SEARCH has begun...

It was in Hyderabad with lot of gusto and euphoric feeling on knowing that my thatha who stays at place five minutes walk to Sheshadripuram and that he is all alone in a three bedroom flat was the maximum I could ask for. Alas, fate had it it wasn't going to be that easy. It so happened the initial reporting block that we were asked to report at was just Administrative block and not the actual place of training. The training is at Sheshadripuram.

Well…did that REALLY upset me that much?? Na….because I got a call from my dad saying I had to options to stay at one at my avaa’s house and the other at my other distant relative Satish anna’s house. Now had I been in any of those I wouldn’t bother blogging it. So now you know what transpired.

Now what happened next and how did we land up at the present spot is coming up next….

22nd….The actual search began.

Achyuth had to buy formals and it so happened there is a mall by the name Megamart which was giving discounts upto 50% and was located at Koramangalam. We would be trained at LAKSHYA INFOTECH which is temporarily leased by SATYAM as a training centre as at present there is no training centre at Bangalore. It is right above Megamart. The most important criteria for us was the distance. So that day after having lunch at Andhra Mess we sought their help. They told us they do have PG's but they were exclusively for women but one good thing that happened was they suggested us to take FREE ADS magazine where there are plenty of ads that might assist. With magazine at hand we started rounding off the places nearer to Kormanagalam. Phoning one by one we first listed out all the addresses on a book. With the help of passer's by we judged how to go about from one to other. To make the trip a bit short here is the list of things we got and why they were rejected.

ERC PG HOUSENear
Venkateshwara Hostel
ORACLE Bld. Backside

This is the first one we went to. We were already tired with the day's ordeal. Crossing the FORUM we travesrse through a small lane. We walked on and on and on... I mean it was mentioned in the ad it was 'walkable' so we were like what the heck does walkable mean??. ORACLE building itself looked so far to us. From then on, on further enquiry we had to go furhter half a kilometer. As we reached the final lane where we had to turn leftone guy pointed out a building with SINTEXT tanks and told us the place is nearby to that. It looked pointless to us at that point to continue further as the building itself was really far and we had to walk little more further to that.We wanted to turn back but something held us back saying we were already this far what difference would it make.We met the owner. He showed us the rooms. the first one he showed was on the first floor with no ventilation. Then he told us there is one more at the ground floor itself with open space at one end i mean a window attached to teh outside world. That looked really good. It was fit for three with a attached bathroom.

Mornig hot water from 7 to 10.

With food: 3400

Without Food: 2400

Advance: 2 months advance which on little persuasion he said one month also would do.

Economics:

It looked like we had to take an auto as the distance wasn't as WALKABLE as mentioned in the brochure. Putting 10 for auto up and down that would mean 300 more.

Afternoon there woudln't be food as we would be in the company and the outside food would be 30 minimum. thatwould put us 900 more.

DHOBI: 10 per pair. Assuming three per week, and an extra pair say 160 more.

NET : 3400+900+300+160=4800/- per month.

NEW Heaven Hostels

Opp. ORACLE Building.

This one looked really good in terms of ventilation. It was on third floor. But the only glitch was he couldaccomodate one person in one room. Even in a months duration he said it would be doubtful for getting all together.Apart from that for some 20 odd people there were three common bathrooms with hot water of course.

Hot Water Provision

Without Food: 2000

No With Food option.Advance: One months rent

ECONOMICS:

No auto charge.

Dhboi remains the same.

Added costs would include food with say breakfast 10, lunch 25 and dinner 25 (these are minimum...) 1800/-

NET: 3800+160=4000/- apprx.

342, Bajaj Allianz road

Koramangala

This is also not as WALKABLE as mentioned. We came back to the forum and on enquiry we got to the place in auto with minimum charge that is 12/-. He showed us the rooms and the availability there was two in one and the other personin another room. On further insisting he told he would take care of getting the other guy shifted and making threetogether in one or two weeks time.It is a three storied residential building remodeled as PG's. So at every floor with the usual two bedrooms that a house has remained the same and kitchen, drawing and any extra space that was there was removed and huge woodenplanks were put and in total 4 rooms were set in with three people in each. Two rooms had attached bathrooms which were already filled. The other two were teh ones he was planning for us to get into. For the other two rooms he hadthree separate bathrooms at the ground floor which again was shared by all the floors.Rooms looked bit congested with no ventilation and as i said before TWO in one and the OTHER seperate.

