Entangled

I met Karan after three years yesterday. One person who has completely transformed over the years, but has retained the charm and sweetness. He was one of my bestest friends in school, but time and space never let us meet while we were both in the same part of the world. I shifted to Pune, and he came visiting his parents who live here. And so we met. It was my best day in this city. Or, the best day since I have moved, and the best in the 'city' anyway. We drove around the mad traffic-filled roads, walked in the persistent drizzle, and ate food that was not yellow. Talked about the Parsis and the several bakeries at MG Road, or a place called Dhole Patil Road which I need to visit soon (for food, of course), the good-looking Jats in Delhi, the awesome weather of Pune and the irresponsible society that we are among other things. I listened to radio after ages, and laughed at Sud for more reasons than one. A kid came selling flowers at a traffic signal and he bought some for me. That led to many many more people wanting to sell something or the other to him. One of them had a shady bike toy to sell. All the vehicles around us had people staring at us, and we could not stop laughing at the Harley Davidson which was too small for him.

While coming back, sitting in his car made me feel I was in Delhi. I felt as if I had spent a long day out with friends and now one of them was going to drop me back home. I did not want to come back to the hostel. Not because I don't like it, but because I suddenly realised that the life I have given up is very different from the one that I am living now. I wanted to go back. I know there will hardly be anyone there to spend time with, but all memories of all the times spent with different friends came rushing back. I have been struggling with them for more than 24 hours now. I can't even cry because I know there is no point in it. I want to, but not a single tear is willing to drop. I don't know since when I got so practical about emotions! Maybe I should be thankful that I got to talk to Avan and Sumi today. But like I was telling Avan, I need someone to pamper me. I want attention. Special attention. And I know I will get none of it here. It isn't just management training that I have come here for. Literal 'alone' is happening. I need a break. Yes, already!

My ray of hope is the 15th August break. It is at the risk of a warning letter for not being on campus on a mandatory attendance day, but I'd rather take that happily than not be home at that time. Nidhi called too. Got some family updates from her. And how I wish tomorrow wasn't a Sunday! I will be moving from campus to city for a seminar in the 7:00 a.m. bus, and my family will call me at lunch only to remind me that they are all together at home. I am glad Ma doesn't tell me what she's made for lunch/dinner when I ask her. It is nice to not know. Selfish reassurances!

Finding it hard to break this chain of thoughts...

PS - My complexion has changed beyond belief. It's almost I have moved to the south. It's the hills' sun - piercing and sharp. The tan is just too much! :-/

Random Play

My corridor. The room at the end is mine. 223. :-)

Seminar Hall 01

I saw the most beautiful post-sunset sky ever today. There is a helipad on campus and I had never visited it before today. It is obviously on the edge of the campus with the entire view of the valley from its boundary and a breeze stronger than in the rest of the campus. The sky, apart from the orange and pink hues, had a turquoise. It was splendid. And of course, as it has become usual now, I did not have my camera. The first class today too had a lot of team activites which were fun and I wanted to click with my team at the end of it. But! This really sucks!

The process of losing weight has finally begun. It is combined with loss of sleep as well. Last three days have been unbelievably crazy! So much so that I took a bath last night (nights are cold here and there is no hot water at that time) to keep myself awake for a few extra hours.

My birthday is approaching, please send some sleep as presents. It will be appreciated immensely. Btw, there is a holiday on that day, and the next day is our weekly off. Party time away from this village! :D :D

Vindy, Ridhi, and demented Shwetha

Oh oh.. my calendar is receiving a lot of appreciation here. :D

Signature analysis was not a happy thing. With so many positives, the one negative killed it all. I need to make changes now. And it is hard. I tried doing it today and it was so difficult to not do what I have been doing for quite a while now.

Firewall has been installed. So Orkut and Facebook are dead. Unfortunately, so is Flickr. :(

I am coming home next month for Rakhi. Yayiii!! Diwali will be here itself though. I don't even want to think about that now. But I might get to spend some time later during winters in Delhi. If it works out, it's gonna be niice.

My still under construction home

When EOD is 6:00 pm, it feels good!

I finally have LAN in my room. Roommate is also here. Work is getting crazier too.

