DC, thou art great....

It was 9 am on a Sunday morning. I was sleeping as soundly as is humanly possible, when my phone began to ring.I stuck out my hand from under the covers and groped for the phone.  "Hello.., " I groaned, without even glancing up the number. "Hi, is this Anushree?, " the voice on the other end said. "You call me up this early on a Sunday morning to ask me my name?!!, " I rallied. Not exactly polite you say? Well then,  excuse me, you've obviously never been disturbed on a Sunday, have you?
"Ahh..of course its you, " she said. I recognized the voice now. It was Bee, my schoolmate, who was now studying in Delhi. Post some gossip update, she got to the point.
"Okay, when you get back I want you to get that Godfather game that we talked about and a couple of movies, let me see..." And so she read out an entire list...
See thats what happens to you when you have something like DC on your campus. Weeks before you're about to leave for home, stuff like this happens. Not that I don't enjoy it. Its only human to feel good after making your friends feel jealous with the sheer size of your downloads folder. :D

 I don't know about you, but I am so supremely addicted to it that when I'm leaving BITS, I'll probably write a poem about it. I'll call it "An Ode to DC" or something like that... Anyways, I'm digressing from our topic, so I'll get back to it.

The thing with DC is that its your all time-all season pal. Weekend night: Movie on DC.

Post tut test night: Series on DC. Gen tp night: Counter Strike on DC. Whoever said heaven couldn't exist on earth?

Of course, its not a smooth ride always... 

RESOLUTION:I will get up on time tomorrow morning, I will have breakfast properly, and I will still make it in time for the 8 o’clock tut.

CONSEQUENCE:

(9pm): I’m bored. I’ll watch one episode of himym/friends/arrested development/house/…

(11pm)(post four episodes): one last episode. Then I get to bed straight. *determination*

(2am): heck! Half the night’s gone already. I’ll just finish this season. And then I sleep. *determination squared*

(4am): OMG!! How did this happen??!! Fine. I’ll do a nightout.*determination raised to the power 16*

(7:35am): *suddenly wake up* how did I sleep?! When did I sleep??!!! And I am so very LATE.

(8am): reach tut, looking like I’ve just been half-choked, and of course, I haven’t had breakfast.
Lets just say it has its ..err...after-effects. :D
 If you're a ghot studious, the only reason you're going to use DC for is going to be for downloading lecture slides[:O], solutions to books and other traumatizing stuff; but then thats only a tiny number, so ever since the start of time, this amazing piece of software has been put to its rightful use(read: lan-gaming and movie downloads).

side-note: when it comes to poetry, my talent heads southwards, but here's an attempt..
An Ode to DC~
Many a nights have I spent playing counter strike, 
Many a movies have I watched, 
Whenever a tut goes hopelessly lame, 
You appear like a shining beacon of hope and light, 
err..
chuck it. Some other time maybe. :D 



P.S. : For the uninitiated, DC is short for Direct Connect [I'll cut out all the technical gibberish here, in case you're interested, you'll find ample stuff about it on wikipedia :P or feel free to post your query as a comment and I'll get back to you :)], and its the coolest thing that could ever happen on campus(a Martian spaceship landing right outside my room comes a close second). With close to 100Tb of data being shared, and 11Gb(yes, you read it right Gb) of games being downloaded within a few minutes, its as good as it gets.

From Fourier Transforms to Surf Excel!! Ab sach mein possible ;)

"NO!! NO!! NO!!, " said I , "thats not right, I mean its best if you scrub and rinse the clothes as soon as possible. They'll begin to stink otherwise."  We were sitting in the chemistry lecture, one month into college(and hostel) life. Exactly at that moment,  the professor turned to look at the class. "So these are the advantages of using Fourier Transforms when it comes to Molecular spectra..., " he was saying. I immediately dived into the notebook in front of me, pen in hand, furiously scribbling,  and nodded my head as vigorously as possible, acting as though I had imbibed every word of what he had just said(he could have been speaking in Greek and Latin for all I knew). When he turned his back to the class, to go through a few more course slides, we resumed our very important discussion.With no past experience whatsoever of having managed on my own,  laundry issues were obviously more important than atomic and molecular spectra.
The guy sitting next to me shook his head. "Nope, " he said, "its best if you soak them for 6 hours in hot water. And mind you, use only surf excel. Others are not that good."*Haloed, knowledgeable pause*
I was skeptical, but decided to give it a try anyways, and that evening, with Back in Black playing full volume on my i-pod I set out to wash clothes. And voila!, that tip really worked(if you're reading this, thanks a ton!! :D )
       Sometime later into the semester a funny thing happened in our wing. It seemed to be overflowing with the smell of dirty socks(please wait before you jump to any conclusions!). Totally bugged, we searched for the cause. One of  the rooms was found to be the culprit, and it was really weird since they maintained a decent standard of cleanliness there. Mysterious, if you ask me. Anyways, so the girl who lived there called up her mother for "technical" help on the dangerous situation looming up. Here's how the conversation went. "Umm...mummy....actually our room has been..ummm(here an awkward pause)...stinking... for some days now...and we cannot find a reason for it. So..umm..what do we do now?"
We eventually did find the cause, it was old sock buried somewhere under the bed.