Hot Water Provision

With Food: 3000

Without Food: 2400

Advance: One months rent

ECONOMICS:

Auto charge of 6 up and down per head totaling 150 apprx. per month.

Dhobi remains the same.

Added cost of LUNCH remains the same : 900

NET: 3000+900+150+160=4200/-

KORMANGALAM 6TH block - 10 kms ...DON'T BOTHER

KORMANGALAM BTM Ist CROSS - 5 Kms...DON'T BOTHER (Hari's place is four KMS...)

some two or three again just rejected for above cited reasons.

The next day i.e. 23rd

We were very exhausted with the previous days events, I mean we did lot of walking. So we started the hunt today withkeeping in mind three above probables listed around 11 o'clock. We reached FORUM and began calling the left overs inthe FREE ADS magazine around 12'O clock.

Opp. BOSCH 2nd GATE,

KORMANGALA

We had quite a problem finding this place and we had to do lot of communication before they finally relented to meetus in person. We were asked to wait near Anjanaye temple which was near to the lane exactly parallel to the main road FORUM is located. ((remember the criteria is to get a place nearer to FORUM...The distance from that to our traininglocation is negligible...)).

Two guys around mid twenties greeted us on the bike. They were from Andhra and were very boisterous to say the least.Non-stop talking. Went on telling us that they knew some 15 PG's, that food wouldn't be problem at all and that tehplace about to be shown was 2 minutes walk from Trainig center and that it doesn't look like a PG hostel and is moer like a home and that we woudl be absolutely comfortable. The reason i wrote that way was all the things were told atminimum 10 times. Everything was true infact.He took us to the place. The maximum that can fit in that building were 2. It was actually a two bedroom residential houses remodelled into PG. So the adjustment would be two in one room the other in single room that is kitchen roomwhich was remodeled into a single bedroom one with attached bathroom to it. For us there is a bathroom at the other end. So all in all six people would be sharing 2 bathrooms. One within the house and one outside. It looked okay.Again in midst of all these we were reminded of everything.

Hot Water Provision

With Food: 3000

Without Food: 2000

Advance: One months rent

Commision: 1000 (one time payment ...he started with 3000 per head then came down to 1000 per head)

Maintaince: 500 (also one time payment)

ECONOMICS:

Added cost of lunch remains the same: 900/-.

Dhobi remains the same.

NET: 3000+1000+500+900= 5400/- (for first month)

3900/- for the subsequent ones.

NEAR to ORACLE building,

JR JOSE building.

He came down to meet us in car and took us to his place which was quite walkable. It is two storied residentialbuilding. Top floor is where he lives renting the basement. The basement has three rooms with provision for 18 people. The house itself was very dark with dust all around and renovation still going on. Now there were threebathrooms. Two rooms with 8 people share a common bathroom. That's how the present strengh is right now.The rest are yet to be filled after the renovation. There were 8 girls living there and teh owner wanted to convertinto a mens hostel as it was evident that there were plenty of girls hostels all around. So he said there would be a availability from 1st of next month.

Hot Water Provision

With Food: 3000

Without Food: 2000

Advance: One months rent

ECONOMICS:

Added cost of lunch remains the same: 900/-.

Dhobi remains the same.

NET: 3000+900+150=4000/- apprx.

GRAND FINALE ...If you had keenly read what I wrote from the start of the blog bluntly put 1st is what clicked and all the others were rejected purely on the basis of this Bathroom basis if attached or notand many others just because of the distance.On all counts like ventilation, spaciousness, food etc. that looked like a safe haven to us. We went today for hunting with having one as backup that is the first one. This time we took a different root and comfortably reached the placeby walk in around 10-15 minutes. By the time we reached the rooms that we saw yesterday were booked and there was onlyone left with good ventilation. There was small problem as he wanted 2000 as BOOKING ADVANCE and that his MD wouldn't want such a thing to be left emptied without advanced inspite of our assurance that we wanted to move in. He said he would allow us to come back with 2000 in hand and give him by 5:30.

