"Here I am, this is me, there's nowhere else on earth....." I feel like singing.. Yes I am in a really isolated place, a good one at that to be honest, called National Brain Reseach Centre, Manesar. On the work front, I am sort of quite confused and I haven't gotten into the groove yet. But there's another side to it. This is my first real hostel life. Hostel life is something i am super excited about, nevertheless, i can say i am indeed happy that I haven't lived it for long until now. This time, its my 2nd IAS fellowship. So this time around, I was actually looking forward to go around and get a good taste of the NCR. I did quite a bit of this going around, visiting places business last time too and I am always hungry for more of such stuff. It is just two weekends since i am here in this Godforsaken place(strictly in terms of its isolation and nothing else) but I should say I have already got some real adventurous experiences in my kitty.
Apart from the fact that i have indeed finally gotten into this routine of sleeping late, (something almost all the hostel friends of mine would know that i am very,very curious about) and having great fun in the process, this has brought out the brave girl in me, if i can happily say that. Lemme explain..
The first weekend was good fun going around in Delhi. Thanks to arun, we did quite a bit of roaming around business, exactly what i wanted! Arvi and Yuvi joined us from Noida. If u bother to note, its ppl from three different states meeting up.. Me from haryana, yuvi n arvi from noida, and arun from delhi. We went to CP(Oh i still remember the Kaventer's strawberry milk!!), then travelled by Metro (one of my loooooong time wishes) to Chawri Bazaar and there we were in Dilli-6!! "yeh dilli hai mere yaar!!" We actually went to the cramped streets of the place, went to jama masjid in the scorching sun. Scorching, for want of a better word... Omg! I have never burnt my feet in sandstone like that! It was so damn hot! I had boils all over the next day thanks to the super duper heat, but who cares! It was good fun and then we went back to CP(metro again!) and the day ended in delhi... My stint in Gurgaon started at 5 in the evening and i went into the most famous malls of the city, probably the country... Came back feeling lighter.. i mean, my purse became empty!
Then the second weekend... The saturday was one of the most boring days of my life. Very bad. No work, no fun. So we decided to go to "Gobind da dhaba" a typical typical highway dhaba on NH-8 opposite NSG campus. Its a small walk (small in haryana terms, it is actually quite far)from the insti so we made a quick plan and started off for dinner at 8. Then came the first hinderance! Aandhi!! Windstorm!! After it subdued (abated! scary GRE!!!!!) we started walking towards it... The insti's gate is a 25 min walk from the hostel. The security stopped us saying 'ladkon ke saath ladkiyon, raat ko, aat bhaje, yeh, voh'. It was one good crowd of people, obviously, there's absolutely no difference between guys and girls when it comes to good food! But alas, no! we werent let out! God! Our last hope for the saturday was gone! we returned back wid a biiiig frown, totally frustrated! So we took a cornetto at the 'monu ka mall' (in our lingo,it cant even qualify as a dhukan let alone a mall) the only thing called a shop near the insti, to satiate(!) our hunger, and drive away the frustu mood. It did no good. So we said, 'ok we shall go to Ambience mall tomorrow'. Ambience is that huuuuuge 3km mall.But again, malls can get indeed boring, really boring and u end up paying a fortune for getting bored! So we barged into the lab, at 11 in the night, googled on what all places we could visit in Gurgaon. Internet is indeed a boon for desperate people like us and the blogosphere and google maps, a even better bliss. So we noted down, made superb plans for the sunday to go into proper gurgaon. Until then, gurgaon had started and ended in sahara mall for us!Wow!! There were so many places to go!!
Sunday, i woke up early got ready, raring to go, explore gurgaon! 10 :45 was the time the NBRC van starts, well, that's what we thought and wrongly so. And i happened to forget the fact that i was living in a hostel where mornings start at 10! I woke up the other partners in crime that day at 10.. We were almost there at 10: 40... only to see that the bus had gone! GONE! leaving us alone in that isolated, god-forbidden(again, strictly with respect to its isolation) place! All our ambitious plans were shattered!
But wait! Weren't we supposed to be brave, daring girls? The bus has left, so what? There were no guys to accompany us, as silly as it sounds, for safety as they say, so what? It is after all a highway and there were thousands of people travelling on it. Why dont we venture out? Our frustration became our motivation!
So there we were, dabbing on our sunscreens, three of us, walking out of the institute, on NH-8, all alone, with just googled knowledge of where we wanted to go. Then came a tempo, as they call it here(i wouldnt even call it a vehicle with an engine) loaded with wheat sacks, we were asked to sit on top of the sacks! That was bad!! We said no!! We are adventurous all right, but it seemed to be a bad idea!
Then came another tempo, our saviour, this time, empty. We got in and finished off all the tropicana we carried along, thanks to the 11 o'clock sun. The tempo driver suddenly stopped at a temple, took some prashad and started giving us! All of us instantly shouted in the lowest of our voices"dont eat!"What if he planned to rob us giving us something! Okie, it wasnt a biscuit but still it was some eatable! it was oily and we had to keep it. It was prashad after all. Then the next shock! he suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere and said, go to the other tempo! Apparently its a deal between them about who is to go first or sumthin. We ended up in a smelly tempo in the hottest of weather with some of typical haryanvi villagers. Weird looks were passed as if we were Martians! Wherever i went, all i could hear was something starting wid "akeli mein theen ladkiyon" stuff all over.. Why is this so bad???
