A two week-blur

I am aware that this is a much-delayed post, in spite of my best efforts to get it in somehow. Assignments, submissions, Alankar, events, football in the hall, meet-up with friends, etc have just eaten into my time. Add my inherent laziness to that, and it should not be too difficult for you to comprehend the reasons behind this sabbatical. It has been gratifying to find people asking for updates. Trouble is, since my last post, so many things have come to pass that it is a little difficult for me to put it all into one. However, I shall try and recount as many of those as possible.

First things first, though. Especially for people from IIT Kharagpur reading this post, please check out this post by phippogriff. It is disappointing to know about the treatment meted out to Indian Ocean here. And I agree completely with phippogriff when he says it could have been handled better by the people in charge. I mean we all know they are under a lot of pressure during that time, but it is disappointing if people go back from Kharagpur with the kind of experience these people had, and don’t want to come back. I mean, besides the fact that IO happens to be a top class band, I don’t think any kgp-ian would want people leaving the campus determined not to come back here. I sincerely hope other guest performers in the future receive better treatment than them. And I guess, IIT Kharagpur owes them an apology of sorts.

Now, onto the life and times of Lancelot!!! Over the last couple of weeks.

The Saturday right before Friendship Day was the worst of my life. I mean, it just couldn’t get worse than that. My cousin had been married in the US, and they were in cal for a reception on Sunday. Sunday was the submission date for my lab assignment. I got sick with fever and all on Friday night. As a result, I was in bed whole of Saturday morning. My lab assignment didn’t get done, and I couldn’t go home on Sunday, as a result. Started getting an absolutely splitting headache towards the end of the day, probably due to the fierce concentration staring at a comp screen for so long. Blew up big-time at my girlfriend for no good reason. Needless to say, she wasn’t too happy about it, even though we made up.

Friendship Day. Not particularly a special day, even though I did wish everybody on my friend lists. Highest point of this was provided by a friend who set up a common friend with a date. What happened there belongs to the Wodehousian genre of comedy, farcical in places, with the most inexplicable coincidences to further put the proverbial cat among the pigeons. I do want to describe it in detail, but I guess I should ask for permission. Besides, it would take a post all by itself.

UPDATE THUS FAR:
1. I did actually manage to finish the assignments.
2. I did, unfortunately, miss the reception though.
3. Illness perfectly OK, for anybody concerned.


POST-FRIENDSHIP DAY STATUS:
Work for Alankar, the annual magazine of the Students’ Gymkhana, has begun. It’s been great, so far, with all the enthusiasm of a new team, and could have been better, if I did not have so many submissions breathing down my neck

Convocation was on Saturday. It was great to see the seniors come back for their final hurrah, in the sense that the receipt of the degree is the finale to their stay in this grand institution. Of course, we all hope that they keep coming back, and let the good times and memories flow.
Flow it did though, with general doses of alcohol going around.
Meetings, assignments and submissions did not allow me to partake of this aspect of the revelries this time, but it was a great time nonetheless.

Some of my favourite seniors are in the US now, some in the IIMs, others spread across the length and breadth of the industry, all of them exploring new avenues, having just embarked on perhaps their longest journey.
It was strange to think, as we embraced, that just some 7-8 months back, I had been sitting with some of them, choosing pieces for elocution, planning strategies for debates, practicing for WTGW, and through all the nights spent in the common room during drams’ practices, how quickly those months had passed, and that in a day, they would be oceans away.

The open-IITs have begun.

Started off with debate, spread over Friday and Saturday, tiring indeed, for the judges, and for the participants. Unconfirmed news says that I made it to my first Foundation Day Debate.

Yesterday was the quiz.
My four member team, which also included acroyali, DT and BS, made it through the qualifiers, another first for us, (pretty easily actually, which sent our hopes soaring) before proceeding to get totally screwed in the finals. Not a nice experience, that, I can tell you.

And at the end of that weekend, extended to Monday by Independence Day, its back again to the daily grind. Hopefully, the next post will not take this long.

PS: By the way, I have been riding a cycle over the last 4 days that belongs to someone else. I don’t know who it is, but it’s been a big help, with all the running around. If anybody hears its owner lamenting, you might ask him to get in to touch with me.