Time was around 3'o clock. ATM was the first place we went to which was near FORUM and that's how we knew how far it was in another route (13 minutes to be precise...). There was very large queue and the nearest ATM was of SBI's and nobody knew where AB ATM is. There was a large queue thereand it took us 20 minutes of waiting to learn there was no money in it. So on phoning to nanna money depositing option was ruled out. Incidentally I met my intermediate friend RAHUL who has just finished training at SATYAM'S Lakhshya Infotech. We wantd to borrow some from him and he was very sorry as the day was still 23rd and that his expenses were ending. We phoned our roommate HARI as it was a holiday for him and asked him to bring the money over. Somehow things didn't work out and we went back to the room, took the money and made our way to the ERC hostel.

Time was 4:50 p.m. Finally we paid the money.Going back through the forum there was a dance ballet going on to promote CLASSICAL DANCE by the group called ALANKRITA (orsomething like that..) We stayed back for seeing them. Good is not a word that would actually describe them. They were very pleasing to the eye and we could see blend of both classical dance and modern music coming together there.The last performance was the best one as the theme was BRAZILIAN martial arts and that was the only one we coudl understand what the dance was all about. After that we stayed back for a while looking back on our expedition and thinking of the life to be.Wanting to share our joy with our fellow mates we decided to give them a treat for being such a nice hosts, cooking for us in the night, sharing mat and pillows, sharign computer and top of all that being very good human beings. I really appreciate them. It is from IYENGAR BAKERY that we brought EGG PUFFS, 1.5 Ltr COKE, Pastries. Coming home we all sat together and toasted our induction and as well as our succesfuly PG hunting. Everybody is happy.

That's how it ended...

I know my travials are trivial to what Srujuna must have gone through as she so eloquently put in her blog but I had my share of excitement and tensions too which I wanted to share with you all. And also I would like this to have this blog as an blueprint for those who are about to SEARCH FOR PG....

Something interesting about Girls

Well what is not…(pun unintended)

Harry thought Cho’s way of showing her anger by inciting jealousy, throwing warnings etc. was highly enigmatic and utterly stupid thing to do and we see him later telling Hermoine why can’t she just ask?? Poor Potter if he only he knew anything about girls.

To start with they are extremely fond of jokes. Ever heard “ ammayulu navvite muthyalu raluthaye ”[when girls laugh it is comparable to shine of the pearls (I can’t get the translation)] May be there is an endless race between them to shell most muthyalu. They burst into fits seeing a thing as simple as a drop of a pen. I mean try this for once. While conversing try throwing your pen high in the air and intentionally miss it and in the mean time try acting like Jonty Rodes trying for a dive. There here that giggle.... This is just one of many small and highly stupid experiments you can start off with. Later on you can improvise. From my three years engineering experience, one year of TIME’S Coaching classes and lastly my three months of VISU coaching, with utmost conviction and 95% probability (of course there are some non-dumb people….) and ISO 9000, and with a CMM LEVEL V certification ( usually given to companies for their standards…but girls are one bunch which have proved consistent in doing this) I would say for every dumb joke we hear, almost all the girls go cackling like wild goose. This sickening phenomenon of late has caught up big in TIME classes. Adi asalu joka kada ani kuda alochincharu, egabadi navvadame vala pani and it is one of the most interesting topics to converse and the most cliché dialogue heard in the boys circles : ‘baapre velu asalu a kullu jokulaku etla navutarra babu’ [ Gosh! How could anyone laugh at all those horrible joke?]