Had my first photography class today. Technical stuff, of course. Good that somebody is teaching; it's fun. Also found a classmate who will teach me otherwise. So he showed me what the BULB mode along with zoom burst does. Awesome it was! Also how I can use this lens for macro without going to the auto macro mode. I think I'll be taking lessons from him only. And he offered to lend me his 70-300!!! Vibes, I tell you. He thinks he can trust me. So boo to those who refused to even let me handle their cameras and lenses. :P

I noticed that I have an unbelievable number of left-handed and ambidextrous people in my batch. My value has gone down. :( But really, more than 10% of the batch is a little too much!

I also realised that I really AM a cleanliness freak. At home I didn't have to do anything, so the skills never got an opportunity to be honed. But here, even when I have no time, I'd be cleaning tiles in the bathroom, or sweeping the floor, or just tidying up the place. Yes, we do have housekeeping people to do all this. But it's so much fun!! :D

I think I am going to forget a lot of birthdays in the coming days. If I forget yours, advance apologies please. I don't even have my birthday list now because this jack of a laptop crashed last week and had to be formatted. Yes, an hour before a presentation of which I did not have a back-up. Hands on management training I am getting!

Being online is making me miss home. When I didn't know what the world was up to, I was fine. This is hard.

I am extremely sick of mess food already. A slice of pizza from the other world brought the biggest smile on the face the other day. Uh!

And now I shall go. Will upload a few pictures soon. Have not been able to catch the sunset even once because the cloud cover is always too heavy. But most days I am in class when the sun sets. Anyway.

See you soon, tada!!

It's All New

Disconnected from the world. Feels a little strange. But there really is no time. I don't have time to miss home. It is strange. The weather is keeping me unbelievably happy. The breeze is a constant here. Rain, sun, cold... they all change. Breeze is supercool!

The faculty is much better than I expected it to be. The campus still has a lot of issues because it is still not complete. But it is nice to be out of the crib mode. AND! The concept of MBA=common sense is clear to me. There are people who have no common sense. They need to be taught all of it. Marketing is super-exciting. Other papers are all media-oriented so far. Still to be introduced to a lot of modules too. The research teacher is a scare crow. Purist to the T, but otherwise crazy. I am hoping the purist in him will keep me happy. I am living in a twin-sharing room alone. :D My roommate is still to arrive because of some dumb issues.

Have nice people around me. It's a big deal. City is far far FAR away. Today I had plans of catching the 5:30 bus to the city, but finally got hold of some free internet time, so gave the thought up. I guess the internet addict is still not dead. :P

Not getting time to click. It sucks! And anyway there is nothing except hills to click. I have already done that.

And it was research for a presentation tomorrow for which I had come online. Have already killed an hour. No idea where that went. So the thoughts are not flowing. Will try writing a bit next week.
Hope everyone is fine. :)

Wrote a little right after I came here...

July 4^th, 4:00 a.m.

An AC 2 compartment, soft lights, and comfortable bedding; still not out of the comfort zone supported by parents. Walk out and open the coach’s door to face darkness and heavy wind. It was almost ripping through me. And there was nothing that I could see. I was speeding through nothingness to a place I knew nothing about. It was like a drama unfolding in the head. The drama titled ‘life’.

July 5^th, 3:00 p.m.

The view from the corridor was splendid. I could not believe that this was going to be home. I was ‘in the hills’. Cool breeze present throughout the day and the clouds making for the loveliest canvas around.

The night told of the home thousands of miles away. Not because I sat alone to feel depressed over the change, but the view from the same end of the corridor had lights far far away. That is where civilisation must be, where people must live, where family must be. I was in a dark but scenic world.

July 6^th

From morning to evening, people talked about having a passion, having self-esteem, and working because you want to. I know I have come for all the three. And a little more. But it is more than education that I have come here for. It is more than a degree that I want from this place. I am going to work for it.

Somebody also made me applaud for my parents. I cried. I know that there is nobody in the world who can match up to their love for me, and to whatever they have done for me.

From the train

In the train


My room on Day 1

View from the end of my corridor

*breathe* *breathe* *breathe*

The project is far from over...
The books are still untouched...
Only one suitcase zipped up still...
Canon is irritating me...
And the back is thinking it is winters!!!

*breathe* *breathe* *breathe*