The Tech Nut at IIT-G : Chapter 11

After this, both the teams felt quite light-hearted. After we came out of the hall, I felt thirsty, and decided that I would head over to the water cooler near the exhibit hall. Vishaka also was thirsty. But there was a problem…Vishaka couldn’t drink directly off a cooler. She never had in her life! Her friends even called her angrez because of this!

I decided to help her out. The two of us headed back to the cooler, and I demonstrated the way to keep the mouth near the hand, to control water flow from the cooler, and to let it flow off you elbow. It was fun. We laughed more than we drank.

Apparently, those guys had told us a rendezvous point, but we totally forgot. So we first checked the stalls, the canteen, the lecture halls, and finally the main road. We found them on the main road. But in the meanwhile, we chatted a lot. Got to know quite a lot about each other…about our families…some similarities we had, and some ways in which we were totally different. It was a lot like Walk the Talk on NDTV 24×7! Those guys were a bit pissed when we finally turned up, and we continued our walk upto the T-point. There we parted ways to change and return.

After we returned, a lot of us found that we were hungry. We decided that instead of the mess, we’d try the stalls. Not Pizza Hut, that was way too pricey. When we reached, we were lucky enough to get a table to ourselves. Generally that place was quite crowded. We eventually decided to order 3 small pizzas to start off with 2 people to 1 pizza. I stuck to my rule of no ketchup.

After that, we tried out another stall. After Aishwarya read out the menu, I originally wanted a thali, but since everyone wanted chowmein, I also changed my mind. Unfortunately, the rest of them thought I’d changed my mind just cause they had, and Aishwarya was hellbent on ordering the thali. So, I ended up eating something I didn’t exactly want enough. What’s more, after my grousing about a lot, the idiots even got an empty plate, and started contributing to Vivek’s chowmein share. My thali consisted of uncooked rice, rubbery rotis, watery paneer, a salad of sorts and some sabzi I don’t remember.

Then the lights went off.

Just like they went off on the first day we arrived. It was pitch dark, with people whooping and yelling just for the heck of it! Karthick promptly went berserk, ‘cuckooing’ in Aishwarya’s ears (again). Also, Aishwarya, quite slyly slid much more of her food onto my plate than originally intended. She wasn’t feeling hungry, so thought it was OK to treat me like a walking and talking dustbin. Vishaka thought likewise, but I caught her in time.

The table was now lit by mobile phones and iPods. And I can tell you this, the Nanos that Vishaka and I had, definitely beat the phones as table lamps. Vishaka didn’t want to have her chowmein, so she pretended that a wasp was in her food, and pushed her plate away. So I was left to finish my thali alone. Eventually, my tummy was way too full to have my chowmein share as well, so I quite graciously gave it all back. In fact so full, that I got a stomachache.

I was really sleepy, by now. After chow, we all headed for a lecture in the auditorium. It was by Nassim Harameinm, the dude behind the Grand Unified Field Theory. He was going to be talking through a video conference. Unfortunately, I only remember small excerpts, because the AC in the auditorium, and the comfy chairs were irresistable for a quick nap. So I put in my iPod’s earphones to block out his voice, and replace it with Chris Martin’s.

I dimly remember him speaking of tetrahedral structures, and of the galaxies expanding, and a book called Gravitation and that it was named so because it was so heavy, and not becauase it had anytghing to do with gravitation, but that was about it. The reason I remember the galaxies thing was, cause I was awake at the time, and he was gesticulating in quite an amusing manner at the time.

Almost effeminite……hmph…..muffled giggles

After this, we walked back to the T-point (I staggered and semi-sleptwalked, not having shook off my sleep). We parted ways for the night.

But the business for the night wasn’t over. We had to get our travel reimbursement from the IIT guys. A measly 250 bucks, but money nevertheless. I was really sleepy, and remember just being able to get my boarding pass out of my bag, sleep-walking to the registration desk, and then Karthick asking for my pass, which I realised I’d left on the table, sleep-walked back, got the pass, sleep-walked to the desk again. There we were all told, that reimbursement would take place at the Married Scholars’ hostel the next day. Darn, what a waste of time. Yawn…

When we returned and changed, I noticed that my right ankle was swollen. Not only that, it was discoloured as well. I had felt something itching in my socks during the day, and now knew the cause as well. Apparently, a horde of mosquitoes had bit me, all in the same place, and now it because of the itching, it had swollen up as well. Swell…(pun intended)

I was knocked out proper that night.