P.S. Among other "soft skills" that I learnt were the following:
1. Banana's cannot be stored for more than two days(beyond that they are transformed into a jelly- like pulp, and their smell is more toxic than mustard gas). (As an aside, I wonder if they actually used bananas in gas chambers..hmm...)
2.Its a bad idea if you plan to clean out your room after watching "just one" episode of house/friends/himym/.. (you'll never be done with "just one" episode)
3. If you're using an alarm clock/cell phone alarm to wake up, put it as far away from your bed as possible, or else, chances are you're going to switch it off, and sleep again.
4. Never ever ever take a tut who looks like a dhobi. His face would remind you constantly of the unfinished pile of laundry you have lying on your bed. :D

Of Food, Friends and Foes....

I was lying on my back with a copy on Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children held high over my head, trying to make sense of all the abstract ideas...when an inverted face came into view. It was Neha. "Anu! I've had enough!! Lets go out for dinner!!, " she pleaded, giving a particularly funny puppy-dog look. She's usually in a better condition than this, but lunch that day had been exceptionally inedible...and if past experiences were anything to go by, dinner wasn't going to be any better.
REWINDING TO LUNCH:
The guy in front of me dropped a green blob of some sticky substance in my plate. "Ahhh.....palak ki sabzi..my favorite, " I said, voice thick with sarcasm. "No, " said Neha. "Its not palak ki sabzi. Its methi ki sabzi."The question of exactly what we were going to eat seemed acquire to the complexity of Schrodinger's equation, so we decided not to bother our brain, and ask the man instead. "Sarson ka saag hai, " he said with a stony face. Enlightened by this knowledge, we proceeded to the daal and the chapatis, which I do not have the courage to describe..

So, I smiled and put the book down, and sat up."Hmm.. okay...where?"

One of the things I really love about campus is the sheer amount of choice you have when it comes to eating out. Mind you, nothing high end.. open air joints with wooden benches is as good as it gets, but there is something distinctly heartening about having an absolutely no-holds barred dinner with friends and coming back to your room and watching all six parts of Saw back to back(I do it when I'm alone) or The Notebook (or some such cheesy movie, when you have company).

I remember rushing to IC (short for Insti Canteen) and the countless redis on campus,  in between classes during the winter months, because I'm too lazy to leave my cozy bed and ultimately end up missing breakfast everyday. (And the prospect of having Sam chat instead of sticky-white-so-called upma, was an added incentive of course).
Or going to Canot, where every dish tastes the same as the other ( except for certain "chinese delicacies" which were so overflowing with soya sauce that I never had the courage to try them out). And Bluemoon's MNB(midnight beauty:D) shakes and Sharma ji's gulab jamuns are a perfect recipe for that crazy evening out with friends.
Or going to Food King and Sky and envying the Budh Bhawan guys for having all these places a stone's throw away.
And where do BITSians get all there crazy ideas? Its got to be ANC. Thats short for the All Night Canteen. Everything from APOGEE  projects, to Fash P is discussed here, amongst the endless shouts of "Fried maggi, boss!!". If  there ever was a poll about the most loved food item on capus, ANC cheese toast would win hands down.And ever since the system of paying via ID card came, cash-strapped BITSians have begun flogging to ANC like never before :D

We were still pondering over the question of deciding on a place, when Neha's roomie entered the room, ice-cream in hand. "Wassup?," she said. "Nothing, we're done with mess food. going out. Wanna join in?"
She looked at us, puzzled. "What, you guys don't know? There's a veg grub in the mess today."
"Damn!! Its high time atleast one of us checked up on the mess notice board once in a while, " I winked at Neha, as we rushed to the mess.

Comprehensive Examination? You're dead.

"I'm going to flunk!!!, "was the sound that greeted me as I entered my wing. I looked up, a visibly paranoid female was pacing up and down the corridor, chemistry book in hand. "Uh huh.. you DO realise that comprees are a fortnight away don't you?," I said. She looked up at me, horrified."Thats the point, its JUST two weeks!!"

