End of an Era

22nd March 2008.
The date goes down into history as the end of my 'formal' education.
IIMK Batch of 2006-2008.

Real life is yet to teach me its lessons though. Time to come out of the cocoon and fly...Hoping for a fulfilling journey!
I wonder how many graduates each year pen down these same many thoughts in the last days of their education.... so will many in years to come. .

Its like cutting the umbical cord a second time. It is a big moment.

and its ironical.

Life at K came with a lot of ups and downs... and no I don't mean just up and down those mesmerising hills of Kunnamangalam!

First time in a hostel... was all charged up when I got here. Cribbed to the end of eternity cause I had to get here 10 days before with some 60 odd others for the prep course... but boy was it worth it!
One class a day... and all the time in the world to admire the scenic hills, check out the vicinity.... which was full of Malyalam girls in Burkhas giggling at you while you tried to dumb charade your way into buying buckets and things in the local market!
Post midnight guitar sessions, trying to light a bonfire under rain! Controversial Classes :D
Bike rides into the country side. The amazingly beautiful hills did wonders to you. Look out of your room in the morning and you Had to smile.

and then classes... which put me in serious doubt of my ability to stay awake during a lecture!
and those darned lawn sprinklers along the shortest route to the classes... they had to start when I was in the middle of a hopeless attempt to reach class in time... reaching all drenched and 5 mins late... :

The place is full of memories... The C hostel, The parties with pgp 09, 10 and 11, Mess parties, Class rooms, NC, turning everytime Ranjit called out "Kiran-maggi!" (For the unaware... its a dish named after a pgp Niner of the same name!), The crossroads, Staying in the Library till 7 am before a submission... watching the sunrise thereafter, Section A , Harvard Steps, Amphitheater, Long walks... some in an attempt to lose some weight and some just to get your head thinking straight , IP messages, Spam Wars, Status message fights, Debates and discussions, Late night NC maggi, gossip sessions, bakar sessions, parties in the hostel rooms, Those project meetings trying to get some work done, and never ending Backwaters meetings... more bakar and less work! ... infinite moments... totally worth it!

And people too... Learnt a lot like no place else. Friends made and unmade. Met some wonderful people... those I will cherish forever. Others well. Having the same people around you 24X7 is nice at times but can drive you crazy too! Same people, all the time, everywhere. Been like a madhouse at times.

And then the beauty of the place began to wear off in the second year... the every morning groan when sunlight started streaming in at 6 am and you were yet to go to sleep! Those mornings could no longer make me smile :D
The last minute dash to the mess at 8:55 pm before you miss food. Ditto for the NC at 1:55 am! Projects done in a day....and here is something I hopefully wont miss ....The mess food :P

The first term break and I was raring to go home. Couldn't help grinning non stop that day. Was going away from this awful place to a place I loved.
And now.
The last days at Kampus... it felt miserable. Just didn't want to leave. This was Home. The people Family. The journey was a joy. Dont think I' ll miss any place as much as I would K.

Signing off
Klass of 2006-2008

Mera wala flouroscent green!!!

There is something about Kerala and Vivid colours.... The people wear bright, you wouldnt be caught dead in kinda clothes, the buses look like a painters colour palette, the houses are painted in vivid and bright colours... Theres colour in everything and that too a very bright colour!

Dotted along the highways of Kerala are these bright -so in ur face-painted houses! All shades of pink, purple, flouroscent yellow , So many variations of Orange.... u name it, they ll paint their house with it!

The first time i had to buy clothes hangers here, I was given a motley collection of maroon, flouroscent yellow, pink, brown, red, green....So different from the steel greys I am used to. I didnt even feel like putting them in my wardrobe.

But the colour kinda grows on you.... Its an integral part of Kerala. Something to beat the monotony with. You would rarely find any greys, blacks or the somber colours here.
Its Gods own country in all its colourful glory for ya!

