Re-Visit to Alma Mater

Fursat Friday 6 - March 21, 2008
Read at your own risk. No guarantees about sanity of the writer and the readers who finished reading till last !!
Ravi is responsible for rekindling those smoldering embers in me which used to be fire till July 25 2006 (Ref. my last blog @ http://narendrashukla.blogspot.com). Thanks Ravi!
You may ask the reason behind the transformation of bright fire (?) to smoldering embers. Well, the simplest possible reason which I can think of at this moment is, "I came in contact with Jaya around this time and eventually she agreed to tolerate me for next seven lives (read in SUD's {98.3 FM} accent : Oops.. that's limit of somebody's tolerance) on 14th Dec 2006" :-)
Time just flew off and everything was going on cool and then entered Ravi "Saki" with his Fursat Fridays (FFs) and to trigger me out of my inertia. Well, thanks Ravi for all those thought provoking FFs. All your four FFs had been fun to read and quite educative too. You may wonder whether I am writing a Bloggerazi here or just paying my gratitude to the pioneer blogger in L & E team by thanking him twice so far in this blog. You will definitely agree with me when you understand the writer in me. And I assume that you would, one fine day !! And, we shall overcome... we shall overcome... One day... So he deserves it. Isn't it?
So once again, Thanks Ravi :-)
This week has been quite wonderful for me and still it is. I started it with four sessions on Monday which were followed by 4 on the last Friday too. So there was no fursat on last Friday to read FF4. Finally on Wednesday I found time to read FF4 as the TCL/Tk technical training got over one hour before the scheduled closure time. We love such trainers who don't torture us with their download of Tech Gyaan for very long time and leave early. Isn't it? Hmm.. that's some point to ponder upon for us at Nalanda ;-)
I decided to revive "those best days of my life" by paying visit to my Alma Mater at Hauz Khas on Tuesday morning. Though the purpose was as simple as visiting the IIT library as well as meeting with one of my junior doing M.Tech. there. This guy is being offered nice scholarship by Aricent to work on 3G LTE project as a part of his M.Tech. Project (MTP). I wish, Hughes SS would had offered similar scholarship in 1998 when I joined as a student there in the same stream this chap is presently enrolled in. Ah.. that's why we tend to blame everything on that luckless luck.
Anyway, I could finally reach IIT after about 2 hours of drive from Kapashera border, thanks to nice traffic and nicer people driving on RTR marg. This fellow was in a lecture by the time I reached in campus and I had about 20 minutes before I could meet him in person to get an update on his MTP. So I visited Alumni office to get an update on the events to come and then visited library to just have a look at ... You know na... what we get to see in engg. college libraries? And IITD is also just another engg. college though not that privileged one...
As IITians say, 99% of the girls are beautiful and 1% are in IIT campus ... I may be sounding like some MCP at this moment, but feminists please forgive me. I am just quoting a campus legend and may not necessarily agree with the quote. The true beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and rest is just Maaya . Don't ask me who is this? Each one of us are after this elusive, (may I call?) lady ;-) That's enough philosophy.
Finally, clock struck 11:00 and I was still having a look at ... you know what? Books na !! That's what is there in the library. My junior met me at Library only and we started strolling out of library to cause least disturbance to everybody there and readers' in particular. He updated me about his progress and we just chit chatted for some time. Met Prof Brejesh (ex-Aricentian) too, near the tea stall. I feel a sense of kinship with Prof Brejesh as he is my Guru Bhai (His PhD thesis supervisor was my MTP supervisor). It is always nice to meet a cheerful personality like him. Wish I could be ever cheerful like him ...
It was time to leave the campus for me as I had promised Sibu to join him as secondary trainer in TH9. The time was running fast and so was me in the vehicle. After a nice traffic condition near Uloff Palmay marg I found some congestion free road near the upcoming Vasant Kunj Malls. I was driving NOT very fast towards the office and completely oblivious of what was waiting for me before I could make it up to the TH9. And then in next moment I was standing in front of a traffic police Mamu, curious to find out my crime as he was writing my name very fast on the challan form, while reading it aloud from my DL. After finishing his clerical job he asked me to sign on the form and collect my DL from Kapashera court. I said that's fine with me but please tell me my crime. I was pretty relaxed by hearing challan court word from him, as I had been to that court earlier too for missing out PUC deadline by just one day. He took me near to the van and told with the proof on LCD screen that I was overspeeding.
Just reminded of my driving experience at Staines (at the outskirts of London) with similar result in 2005. There the cop let me go after some persuasion but here in India things are different. I felt there is no point in telling this guy about Ignorantia juris non excusat.
So I asked him about the alternative route to avoid my visit to the court. He said, "Just look at other fellows" and I immediately decided महाजनो येन गतः सा पन्थः !! So paid him 1000 bucks as fine and he promptly agreed to give "pink receipt" for that money. I just oversped by 10 kmph and paid 1K. It happens here in this country only where we get to drive on whatever is left on the road in addition to driving on the left of the road with some "American drivers" coming from the opposite direction. :-)
So I could not make to TH9 before 12:30 and Sibu thankfully managed TH9 without me. Then heard the news of whole L&E gurgaon team sharing same geographical coordinates at Nalanda. At least this co-presence of team members would work wonders for Team L&E at Gurgaon.
Thanks Radhika !! And Thanks Ravi once again for confirming this in yesterday's PMR meeting. That makes thanks count to you to four. But I am really thankful to you. ;-)
I hope that enough in my first post on L&E bloggerazi. Till next post....Have a great weekend and Holi-days ahead :-)
Naren