Then (scratching my brain…) there is bragging, immature thinking, constant beauty vigilance and then the top of the pick: the bossy feelings. You see most of them don’t have anything to do but they pretend as if they are carrying entire burden on them when they start speaking. They always wait for you to speak up first and make the move. I guess it gives them internal joy, satisfies their ego and make them feel important. After taking a bait you would surely understand what I am talking about. It is a greatest favor they are doing by talking to you… do you understand. To elaborate bit on jealousy. Feeling jealous at your friends for marks is okay, their bikes okay, their dresses okay, their intelligence okay, but did you ever feel jealous because someone talks to someone else too long, someone complements someone else faster than you, or for something as simple as talking longer than you. This is where girls are much better at picking up fights and increasing the distances.

Even with all these and much more which I haven’t mentioned they have such an abundance of sympathy, love and care which comes out so naturally. They are built with resilient power to withstand pain at greater levels. Crying is one of the best ways to relieve your pain they say. No wonder why they are blessed with this art whereas in our case it is the hardest things to do. Once hurt, they cry it over and then with a tremendous relief they carry on with the life. Happy or sorrow they take it in the same spirit and there is nothing more pleasing than being consoled by a girl. They empathize with you and put themselves in your shoes to make you understand.

Well friends especially boys out there....never think bad about girls. Not all the girls are brainless, not all girls are stupid, not all girls are always jealous, there are some good things about them too. Try seeing the bright side of them. Next time you see a girl laughing for no reason in particular or a girl who behaves in a very arrogant manner please do remember that if it were not for that then there would not be much to discuss with friends.

(FACQ)

FREQUENTLY ASKED COMMON QUESTIONS

(FACQ)

How are you?
I am doing fine.

How is Bangalore?
Well that’s a very difficult question to answer. Bangalore is really big. From my stay here in Bangalore for the last four days here is what I have to say. People here are very friendly and top of all that are multilingual. I mean most of them can understand apart from Hindi, Kannada and English they can very well understand and speak Telugu too. When I say ‘most of them’ I mean natives like auto-drivers, pan dabba fellow, Xerox shop guys, etc. Most of the times I frequented people from North-East with their distinct facial features. The place itself is a mixture of urban and rural life. When you go to non-commericalized areas it wouldn’t be surprising for you to find a huge mall or a MNC or a stretch of two three food outlets in midst of residential buildings or slum-like areas. There is remarkable contrast all around. Yesterday on our hunt for a PG (Paying Guest) hostel we were going through a lane and suddenly we saw 30 storied, 100 odd feet wide building with ORACLE on the top, right opposite to some kuccha houses and very shabby surroundings. Well I guess one good thing is there is all round development rather than concentrating on one location.

And yes, I would be a perfect hypocrite to leave you on that good note without mentioning THE thing that might make Hyderabadi proud. Well, that would be TRAFFIC. Lots and lots of TRAFFIC. You would be laughing your ass off when I say it took me 75 minutes to reach distance of four and a half kilometers.

Chaaa…Hyderabad lo leda mari…veedu asalu Panjagutta, Ameerpet chusinatle ledu…

I know, I am coming to that. In Hyderabad you can count on your fingers the places which would be jammed but here all your twenty fingers (including your feet) wouldn’t be enough to count the places. I guess virtually all the places are always packed and traffic moves very slowly. The best time to venture out hassle free would be early wee hours say from 3 to 7 or in the late hours say 10:30 to your-wish. Not a day goes without me getting a little frustrated with the inherent traffic.

nee yankamma nuvvu vachinde nalugu rojulu…

you are right on that regard but that’s how general public is too. To be perfectly at ease with the traffic here it would take you at least a month. Now That’s HOW Bangalore is.

So How is the company?
To date I haven’t yet started to work in the company yet. My date of joining is on 26th of this month.

Why did you go so early then?
Well we had to have medical diagnostic tests done on 19th itself and there were some formalities to be completed like submitting our attested copies of marks memo, submission of the sureties, opening a bank account at ICICI etc.

Okay…so Have you bought a cell at least now??
yes…

You did ???? Why didn’t you tell so??
I didn’t feel like. Well…it was only I activated it with a SIM. My number is 98860***** (abba vankay...number on request...).

