Yahoo !! It's thursday !

Special dinner in the mess tonight !! There's little else that makes me as happy as food does.
If one looks at life just as a series of Thursdays, the weeks seem to pass by in a flash. I can remember the anticipation of the last 4 thursdays, just like they were yesterday and the day before, and the day before the day before ....

"Hi there, I am Punctual, Miss Punctual"
(Title inspired by one of Pooja's posts)

I've never been called punctual. Whatever may be the decided time, i'm always 5 minutes late. This is mainly due to an extreme reluctance to start early - somehow starting early seems more sacrilegious than arriving late. And, having been surrounded all my life with people of the older generation for whom punctuality comes a close second to godliness, i've never managed to earn much of a name in that department.
But, IIT K has changed all that. These people have taken punctuality to a new dimension - and left it there !!
A party at 6, and people are tricking in at 7.
A competition at 6, ou team reaches at 7, and we're the first ones there.
A movie scheduled at 9. Its 9.45, the screen still irresolutely white.
A match scheduled at 6 (a.m, mind you), we (the audience) reach there at 7 to discover we've beaten the players to it !

Havn't given up hope. I'm the only one around who still insists we leave at 6 for a party at 6. (Ofcourse, i end up leaving at 6.05 :)) I know though, that i'm fighting a losing battle.

Not fit for the previous generation. Considered hopelessly outdated by my own. I'm going to start a new generation - one for whom punctuality means being 5 minutes late !

For want of a shoe nail

A CD player. Magnanimously gifted by bhai, only too glad to get rid of me.

CDs. Filled with favourite songs carefully picked during my last days in Pune.

Batteries. Amongst the first things i bought on setting foot in K.

But, no headphones :(((

Didn't know i'd miss listening to music so much :(

The day wasn't special by itself but they'd been ordered to make it so. And so, after an extremely ordinary lunch that gave no hint about the festivities to come, they started to work. And work they did, till dinner time.
7.30, and the girls started trickling in for dinner. Dinner - a biological necessity, not something to be looked forward to. So unexpected was it that most of them didnt even notice anything different until they were well inside the dining hall. The whole place had been transformed ! Scrubbed clean, brightly lit, tables covered with table-cloths and table cloths covered with rose petals. They could scarcely believe it was the same old hall they ate in everyday ! As they filled their plates, they only hoped the food lived up to all this decoration.
And live up it did ! It was the food that completed the transformation. From a place filled with some disappointment, but mostly indifference, the hall was transformed to a place alive with happiness! It was everywhere and it touched everyone - those who didnt find the food extra-ordinary, those who were serving it and most importantly, those who'd worked to make it special.

If ever there comes a day when there are only two career options open to me - washing clothes and begging, i'm pretty sure i'll be stuck with the latter. Not so much because i'd make a terrific beggar, but because i'm a terrible washer. One look at the before and after of clotehs washed by me will tell you why. At least to the naked eye, there is no difference in them :(( If only i'd known that a
not-so-up-to-the-mark performance in GATE would lead to this, i would've given everything i had to do better.
And yet, even this dark cloud is not without its silver lining. All this washing contributes significantly towards my goal of winning the inter-galactic baddie
championship. Arms, wrist, plam - washing does seem to be an exercise tailor-made for wannabe inter-galactic baddie champions !

As an aside, all these inter-galactic thoughts can be attributed to my perusal of "The Ultimate Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy" in my spare time. Its hilariously, uproariously funny. I have to take a break after every two pages to let all
the laughter out of my system. Great chioce, guys !!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

I actually feel physical pain every time i hear that recorded laughter coming out of a passing room. If only i'd been a little less me, i would've banged into the room full of stangers and sat and watched with them :(
Some day .....
But, i also know that for most events in life (my life at least), the anticipation is more exiting than the event itself.
Here's to anticipation !

I've never been ragged. And looking at what some of the b techs undergo here, am i glaaad i didn't give JEE (Did someone say sour grapes?) Objectively speaking, its not that bad. But singing and dancing is not what what i'm all about, as those who know me will readily testify.
I did have one unforgettable experience with ragging here. Havnig finished my dinner, i was getting up from the table, probably a little hestiantly because one of my friends sitting next to me hadn't finished. This is when this girl sitting opposite did some stange action with her fingers. I was not sure she was looking at me, but there was no one else nearby. I returned an utterly puzzled look and she said - "B Tech, first year ?" I managed to almost fall off my chair and also reach cloud number 9. Its been closer to a decade than i'd like it to be since i was in BE first year !! Took me a long long time to come back to earth .....
And, DARE anyone cast aspersions on the quality of eyesight of such a wonderful pure, benovelent soul !

The bubble did burst when i found out a probable cause for the misunderstanding. All first year b techs had to wear their duppattas in "jassi-style" (NO, i dont watch that serial, this is a second hand description). And, i'd probably unknowingly worn it that way.

Long will live Eakta Kapoor
(Not sure if that is the "latest" spelling, but you know who i'm talking about)

IIT. The temple of Indian education. A place where some of the greatest minds of the country are prepared for the future. (Dont mind my prescence here, i'm the exception proving the rule). A little surprising that the hostel of such an institute has a TV room. A little more surprising that it is seldom unoccupied. But, what is most unbelieveable is what the TV is made to dish out most of the time - yes, all those saas-bahu serials! And tough one wont find too many people in the TV room every day, almost everyone knows what goes on in every serial (me being an exception again, a happy one this time). All those people who refuse to acknowledge Hindi as a language to be used for normal conversation, stuck to the TV.

