The end of an era!

It's been quite a journey. But now, it all comes to an end. Looking back on all the events and memories, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't change a thing. 
From those nervous first steps into college to these last few days running around with nervous energy to get our project reports done. 


It's hard to believe four years have whizzed past so soon. It hasn't been that fruitful a time. To put things in a nutshell, I would simply say that I've matured as a person. I know how crazy and cliched this sounds, but I'd like to think it's true. I wouldn't want to convince myself that engineering was an absolute waste.
It wasn't. 


I've learnt how things are different at the surface than they actually are. How impractical the VTU system actually is, among other things.
There were times when I laughed so hard, and for so long that my tummy hurt. There were other times when I'd pull at my hair and scream! An outcry against things that I'd not quite understand or comprehend. There were iffy moments too. Sometimes, I'd ask myself questions that I'd never find answers to. Sometimes, the answers were right there in front of me...


-I remember my first day at college. We had class at 8.30 on 18th sep 2006. It was Maths class. We were asked to introduce ourselves, as well as mention our Maths marks in P.U. We also had one chap, V.M.R handle classes in Civil Engineering. I remember how we used to maintain notes, attend all classes, be 'ideal students' and all that jazz.
-I remember the tick tick tick tick incident very clearly. We had it nicely:)
-I remember the transition into 2nd sem. I started my T.T craze phase, started bunking classes regularly, started The-I-don't-give-a-rat's-ass-attitude which worked well for me. 
I'd meet my p.u friends over the weekend, and we'd go to this little joint called K.B.C. There, Nickil and myself would always order the chicken noodles:). This trend continued for a year or so, but we soon stopped visiting that place. Sometimes, we'd meet up in k-man's place and chat late into the night. Soon we coined 'D.G' and 'D.C' and S.F. And also that lil joke on the missed call from heaven!.Thinking about it makes me laugh hard every single time. For our 2nd sem Basic Electronics paper, Nickil and myself had some Red Label before leaving for the exam. Both of us nailed the paper:P


There was 17th March 2007. All of us sat on the 6.45 train with a spring in our steps. There was excitement. It was the first time ever.
30 and myself came out early, we missed the last few tracks. I'm sure He too regrets it even to this day. But we did see Nicko and he did wave at us! We hopped onto the bus back home at 2 in the morning. We even walked back to k-man's place from the bus stand. We coined 'Ostrich' then. He sure as hell was walking like one:P. That lad was still pissed with me about the previous night's events. I never did believe him when he told me that India indeed lost to Bangladesh at the W.C. I was all WTF! I remember nickil and his I saw Bruce, I saw Bruce rant. Will you shut up already!:P 
That was also the time when I had joined karate classes. K-man and myself weren't that interested, so we'd try our best to not attend. It was also the time when A few of us showed a keen interest in "girls", put our hand into the fire when we shouldn't have, only to learn things the hard way! 


-I remember how 30 took us to Lalith Mahal, and we even shot some pool on the Maharaja's table. Sweet! 
-I remember how Nickil and myself would pay 30 a visit in the evenings, and then we'd proceed to a spot near the helipad, where we'd listen to good music, look at the patterns in the sky, and write poetry:P


-I remember my 3rd sem Logic Design paper, I had to give it on Jan 1st 2008. It was a hard time for me, Reading 3 units the previous night. Toiling hard. Mr Pitil had dropped by some time that week. We spoke for an hour or two about how Better I should have 'handled' the situation. 
I learnt how useless my E&C course was. I was not interested to say the least.
There was the LIC incident in 4th sem. I gave 2 blank books for the first 2 internals and somehow managed a 13 in the 3rd. I never thought once that anything less than 37 in the external would mean 'Fail':). 
-I remember how I'd always be kicked out of lab by none other than M.G.V every single week. It had gotten so bad that there was a point in time I'd actually walk out as soon as she called out my name:P
-I remember that one time after M-3 or M-4, Nickil and myself went to K-man's place, the guy thought he was going to fail!!! He was almost in tears, and apparently, he wanted to walk out of the exam hall in 40 minutes. That was a priceless moment, the expression on his face!!
-I remember 16th Feb,2008. One of the best days of my life. I've never ever laughed so much. Thank you maadi for the entertainment:)
- I remember hodiri saar, hodiri:P It was real fun.
-I remember all those night out sessions in PJ's place. We'd all be flat by 2 odd but PJ would read into the morning at his own pace, but surprisingly, He'd only be 3 pages ahead. :P
-I also remember how 'ostrich' mentioned to me one day that he'd slept straight from 7 p.m to 7 a.m. I still wonder how.
-I remember the mentality of fellow E&C-ians. There was 31st December 2008. The D-Day. We were to write our CMOS-VLSI paper. All of us were nervous, Haven prepared only for 60 marks. But, as always, we managed 70 plus:). That day was a real take-a-shit-in-your-pants kind of day.
-I remember the day I got placed. That night was great fun. We toasted to life and it's complications!


