A Quest For Pepsi

Yet another weekend, yet another journey back home. But this time, it's different. I don't take the stinking college bus. Mr. T was kind enough to give me a lift; he was headed in my direction. Right now, I can't be arsed into explaining why he was headed in my direction. Or why he doesn't take the college bus. Right, then...

It so happened that we both were in need of Pepsi, and it so happened that we couldn't find a place which was selling some, because it so happened that we were not looking in the right places, for it so happened that we were taking the wrong roads.

The general idea was to get me as close to my home as possible, I think, and so we stopped at this place called "Spencer's Plaza", something similar to Macy's, (or Forum if you've been to Bangalore. Or Burjuman Center, if you've been to Dubai) but much smaller and uglier. Being bright chaps, we knew they had Pepsi. And as predictable as ever, there was a problem. We were on the other side of the place, and separating us from it were two big roads, and cars. Moving ones. At high speeds too. Not to mention lorries. (Juvenile Delinquent got run over by one recently. But he seems to be alright now.)

We had no choice but to walk around the roads. To get to the other side directly would have taken 30 seconds, but there was no way to cross them. Walking around, it took us 10 minutes. And the Pepsi was the diluted kind. No fizz, no taste, not even cold, and a few bucks more than usual. But it was alright. What wasn't alright was this - On the way back to his car, taking the same 10 minute route around the huge traffic-stricken roads, we spotted something we hadn't before. A shop selling cheaper, colder and fizzier Pepsi. To quote Morpheus - fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

Apparently, I'm back from an "Industrial Visit".

That's what the professors at my college called it. On the 18th of this month, we (my mates at college) left for this place called Bangalore, the primary purpose of the visit was to get to know about computer science related companies. We were scheduled to visit four companies, of which we ended up visiting just one - or at least the cafeteria of just one. The guys at Wipro, the company whose cafeteria we visited, said that all other areas of the company were restricted to guests. That's why we ended up visiting just the cafeteria. And the open air theatre. And a conference room where they showed us a small video clip about the company; a promo, basically. But there was something conspicuously missing. Toilets. This was first noticed by a friend of mine who couldn't think of a better blogging pseudonym than Juvenile delinquent. We didn't see any restrooms anywhere. Word spread that even they were restricted to guests...

Anyway, we were at the company only for about 3-4 hours. We had the rest of that day and three others all to ourselves, for we were leaving the place only on the 22nd. We had a nice hotel room, with cable TV, so I got to watch an F1 race after I don't know how long... And what's better, Kimi Raikkonen won the race.

The days were spent eating, window shopping and name-calling. Had real good fun. The return train journey was like icing on the cake, for I took a picture of a forked lighting. I didn't exactly take a digital camera with me for the trip... A friend of mine (allow me to introduce Mr. T) gave his to me for that evening... Here's the photo(click to view full size image):


Looks cool, doesn't it?

FREEZE! You're charged with the offense of celebrating your birthday!

That's pretty much what I was told by the guy who's supposed to be the "Resident Tutor" (or RT) of the hostel block I reside in. Let me explain...

WEDNESDAY, JULY 27th, 2005, APPROX 3.00 PM

(Which happened to be a holiday. A study holiday - there was a test the next day)

I enter a friend's room, which had become a common room for my friends at the hostel, for a variety of reasons. A variety. A variety so variable you wouldn't believe it. In fact it's so variable that you would never guess that there's only one reason we hang out there.

This room, being the common room now, was quite obviously filled with my friends. No surprises there. I take a seat, and watch one guy play GTA San Andreas with a blank face. No, not his face, my face. And then, while I was watching this guy playing GTA San Andreas with a blank face (On the PC of the guy whose room it was. I told you - a variety of reasons), another friend enters the room with a box. He then placed the box with which he entered the room in front of me. He opens the same box, revealing quite a delicious cake inside it. It was a birthday cake. Now that was a surprise. The guys had got me a cake for my birthday. And so, we "celebrated" my birthday. It wasn't exactly what you'd call a celebration... There wasn't any food other than the cake, no music and no Pepsi. All we did was cut cake.

All this was being recorded, by the guy whom I had earlier watched play GTA San Andreas with a blank face, on his camera phone.

MONDAY, AUGUST 1st, 2005, APPROX 7.00 PM

I'm home for the weekend. I call it weekend even though it is not because it is a weekend for me. The college gets kicks by making Computer Science students come to college on Saturday and stay away on Monday. We have a Sunday-Monday weekend.

