The Wet Pants Journey

"Oh! C'mon now, you dont have to capture this", I was shouting at the top of my voice when pavi was trying to catch me on camera while I was drying my trousers. "Dude, it is not funny, I know. But this pic would give a huge laughter some day", said she. I had to do it. Som, Raj, Raju, Vam were already out there playing "maram-peeti" in the river. Hasty yes/no desicion and bit of all the mature thought had made me not to carry any extra pants or swim wear to the trip. Uh! Well, I wanted to swim along with them. So I did it. I jumped into the river with the only pants I had with me (on me actually) at that time.

Destination Raju's house. It was a bright day. Chaos set in when the plan changed from the resort to the Dam. We were planning on a one day outing to a resort on the outskirts of hyd. Well plans changed somehow and we changed the itinerary. Nagarjun Sagar Dam, it was going to be. I hadnt slept the night before the trip, so was feeling a bit clumsy. I definately did not know that I was going to have a great day. The damned qualis was late by an hour. And so guess what? Foto session number 1. We set off finally at 10.45 or so.

"Run along with your pants ra", sahi was trying to help, sarcastic obviously. The towel thing was disgusting. I was cursing the moment that I felt like swimming. "Swimming, my ass!" I thought. These guys were still in the river having fun. I had intentionally come out so that my pants could dry by the time these guys are done with the game. I was on a towel desperately waiting for some dry breeze to dry my pants. It was too much to ask on a river bank. Raju, meanwhile was all done with the water and wanted to comeout. But the galeez (dirty) instincts in him took over and he started dancing to the song "Maar Dala" from the movie Devdas on the river shore. All was done when the guys changed into regulars from their swim-wear. It was a tough time convincing sravvi and sahi, when they refused to come to the water-fall that was just around the corner. They were apparently getting "late" (whatever that meant!). Nevertheless, there was I, told them about the beauty of the little cataract. They had to concur. Right then, after a little ice-cone treat, we set off to Ethipothala. And my pants were wet (no pun intended).

"Awara Bhavre....Jo Holle Holle Gayein...", girls were singing at the top of their voices (no, no it was awesome! I mean it). Everybody was singing. Was around 12.30. It all started off with the popular stunt of raju's vocal talents. His style of singing the song "Kannulu Neeve, Reppalu Neeve" from the telugu version of RHTDM, just cracks anybody into paroxisms of laughter. Vam and I, sitting next to the driver were relating on many "contemporary" plights (girls....what else?). We swore not to sing and add to the phoney-ness that was already brimming. But its music. We were pulled right in. We sang Aadat by Jal. That was fun. My school friends hadn't heard me in years. They were awestruck by the singing duo. All this while, a funny thing was happenning. The driver was playing a spoil sport. He was bringing down the volume on the deck. He was asking us not to shout, vow etc. But Raj and Som did what they were best at. They bullied the driver and scared the shit out of him, through the car-owner contacts (ofcourse!). First glimpse of the dam had left us breathless. The gargantuan reservoir shimmering with the sun rays was a treat to the eyes. We landed there at around 1.00. Unfortunately taxis werent allowed onto the dam. We had taken a seven-seater to get to the other side of the dam. The auto guy knew the place well. We stopped at a place where we could get a clear picture of the dam. We let down our hair a bit on that road. Foto session number 2. We gave all sorts of poses (bhangimalu, in our lingo) on the edge of the road. Then he took us to a desolate bridge. It was half torn down. We were able to see the dried river bed from the edge of it. More clicks and we had an appatizer. We found a mobile juice-shop. The senile vendor started serving the sweet-lime with some words of thought. We were laughing alright, but he was talking facts.

It was 6.00 already. I had to sit along with the driver again. But I swore I wont do that in the return journey. Well, I dint have anything other than app to talk to suddi about. We were discussing her specialisation and stuff when some one at the back definately passed a sarcastic remark about my obssessive compulsive disorder to bring in acads into the picure. Well, the journey was too short to change the topic. I was not very up-beat because of the sticky pants, to talk about something exciting. It was drizzling when we got down at Ethipothala. Everybody was excited about the much talked-about location. People talked about the lighting and music and what not at the waterfall. There was no lighting, neither was there any music. But none of us thought that it was hyped up. The beauty of the location just overtook everything. It conquered our conscious and lulled us into a trance. Foto session (god knows the number). Click, Click, Click we went on for 20 odd mins. All of us were off to rest-rooms and then we parked in the garden near-by for a while. Galeez boys (raju,raj and som) starting shooting a tree that had yellow flowers all over it. It was a beautiful sight. We wanted to stay there a little longer, but it was sravvi's call. We had to move on and start off on the return journey.

We were hungry. No lunch yet and it was 3.30. The auto guy then took us to a nice resort. We had our lunch there. The food was alright. People liked the curd-rice. I did too. The best part of the trip was to come now. Vam caught hold of a guy who promised a boat ride in the reservoir. We set off along with him to the river bank. Believe me, that was no boat. It was a round vessel. I was shit scared initially, but I thought I'll give it a try. It was a popular ride. 15 bucks per ride per person. It was quite cheap. Then I made the biggest blunder of my life. I went into the boat along with sravvi, sahi, suddi and arc. arc was not scared at all. She was as concerted as I was. But I could see that sahi and sravvi were going to have a nervous break-down. The ride was bumpy, icky, swaying, swining and what not. Sravvi and sahi started shouting for help when the boat-walah made the vessel rotate in the water. Suddi gave the poor guy a lecture in english. He dint understand but he got the picture. He turned back and rode to the shore. I wanted to stay for some more time. The other boat, the one with vam, pav, som, raj and raju set off into the deep. They were not gonna come back so soon. We thought we would get bored until they'd come. But guess what we found an old stone wall that was once a katcha-dam on the river. We walked onto the edge of the wall until the point where the stones were all covered with water. It was like walking on water. Ill-luck made a gaurd see us. He drove us away from the wall. We would have had a great foto session there if it were not upto him.