-I remember the night before our last ever theory paper. There was a cloud of anticipation surrounding me. It was the toughest paper I've ever studied for. One cannot put into words how most of us would've felt when the bell rung at 5 sharp. We were now engineers!


I did get my IBM joining date as 17th june, in Chennai. I tried my best to convince them to postpone it, using excuses such as- 'our project demo finishes on 15th june, so we need time to find accommodation and make travel arrangements', but to no avail. I guess all this was 'cause I wasn't ready to let go of this life. One that I'm familiar with and can relate to.
The reason I remember so many beautiful things from the past four years are the wonderful friends who have contributed to make them memorable.


So A Big Thank you to all! Frost once wrote- 'Two roads diverged in a yellow wood'. I hope we all take the same road:P

Do you know?

Do you know that feeling,

Rain drops falling all around

Let it start the healing,

While we take in the sound

Do you know that feeling?

When everything around is appealing.

Over a cup of tea!

It's been an hour since I got back home. Here I am, sitting in front of the computer and blasting away. A cup of tea in one hand, the other on the keyboard. My eyes are stretched, mostly because it isn't easy writing a 3 hour paper. But yet, I sporadically glance at the t.v and catch up on some good tennis. Federer was in action a while back and was leading 2 sets to nil, but soon, Rain battered the court and the covers were pulled over. There was a clear demarcation between the grey and blue areas of the sky. What's the use seeing something beautiful on t.v, i wonder, when we aren't actually there to see it in person and 'map' some glorious images in our mind. There is something about the orange of the clay that fascinates me. It gives Tennis, passion and competitiveness a whole new meaning. 

Last night, When I was actually supposed to study for today, I decided to catch Rafa Nadal in action. There's something about the way he plays that reflects on my mood swings. When he loses, that's a bad day for me!

When he wins and bites into those trophies, My day is made. I feel happy, fresh and steadfast. 

'Brighter than a thousand suns' is blasting full on. It is such a relevant song about war and it's complications. I especially like the lines

                                 Whatever would Robert have said to his God

                                                     About he made war with the Sun
                                                    E equals MC squared, you can't relate
                                                      How we made God with our hands.

 The song enters its riff sequence, and I finish my tea. Over the guitar solos and clatter of tennis balls being struck, I clearly catch the use of obsene kannada phrases out on the street. Out there in the park outside my window, The kids are endlessly playing cricket. They obviously play with money at stake. Beside the park, A couple of senior citizens are taking a walk, mindless of the profane language usage. On the top of my CPU, the ADSL modem is perpetually blinking. I am now reminded that I only have only three exams to ago, and then I'm an engineer! It's so hard to picture. A life you've known, one you've gotten used too, is going to end for real.

The other day, One of my classmates sent this message to a friend who'd just gotten an admit in UNSW, Sydney.

It went- 

'' Congrats man... I wish you have a wonderful time in australia... all the best for your future...we'll miss you... can't imagine a life without college and friends... can't believe it's almost over... we are getting a glimpse of the light house but the problem is that i am beginning to miss the sea..." A very emotional message at that. That very day, I tried telling myself that this chapter of life has to end somewhere, and we're soon to open the next chapter in Life. I just wish that the next two months would be the most memorable months for a long time. But the problem with good memories are that they're surely going to stay in our head, and we reminisce about them in the near future, A void is not going to be filled.

My mind now wanders for a while as 'Us and Them' starts playing.

Soon, I am reminded about the simplicity of Pink Floyd's music. I lay my cup on the table, switch off the t.v, increase the volume on the speakers, and soon, I'm in another World. Music is the simplest emotion!