7…………………………

To be continued…

How Avantel Changed My World...

Started in 1995 with some 50-odd people it has grown into a very big cooperation with a branch in US. It is a product-based company whose clients are ECIL, DRDL, Indian Army, Indian Navy, Nokia etc.

Located right opposite to BSNL office in Madhapur, it is in the midst of fields located at least half a kilometer from the main road. It is a four-storied building with every floor dedicated to a particular aspect of the designing of the project – R&D, Production, Software Development, Marketing, Testing (in the basement). Cool breeze welcomes you when you enter into the lobby through the stairs immaterial of the time. It’s because it looks a bit isolated with no buildings on any sides giving free access to unpolluted air. My mom keeps stressing about having NATURAL AIR and my reply would always be what’s the difference? I mean with fans, air coolers, and conditioners etc. where does natural air stand a chance? Trust me friends I was so wrong in assuming that. Man can never conquer nature as the eternal debate continues. The floor I was assigned to is R&D as I was given a decoding project essentially based on C.

It has first class canteen with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. A coupon system is in place and the food is at subsidized rate. All the floors are air-conditioned. Everyone there dresses up in formals. The timings are very flexible i.e. no rigid timings till you get your job done. Special attention is given to the newcomers and a formal training is given to them for at least one month before assigning them to a project. There is so much of nice camaraderie around the workplace that you feel completely at ease. Everyone there identifies with the company motives and put in their best efforts to the development of the company. One is awarded impartially the hikes based solely on performance.

Sounds too good to be true isn’t it? Well it isn’t. I take back all I said (3rd para). If you are one of those trying to practice negations for CAT or just for fun can experiment on the above paragraph to get the actual picture. Still didn’t get it?? In the words of Mr. DP “ All you have to do here is pretend that you are busy…”. It is one company where I found so much of discontent. Everyone there has an account in Naukri or Monster or any placement websites looking for better avenues outside. The common refrain apart from the TIMINGS ( Monday – Sunday) is that one is not treated well with respect. “ Dabbudi emundi, adi pakkanapettu. Mammalnu koncham engineers ga respect cheste chalu. Ante gani edo salary istunnam kada veelu manam emi cheppina chestarle ante… eveadiki kaladu…” echoes one absolute gem of person in whom I saw a man to admire and respect with his abundant knowledge and commitment to work. Other thing that really puts off many is the lack of guidance or support from the senior staff. Excepting few many have large ego problems there. One month into the project, one is still at square one not knowing how to proceed. The matters doesn’t end with you doing your part. Being put in R&D makes you responsible for the overall design of the circuit and testing it. But that’s not the case. Right from the job assigned to ordering materials, software developing, production everything has to be taken care of that individual/group. Before you want to say anything I want to clarify that when I mean taken care of is you have to monitor all the processes. Literal monitoring i.e. just make sure that guy is fitting it well, making sure all the components needed are entered and ordered. Making sure the software guy has given you right GUI. It just puts off people. I mean as person assigned to particular department you are expected to harness most of your energy in there. Hence it is not unusual to find many a people in this floor at least idling away most of their time either because materials are not yet ordered or because the testing is still being done or something or the other.

Coming to my case, I had a blast in the first week since I joined. It was exciting to be addressed informally. The hourly journeys to and fro form the company to the home was very tiring but I found myself liking it thinking this is what hard work is all about. I was asked to try to understand a code in C. The person who is in charge of me was little busy at that moment to tell me the EXACT DETAILS of the project and asked me to continue on my own. At the end of the week knowing how completely idiotic I was in trying to write code for such a complex program I started surfing for clues. I found something to verify with. BAM….a much sought after breakthrough. Tested it on microcontroller. Found it working fine. I was given another higher security module to be debugged. A week passed with again GOOGLE coming to my rescue for some code to verify with. It was then I knew something is really wrong here. No one was interested in this project of mine. I mean it was said that it wasn’t going to work as it was tested already. I failed to understand what my position is in this regard. The days of frustration began. As usual I reach the company an hour before. Making some itsy-bitsy changes I was supposed to get it worked on the controller. There is some technical talk between sir and me which is completely opposite to OTHER sir (the next in order of in-charge for me…) and me and my job was to validate that. Some days I tolerated with me having company and soon even they were so-called engrossed and I was left all alone brooding my fate.

