There's a soft breeze flowing in through the netlon_covered window, there's the sound of 40 computer speakers belting out everything from U2 to A.R.Rehman, there're 1170kms between me and home, there're disconnected thoughts floating around in my mind which make this moment even more difficult to describe than it should be.

Where should I begin? From my 22nd birthday being celebrated on ze A.P Express with a motley bunch of army officers, Laloo Prasad relative, 1 perv and one punjabi bimbo? Or the 200kms cab drive from hell? Or travelling at 20kmph sharing the autowallah's seat with a bucket in my lap and a big "wtf?" in my head? Or tonight?

72 hrs back I was in Hyderabad saying goodbye to good ole red comp chair and every event in these past 3 days has been so very umm...eventful. :) 'Tis been all the stuff I've been hoping to experience...almost.

What am I talking about? The subject line says it all, though the fact that my birthday and my 1st ever steps into a hostel make this even more significant than a simple "b-school journey begins" kinda shindig. Lets start with the birthday, the cast on the Train #2723 consisted of mom, perv, fat perv, punjabi bimbo, major, wide-eyed major, lalu_prashad_chum and me. Perv possessed a 7610 which he used to good effect to take pics of punjabi bimbo which kept fat perv entertained in turn. lpc was a real treat who held firm to his belief that Zail Singh was illiterate and was oblivious to the fact that Perv n Fat Perv were ROTFL'in at him. major n wide-eyed major made me realise that the Indian Army is not as bad as the Gandipet jawans make it out to be. *salute* Punjabi bimbo laughed. Mom repeated her joke thrice jus to make sure everyone got it, she's cute like that. I distributed cake to all of 'em. :-" Happy birthday to me.

Landed at Bhopal where Mr.Robinson Crusoe (yes, thats a real name) was a real god-send ,what with him directing us to the cab guy and bargaining and all that. Loaded 18 pieces of luggage into the Sumo and off we were. Head-banging thanks to the ride and our generally sleep-deprived states, we ended up lost. :D Till a helpful police station finally got us there. There being "the college on the hill". As we took that left turn at 4:20AM, 27th June, with fingers pointing out frantically saying "worrai! look campus occhindhi!" n d other guy muttering "dude, i dont know telugu :|", it all sank in and everything fell into place. There was not much other than amazement and sheer awe as I looked on at the campus - set high on the hill with winding roads leading to its apex(the acad block) and various green signs leading us to the wrong entrance into the hostels, the campus at night was quite a sight then and now just 3 days later feels so familiar...slowly starting to become a part of me.

The view from D-203 is quite a stunner, totally complemented by the weather which is just about too filmi to be true. A cold breeze breathes over the hilltop every single moment and a drizzle comes down every once in a while to remind us of the season. The black-topped roads and the bright signs look alive thanks to the constant natural cleaning, the grass is golden - a hue of brown which goes with the semi-brown acad block, the architecture reminding me of the jantar-mantar floorplan at the birla planetarium (yes it is that convoluted and yet so breathtaking)...and then the view. Any which way you look there are mountains, wide expanses of that golden grass and not another human soul in sight. :) This room gives the phrase "a room with a view" its very definition. :D I'm now stationed on a floor with tams n gults belting out more south-indian hits than SS Music could hope to access. Yam luwwin yit I shay! :D

Finally, to end this rather long_drawn, non_drp_ish post, tonight there was a meeting of sorts in the mess (btw, the food is so good I don't miss lakshmamma's unedible black oddities ..no seriously, the food is wow.). After the meeting, and my first few "interactions" with seniors and all that jazz, 76 hrs into the IIM-Indore life, here I am grateful. Grateful for having made the right decision, for being in a position to choose and then doing the right thing. For being in a place where I actually have soft-lighting in my room, for being able to blog about this. For being called the guy "who badly needs a haircut". For having the bestest birthday gift - a new life. B-schooling? I have no idea wht tht is for now, but I sure as hell know what the word campus means. :)

Signing out peaceful,
Payne


PS : Happy journey mom! :D



Current Mood: Amazed
Current Music: Cacophony. a mix of high-blaring music everywhere. :|