Its been exactly 10 years since we walked out of the campus with a sheet of paper that proclaimed we were engineers. I can now vaguely remember the final days, after 4 years in that campus, not necessarily studying, but forming a ton of memorable moments and lots of strongly cemented relationships. Yes, its been 10 years since we completed our bachelors degree in what was once called Shanmugha College of Engineering - now fancily named SASTRA University!
Recently got a chance to drive past the college and it brought back all those awesome memories. Memories that have slowly faded away, being the victim of time and my poor long term memory! :)
The memories of those new friendships and bondings that happened over the period of four years - some that are still going strong, some that are struggling hard to hold on and some that have simply fallen away by the wayside, unable to keep up and compete with other "important things" of a fast paced life of adulthood.
The bus rides... the death trap of buses numbered 37, 47 and 57. The countless trips to Trichy and Kumbakonam... the movies at Cauvery, Kamala and lunches at the ridiculously darkened Raghunath hotel! The countless trips to Archies stores, the innumerable greeting cards, the strips and strips of stickers on those cards, the long hours of listening to BackStreet boys, Hotel California...ohh I should write about my BackStreetBoys crazy friend, Mr.S. So, we have Unix-C programming lab and all of us are breaking our head with the program code while Mr.S comes over and says that his code doesnt compile and asks us to look at it. We being the sincere friends, go over to help him. And what do we find in the code? Yeah, the lyrics of "Everybody, rock your body" song by BackStreetBoys and not a single line of actual code!!! :) hmm, now that reminds me of the great story book idea by Mr. M - his idea was to write a story book that captured his life in college those 4 years. I believe he had written a page and half over two years! Should check with him what happened to it!!
The great lecturers - ofcourse most of them great not for their teaching skills but for their easy going, friendly nature. The ones that we had most fun with like Maths Super Subbu, Chucks, the many Priyas - SuryaPriya, MadhuPriya..., the many Geethas - LG, Chemistry EG, Microprocessor AG..., the ones that we loved to hate like English Sound, Algos Janu... the ones that we loved to love like DataStructures VasanthaLakshmi, hmm... she deserves mentioning twice... Vasantha Lakshmi! :)
The interesting classes like Engg Drawing from first year where we loved to get confused and additionally loved to confuse the lecturer with our stupid arguments... chemistry class where, believe it or not, we actually fought for colored markers to take neat looking notes!!... DataStructures class... this one just purely for VasanthaLakshmi... not for the course itself. By now you have probably figured out VasanthaLakshmi was our heart throb... I remember all of us had a string of doubts just so she would walk over to our desks to explain things once again! :) I also remember most of us stepping up to the stage to teach the class on topics that we had no clue about whatsoever - just coz she asked us to. I also vividly remember the sad day when she got married and the whole college was in mourning for a long, long time. It still hurts to think about that day! :).... Control Structures class... though I cant remember her name, she was one awesome lecturer... this time I really mean it, she was very good at teaching one of the toughest subjects; though I only managed to just pass in that subject is an entirely different matter! :)
Ohh, and the never ending list of other great memories like the college tour, the lunch box fights, the Mothers Chicken dinners, the College House / Udayar kadai teas and parathas, the study holidays night studies - all we ever did was waste our time the whole night but promptly walked over to the overnight tea shop for our 2AM tea to keep us awake to waste the rest of the night!!!, the bench behind the girls row... hmm that makes me wonder... I was never always a back bencher or never ever a first bencher but almost always on the bench right behind the girls... given that fact, my success rate with girls is probably at negative infinity now! :) whatever, I will attribute it to this cruel, cruel world!!!
Those 4 years were definitely one of the best times in our lives... for all the great experiences, friendships and some technical knowledge we gained there! :)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Path of the Incas and Capybaras
After 2 months of practice hikes - with backpacks, without backpacks, with steep inclines, without steep inclines, with 2 litres of water, without 2 litres of water, with REI moisture wicking lightweight clothes, without REI moisture wicking lightweight clothes, with Goretex breathable hiking boots, without Goretex breathable hiking boots.... insert any combination that comes to your mind here! :) ... the big day finally arrived to catch a flight to Peru for the awesome 4 day Inca trek and visit the Amazon Rainforests.