Day 2

Blogger is really unkind when it comes to uploading photos. There was this one instance when I put around 10 of em up before filling the post with 'text', but the damn thing just would not save. The same thing happened when I was writing a post about a previous trip to Kerala. I'd written about an eventful day with pictorial representation, but, I had to delete a picture 'cause It hadn't been loaded right. Unfortunately, the whole post got deleted and the draft was auto-saved. So I left it at that with some @@##$#TGE%##$$$ amidst other curses. Will someone please buy me a customised wordpress account?:P
Anyway, back to-


Day 2: Sunday, 25-04-10


The next morning, we were up very early, around six. The weather was pleasant, so we all decided to take a little walk down a nearby 'Rock Garden' or whatever the hell those things are called. I'm not quite a morning person, so my mood was pretty passive.

         It was nice to see a Map of India with P.O.K and Arunachal Pradesh too:P

  

The park itself is mighty huge. There are multiple sections that we couldn't cover due to time constraints. After nearly 3-4 km's, or about 1 and a half hours of walking, we decided that we'd leave.
We were supposed to meet the Assistant Engineer of the Dam at 9. The chap said that he'd go for a swim, have a quick breakfast and meet us at the I.B. 


Almatti Dam is at the edge of Bijapur and Bagalkot districts. It has a catchment area of 36,000 sq km, is about 1.5km in length and 50 m high. In other words, It is HUGE. The construction of the dam took about 3 years and 500 odd crores later, voila! When we looked into the reservoir, we could see blue water for miles and miles together. 
The A.E engineer met us near the top of the dam. Photography was prohibited, so we decided to adhere to that rule:)
He turned out to be quite a jovial and well learned fellow, and tried pretty hard to explain to us E&C engineers, the mechanics of a Dam. We saw how the crest gates could be manually or automatically controlled using PLC's.
We also visited the power generation unit at the toe of the dam and saw for ourselves a simulation of the Kaplan turbine action, among other things:).
It was a special visit, mostly because this is a restricted area.
It was the wrong time to visit. The fury of monsoon would have probably driven  the Dam into full-on action.

A swim in the dam backwaters:P

Later in the afternoon, the guys decided to take a swim in the backwaters. Time flew by, without much notice, so our plans for the afternoon were thrown off balance and offset. We hadn't had our breakfast, so it was a direct lunch in a nearby Kamat.
We then quickly drove to the ruins of Aihole, where we meandered about with blank looks on our faces. It was nearly 16:00 hours, and we heard that the Badami caves close for visitors at 6 p.m. It was clearly a mistake to leave such an amazing excavation without any appreciation for the architecture there, albeit we hoped that we could do Badami some justice.




Badami:
Badami was th capital of the Chalukyas through 600-800 A.D. It has a mighty rich history. A quick visit to wikipedia would be helpful.
There are 4 caves, the first is dedicated to Lord Shiva, the 2nd to Vishnu, the 3rd to Maha-Vishnu, and the 4th to Jain Gurus.
We hired a local guide for rs 200/-, and boy did that help! He spoke in rich kannada, with traces of English whenever i drew a blank look. 


                                         
              Notice how Lord Shiva is 'ciphered' to be displaying 81 Bharatnatyam postures, with nine combinations on the right for each combination on the left. I was seriously all WTF on observing this. (Which I wouldn't have if it weren't for the guide)

The chalukyas here have asked us a question in the first sculpture snippet, having carving out the answers in the next two.

This sure does look like the Durbar back in the days. In fact, at one point, I imagined myself back in time, and there was something about this that can't be put in words or explained.

We were already late, It was 6.30 odd, so the cop there was on duty for obvious reasons:P
Throughout the course of the guide's incessant but useful blabber, One thing we could all notice was the stench of alcohol emancipating from his mouth. We all joked about how he wouldn't be able to tell us so much about Badami if it weren't for alcohol:)
My advice to all willing to visit this place- Spend an entire day there, Arrive early and take in as much as possible! 


On our way back to Ramdurg, we spoke of science, religion, the church, Maths and Life in those days. We appreciated the fact that the Chalukyas did everything in the name of God. They probably even thought that Science and Reason were God's way of saying they were in the right direction.:-B


We reached the I.B around 8, changed, and then had some more of that amazing $&$^^%^WTF%R$% doodhcold!. Dinner was a mundane activity, as we were all tired. Later that night, The other guys were busy watching Pollard bash C.S.K, although later, he did get out and Mumbai eventually lost. So Amen to that. It was good night for me. The A.C was in full zoom, I pulled a rug over myself and drifted into blissful oblivion:)


P.S- I'll probably write about Goa in the next post. As you may have noticed, It's 1.30 a.m, my hands are aching, my head's not working, and moreover, FEDex is in action at Madrid:D. That backhand is working again!