You see, compree time in BITS is weird. And i mean it, WEIRD. Its like some poisonous ghot-inducing gas leak  occurred on campus. People flock to the library, as though they screened free movie shows there. DC chat goes poof. Lecture strength increases (I don't attend lectures, this info is based on close sources). Facebook, gtalk and twitter are flooded with the cries of BITSians in agony and the only word that you can hear around you is av.

And on the last bit, trust me. Av floats like ether in the air around you. Conversations are reduced to: 

A: "Oye! what was the av for Physics last sem??"

B: "xyz."

A(irrespective of what xyz is): "pehle waala batch phodu tha be!!." (dives back into book with renewed vigor)

Back at Meera Bhawan, ANC orders increase exponentially. The nescafe stall wears a deserted look, and the few people who do sit there have books in their hands. So, putting it in a few words the entire atmosphere around you is one of extreme concentration...

And trust me, watching all this ghotting going around you..people talking about how many subjects they're done with while you're still trying to recall exactly where was it that you saw your text book the last time is scary...very scary. So, while the world around me was busy preparing, I was in a happy state of bliss, welcoming all the joblessness after the T1/T2/tut tests. I should have known better...

"Thats it!! I'm not studying any more." This was my roommate, as she slammed the book down on her table, and held her head in her hands, lest it should explode from the sudden charge of knowledge. "I'm going to sleep, I'm done for the night."

I looked up at her, and an inexplicable wave of self-pity rose in me.I had completed 4 chapters out of nine, it was 1 am and the compree was at 9 am, a mere 8 hours away. I sighed, and mentally pleaded,  "Dear God, please, please, please, let me complete my course by morning. I swear I'll go to Saraswati temple daily, and I'll always complete my course on time."

Post this white lie, I groaned and went back to ghotting. Needless to say, I did not complete my course on time, however the good thing is, that the topics I left did not carry too much weightage in the paper and I managed decently.

And the next semester, one day before the paper there I was, again, saying"Dear God....

:D

BITS?! Couldn't get through UPSEE/DCE/WBJEE???

Being a BITSian ain't easy. Nope. I'm not talking about acads here. I mean ya..ok..acads is not easy either but thats something you deal with on-campus, its the off-campus thing that really gets to you. Have no idea what I'm talking about? Let me get to it.

See now once you and your post-exam mangled brain have landed up in BITS here's what you're probably going to think: BITS-Pilani! heck! wow! And your brain is instantly filled with scenes of you showing off in front of your relatives. You imagine..wait..no... you can actually SEE how you will open your precious mouth in front of aspirants, and they will fall at your feet asking for tips on preparation..well..ok ..I may have gone a little overboard there..but you get the gist.

So you're basically in paradise, and believe me if you will.. it won't be very long before you fall on your face.

SCENARIO:

Characters: overjoyed, recently selected student(who's probably waiting to join), some fat obnoxious aunty/overly inquisitive uncle.

So what happens is, you're sitting like a bird, preening your feathers, feeling that oh-so-top-of-the-world feeling, when the human being visiting at your place asks about where you're joining. You try to be very casual. BITS-Pilani, you say in a huh?big-deal kind of voice. BITS? They say in a tone which makes you certain that you just spoke in some Aborginal language. Yeah. BITS, Pilani. Pilani?(same tone of voice). By now you are certain that something is dreadfully wrong with your vocal cords and you make a mental note to visit the ENT specialist ASAP. Yeah..its in Rajasthan. Ohh...Rajasthan they say, in a really sorry and sad voice, all the time shaking their heads as if you had just told them that you had stage three cancer. Didn't get through UPSEE? tch tch tch...happens..who can foresee the ways of God..

You're going to be in a fix. Two possibilities arise: 1. You're schizophrenic and made up all that stuff about the place OR 2. The people sitting in front of your are absolutely dumb.

As you will get along with your life in this place, you'll come across such situations on a regular basis. I've been associated with this college for a year now and trust me, I still have no idea about the exact causes of this inexplicable occurrence. In fact, this dentist fellow(one would suppose he would be educated enough to know) said this: "Why are you studying in Rajasthan? There are so many good colleges in Delhi itself. Xyz college is really nice. My niece(or some random relation, I don't really remember) studied there. AC classrooms. *self-satisfactory grunt*.

Post this dialog, I was at a loss for words(and that is a very, very rare thing).

What more do I say? The world is indeed a crazy place.