The Saarang Post - 3

So the next day Spang and myself were at college for some record correction crap and guess it what, it flopped more than a T.Rajendhar movie.BAKU wouldn't sign our records and I was more than happy when he marked me absent for the lab - double bonus.I must have listened to KR when he asked me to bunk college.I heard KR's words resounding when BAKU would not sign my record and marked me absent.My mind was now at Saarang but physically I was there doing the Pulse Amplitude Modulation there in the lab proving to the founders that they were right in the experiment, whether or not I had an interest, an opinion or a thought about the experiment.

So after the lab work Spang and myself went and had our insipid lunch in the notorious canteen.For your information this canteen is run by a caterer named Sony Caterers.Its a Sony!

I was then involved in a chat session with Mrigank and Spang.Mrigank was keeping us quite involved with his views and ideas on life and things I wouldn't wish to disclose here.My readers must pardon me here for this.I am quite candid about issues with a taboo, as you might have known from my previous posts, but here I am just not in a mood to go into all that we were talking about that day.But I surely will tell you junta about it sometime later.We then fled the college by around 1:30 P.M. in the afternoon buses that are run for the sake of juniors( first year students ) as their sem exams get over during that time.So I went home ate and slept.Woke up and slept again.I tried calling up Premal once or twice, but couldn't reach him.So by around 7:00 P.M., which was very very late, I started to Saarang.I was pretty hungry by that time.So as soon as I reached Bindaas Park in IIT-M, I ate a Dahi Poori and a Samosa and had a cup of tea.It was at the same Nadhinee Chat Corner that I had Dahi Poori and Samosa.It was really so mouth-watering.
By now the JAM Finals was over and so there was no point in going to the CLT.But I tried to get in, and was unsuccessful as all the doors were locked.So I was just hovering around for
quite some time in the corridor that had CLT, ChLT and PhLT.Then as I didn't have a ticket for that day's Light Music show by Kay Kay, I just decided to take a walk through the sylvan campus and go to the hostel Godavari to meet my friend Kumar.Kumar is my friend from my D.A.V. days which was sadly only till my tenth standard.After that I had changed school to J.G.V.V. which is quite near to my house.

So anyways as I said I was walking through the eerie road that lead to the famed hostels of IIT-M.As I was walking I just had that magical feeling of being flown away to a different world, the world I'd love so much to be a part of, the world of genuine camaraderie and friendship where a molten form of intellect, fun, sport, independence, street-smartness and hell a lot of other things would combine and rush in through the gates of IIT-M from different parts of India.I felt like Alice falling into the rabbit hole as I ambled through the sylvan streets.I just walked, walked and walked as slowly and as thoughtfully as possible as I was savouring every moment of my existence in the elite surrounding.The trees swayed in that motionless street and it was a moment in time where I felt I was just floating.I forgot that I was walking.The moon was all bright and gay, beaming its glory as though it had had a great day, smiling upon the face of earth with its sharp rays piercing through the wooded IIT surroundings.The few stars around it and the unassuming occassional clouds made every thing feel light.I passed through hostels - Krishna, Cauvery, Narmada, Brahmaputra and Tapti before entering into my friend's hostel - Godavari.The cycles at the entrance all resembled a kind of armory lined up.They were not in any nice order, but not all otherwise either.I entered the hostel passing by the watchman, quite non-chalantly as I didn't want him to ask who I was and dig further on my representation there.So I walked through the pathway with nifty manicured bushes on both sides of it.I continued to climb the stairs to the second floor, where I would turn right only to find Room No.354, which was fourth or fifth from the turning point, locked.I just stayed there overlooking the balcony for sometime and not thinking anything.On my way back to the stairs I just couldn't help noticing one of my favourite scientists Albert Einstein's poster stuck on one of the doors qouting "Learn to ask why".It communicated something to me.