And what a trip it was... the colors of Aguas Calientes, the food during the trek, the people of Lima, the cobbled stone streets of Cusco... one of the best trips yet. It was so good that most of the time we couldnt remember what day of the week it was. All we could remember was...'ohh, its the 2nd day of the trek' or 'the 3rd day of the rainforest'! :)
And yes, for those of you holding your breath to know the answer to this.. Yes, I did notice the flush... and I am happy to anounce that its true that the flush spirals down in the other direction in the southern hemisphere! :) Yeah, Yeah, I know... my sis says that you can make it rotate anyway you want... it only applies for hurricanes or air movement and apparently she is correct. But if I am a bee, the flush is definitely as big as a hurricane is to humans! And if I am northern hemisphere bee visiting below the equator, your flush just confused the hell out of me and possibly killed me!! :p Btw, if you have no clue what I am blabbering about, you probably werent holding your breath to begin with and you can go Bing for 'Coriolis effect' or 'flush hemisphere'!
Inca trek...
briefly this was the trek... it was tough but doable and definitely worth it...
1st day 10kms at arnd 10k feet,
2nd day 12kms at arnd 13k feet,
3rd day 16kms at arnd 10k feet,
4th day 6kms.. Macchu Pichu.
The most surprising part of the trip was the awesome food and the service we were provided. We had 3 course meals in addition to tea times and popcorn... popcorn on a 4 day trek! And I celebrated one of my best birthdays ever. The chef made a huge cake out of pancake flour and hand mixed icings. It was impressive how resourceful they were given we were out on a moutain trek.
Other noteworthy and interesting aspects of the trek were...
- the super strong porters who carried double what we were carrying and walked at double our speed!
- our super-duper guide Rueben and one of the porters who supposedly has 5 wives!!
- on our way back, my friend forgot her camera in the train. The train left the station and was about 100mts away and what does our heroine do?! Yes, she yells "Stop, stop" and voila, the train actually stops! We couldnt believe that its so casual in those rural areas and a train stops if you just yell at it - like a taxi!
- hot springs at Aguas Calientes.. its actually, as a friend puts it, just a leaky pipe and it definitely was not hot. I think they should call it Stink Springs, coz you notice the stink more than the heat! btw, this town had no public transport. You walk everywhere and goods are moved using a trolley!
- the winter solstice celebration at Cusco was impressive. The cobbled stone streets and the colorful displays were impressive - though I dont know why all the dancers were old - looked like the minimum age requirement was 80! :)
Amazon rainforest...
- the 4 hour boat ride in the river to lodge was interesting and boring at the same time.
- we saw a bunch of animals like the caymans, capybaras, macaws, squirrel monkeys
- the wooden lodge had power only for 4 hours a day which was interesting... the lodge had hammocks and countless bugs and now I have a ton of bug bites all over my arms and legs! :(
- in entire Peru, all they seem to drink was the watery beer called Cusquena or the horrible soda called Inka Kola or the very good national cocktail called Pisco Sour.
- and in the middle of the jungle, so far away from modern civilization, we ran into a Shahrukh Khan fan! Apparently SRK is popular there, so are Bollywood movies.
Lima...
- Lima definitely surprised us with a lot of lover-couples and romantic spots... It was surely a romantic city.
- ohh and we were walking along one of the streets and we heard hindu bajans out of some church building window... after some debate and deciding that the worst that could happen is a police visit, we decided to knock on the door. Apparently it was a private residence attached to a church and this Peruvian guy was doing pooja! He was happy to see us and showed us arnd inside his house... No idea how he picked up Hinduism though... we didnt see a lot of Indians in Peru.
- Riding the private buses in Lima was fun.. there were no government buses! They were very cheap too! For 1.5 soles they take you on a 30 minute ride!