Gods own Country: A weekend in Paradise

A rare free weekend, a bunch of friends, the presentations on Monday dont matter! Pack ur bags and lets go!

In a place as beautiful and rich as Kerala , this is but natural :) So two days and three destinations it was..... Kovalam , Kanyakumari and Varkala

How we got there: A train from Calicut to Trivandrum and then a taxi for all the three places.
The perfect time to go : Late September to December
Anthem of the Journey: "Oh Kaindi Poump up the Jam .. Oh kaindi" :P
We were : 13 and We left on : A Friday!!!


An early morning arrival at Trivandrum... we had breakfast at The Indian Coffee house close to the station.

One of the oldest Indian Coffee houses in India, the food there is nothing to boast about but its circular architecture is interesting.

As you enter, a ramp begins spiraling upwards and the tables are on the ramp itself. Nice :)



Two days and so many places to go!

Kovalam :
Almost a year and a half in Kerala and all those beaches... you need a really cool beach to make you go Wow. This was somehow missing in Kovalam. The beach was as all beaches are.. somewhat commercialized, it has a light house and a few"islands" which join the mainland once the water retreats in early October.
We had heard a lot about the beach but were disappointed somewhat.... so we spent just about an hour or 2 there and headed to Kanyakumari.

The Tip of India :)
Now this was one Constraint satisfaction problemo! 13 people and 13 different where to go's!
We finally went to the old fort, Vivekananda rock, and saw the windmills... Missed the famous sunset of Kanyakumari.....It was a cloudy day.

The fort was fun and the view from it was so totally grand... the tip of India and the Vivekananda Memorial on one side, endless ocean on the other and windmills on the third side. Breathtakingly awesome.






Next Stop: The Vivekananda Memorial....

And here we joined the stream of tourists on the ferry to the Island.... Its a two stop tour :
The Vivekananda Rock where Swami Vivekananda meditated and Saint Poet Thiruvalluvar's memorial which has a larger than life statue of his.



The view is just awesome... the tourist guides will have you believe that you can see three different coloured waters joining at the tip... black , blue and green... The Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea (Offcourse not in that order! :) )... We just manged to see two... Like Suresss said.... It was cause of the "Sunsine"

The Dhyan Mandap in the Vivekananda Memorial has a different aura to it.. This is where he meditated, and its open to the tourists to sit in silence and darkness and meditate.

The windmills too were a sight too behold...

Varkala!!! It so totally rocked :)

Seriously wish had more time to spend and not just a day in Varkala... The place is so not typical Kerala...Its almost like a Mini Goa Nestled behind a Cliff.... The ambience was awesome... It has a helipad, from there the road to our resort was this small winding thing which kept U turning every 10 mins.... It was dark, full of water and this narrow lil road. Perfect setting for a thriller... Our resort turned out to be decent and the apprehensions of being in a murder mystery set evaporated :)

The food served in those shacks by the beach side is yummylicious too... Mexican , Italian, Chinese, Continental and off course Indian... Lovely. For the Alcoholically inclined too... the place lives up to expectations :)




This little paradise is well known outside India and is thronged by foreigners.... if u know what I mean ;) There are two beaches... a black beach (the colour offcourse refers to the colour of the sand!) and a main beach. The place also has a Taj leisure resort... offcourse that was something our wallets did not allow us !

The perfect day.... a lazy breakfast or sunrise :P... the beach ... Auyrvedic massages.... tattoos and more of the beach followed by an awesome dinner and drinks and a party to wind the night off. (well.... not everyone could get a massage done... Theres only so much you can fit in in 3/4th of a day...the tattoo fellas wernt there this time of the season and we had to leave before the party started!!! :) )




The trip so totally rocked... just wish we could have spent more time in Varkala! Also the best time to go is October-Novemeber when the main beach also opens up as the waters recede.
Evening 8 o'clock we had to unwillingly leave the place and rush to catch our train back to Calicut....

In short the trip was Legen-dary! :)

Cheers!

Low cost? No thank you!!!