I walked back through the pathway.Beside me in the open ground was a student kicking the football there as a freeman.I turned back, had a glimpse of the building and turned once again and found my way outside the hostel.I then went to the phone booth that is near the Sri Gurunath Departmental Stories.There I called up Premal and found out that he was inside the OAT for the Kay Kay concert.Then I called up KR and found out that he'll be coming along with Spang for the Main Quiz by 11:00 P.M. The time in my watch was 9:00 P.M. I just sat outside the phone booth not knowing what to do.I then started imagining the life inside the hostels of IIT-M, about how I would be given a nick, about how we would go about doing assignments and how we would discuss problems and how we would attend/not attend classes, about how my whole life would have been different, about how I wouldn't have had to witness certain incidents at SSN, about how I wouldn't have met certain persons and all that.After about 15 minutes of such thinking I realized that I was much better than guys like KR and Spang and a whole host of others who had been unfortunate enough not to have got in after trying and vying for this life so hard.I even remembered the argument I had with KR over this topic.I then felt somewhat better and started walking towards Godavari once again.Now on the way a simple looking student wearing a half touser and having a book on digital circuits behind his cycle passed by me and stopped.He was passing by in the same direction as I was.Kumar said "Hi da" so casually.It just took me a second to realize that this was the same old modest friend from D.A.V. I managed to look casual and told him that I was going to his hostel to see if he had turned up.I also told him that I was there at the hostel some 20 minutes before to see if he was there.So then we went tracing back the same pathway to second floor of Godavari hostel and enetered Room No.354.An interesting piece of information I would like to give here is that Kumar's All India Rank( AIR ) in the JEE was 353, just one short of his room number.So what? So nothing, I just felt I wanted to tell this to you, so I said it.The room finished before it started.But nevertheless it was nifty room, with the flooring done with mosaic tiles and all, with a brand-new-looking table fitted with a drawer.The room also had a nice cot with two pillows on it and a cupboard that contained his clothes.There was a makeshift shelf like structure on the wall that contained some of his books, all of 'em foreign authored.I was talking with him there about my plans for writing GRE, CAT and in general about life.We also talked about 'Five Point Someone' - a book by Chetan Bhagat, and about his subject books, about my subjects, how they sucked and all that.A radio in that walled shelf was moaning old tamil film songs, that sometimes took our notice with songs that irked me to hell like Ponaal pogatum poda, which really added to the agony and my complex.I was asking him about hostel life there, which he said was enetertaining at times and kind of boring and monotonous at times.By then it was 11:00 P.M. and so we decided to go to the OAT to attend the Main Quiz.So we walked back.

The Main Quiz was an altogether different event which promised lots of excitement as this year they had a betting system on each of the participants.There was a guy named 10g who quite weird as his name was, took the bets with odd odds for each of the participants.I put 5 bucks on Vinod, about who I had mentioned in my earlier post.Premal put his money on BOFi.The quiz started out with the bubbly compereing of Satcho who started the quiz by encouraging junta out there to ask some fundoo questions just as a warm up.There was a funny question, I remember which was "Which city was a French settlement, and was famous for prostitutes?" The answer was "La (w)hore".Another one that turned out was "Why is Vodka also called 'The Rapist'?" The answer was "Because it turns virgin mary to bloody mary!" The quiz then started in all seriousness.There were hajaar questions and all of 'em were of awesome standard.They got me thinking and no where was I feeling bored.I even answered two to three questions.I am proud that I was worth 5 points.The simplicity of the set up was that, for every right answer you got a measly 2 points and for every pass answer you 1 point.Interesting ain't it? So the quiz went on and on and ended at about 5:40 A.M. Yes, sir thats the way the quiz goes.They started late by one hour in typical IIT fashion and ended 5 and 1/2 hours later.KR and Spang were also along with me in this endeavour.BOFi was the winner with 21 points I guess.The second place went to Vikram who was at 19 points and the third to Aadisht who was at 18 points.Then when it ended I went and collected Premal's money as his horse won and mine lost, and as he had gone midway out of the quiz due to some reason.My horse finished fourth with 14 points.The quiz ended.The three of us - Spang, KR and myself went to KR's house and slept it off.

You haven’t lived till you’ve attended a quiz.
And you haven’t quizzed till you have attended the Saarang Main Quiz.

The newsletter of Saarang on Day 5 read this at the starting of an article regarding the Main Quiz.It is also known as the Lone Wolf Quiz.

The next day we guys would attend Prasanna's Jazz show, which didn't turn us on much.We then marched to the entrance through the wooded road, a journey of 1.5 Kms.Then we would once agin slee it off at KR's place.Thus ended our romance with Saarang 2005.

I'd like to leave you with a quote again from the newsletter that at the end of the Main Quiz article which went like this -

You haven’t been to Saarang till you’ve attended the Lone Wolf Quiz.
And if you haven’t been to Saarang, you haven’t lived.