I get a call from a friend of mine who doesn't go home every weekend. He tells me that the guy whom I had earlier watched play GTA San Andreas with a blank face had been found using his camera phone and it was confiscated from him by the hostel clerk, who incidentally happens to be the same hostel clerk I've mentioned in an earlier post, whose name was emblazoned next to a very foul adjective that suited him perfectly.

Why was the phone confiscated? Camera phones have been banned in our college ever since the infamous DPS incident. You don't know what the infamous DPS incident is? Try googling it.

While checking out the videos in the phone, the "authorities", quite obviously, found the birthday video as well.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 2nd, 2005, 9.30 PM

(I'm back at the hostel, and it's study hour. We're supposed to study from 9 to 10 PM)
The RT, whom many believe has the proverbial ant farm up his rear, enters my room with a look upon his face which made me want to puke. He looked as if he was about to puke. He then asks my roommate to shift himself so that he can sit on his bed. Incidentally, this RT also happens to be from the Computer Science department.

He talks to me.

"Were you celebrating your birthday on the 27th of July? I have evidence that you were."

"Yeah, I was. It was quite a surprise. I never expected these chaps to get me cake."

"You're talking so casually! Do you know what you have done?"

I nodded.

He continues, "It is against hostel ethics to celebrate anything. I'm not giving you a first and last warning or something like that. I'm simply asking you to find elsewhere to stay."

He looks at me, expecting me to say something. I just look back at him, wondering when he would leave, hoping that I wouldn't puke. I guess he was expecting me to say sorry or something. Not that I would have if I hadn't feel like puking at the time. He then left the room.

Ever since that day, this guy's been on my back, reprimanding me for something or the other, though nothing as bad as cutting cake.

Holidays at last!

I have successfully completed a year of college education (well, it depends on how you define success... Let's not go there right now). Considering that the results of my second semester are yet to come, you might think me to be a little premature in saying so, in fact you have every damn right to, 'cause the people (are they people?) who correct these examination papers can never be trusted. Most of them, anyway.

How did the exams go, you ask? I'll pretend I don't hear you. Actually I can't hear you, due to reasons which HAVE to be apparent...

Twenty days of freedom, I have. Avoid going back into an incessant state of sleep, I must. Vigilant, I must be (yeah, I watched Revenge Of The Sith recently. Go Yoda!).

I just realized I know a lot about a lot of rubbish.

Ah yes, I'm back on this blog. I seem to prefer posting at my other blog these days. Anyways, I just finished one of the second series of internal tests we have this semester. And the paper was on Environmental Science. One of the questions was "Describe waste disposal methods". As I started answering this, I went into a realm of test taking I had never been to before. I entered "The Zone". "The Zone" is something I had long believed to be a rumour. Apparently, once a student entered this "Zone" while taking an exam, he realizes his true potential; he answers questions with a new vigour. Quite surprisingly, something similar happened to me. I couldn't get my pen off the paper once I started answering this question. I have an alarmingly high knowledge about garbage disposal... I hope this doesn't narrow my career choices; for I might end up in a pile of rubbish.

Random News.

My archives have a month missing. Do I really need to explain why? I don't know the answer myself. My guess is, I'm too lazy to recall everything that has happened and then post about it. Maybe it's not that I'm lazy either. Maybe it's just that I don't want to remember.

A lot of things have happened since I last updated this blog. I got locked out of my room at 3 A.M., my first semester exams passed by, I completed my practical examinations without completing most of my records, the second semester has started, found a place which serves the best cold coffee I've ever tasted, and I reached the finals of a gaming tournament in NFSU 2 after just playing the demo. And I found some friends who aren't too irksome.

How would you feel when a person you just got acquainted with comes to your house, decides he's going to spend the night there, and after you've gone to sleep, switches on your computer, and uses your internet connection to watch movies of ill repute? Yes, I do mean pornography. It happened to me the past week. There was a series of holidays coming up, so some of my friends from the hostel wanted to roam around the city. They needed a place to stay, so I offered them my place. Things were going along fine until one night, when this other guy whom I don't know much tags along with my buddies and spends the night at my place. You know the rest.

I'm back at the hostel now. A friend of mine to whom I'm grateful(yeah, right) has kindly given me access to his internet account here. If he doesn't mind, this blog will no longer be a weekly one.