"Bad things happen in threes!" So went the famous superstition.
Well in threes...No, not if a fourth happens!
In multiples of threes.....Maybe Yes!!!!

Well well....guess what do I have to say about those "No frills low cost airlines" ?
--$%&@@$%!!! (For want of better words and preserving the sanctity of this blog!!! :P )

This is how I reached home after a crazy crazy term4 , and of-course Air India was waiting to bestow its choicest hospitality on me and 50 others!

Me and a friend were on the same flight to Delhi and were conveniently sitting in the Mumbai Airport's waiting lounge, making fun of this Yo dude who had parked himself on his trolley and was waiting at the deserted security check counter! The line kept growing but we thought everyone will get their baggage checked in... No point waiting in the line!!! Smart ain't we!!!

Thing 1: The boarding was announced and the security check hadn't even begun!

The flight was overbooked to the tune of 50 passengers! The Security check looked like a war zone with people from the many states of India descended on the staff with their choicest words in some languages I did not even understand! The best was the Sardarji in a red turban standing almost on top of the official on duty and shouting " Main Punjabi vich samjavan tenu"

The anger was justifiable.... Here we were waiting to catch our connecting flight to Delhi since Morning and they had already overbooked the flight at a previous stopover. The flight came and left without us. Stranded at the airport.

btw... the "Yo Dude" got his boarding pass!!! Some lesson learned!

Thing 2: Next flight at 8:20 PM!!!

Well well well.... I had to take a bus to Chd after reaching Delhi and was traveling alone. Polite inquiries about the availability of other flights after explaining the situation brought out this gem of a reply "We are not responsible for your onward journey...The time of the flight is immaterial to us!"
Again a slew of colourful words and expressions! The harassment was compounded by some "trying to be smart" passengers. Tempers flared and the staff did a vanishing act. Finally we got a 5:00 PM flight and taxi fare. Took a prepaid taxi from the international to the domestic airport....

Thing 3: The Taxi wala!

Well I wouldn't really blame the chap. We were having a bad day and we gave him his!
The prepaid fellas stand in line all day waiting for their turn and its more like a lottery. If they get a long distance passenger or a short distance fare. We incidentally happened to fall in the extra short distance category!!!
So continued his mumble jumble throughout the "short" distance. Ah well.


Thing 4: Panic attack: Nowhere to stay! :P

Once at the domestic airport and unsuccessfully trying to get 2 seats in the 3:15 flight, We had lotsa time to kill. Hunger struck and suddenly it also struck me I had no where to stay in Delhi for the night!
Well the tension was short-lived. Thank god for wonderful friends.


Thing 5 : Down the wrong boarding gate :P

Well now things had started moving towards the better... So we had to do something stupid!!!
We went down the wrong boarding gate!!! Nothing much... walked the entire way back :D


Thing 6 and final...... The last seats in the plane... Those that don't retract!!!

In a flight at last! Checked our tickets for the seat number and started looking for them. Found them... at the very end of the plane! Them last seats in a plane which refuse to retract!!! Two of the cancelled flight ppl had taken the boarding pass after we did and they had gotten the seats in front of us! That was it! Certified bad day.
Went and sat down without a word. Praying that nothing more would happen!
Thankfully it didnt.


The Comical Pilot.... Nah nothing to do with luck... just had to mention :)
Middle of the flight this fella starts reading out all those instruments that could be read in his cockpit.... and aloud, along with the reason for everything too. Well okay.
Then he comes with the gem... The seat belt signs are still on and the passengers are advised to wear them. There might be some turbulence on the way.

"They would also prevent you passengers from falling on each other during the normal course of the flight" :P :P

The flight landed on time at the Delhi Airport and then onwards it was smooth thankfully!!! Reached home safe and sound.


In retrospect it sounds more comical than anything else..... but it was pure harassment.
Only Advice : Never Ever travel by Air India Express or any of those no frills extra low cost airlines!!!