The last week of my stay was by far the most irritating and the worst form of torture I could ever endure. From 9 to 1 i.e. till lunch my work was to sit. That’s all. To sit and stare at the computer waiting, WAITING for something to happen. Something that would change the world. From then again I was to sit. Oh ya, in between I have the absolute rubbish talk between one sir and other sir. I was going completely mad sitting there. It is from the people there I understand I was not alone. I was literally breaking down, unable to think in any manner and losing interest in everything. I tell you the absolute euphoric feeling I got when I could convince my parents my decision to quit was something I hadn’t even experienced when I got selected in SATYAM. I was in such a deplorable state.

Thankfully everything is over for now and I am back doing what I like enjoying what I like. Those are the most unforgettable 30 days ever in my life.

GET TOGETHER -III

Taaain…taaai..tadaaan…tere teee taain tadyooon…tedaa … Taaain…taaai..tadaaan…

That’s the starting tune of the theme music of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King but the look of disbelief and what-the-heck tells me you completely missed the point. Tut..tut..tut…I overestimate my audience these days…

So as you read the previous sequel even on warning not to, I was apprehensive, tired, and little irritated. Read on to find out what followed next-

Bringing down the curtains on the most un-awaited, unwanted (you have no choice, my decision is made, live with it) sequel here I begin what actually happened that fateful oops rainy night. As always, and always and will always I was on dot to find myself all alone outside the resto. Why do I have to mention ‘‘always’’ so many times? Ans: Because this happened SO MANY times. Clutching the greetings in my hand, looking here and there, wondering if I have come to the right spot or would it be an encore performance - not long ago, when Swami Naidu, Vijay, and me planned a movie at Skyline, I headed all the way to Sangeet before going back to Skyline, which is something that brings smile to my face every time I think about it.

Chucking it aside, I have a question for you all to start with. As I entered the resto thinking MAYBE they have already started eating (time was still 8:30…) I saw two fellows relishing a hot-boiling soup. Now they are:- (chose any two of the four in all options and finally chose the right option…this ain’t your regular G.K. question…so put in some effort…). Two minutes max…

a. Nikmo, Laddoo, Alok, Uday
b. Srujana, Venkat, Nikhil Mohan, Visharad
c. Abhinav, fool-proof, Harsha, Laddoo
d. Karthik, George, Srujju, Nix.

Okay , time is up. The answer is …you know already, don’t you. I take back what I said about ‘overestimating’ my audience. That’s a bit of surprise in the evening, as I didn’t expect milady to grace the occasion. If you read the previous sequel, you would have understood. I felt awkward as I planned to give her the greeting later. I was very very hungry that day and when Laddoo asked me or to me it felt like tempted me to have a little, I wanted to snatch the bowl and gulp it all in one go but poor lady about to go to US of A would be too shocked to recover and would think at least ten times before she can offer it to anyone in the future.

A Small Unforeseen Mishap

!!!The Man Who Missed The Boat- 'Pokiri'!!!

Nix in a casual tone of his mellow voice tells me Harsha wouldn’t be coming. Thinking he was joking I looked at Laddoo for any hint of usual friendly banter. Girls give away clues easily you know and especially with highly sensitive Laddoo you have to be extra careful in planning a bluff. When he repeated the same thing again I knew something really wrong was happening. What happened was a small misunderstanding. As you are aware there were three people involved in getting the meet on the wheels and the main engine was Harsha. I thought I had told Nikmo to tell the final details regarding the place, time etc to Harsha and he thought I did. Fact of the matter was it was upon me to call him. Added to that this MOTEY didn’t allow me to rectify my mistake by insisting he can’t make it even though he had plenty of time to make it further adding to my woes of regret. It bothered me because he and I had a very long chats through the phones from the start and I screwed up everything… Next time I will take care.