- After 2 weeks following the path of the Incas on the trek and visiting countless ruins during the trek, what do we do in Lima? We went to an erotic museum that displayed the erotic side of the Incan empire. Thats something you dont see quite often - an erotic museum! :)
And what a trip it was... the colors of Aguas Calientes, the food during the trek, the people of Lima, the cobbled stone streets of Cusco... one of the best trips yet. It was so good that most of the time we couldnt remember what day of the week it was. All we could remember was...'ohh, its the 2nd day of the trek' or 'the 3rd day of the rainforest'! :)
And yes, for those of you holding your breath to know the answer to this.. Yes, I did notice the flush... and I am happy to anounce that its true that the flush spirals down in the other direction in the southern hemisphere! :) Yeah, Yeah, I know... my sis says that you can make it rotate anyway you want... it only applies for hurricanes or air movement and apparently she is correct. But if I am a bee, the flush is definitely as big as a hurricane is to humans! And if I am northern hemisphere bee visiting below the equator, your flush just confused the hell out of me and possibly killed me!! :p Btw, if you have no clue what I am blabbering about, you probably werent holding your breath to begin with and you can go Bing for 'Coriolis effect' or 'flush hemisphere'!
Inca trek...
briefly this was the trek... it was tough but doable and definitely worth it...
1st day 10kms at arnd 10k feet,
2nd day 12kms at arnd 13k feet,
3rd day 16kms at arnd 10k feet,
4th day 6kms.. Macchu Pichu.
The most surprising part of the trip was the awesome food and the service we were provided. We had 3 course meals in addition to tea times and popcorn... popcorn on a 4 day trek! And I celebrated one of my best birthdays ever. The chef made a huge cake out of pancake flour and hand mixed icings. It was impressive how resourceful they were given we were out on a moutain trek.
Other noteworthy and interesting aspects of the trek were...
- the super strong porters who carried double what we were carrying and walked at double our speed!
- our super-duper guide Rueben and one of the porters who supposedly has 5 wives!!
- on our way back, my friend forgot her camera in the train. The train left the station and was about 100mts away and what does our heroine do?! Yes, she yells "Stop, stop" and voila, the train actually stops! We couldnt believe that its so casual in those rural areas and a train stops if you just yell at it - like a taxi!
- hot springs at Aguas Calientes.. its actually, as a friend puts it, just a leaky pipe and it definitely was not hot. I think they should call it Stink Springs, coz you notice the stink more than the heat! btw, this town had no public transport. You walk everywhere and goods are moved using a trolley!
- the winter solstice celebration at Cusco was impressive. The cobbled stone streets and the colorful displays were impressive - though I dont know why all the dancers were old - looked like the minimum age requirement was 80! :)
Amazon rainforest...
- the 4 hour boat ride in the river to lodge was interesting and boring at the same time.
- we saw a bunch of animals like the caymans, capybaras, macaws, squirrel monkeys
- the wooden lodge had power only for 4 hours a day which was interesting... the lodge had hammocks and countless bugs and now I have a ton of bug bites all over my arms and legs! :(
- in entire Peru, all they seem to drink was the watery beer called Cusquena or the horrible soda called Inka Kola or the very good national cocktail called Pisco Sour.
- and in the middle of the jungle, so far away from modern civilization, we ran into a Shahrukh Khan fan! Apparently SRK is popular there, so are Bollywood movies.
Lima...
- Lima definitely surprised us with a lot of lover-couples and romantic spots... It was surely a romantic city.
- ohh and we were walking along one of the streets and we heard hindu bajans out of some church building window... after some debate and deciding that the worst that could happen is a police visit, we decided to knock on the door. Apparently it was a private residence attached to a church and this Peruvian guy was doing pooja! He was happy to see us and showed us arnd inside his house... No idea how he picked up Hinduism though... we didnt see a lot of Indians in Peru.
- Riding the private buses in Lima was fun.. there were no government buses! They were very cheap too! For 1.5 soles they take you on a 30 minute ride!
- After 2 weeks following the path of the Incas on the trek and visiting countless ruins during the trek, what do we do in Lima? We went to an erotic museum that displayed the erotic side of the Incan empire. Thats something you dont see quite often - an erotic museum! :)
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