Of New Delhi

I was in Delhi for a couple of nights to...well basically to live it up with a bunch of old timers who had come from 3 different cities to the nation's capital to re-live the days of the good old boy's hostel one more time. The only problem being that there were too many boys, just like in the times of the said boy's hostel.

Anyway, this short whirlwind trip to Delhi was fun to say the least. Friday saw me cross 4 state borders as I flew out of Kolkata, landed at the Delhi airport from where I was whisked away to Gurgaon to have lunch with an old school friend. Thereafter I availed the services of the Delhi Metro to get to Qutub Minar Station wherefrom an autoride took me to Barakhamba Road where I had an unscheduled meeting with an ugly sibling. Thereafter I got picked up by another friend, a proud Advocate of the Delhi High Court now, and rode away into the evening to Noida Stadium to play a football match which we arrived too late to participate in {classic kels... for the uninitiated kels is the affectionate insinuation of life giving one the proverbial kela (banana)}. In any case our team lost 8-2 to a bunch of kids from a local school who obviously weighed a good 20 kilos less than each of us and had a clean pair of lungs to go with that no doubt. Also the fact that we played the entire first half with 4 players against 7 didn't help our cause.

Saturday, turned out to be the longest day I'd lived since I left college. It commenced at 7 in the morning with a practice football match at Pandara Road, wherein I realised the exact extent of my match-unfitness, and ended at 5 next morning with a well rolled joint, rolled by yours truly. In the middle I managed to fit in going swimming, breakfast at CP, a couple of hours sleep, meeting a bunch of old timers edging to break loose of their newfound corporate sanity, a few choicest cocktails accompanied by a bottle of Black Label and a 5ltr keg of chilled Heineken, and some of the usual drunken drama that is not so usual in my life anymore. Like I said, FUN!

Just one of the many reasons I should shift to New Delhi.

My father is in Japan. I wanted him to get me a samurai sword. I think I let him down. He calmly explained that they wouldn't allow weapons on board a flight even if they actually sold a samurai sword to a common man (while secretly recounting the thousands he's spent on my education no doubt). A camera, Ipod or funky watch maybe??

He's granted my alternate wish of getting me a pair of Zori chappals, so yaay!

The entire NALSAR contingent is in town for a fest. Met a lotta juniors (who are like seniors now, damn) and spoke to some I had never spoken to in college. Friday night Olypub, Kolkata was invaded by nalsarites. And well everyone got to know once the lights went out for a while. We can be an annoyingly loud bunch when inebriated and of course still in college.

It's funny being amidst your college juniors now. Its not that you're any wiser or do not have similar intentions and all. Its just that what comes naturally to them still, bears severe consequences for you. Like being hungover at work. Not the same as being hungover in class, nossir.

Anyway it was nice meeting them kids one more time (or maybe one last time!?!). These kids are waay more uninhibited than we were at their age. Good for them I say.

Also I hope and pray they win the football tournament. Please man God, please.

I have a permanent back problem now. As in it starts hurting for no rhyme or reason. Or maybe the reason is that I'm sitting upright for too long. That followed by a severe sleep starvation. As in my body and mind are tired but I still don't seem to get any sleep till late in the night. The latter is disturbing since till only 8 months back my biggest problem was that I slept too much. Like over 12 hours a day on an average. If this is life balancing itself out then I wish it wouldn't.

Somewhere in my mind I've realised that the Rorschach in college wouldn't be very good friends with the Rorschach that is the working man. This I find more disturbing than the aforesaid physical ailments, me being particularly fond of the college version.

Blue pill? Red pill? LSD??!? What have I done wrong??

From A Softer World ...

To KK, Loks, Viki, Sangu, GC, Bob, DVR, Booty, Baaz, Shetti & JAA. It'll never be the same again, but it was fun while it lasted.

Ps: The above work is copyrighted to Emily Horne & Joey Comeau. Used for purely sentimental purposes.

Wrapping Paper

In the gutter,
Moving slowly as the wind on the sea,
Faces calling, waves moving
In your picture on a wall of a house of old times.
Can you hear me; Can you hear me
Can you hear me; Wandering sadly?...

- Jack Bruce & Pete Brown.

I got my wrapping paper. I got my freedom ticket. I wish things were different, but there's no other way they'd let it be. So just let it be. We'll still be free.

A toast to the ones who paid a greater price than I; and another to the ones who left loaded in gold.

Becoming an Advocate...

Was one of the biggest challenges I've faced till date. Fortunately for me the curse has been lifted and I have cleared all my repeats. Ergo, moi is a graduate. In other words an Advocate.

Big sigh of relief and lots of alcohol. Peace and love to the world. It already seems like a much better place to be in. Cheers.

Of Evaluations & Revaluations

As mentioned earlier, I have just spent two weeks writing backlog exams at Nalsar. One would feel that after having spent five years in law school the college would be more kind and eager to help out its students who were left with backlogs at the end of the last semester. Sorry, not Nalsar. Once an ugly bastard, always an ugly bastard is Nalsar.

Despite imprisioning a bunch of young people within a 55 acre confine for 5 years, they still don't relent in their ways when it comes to doing anything for its students.

I say this because of the following.

In Nalsar if you cannot clear a paper in the first attempt, they allow you to write a repeat exam in the same subject. Alongside the option of writing a repeat there is the option of applying for a revaluation. Now registering for a repeat costs Rs.500 per paper, while applying for a reval costs Rs.1000 per paper. There were 9 of us who were still burdened with repeats after our last semester in college, many of whom - myself included - applied for revaluation in papers where we missed out narrowly. Basically by one mark or less. Whilst applying for reval we had asked the Head of Nalsar Examination Department about the date of release of revaluation results. They'd assured us that the same would be out before the repeats commenced. Obviously, since it doesn't make sense to write a repeat in a paper you've already cleared in the revaluation.

We were further asked to also deposit the amount for repeats along with the reval money, cause well they had set last dates for submission of examination fees. They still hadn't released a date for results though. Now we've all paid for the repeat exams as well revaluation in several papers where we've failed to clear by one mark. Remember they had assured us that the revaulation results would be out before we write our repeats.

Fast Forward to today : I leave Nalsar for the final time after having written all my repeats. Everyone else had already left. We had to write all papers, including the ones we had submitted for revaluation, cause well they haven't declared the results yet. We also have no clue as to when our results will be released. Also none of the fees paid to the examination department are refundable, which means all the money paid towards revaluation and repeats are gone irrespective of whether they actually re-evaluate our papers or not. Either ways, as it turned out we might as well have simply written all our repeats since the reval results coming out now deosn't really do us much good. Any good rather.

It was early morning when I was leaving Nalsar along with an old friend, and I guess somewhere deep within I was praying to be hit by some sort of remorse, or feeling of loss at the same. But I realised that the really sad part was that even now, leaving for the final time - I won't come back here, pass or fail - I felt a sense of relief; one that I feel everytime I leave campus. All I feel after spending 5 years here is relief on leaving.

This makes me sad.