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Feb 17, 2013

The Field Observer: The Voyage Begins

This post is a part of a series. Check the other parts here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Disclaimer: 
This blog post is the blogger's imagination loosely inspired by some of his life events over the past two weeks. Any resemblance to any other real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental

Day -1:
Considering our train was at 6.50 PM from Delhi, the starting time of 9 AM from Roorkee was a bit too early in my opinion. With great reluctance, I reached the bus parked right outside our hostel ten minutes before the scheduled departure. What I failed to realize is that we were summoned at 9 AM Roorkee Time and not IST!
  • The people expected us to go on a trip to Las Vegas(talking of pubs and nightclubs in the buildup of the same, and also the way the guys dressed like brides).
  • Rowdy came out of his house all geared up for Antarctica, whereas Genius' luggage spoke more of a world tour than a ten day field trip.
  • As Rowdy forced his domination over the poor kids, they decided to revolt by not eating lunch. What's worst is that Rowdy didn't even notice the revolt.
  • The medicine team, on being unsuccessful in getting the core stock, desperately asked the people to get their own supply, fearing the worst.
  • The German Scientist started squeaking all of a sudden scaring the junta to death. It turns out he wanted his mother to send him a diaper.

Day 0:
  • “We will be your friends”- For the journey, four of us booked tickets in 3 AC as our skin was too delicate to handle the cold air gushing in through the open windows of the sleeper class seats. I ended up getting a seat in a different bogey. Although we spent time together, I went there at night, nonetheless, as no one else was willing to shift. The next day, my friends called me as soon as I woke up for breakfast. On coming to know that I wanted to leave to be with my friends, my co-passengers said- we would be your friends!
  • Nagpur, our destination, apparently the cleanest city in India, greeted us with cow-dung on our way out. We assumed it to be holy and continued on our way out of the railway station.
  • Helmets are banned here. People are fined if they are found wearing helmets. Consequently, you won't find anyone with protective headgear. It seems that a common belief is that saving the head is too mainstream.
  • By the time we reached the hostel from the station, Daka had mentioned for the hundredth time that Nagpur is peaceful.
  • We were allotted rooms at the MLA hostels. The receptionist could not give us an extra pillow (three people were sharing a room) or an extra bed sheet. I now know why there is so much corruption among the politicians. 
  • The junta is out at the moment exploring the pseudo Las Vegas (considering the senior batch had a trip to Goa), as my tired arms force me to rather stay back and write this.
  • Rowdy running from canteen guys: One thing which was obvious from before is that Rowdy is a horrible planner. We doubted that he was a coward as well, but never had any experience of the same. Until now. As the caterers were making our food at the place of accommodation that Gizmo Guy had provided, the badass m*therf*cker canteen contractor, as he was losing his business- came to drive the caterers out of the place. Rowdy ended up watching the conversation from a safe distance, and pushed me and Gizmo Guy to handle the situation.
  • “Walking buffalos is too mainstream”: Nagpur people do this in motorcycles. Period.
  • People crammed in a room for the meeting: We had a so called meeting on the first night with Rowdy, with the objective of discussing stuff, which could be classified into two broad areas- technical and non technical. The technical areas included the (so-called) plans (which my 15 year old cousin would laugh at) for the next few days, and the non technical areas involved the grievances that we were facing.
  • The Food Incharge: Yes, I was appointed the food incharge. My duty was to make sure everybody got food, on time, and also to ensure satisfaction. To be frank, that is just Rowdy outsourcing his work just because he is incapable of doing it. I appointed Devdas as the customer service representative.

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