terribly struck up

I am sorry for not being able to post since a month. BTP yet to be started, Minor project pending and endsems looming large have prevented me from writing anything. But I promise to come back and do something about this.

The girl at the cafe

It was during the third week of my intern, somewhere in the first week of June. It had been raining since three days and since I forgot taking my umbrella, I was having a really difficult time. Though getting wet in rain didn’t bother me, it was the chemicals in the complex that made me worried. I had a slight itching sensation right after I got wet in the first rain. That brought me to my senses and made me give up the idea of getting wet in rains there. After coming back from office, Kaka and I decided to go out to buy umbrellas. We had already inquired at a shop nearby but it didn’t have much varieties. All that the old shopkeeper had was a very big umbrella which he kept insisting that we should buy as it is very useful.

It started to rain slowly by the time we started. We walked to the main road and got into an auto going to Athwalines. We inquired the auto driver about umbrellas and he started narrating all the places where we can get umbrellas. He told us that we will not get them at Athwalines and promised to take us to a shop in Park Street where we could get them at affordable prices. We told him that we had no idea whatsoever of the place and he told that he would drop us back at Mysore café where we were planning to have our dinner.

He took us to a shop, talked to the shop keeper and helped us buy two umbrellas and dropped us back at Mysore café, all for thirty rupees and we were lost in admiration of auto drivers of Surat. We talked about the auto drivers of Chennai and the exorbitant fares they demand. Finally we were at Mysore café for the first time. It was half past nine and the place was relatively empty.

The hotel looked like just another traditional hotel from south India. The white washed walls, narrow and small rooms. A photo of goddess Lakshmi with a small oil lamp lit before in a rack just above the proprietor’s desk, gave it a southy touch.

We sat there relishing the plain dosa and talking to each other about our likes and dislikes and various eatables. It was a small room, just after entering the hotel. There was another room with a board “Families only” inside. I was sitting facing the door of that “families only” room. Once or twice I turned around to look for the waiter and I felt that some one was watching me. At first I couldn’t make out who it was, but my eyes started searching even while talking to Kaka.

It was then I found her looking at me. I was not sure at first, and felt uncomfortable. I looked away and kept on talking. After a few minutes, I felt like looking back and make sure if she was still looking at me. I turned and my eyes met her eyes, still looking at me. That sent a small chill down my spine. I was never used to girls looking at me. After all mine was just an average face and I looked like any other guy. And I even gave up putting my trademark “Namam” in Gujarat owing to the communal sensitivity of the place. Hence there should have been nothing that differentiated me from the rest. The discovery that there was a girl staring at me made me uncomfortable.

The only other and the first time this ever happened was in Chennai, right in front of the gates of my college. That was a very long time back. I don’t remember the date exactly. It was around 11o clock on some Saturday morning, and I was returning to my college back from Hotchips with a cup of coffee in my hand. Then I noticed a girl, a pillion rider of her father’s scooter, looking at me. They were coming down the flyover in the opposite direction and I spotted her looking at me. The scooter moved past, but she still kept looking at me. After the scooter crossed me and moved past well behind me, I turned back to see if she was still looking. In fact I found her still “looking”. That brought a smile onto my lips and I told my self “Parledu raa, ninnu choosey valloo unnaru.” [Don’t worry man; there are girls who look even at you.]

And then this girl, sitting beside her parents and boldly looking at me! After I saw that she was still looking at me, I kept glancing at her, making some incoherent talk, to which Kaka was attentively listening. A moment later, I gathered enough courage to lock my eyes with hers and I stared hard in her face. To my surprise, she didn’t turn her face away. She kept looking at me, into my face and I could take it no longer. I turned away, finished my eating and started to leave. I gave a final glance, looked at her and wanted to say a “good bye” with my eyes. To my disappointment her father was talking to her and she was listening. I had an impulsive feeling to and speak to her, but I didn’t dare to. And soon we left the place and were back to our apartments.

In my room, I sat thinking of her. She had a good looking face and I am not the sort to assess other things. Her nose was thin and looked properly set in between two sharp eyes. Her fair complexion contrasted well with the burkha she was wearing. And I tried hard to memorize her face, pixel by pixel. She boosted my self confidence and the sense of pride which, I am sure would by the common feeling for anyone after such an experience. After that I lost the sense of shyness and started feeling great.

I remember her face, and will remember it forever. The face of a fairy that brought joy to my life and made me feel good. I want to meet this girl too. If I meet her again [hope she is reading this], I will only tell her one thing……

“Thank you, madam. You made me feel great.”

In a slump

I am in a slump. Don’t know how or when I fell into it. During the intern I was very much longing to come back to Insti. The work there seemed so painful that I wanted to run away from the place. I felt that mugging was much better than any thing else. I had nothing interesting to do but read about maintenance and quiz people. But finally the report turned an eye opener and I felt happy at my work. Good results with least effort. I came back home determined to get back to the Insti and work well to get placed. I had already decided that I will go for placements and not APP or CAT. I thought that I could do some good work in my BTP and learn more from the Insti.

But what did I realise after coming here? I realised that I lost all enthusiasm in life. Don’t know why! Exams aren’t making me nervous anymore. Nor is the urge to study as strong as before. During the first two weeks, I didn’t realise this. It was a common thing. Nothing really happens during the first two, three weeks in the Insti. Life will be peaceful with nothing to do but meeting friends, discussing interns, and gathering books from Cenlib. So I got to know about the slump after the first month. Quizzes started last week, and even a week before the quizzes, I had no inclination to study. I tried hard for that feeling of panic that drives me to mug each time. No, no sign of panic, instead I was playing cricket in the quadrangle two days before the exam, without as much knowing the syllabus. May be this is what they call 4^th year blues.

