prize distribution ceremony was taking place. Naturally, we weren’t getting anything, but we clapped anyway. Karthick took a sudden interest in palmistry, and began reading Ashi’s and Bakri’s palms. All make-believe stuff, but fun, neverthless.

After this, we moved to the football field, where the fireworks display was to take place. I discovered my camera’s Fireworks mode as well, where I just need to click, and it takes care of everything else. Couldn’t keep it 100% steady, though.

After this, we all sat about on the stands there. Chatting. Karthick continued his quest for palmistric excellence. I found an abandoned bamboo stick, which we then began balancing on our heads. I tried walking as well, as others tried to distract. We caught most of this on video.

After this, we slowly walked onto the main road, back to our hostels, had food, and came back to the T-point. From here on, we just walked slowly, till the place where a path branched off towards the core buildings. There we found some places to sit. And then Ayush came past, on a cycle he had borrowed from one of the hostelers (most likely a fuccha).

We all took turns on that. Even Aishwarya, despite the fact that there was a crossbar, which girls generally have trouble with. But then, she needed someone to help her on, help her get started, and then help her get off – namely me. She did fall off the second time, when she was stopping. Didn’t get hurt, just tumbled… I sat on a cycle for the first time in several years, and it felt great. The wind rushing through my ears, the sense of speed…of course, if I drove a bike, the cycle would be nothing compared to it, but in a cycle, the feeling in your legs, as you power the bike along is also unique.

After the cycle, we sat on the road, dharna style, and talked for a while. We were sad. We were leaving the next day. Then, we eventually got up, and walked to our hostels. Fell asleep pretty quick…

Tags: Guwahati, IIT, Symposiums

We now wanted to go to the city. Ma’am now ordered a taxi, for 600 bucks, for about 4 hours, to take us first to G.S.Road, for lunch and shopping, followed by a visit to Pan Bazaar, for more shopping.

The trip was fun. It was Aishwarya, Vishaka, Karthick, Shikhar and me. Although Shikhar is not the most sociable of people I’ve met, the others were fun. We talked a lot and played dumb charades as well. When we eventually reached G.S. Road, we were in for a shocker.

It was closed.

Now, I should remind you that G.S. Road is a big market, and that it was a Sunday, so ideally it should’ve been open! But it wasn’t. Luckily we found a restaurant…Khalsa Parivar. Quite Punjabi I must say. I should also say that I was quite disappointed that I had absolutely no Assamese traditional food on this trip. I’m a foodie to a certain extent, and would’ve liked to try out some of the local delicacies.

Lunch consisted of tandoori paranthas, dal makhni, paneer makhni and rice. Aishwarya also decided to muck up a glass of water. We put pepper, salt, toothpicks, dirty spoons from all the curries and god knows what else into the glass of water. I sipped a little bit of it, and since most of the stuff wasn’t in good enough quantities, the taste didn’t show up.

Then, we decided, that since G.S.Road was closed, we’d move onto Pan Bazaar. To go there, we had to go by the river port, and it was a beautiful view. I was enacting movies (dumb charades again) as and when they came to my mind, but only Bakri was listening/watching.

And that wasn’t the end of our problems.

Even Pan Bazaar was closed…

We were aghast. Our lovely little plan of enjoying Guwahati was coming apart. Bigtime. We quickly changed gears and thought of watching a movie. We all wanted to see Rock On! We asked the driver about the timings, and he said that shows generally began at around 5 PM. But, Hijack was the main movie being screened right now, and since most of Guwahati’s theatres were one-hall, that was the only movie being shown. The cinema near Pan Bazaar was showing Hijack. We assumed this since the posters outside were of Hijack.

Silly movie. Hollywood ripoff.

So we asked the driver to take us back to G.S.Road, because when we had come to Pizza Hut, we had seen a multiplex there. But, the driver, being an stubborn goat, wasn’t willing to take us there, unless we paid extra, which we weren’t willing to. In fact, he was asking for a total of 1200 bucks. We were stumped…

…or were we?

What I’m going to relate to you, is a perfect example counter-connery.

Soon after he asked for 1200 bucks, we realised that he must’ve known that Pan Bazaar was closed. And ma’am had specifically said that we were coming here for shopping. Even then, he didn’t have the decency to tell us that it was closed. All he was interested in was milking us for all it was worth.

Right

Plus, we hadn’t even expended our limit of 4 hours! Technically, we could take him to the ends of the earth within those 4 hours.

Anyway, ma’am called up the taxi stand manager, and started arguing with him. Ma’am said that we had mentioned that we needed to go shopping and despite that, the driver had not told us. When the guy on the other end heard this, he said that probably the driver didn’t know about the market being closed. But, he did, and had told us later, when he said that it was closed every Sunday. So, that was one exit blocked for both the driver and his manager.

