day 1: Introductions

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Day 1:

don't panic! i won't really be able to keep the log up everyday... not if the calendar they've provided is to be believed...

the day started with a hard knock on the door... and a steaming thermos of elaichi tea... at 6am!! when i was just falling asleep... had a visitor at 8, a neighbor dropped in for some usual girl-talk... 9:30 the breakfast of corn-flakes/sandwiches/boiled egg... i'm so going the weighty way...

they want us to get used to the sarkari life shtyle as soon as possible... so, we were all filled into the auditorium and requested to fill in a bunch of forms... there were two copies of them required, so four copies of forms were provided... let's not get into the national waste debate coz we'll probably not be siding together anymore... and as a prize for good behaviour we were all given a black leather bag that reeks of 'bureaucrat' ... with pens, pencils, you know the kind that would send a pre-schooler into ecstasy!!! i was measured for height, weight and photo... i was pronounced impeccable at 45/165/slightly drowsy...

what else?? another friend needed a phone sim and i took her out for it... and the guy just handed over a previously activated sim in 5mins...
"any documents required??" she ventured.
"dena hai to de do" he obliged...
so much for national security and they're after the poor Blackberry holding elite!!

not much else has happened... there was a tiny introductory function when we were convinced what a great day it was for us poor sods... how we'd remember it for the rest of eternity and all that... the faculty introduced themselves and the police guy who's going to 'handle' us for PT from tomorrow morning at 6am glowered quietly and said something i didn't really catch...

oh, and there's lots of tea-drinking involved... the bed tea, the breakfast tea, the high tea, the evening tea... i just had one... maybe i'm getting high on so many teas... if that's possible... let me check!!
ciao for now!

day 0 at the academy

it's amazing how many things you can worry about on a journey... none of those will go wrong but others will...
my biggest worry was my big bags... 25kilo each, they weighed more than i do... i was afraid of how i'd transport them and myself to the academy... turned out not such a hassle after all... a newly acquired friend, two of her brothers and one 2-minute taxi ride later, i was deposited at the academy... it is a sprawling place... sort of living in the middle of lalbagh, i described to my folks back home... or back in a denser, jungler, kharagpur... i was hoping to have the FC at Mussorie and landing instead at Bhopal was kinda disappointing... but since a lot of my memorable journeys have started with disappointing outlooks, i am hoping i'll have a grand time here!!

i have a shared room, newly painted(the paint is so fresh i have some on my fingers as i touched the doors!!)... the room mate is missing still since we have till 5pm tomorrow to arrive... there's the bare minimum furniture of two beds, a pair of tables and chairs and two cupboards... a full fledged AC!! (i've still to get over it!! coming from Blore where one rarely needs it!!) but the best part is the dinner!! lip-smacking, finger-licking good!!

though the LAN in my room doesn't work, there's a barely occupied computer lab to fulfil the basic needs of orkut, facebook, gmail and blogging...
more updates later!!
ciao!!

the beginning of another journey...

it's 2am and i have a pickup scheduled for 7... am... i don't feel sleepy... it's not the first time and it won't be the last... my journey into territories i barely know... this time it's bhopal... i still know nothing except the 'gas tragedy' of the yester years... i hope to find out more... firsthand... maybe a bit less tragic...
after landing in the IP&TAFS provisionally*, i've resigned myself to my fate and am heading to bhopal... the next 15weeks are calendared there, even if the months after that are still nebulous... i pack my bags with my new wardrobe... crammed finally into two heavy bags... one weighs 22 kilos... the other's still lying open so i can cram my lappy after the last minute blog...
i have barely any idea of the curriculum... maybe some studies... pub ad kind... maybe something physical... though i've heard we're not into any exciting stuff like horse riding... even swimming seems to have gotten the miss...
i'm still sitting on the IPS fence looking and wondering where i want to be... not that anybody's asking...
i sound unusually pessimistic... maybe coz i'm a little bit anxious, apprehensive, scared...
but there's also the hope, the looking forward to... the scent of adventure that's so intoxicating...

an awessome weekend!!!