Also, my enthusiasm to work left me. Do you want a proof? Take a look at my dust ridden bicycle waiting a cleaning or the cobwebs dangling in my room. I wake up late everyday, don’t even sweep my room and go around as if everything is fine. Many a time I said to myself [mostly during some class] that I will change, go and clean up everything and live normally. But once I come back to the room the only thing I do is to switch on the computer and sit before it for hours, doing nothing literally. Anyway, I don’t think flash games and movies are a good way of spending time.

There were days when I was there at book bank by 2o clock, waiting for it to open at 4 pm. In fact there would be many of my friends, waiting for two long hours before they could get one book issued. I did that in first year, second year and God knows how, in third year too. Of course, I went there at 3:30 pm in the third year. This year nothing drove me to book bank so early. Went there casually at 4:30, saw around and picked up two books, one for me and the other for a friend. I didn’t even care to see when they issued the second one. Only after Sriram told me that he took second book weeks ago, did I go there again.

I remember that distinct feeling of panic that struck me each time, a week before the quizzes. Till then I would have read a few pages from each course and would have an idea of where the course starts. But the week before the exams, I would start reading each subject, making notes and memorising important concepts. This semester no such thing happened. In fact I think I was promoted from the test team to the one day team. I started one day matches, mugging a day before the exam. [Don’t exactly know if it’s a promotion or a demotion moving from tests to one day. Cricket pundits out there should tell me which is better, test or one day.]

The courses are less this semester. Not many classes, but more of self study courses and projects. Had there been classes for every course, I might have realised the gravity of the situation. But when everything is left to my discretion, I am the laziest guy.

The exams also failed to evoke any enthusiasm. Three exams over till date, three one days and I am satisfied with my performance. I know I haven’t done very well in the exams, but there is nothing that is ringing bells, asking me to read, I am to continue the same old story, movies and games. God save me from this lethargy.

With classes on and off, one at 9 am and the next at 11am , I started visiting one place where the coffee is as good as that in Hotchips- Tiffanys. The coffee here is great and especially between classes and with friends, it tastes better. Long walks and hours and hours of chat sessions with friends are taking priority over other things. Yes they have to; for this is one last year we live together before we part.

Himalaya- the MESS

All of us are aware of the fact that the sole purpose of setting up the Giga mess is to provide better quality of food through competition. At least that was reason we were told, when the idea of Giga mess came up. And last month’s reshuffling strategy disproves all this notion of competition.

To those of you who are not aware of what happened last month, here is the account. A large number of students opted for CR, where the quality of food was better than others. It turned out that the number of students who opted for CR was almost the double of the next mess. The management and the “caterers” decided that this was an unacceptable distribution. It seems that the CR management themselves expressed their inability to cater to such a large number of students. Hence people were distributed almost equally to the three caterers. Some 150 were given the facility to dine in CR and 50 in RR, to provide the “competitive edge”. I don’t think the previous statement explains the situation clearly.

Let me be more precise.

If ‘x’ is the number of students dining in Sakthi, then ‘x+50’ is the number dining in RR and ‘x+150’ is the number dining in CR.

If I am not wrong with the figures, each mess gets almost equal number of students and in a total strength of 2300+ students, I am not sure how this 50 or 150 students is going to bring in a competitive edge! And the spirit of competition that was the essence of this Giga mess concept is surely sidetracked. So why do we have Giga mess?

As coming to choices made by students, I don’t think many people got the mess of their choice. They were redistributed randomly to suit the number quota, making a mockery of the whole process of choosing options. [And dropping votes in a ballot box.] If they were in anyway going to be distributed randomly, why these claims of letting us make our choice? This is not directed at any individual, but at the system and the forces that run it.

And does the present system breed competition in anyway?

Besides being assured of the minimum number of students a caterer is bound to get, he is also assured of the fact that the number he has is going to stay for a month. Not only does this inhibits competition, but makes them complacent .If I know that I will get at least 700 people to eat the food I cook for a month, what attempt will I make to improve the quality? I can even afford to compromise on taste sometime during the middle of the month. All I need is to make sure that the food tastes good during the last week or may be ten days of the month. Is this what we wanted? Is it for this that we are forced to walk long distances, during sun and rain, even for tea?

In the ideal model as I see it, mess allotment should be on a daily basis. We have our smart cards anyway and their advantage has already been demonstrated in Cenlib. So why not let us choose our caterers on a daily basis? Let the caterers put up their menu daily. We can go to the mess of our choice by using the smart card. Swipe or whatever the card at the mess you want to eat and the cost of the dinner/breakfast gets transferred from your account to the caterers. This is more like a hotel where our bills are prepaid. This method of daily choice not only keeps the caterers on their heels, but also improves the quality of food. When I am not sure about how many people are going to eat at my mess, I try to draw more people by providing tasty food. Who doesn’t want to maximize his profit? This search for profit is what is going to improve the quality.

You may ask me one question. What if the food gets over and people are left without food? This can only be a short term problem, for a week at most. After all this is what it takes to enjoy good food, a minor glitch before the start of great days.

This is the idea of a perfect competition. This may be a utopian vision but certainly not difficult to implement. Good food can be the only pay off for all the fight we put to go to Himalaya.