It was 7.15 when we started to return. What did we do in the return journey? Take a wild guess. We sang, Sang our asses off. Everybody sang. All kindsa songs. Some old classics, new ones. We were planning to sleep-over at som's place. But suddenly everybody started to fall-back. The sleep-over constrained finally to vam, som, raj and raju. I dint want to miss the footer. Gilrs had their own stories. It was 10.30 when we reached raju's place. End of a wonderful day. To re-live that day is something that is not possible. som was leaving the next day to mysore for his job. Everybody is leaving. By the end of this month, only the appers remain. :(. Hardtimes, farewell times. But they are sweet.

Right after the boat ride, we decided to go to the pushkar bank and have some fun in the river. I just thought I will bring my pants upto the knees and have fun. But guess what these guys were already changing into half pants and were dancing in the river. Girls were getting bored for sure. They dint have an option. Guys were having too much fun. I wanted to get into the river too. But I dint have extra pants. It was funny. I desperately wanted to swim and play "maaram-peeti". But then what about the pants? I started getting deep into the thought process when people started yelling "let go and have fun in life, else when will u have fun?". And so I did it. I decided to wet my pants.

What would I miss?

40 days to go.......

I still remember my first quiz at this place. Not nostalgic though, I would say. Back in the JEE prep school, I used to have a similar count down. I dint find that place much to my liking too. That was where, I remember, I realised that humility can be taught the harder way. I was humbled and petrified and made conscious all the time. May be I started turning into a paranoid at that time, I am a full grown one now. I still remember the first exam I had given in that institute. Not nostalgic though, I would say. But what I remember is that I gave in silently to the methods and means at the place. Some people call it a personality slaughter house, but I dont think it did any bad in slaugtering my personality back then. I needed to be humbled when I had passed out of my school. And you know what? I dont remember my first exam at the school. But I am nostalgic as hell about that place. Swell days were those. Everybody was equally childish and yeah, there was true innocence. And all that senti stuff and blah blah blah.

I took my last quiz at this place today morning and I ponder if I would ever be nostalgic about this day! What I find intriguing is that I think the hell out of my brain and cant name a single thing that I would really really miss after passing out. I started to think and a few names was all I could compile. But you know what I mean, right? I cant seem to find a thing, a place, or some kinda theme from this campus that I feel I would really really miss. I believe even those few names that hit me, would've been of the same impact if I were in a different place. You know what I mean? I mean I dint ever feel any entropy around this place.

With the end just around the corner, it hardly is calling for a haste in doing all those things that I always wanted to do here. For example I havent been to the OAT this sem until now, yet I dont feel like going once for a last time and all that crap. I was thinking the other day that I would celebrate the last holi here grandly and all, I did too. But it was more because I free mentally. Thats the state of many of the minds now in the last sem I guess. What I dont understand often is at what point of time in life should one start letting go of things so that he/she can start being happy from then on. You know what I mean right? Optimization kinda thing. I desperately want to know if I have reached an optimum now. Also may be I want to know this now as I dont have much to let go. A few months back when companies were regecting me because they thought I wouldnt join the industry with a resume like that and when many people around me were thinking that I had apped high and the lab work was going absolutely no where and many more things like that were happening which could have made me a legendary loser, I wouldnt think of letting go at all! Infact I so wanted to hold onto something that I was even thinking of pursuading back my ppo from IBM (by no means to underrate IBM, just to emphasize my insecurity at that point). But now with many things set I am thinking of letting go of some of my "paranoias".

Added to this very philosophical letting go and all, in came the treat spree and ofcourse ascendas. Boundless frivolity!!! We people just want to hangout once in a while. Just for the heck of it. May be its this implicit feeling of complacency is what I will miss afterall CS never let us to be content. May be its these fun days that I have with my wingmates is what I will miss. But as of now I have not a peanut of idea about what would make me nostalgic about this place.

here cometh the badam

And yeah I am back!

Sickening vaccinations......

I have just coined a word. Afterapp. You can use it for any of the painful processes you need to go through after getting an app. The admit letter is all flowery and ecstatic alright. Coupla weeks of high and then the bloody ground work starts demanding. Fill, type, print, tick, sign, pin, attach, attest, detest, protest, moan!!! Hell yeah! I mean whats with all this afterapp paper work?! Graduate School Copy, Department Copy, Budget Copy, Student Copy, and a cursed Copy for my undertaker ofcourse! A form for hostel, a form for mess, a form for parking lot, a form each for id card to institute, library, department, and may be a form for the tissue that I would use on friday mornings to wipe my arse I guess!

The most painful afterapp is meeting the medical requirements imposed by some obscure laws of the state of New Jersy. Even SuperMan would fail their damned checklist I suppose. The last question in the check list is something like, "Have you ever been mad?". Aha! Is this a trick question? "Yes, ofcourse I am now! And damn you for it". General allergies, food allergies, medicine allergies, insect allergies (what the devil is this?!). Signature of the psysician, signature of the student declaring that the form was filled by a physician(sarcasm huh?).

I swear by the time I leave, I will have a constellation on my biceps from the syringe prick marks. Vaccinations against all that ever remotely affected the homo sapiens! And the final note is like an existential blow. "You must show the test results for each of the diseases as negative". Why the hell cant we trust the poor vaccines? I ask my doc about these diseases, and he goes "God! Pity the tender asses of the New Jersy kids!". I have already had enough. And it also says theres a $100 fine for incomplete forms! I better get started on all this soon afterall I have yearned to be there!!!