What to do at the IITs… and Confessions of a Rustic True Blue

Part One: What to do at the IITs.....

The tech-niches of India, and the source of a good percent of the most wanted brains all over the world, the IITs have always been my fascination. I haven't got into one as its student, but I have a bunch of good friends in IIT Madras, and they have made possible many jovial hang-outs at their campus. IIT Madras, a green campus blessed with affluent natural beauty and beautiful meandering boulevards through the forests linked with the Guindy National Park, is a place that showers bliss. It was a similar experience yesterday when I had a get together with friends from college at IITM.

Faeez Basheer was the reason behind this get-together. From the oil rigs of Saudi, he turned up now two years after we passed out of NITC. By the time GT (short form for Asish George Thomas) and I reached the Café Coffee Day at IITM, Faeez had collected a handful of people there – Anoop aka Palakkad, Chitra, Padmanisha and Aruna. It was a happy unison at the happening CCD where we were the only outlandish lot among the unusually crowded pack of students. Our talks and laughter echoed over evey other clatter, and Pala (short for Palakkad) was the centre-point of all, as everyone wanted to know the secret behind his long, curly and kempt hair. To everyone's disappointment, Palakkad somehow managed to parry away the jeers on him and escaped with a silly reason - he was growing his hair to perform a "head-bang" at Saarang 2012, the cultural frenzy hosted by IITM.

The walk through the woods was much more relished, and Aruna's Canon D1000 would have come of better use if the sun had not been so low. At Gurunath stores, the next best hangout place there, Fayaz Habeeb, Murshid, Arun S and Jayajith (all are juniors from NITC, currently doing MTech at IITM) joined. Everyone agreed to meet at the RECCAA (CREC/ NITC Alumni Association) Onam get-together to be held on 25th Sep'11. A short while later we parted ways, as it was already dark and the girls wanted to reach home early.

Dinner was at the ‘Himalaya’, a hi-tec canteen/mess with swipe-cards for all students, and a token-system-based-serving-counter with digital display of the token numbers. Wow! Walked back to Pala’s room after dinner, and GT jumped on to the guitar in the room. We left him there and went to the common room to watch Chelsea- Man Utd match. A tense match left Chelsea at the losing end. But it reinstated many of my notions, which I have written here. Pala and I returned to his room, and there GT was in front of the PC, immersed in the Guitar tuitorials he was watching. GT had almost finished tuning the guitar, and then we helped Pala with his project work. It was like we were back in college again, and a black tea at midnight beckoned. We walked in the drizzle to Tiffany’s. It remains open till 1 AM. We had black tea, reached back in the room, and then learned from Pala that internet connection to hostels was cut off from 12 midnight to 5 AM. What was that?The most elite of institutions in India not providing internet at night? Unbelievable. I slid on to the floor, Pala on to the cot and GT on to the chair. Some chords escaped into the air and a couple of seconds later we were all singing old songs together. Pala, a good rapper, sparred with his ‘Smack that..’ as well. Not much later I was in deep sleep, and woke up the next day early in the morning. I had to reach office by 8 AM and GT had a training to attend at 9. Setting on a reminder to come back soon, we left for the main gate in the institute’s internal bus service.