The guy was becoming really stubborn now, so we decided to put our heads together. We told the driver that there was Aishwarya’s dad knew the Police Commissioner of Assam. Not quite true, but close enough, as her Dad did know someone in the Assam government. Anyway, hearing this, the driver’s got just a little bit more alert. Anyway, we pretended to call up this Police Commissioner, even apologised for the inconvenience caused to him, and ‘reported’ the errant driver. I even got out of the van to get the registration number!

Soon after, the driver related this to his manager. I could hear worried tones, event though I don’t understand Assamese. Hehe. So, the manager and driver eventually agreed to take us back to G.S. Road, for 400 bucks! They obviously didn’t want anything to do with the police. Vishaka used Shikhar’s phone, to call up ma’am, to make it seem that the Police Commissioner called back, and we informed him that the ‘problem had been sorted’.

By the way, Shikhar’s phone was working because he had a postpaid connection.

On the way, we checked out another multiplex, Fun Cinemas. Shikhar and I went to check, but the movie wasn’t showing there either. We proceeded to the one near which was the Pizza Hut, called Cinemax. The movie was showing there. We all rejoiced. But then, in that split second before the ticket seller responded, I realised…Oh shit…it could be house full.

It was.

Tags: Guwahati, IIT, Symposiums

DAY 3

This time, I had real trouble getting up. My alarm didn’t wake me up…Karthick’s irritating one did, but then, that’s cause that’s irritating, right?

I braved the bathroom again. With courage. I would not let a couple of bugging mosquitoes (pardon the pun) restrict my bowel movements…or maybe I would. Anyhow, I made it out of there in record time, but not quick enough. One or two lucky ones did feist on my blood.

Then we met Aragog.

If I were to sum him up in one word, I would say – hideous. In a few more words – hairy, ugly, large, black, monstrous. Not to forget downright terrifying. He probably wouldn’t fit on my palm. He was lurking around cubicle #3. There was a very large grasshopper in my cubicle, who I guess was hiding from Aragog himself, but I didn’t mind that. Anything’s better than Aragog.

By the way, for the uninitiated, Aragog was the big, huge spider from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

We didn’t bother to change into our school uniforms – partly because we knew we wouldn’t qualify, and also because we were planning on going to see View Point. So, Karthick and I went to the Married Scholars’ hostel to tell ma’am we were ready. We had to go early, because otherwise, we would miss H.C.Verma’s lecture. This was one lecture I wanted to attend. Anyway, we took a path different to the one we usually took, which came up from behind the hostel. It was a beautiful route, and I took some few pics.

We saw ma’am and the girls leaving the gate, just as we were approaching. A fair amount of jogging later, we caught up with them. They were going to Subhansiri hostel, for breakfast. We returned, to have breakfast at our hostel, found that the other guys were also awake, and together, we set off Subhansiri. Once there, since not much time was left before the lecture, the guys decided that we would take a quick peek around View Point, while the girls and ma’am would go to the auditorium. While going uphill, I took around 90 pics, and shot a 5~6 minute video on the way down (we were running). Karthick won the race, I came second, Ankit third, Siddharth fourth, Ayush a distant fourth, and Shikhar and Amit came walking.

We rushed back to the audi, to find that the lecture hadn’t yet started. Lucky for us. Not so for Ashi and Bakri, who could’ve come with us to View Point. We were dripping with sweat by now, and my shirt simply stuck to the seat, when I leaned against it. Anyway, it was an interesting lecture, as H.C. Verma pointed out the flaws in the current model of education, and also taught us some concepts of Physics in a ‘different’ way. Bakri and I were interested in the lecture, so changed seats a few minutes into the lecture, because Ashi and Liggy were too noisy.

ATTENTION … GUYS OF X-D … QUOTE THIS IN CLASS IN FRONT OF MA’AM …

…The best part was that, Ritu ma’am, got bored of the whole thing! Heck, she became so restless towards the end, that she was distracting me, the way that Himkar distracts me in her class! In the end, she decided to ‘bunk’ the last 10-15 minutes of the lecture. Shocking!

Anyway, results for the GC or General Championship were to be announced after the lecture. They weren’t so much announced as shown on the screen. In fact, the curtains were drawn, and the projector was accidentally on, so when the organiser got to know that, thanks to Siddharth, he was a bit flustered.

Organiser a.k.a Shithead

Anyway, we found that we hadn’t qualified. No big, so we got a chance to explore the city and a bit of shopping for home. Alll of us (except the seniors, because their GC was after ours, and they didn’t know their result, and Siddharth) went to Subhansiri. Ma’am bought us some coconuts, because it was around midday, and it was hot.