An adventure of sorts

Saturday, December 18th, 2004. It was the last day of the week at College, and I, as usual, planned to go home for the weekend. It's 3.50 P.M, and I’m all set to board the 4 o'clock bus. My stomach groans. I hadn't had anything to eat the whole of that day. My hostel provides snacks after College hours, and there usually is a 5 o'clock bus. So I thought, why not have something for the road? Little did I realise that this hunger pang would create a lot of problems later that day.



After a quick snack, I went to my room and had a refreshing nap. It was 15 minutes to 5.00 when I woke up. I took my stuff and left for the bus. While handing over my gate pass to the hostel security, a thought flashed across my mind - What if there isn't a 5 o'clock bus, this being a weekend? Nah. There were bound to be people other than me going at 5.00.



Unfortunately, Murphy's law prevailed. "If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it." I did it. It so happened that there wasn't a single College bus at 5.00. It was either stay at the hostel for the weekend or find someway to get to the city(Chennai) and eventually my home, which was 60-70 Km away from the rural area in which my College is situated. I don't know why all Engineering colleges are situated so damn far away from the city. I opted to go home; somehow, someway.



I walked all the way to the entrance of the College, which is quite far from the bus stand. All I could see from there was a couple of people and rocks. Not to mention a lot of sand. The two people were apparently waiting for some kind of public transport, so I asked hem where they were headed and how. They were going the other way, into a nearby semi-city, by bus. They told me that no bus headed for Chennai would stop here. I inferred that I either had to go into the semi-city with them or go the other way to the nearest bus stand which was about 4 Km away.



Murphy's law again. Dragging my bags along the dusty road, I reached the "bus stand", which was just a bunch of people sitting on boulders, at about 6.00. The worst thing was, none of them wanted to go to Chennai, and a bus stopped only if there were at least 3 people headed for the same destination. I was all alone in about 15 minutes. About 9 buses passed me by, all headed for Chennai, but none of them would stop when I flapped my arms at them. My arms were aching and my hunger wasn't completely satisfied. It would be dinner time soon at the hostel; I couldn't resist the temptation for food. I turned back and headed toward the College. On the way, I saw four of my fellow inmates who were headed for a nearby restaurant. In an effort to help me, one of the guys suggested that I ask the restaurant owner to drop me on his bike as far as he could. I turned down the offer; I told them I wasn't THAT desperate. On contraire, I was. But I was too tired to walk back again. And then, I spotted a bus coming toward me, seemingly slowing down. I didn't care if it was just my imagination. With a heavy bag across my shoulders and a heavier bag gripped by my sweaty right hand (I'm right handed), I leapt into the bus, as "The Hulk" would do. The bus driver screamed at me. Terrorising experience that. Not being yelled at, I mean jumping on to the bus with heavy bags. I've been yelled at a lot, enough to have become immune to it.



Damn Murphy. The bus wasn't headed toward Chennai. The last stop was a place called Poonamalee. The good thing was that there was a terminus there, and lots of buses went to lots of places. I could get a bus there, I hoped.



I had heard my Dad once tell someone that the Poonamalee bus terminus is one of the worst in the state. I imagined it to be a dirty, broken down place. It was worse. Words couldn't describe my feelings upon entering the place, that too around 7.30 in the evening. There was a lot of smoke, and an unpleasant smell of what I concluded to be a mixture of gasoline and alcohol. Eeugh. Had a chat with a guy who was giving everybody tickets, and found out that a bus to Chennai would leave in about 10 minutes. The store there didn't have Pepsi, or any of the popular drinks. I had to settle for a silvery looking liquid in a green bottle which was what the storekeeper called "Sprite 2". I could've been poisoned; I don't know, I didn't care. I was darn thirsty. It's a good thing I drink fast, 'cause as soon as I finished the bottle, the storekeeper got into a fight with another customer, one which involved long wooden two by fours. I got away as quickly as I could, and boarded a bus with a banner "UPTO SAIDAPET". I knew how to get home from Saidapet. I reached the place at 8.30, when my mom called me on my mobile phone and screamed at me for not staying at the hostel when I missed the College bus.



The rest of the journey wasn't as eventful. Unless you count losing my wallet and then regaining it with an additional 20 bucks in it. No idea how that happened. Someone up there, if there is anyone up there, must love me. Arrived at my house at around 10, ate something, and slept.



Well, the second series of internal exams starts this Monday, I hope to do better than what I did the first time. For that I have to study, for which I have to stay away from the computer. It's gonna be tough, but I have to do it.