If this is the future, i wash my hands off it.

I've hooked up to another game. Basketball. If i continue like this, very soon,i'm going to be "not a jack, not yet a king" of all games ever invented.
What attracted me to the game is that it can really strengthen your arms (strength being very much in demand in that region). It can remove the one weakness that stops me from becoming a national, no international, maybe even inter-galactic baddie champion.
Met a girl here who'd played basketball in her school days. And she said that het biggest problem in baddie is that she hits the shuttle so hard that it mostly flies outside the court !!! I have met anti-me !! (remember Shyamalan's Unbreakable?) Anyway, that pretty much decided it.

Basky, here i come !

Anyone who sees me for the first time here will be execused for thinking i'm an exercise addict. From my very first day here, i've started exercising. My roomie is impressed with my determination. Little does she know the real reason behind my persistence :) Everyday, IITK mess does something that makes all this exercise necessary, probably even futile :( Yesterday, it was bread and butter for breakfast. I heard a voice challenge me - "Lets see you resist that". To cut a long struggle short, it didn't and probably never will. Today, it was an indianized version of french fries (much tastier, IMO). The voice again. Some voices never learn.
It is almost as if every morning, as i sweat it out (that being achieveable in K by simply standing) i am atoning for my previous day's sins.
1..2..3..4
Oh lord, please forgive me for the butter
5..6..7..8
and the fries
...

Had Shahi Paneer for dinner. Even had to pay extra for it. The voice had finally learnt its lesson.

I have been uprooted from my world and placed in totally new surroundings. Normally, one of the following should happen:
1. I should have lost her bearings and be trying to find them
2. I should feel on TOP of the world
3. I should feel like running away from this place.

But no. Here i am, life going on as usual, as if nothing has happened. As if it is perfectly normal for a person to sleep at home in Pune at night and wake up in a hostel in Kanpur the next morning.

Sometimes, i have to pinch myself to see if i am really alive.

Today was supposed to be my last day here ...

a day of good-byes
a day filled with memories of the absolutely wonderful times i've had here
and memories of how the not so wonderful times were made memorable by the wonderful people
a day for looking back two years and almost not recognizing myself
a day for looking ahead, wondering if i'll be able to adjust to a college, be able to address people as "sir"
a day for wondering if i'll every see you guys again
a day filled with promises to keep in touch

Guess it was not meant to be. Guess He wanted to make me really really want to go.

So that i dont miss it all so much.

Tried something new this weekend. Said to myself - You're going to have a miserable week. Why have a miserable weekend too ? And so, i came to office on the weekend and did almost absolutely no work !! Was great fun while it lasted ....
Now for the hangover. Its hardly the end of the day and i'm already filled with remorse :((
Guess this is just not me.

Some things never change ...

Still someone who LOVES the beach

Still someone who dreams of playing in the snow one day

Still someone who dreams of standing under a waterfall

Still someone who loves reading

Still someone who finds it difficult to say no

Still someone who hasn't found her calling in life.

On the other hand ....

From someone who in two years talked to exactly two people in her class ...
To someone for whom having a conversation isn't exactly an earth-shattering experience

From someone whose in meetings spoke ONLY when spoken to, and that too a yes or a no ...
To someone who sometimes gives opinions even without being asked

From someone who didn't even know what a pizza tasted like ...
To someone who has tried it all and can't stand anything other than desi stuff

From someone who was unbelievable overweight but didn't look it ...
To someone who is just plain overweight and looks it

From someone who was proud of jogging once around a football ground ...
To someone who can jog for 25 minutes and still say - "Yeh dil maange more"

From someone for whom snacks were incomplete without a second helping ...
To someone for whom only extreme hunger (which is not as rare as she'd like it to be) necessitates a second helping

From someone for whom dreams were dreams, not to be confused with reality ...
To someone who has the courage to convert some one her dreams to reality

Hmm, not bad, even if i do say so myself :)

From someone for whom travelling by bus was a way of life ...
To someone who feels queasy in a 20 minutes bus journey

From someone who could eat anyplace, anytime, the only things needed were hunger and food ...
To someone for whom the cafeteria turns into a land filled with hostile people at the very thought of eating alone

From someone for whom watching a movie alone was an adventure of its kind ...
To someone, at the very thought a shiver goes down whose spine

Where did you go?

Played baddie after aaaaages today .... feel like a human again :))

You know things are not going well when:

1. You leave office at 11 pm one day, and the night watchman on duty gives you a surprised look that says - "Leaving ?"
2. The driver of the "late-night-car" knows the way to your house better than you do.
3. Its monday. You spot a copy of Sunday Times in your house and wonder - Was there a sunday recently?
4. Your vehice headlights are not working. The vehicle becomes useless to you since you never travel during the day anyway.
5. Your colleagues wonder when you go home. Your neighbours wonder when you are home. Your parents wonder when you are home. And you wonder - "Home? Whats home ?"

Life should be more than a series of milestones.... it should be a series of journeys to milestones.

Discovery of the day:
You can hear yourself better when you close your ears.