What was really amusing was the way Shikhar took a sudden and violent interest as to what was inside the coconut. He put his eye to is, and cause he couldn’t see a thing, took the thing, and began smashing it on the marble parapet, on which we were sitting. I don’t know why, but all of a sudden, he began resembling a lesser evolved version of the human – a chimp, maybe?

Tags: Guwahati, IIT, Symposiums

After this, both the teams felt quite light-hearted. After we came out of the hall, I felt thirsty, and decided that I would head over to the water cooler near the exhibit hall. Vishaka also was thirsty. But there was a problem…Vishaka couldn’t drink directly off a cooler. She never had in her life! Her friends even called her angrez because of this!

I decided to help her out. The two of us headed back to the cooler, and I demonstrated the way to keep the mouth near the hand, to control water flow from the cooler, and to let it flow off you elbow. It was fun. We laughed more than we drank.

Apparently, those guys had told us a rendezvous point, but we totally forgot. So we first checked the stalls, the canteen, the lecture halls, and finally the main road. We found them on the main road. But in the meanwhile, we chatted a lot. Got to know quite a lot about each other…about our families…some similarities we had, and some ways in which we were totally different. It was a lot like Walk the Talk on NDTV 24×7! Those guys were a bit pissed when we finally turned up, and we continued our walk upto the T-point. There we parted ways to change and return.

After we returned, a lot of us found that we were hungry. We decided that instead of the mess, we’d try the stalls. Not Pizza Hut, that was way too pricey. When we reached, we were lucky enough to get a table to ourselves. Generally that place was quite crowded. We eventually decided to order 3 small pizzas to start off with 2 people to 1 pizza. I stuck to my rule of no ketchup.

After that, we tried out another stall. After Aishwarya read out the menu, I originally wanted a thali, but since everyone wanted chowmein, I also changed my mind. Unfortunately, the rest of them thought I’d changed my mind just cause they had, and Aishwarya was hellbent on ordering the thali. So, I ended up eating something I didn’t exactly want enough. What’s more, after my grousing about a lot, the idiots even got an empty plate, and started contributing to Vivek’s chowmein share. My thali consisted of uncooked rice, rubbery rotis, watery paneer, a salad of sorts and some sabzi I don’t remember.

Then the lights went off.

Just like they went off on the first day we arrived. It was pitch dark, with people whooping and yelling just for the heck of it! Karthick promptly went berserk, ‘cuckooing’ in Aishwarya’s ears (again). Also, Aishwarya, quite slyly slid much more of her food onto my plate than originally intended. She wasn’t feeling hungry, so thought it was OK to treat me like a walking and talking dustbin. Vishaka thought likewise, but I caught her in time.

The table was now lit by mobile phones and iPods. And I can tell you this, the Nanos that Vishaka and I had, definitely beat the phones as table lamps. Vishaka didn’t want to have her chowmein, so she pretended that a wasp was in her food, and pushed her plate away. So I was left to finish my thali alone. Eventually, my tummy was way too full to have my chowmein share as well, so I quite graciously gave it all back. In fact so full, that I got a stomachache.

I was really sleepy, by now. After chow, we all headed for a lecture in the auditorium. It was by Nassim Harameinm, the dude behind the Grand Unified Field Theory. He was going to be talking through a video conference. Unfortunately, I only remember small excerpts, because the AC in the auditorium, and the comfy chairs were irresistable for a quick nap. So I put in my iPod’s earphones to block out his voice, and replace it with Chris Martin’s.

I dimly remember him speaking of tetrahedral structures, and of the galaxies expanding, and a book called Gravitation and that it was named so because it was so heavy, and not becauase it had anytghing to do with gravitation, but that was about it. The reason I remember the galaxies thing was, cause I was awake at the time, and he was gesticulating in quite an amusing manner at the time.

Almost effeminite……hmph…..muffled giggles

After this, we walked back to the T-point (I staggered and semi-sleptwalked, not having shook off my sleep). We parted ways for the night.

But the business for the night wasn’t over. We had to get our travel reimbursement from the IIT guys. A measly 250 bucks, but money nevertheless. I was really sleepy, and remember just being able to get my boarding pass out of my bag, sleep-walking to the registration desk, and then Karthick asking for my pass, which I realised I’d left on the table, sleep-walked back, got the pass, sleep-walked to the desk again. There we were all told, that reimbursement would take place at the Married Scholars’ hostel the next day. Darn, what a waste of time. Yawn…

When we returned and changed, I noticed that my right ankle was swollen. Not only that, it was discoloured as well. I had felt something itching in my socks during the day, and now knew the cause as well. Apparently, a horde of mosquitoes had bit me, all in the same place, and now it because of the itching, it had swollen up as well. Swell…(pun intended)

I was knocked out proper that night.

Tags: Guwahati, IIT, Symposiums