As time ticked by, everybody started coming in. The one who made a grand appearance would be Mr.Spectrum (sometimes known by the name ‘Visharadh’). Being new to this part of the city, sitting in auto he was directing the driver through phone in spite of my ironclad landmarks that I had given him. The funniest part is he was hardly 10 yards away from the spot, by the time he called. Abhi was still missing and upon calling, I was surely disappointed to know that he hadn’t even started from his home.

Yossarain Presents “Something About Abhi”

!!!Happy ABHI Kabhi Bhi"

He is one guy whom I can never understand. Always has that smile on his face. What is it that makes him share every little joy he experiences, joke he heard or a decision he wants to take? That’s an incredible asset but not an easy one to live with. Just imagine having to take some twenty opinions on an issue, reviewing them and then coming to a decision which might be as simple as how to do a particular assignment (or) a career decision like MS- in US vs. Job? Hands down, I can never live in peace with such state. He, on the other hand never fails to come to a good decision. An absolutely enigmatic personality seriously. He has tremendous memory power, great network of friends next only to Nikmo and an affable personality who is still child at heart and very open to anything you might ask.

Back to the present, he was deciding to come or not based on the people that have turned up. I assure him there are already 14 people (actually 7 were there so far…) and also bribe him on the fact that he would be missing the most valuable greeting of his life if he can’t make it. With a bit of urgency and assurance to turn up in the next 45 minutes, he puts off the cell. Laddoo prepares to leave as it was getting late for her but not before being SNAPPED. Once she left, it was all boys gang out here- uday, geroge, lokesh, chitti, nikmo, swami Naidu, visu, alladi, allok, and me. We seat ourselves with veggies on one side and pure-non-veg on the other for easier serving (and also for easier billing :)).

Making sure everybody is seated comfortably I hand out the greetings I had. The one I liked the most was the one I wrote for George. I became all tingly and excited like a child from inside when handing out. Once the orders were given, we started talking about quotas in IIT’s, how IIT is going to be. With so many people around it becomes quite a task to maintain conversation with all but at the same time you can’t sit idle and take your favorites and be with them. Well, that’s what has happened earlier FIRST-MEET ever at EAT STREET. I thought girls were out of sync there maybe because that’s how four years had been. So this time I thought maybe all boys wouldn’t be a bad idea. As Abhi entered so did the waiter from inside to serve the dishes. What a Coincidence I tell you. As always highly excited like a guy who topped the unit tests, he comes in and greets everyone.

Now the discussion centered on how American way of life is and that once there one would have to succumb to DRINKING, tempted to amoral desires, asking them if they have learnt cooking, taken the immuno form, tablets, clothes etc. Meanwhile chicken biryani was doing rounds accompanied by the curries. All the dishes were excellent and were adequate. When I thought I had enough someone ordered Noodles. I tell you, for future reference, I can have noodles no matter what state I am in. I am a noodles-freak (or in general Chinese food freak…) and maybe it was me who spoiled Chitti in becoming one. We had so many outings in God-knows-what kind of places but we had masti time eating together.

I don’t remember much of the convo that we had that day but I can tell you everybody was engaged in talking about something or the other and none was left behind. It was around 10:30 when we finished everything and came out. Like always, I took the cam-phone from Alok, and had the snaps taken with all of us standing before the resto. Everybody were reluctant to have a go at Ice-Creams. Then one guy (Loki) started eating, everyone followed the suit with CHIITTI in the lead. Well I guess he is one of those who cares more for friends than for anyone else. I suggested on a lighter note to treat us all. He took it literally and finished shelling out money for all the 11 ice creams. Thanks mate, may you and your compassionate heart

In other twenty minutes everyone left on some bike or the other. For some reason I felt this meet was something different, for me at least. Maybe because it was the first time I was involved in calling up people, setting the place and time taking the responsibility of a good host. And I feel I have done a good job except for that minor glitch.

I wish all those guys who have gone to pursue their higher studies a very successful life. Your presence at the party made the day all the more memorable.

!!!Amen!!!