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life's the same old usual... but weekend was a tad more eventful...

went in sangee's car all the way to tumkur... in the longest 70km of my life, she nearly killed me a million times... she has an incessant way of chattering... and fiddling about the car... if i ever have to ride with her ever again, i think it's going to be in a car devoid of the radio, the music player, the AC, the power windows, or any windows for that matter that open/close and no back seats to contain anybody that might talk and distract her either... yeah! only then might i just have enough courage to sit in the passenger seat with her... with my extra-strong seatbelt on... i seriously considered wearing my helmet but in the last minute decided it would distract her to my death...

anyway, reached home, introduced her to my parents... she got along famously with them... my mother's one of those candid persons who sometimes has asked my friends in all innocuousness as to why on earth they hang out with the likes of me!!! so she hardly needs to be convinced of my friends' worth... despite all that, sangee was a total kiss-ass praising my ma for her rice, sambhar, appalam, beans, sprouts, garden, well, cats, chairs, sofas... god! it was embarrassing!!!




we visited a few places... like the siddaganga matha where sangee took a fancy to a frog... yeah, a frog and went after him with her DSLR until the poor guy just lost it and lunged right into her face... i took her to my cousin's farm where she shot the dogs, the hens, the goats, sheep, cows, buffaloes... her requests at capturing a few hens for closer photography were ill-received and i was almost glad when after a bout of the stinky rabbit-house she finally gave up clicking for a while to take a fresh breath...

we travelled along to my village where she clicked the fly-ridden kid, the acutely bent grandma and everyone in between... next target was our farm where i had a bit of quiet as her camera finally gave out(ran out of battery)... i proudly shared with her one of my favoritest places on earth... as we sat under the huge banyan tree... there were more places to see and click and shoot... so much, so long...



she had been flattering me for a week to convince my brother to give her a ride on his pulsar... and in the end, she claimed she was literally blown away as she gushed in agreement to my claim that he is indeed the best driver for a long way around...


finally exhausted, we reached blore... were met with the terrible traffic jams... rolled up the windows, put on the AC and the radio... with good music and bad jokes, we crawled through an hour of jam... and finally reached my place... had a cup of mocha and hot chocolate...  i scalded my tongue with a bite of the blueberry muffin... swore at the establishment... but it was seriously good when my tongue regained its  senses, so it was hard to be mad at the muffin for long... there was a beautiful white cat roaming the tables... exactly the breed Snowbells of 'Stuart Little' is...

finally went home and crashed... glad to be out of sangee's car on terra firma finally!!! but her words still rang from the promise she made as she pulled out of my house,
" i'll come back soon appaji... "

just another day...

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another normal day at the company... i look up from my laptop and find everyone else looking down into theirs... most have excel sheets open... red, blue and green color-coded charts flashing with such aesthetic appeal that you wish you were color blind... or atleast blind... :)

anyway, my girl friend's not in today...called in sick... and i'm quite missing her incessant chatter... the same that blocks my brain for 30minutes after she's finally gone... i try to make small talk with the others... most give me a cold shoulder... one of them's still miffed for losing grandiosely to me in the TT match yesterday... and the day before that, and the one before that...

i was a little off yesterday... did some wild calculations based on the alignment of stars and planets... and came to the conclusion that i might not end up after all in the IPS!! and maybe not even Mussorie!!! ah!! cruel life!!
i then convinced myself i needed a cigarette... i found two actually... nearly broken but still alive...from long times ago... somebody claimed they had expiry dates... really??? i then remembered that you'd need matches... can you believe i had none!! and not even a gas stove... !! finally, tried it out on the electric gas stove... after puffing crazily, i was able to light it... though i came dangerously close to electrocuting myself in the process... smoked the cigarette till i felt sick... and wondered why i'd started in the first place... then remembered my room-mate.. ran around opening every window in the house... i seriously think i'm more scared of her finding out i'm a lowly smoker than dying horribly of lung cancer... 

anyway, i have precious little to do, now that i'm on my notice period... except sit around pretending to be doing something i'm not and also managing to pretend to be not doing something i actually am... make sense?? it will, only if you're as full of time on your hands as i am...

i have had three tea breaks in 1.5 hours... with three different sets of peoples... i'm looking for more prospects... not even any meetings scheduled for the day... for my creativity to blow up...anyway, meetings aren't much fun since everybody's discovered i'm writing sinister blogs while attending them and won't let me carry my laptop to the meeting hall... there's only so much day-dreaming one can accomplish in a brightly lit room with half a dozen people looking at you...and nowhere to hide...

okay... my timer just rang... i need to urgently stare at an excel sheet with three blinding charts for 10minutes straight...
see ya later!!