But after three four shift, we finally came to the place - Sec 14 market!! It isn't such a big place n all, as u would probly think from my build up, its juz a decent market. But anything out of the institute and within gurgaon limits was heaven for me. Vishala was with us, who has never gone shopping in the whole of her life so she freaked out at the cheap kurtas and added to the exchequer! We gorged on street food(golgoppas and golas, the kala kattas stuff) searched all around for om sweets, ate like aliens to food, went to dominoes and yes we still had time to shop after so much of eating! I put on mehndi, my first love in north india! It was so intricate and good, only that i had to bear with some embarrasing questions and funny predictions about my brother in law the next day seeing the color! And as usual, we ended our day in sahara mall and gurgaon central that day too! We felt like we achieved something great in our lives and the whole insti knew what we were upto that day. Maybe now it sounds silly to me to blow such a simple sunday outing out of proportion, but trust me, the more u want and wait for sumthing, the better u like it. The frustration made us enjoy every second of it, all the more! And dont blame me if u wasted your time reading this, you gotta bear with it!
So yeah, Here I Am, waiting for my next weekend. The plannin process starts on monday morning, but the plans never turn out to be true. Somehow, the moments we have the most fun seem to be the moments that are most unplanned. So lemme wait, this time without any plans, but with loads of expectations, for the next weekend!! While all of u folks remember and keep reminding me that there is something called a week inbetween the ends and all of us are supposed to work!
Happy week ahead!!
Sunday, i woke up early got ready, raring to go, explore gurgaon! 10 :45 was the time the NBRC van starts, well, that's what we thought and wrongly so. And i happened to forget the fact that i was living in a hostel where mornings start at 10! I woke up the other partners in crime that day at 10.. We were almost there at 10: 40... only to see that the bus had gone! GONE! leaving us alone in that isolated, god-forbidden(again, strictly with respect to its isolation) place! All our ambitious plans were shattered!
But wait! Weren't we supposed to be brave, daring girls? The bus has left, so what? There were no guys to accompany us, as silly as it sounds, for safety as they say, so what? It is after all a highway and there were thousands of people travelling on it. Why dont we venture out? Our frustration became our motivation!
So there we were, dabbing on our sunscreens, three of us, walking out of the institute, on NH-8, all alone, with just googled knowledge of where we wanted to go. Then came a tempo, as they call it here(i wouldnt even call it a vehicle with an engine) loaded with wheat sacks, we were asked to sit on top of the sacks! That was bad!! We said no!! We are adventurous all right, but it seemed to be a bad idea!
Then came another tempo, our saviour, this time, empty. We got in and finished off all the tropicana we carried along, thanks to the 11 o'clock sun. The tempo driver suddenly stopped at a temple, took some prashad and started giving us! All of us instantly shouted in the lowest of our voices"dont eat!"What if he planned to rob us giving us something! Okie, it wasnt a biscuit but still it was some eatable! it was oily and we had to keep it. It was prashad after all. Then the next shock! he suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere and said, go to the other tempo! Apparently its a deal between them about who is to go first or sumthin. We ended up in a smelly tempo in the hottest of weather with some of typical haryanvi villagers. Weird looks were passed as if we were Martians! Wherever i went, all i could hear was something starting wid "akeli mein theen ladkiyon" stuff all over.. Why is this so bad???
But after three four shift, we finally came to the place - Sec 14 market!! It isn't such a big place n all, as u would probly think from my build up, its juz a decent market. But anything out of the institute and within gurgaon limits was heaven for me. Vishala was with us, who has never gone shopping in the whole of her life so she freaked out at the cheap kurtas and added to the exchequer! We gorged on street food(golgoppas and golas, the kala kattas stuff) searched all around for om sweets, ate like aliens to food, went to dominoes and yes we still had time to shop after so much of eating! I put on mehndi, my first love in north india! It was so intricate and good, only that i had to bear with some embarrasing questions and funny predictions about my brother in law the next day seeing the color! And as usual, we ended our day in sahara mall and gurgaon central that day too! We felt like we achieved something great in our lives and the whole insti knew what we were upto that day. Maybe now it sounds silly to me to blow such a simple sunday outing out of proportion, but trust me, the more u want and wait for sumthing, the better u like it. The frustration made us enjoy every second of it, all the more! And dont blame me if u wasted your time reading this, you gotta bear with it!
So yeah, Here I Am, waiting for my next weekend. The plannin process starts on monday morning, but the plans never turn out to be true. Somehow, the moments we have the most fun seem to be the moments that are most unplanned. So lemme wait, this time without any plans, but with loads of expectations, for the next weekend!! While all of u folks remember and keep reminding me that there is something called a week inbetween the ends and all of us are supposed to work!
Happy week ahead!!
P.S: The biggest miss of the first weekend was probably Ghantewala sweets. From my grandpa's days to this day, i have always heard, and once, i have myself tasted its mouth-watering sweets.I really wanted to go there, but somehow, it didnt strike me when i was right there at dilli-6. Well, that gives me one more reason to go to dilli-6 again!
Next, i found(well, actually arvi pointed out!) a truly mind-blowing innovation.May be it has existed for ages, but i have never known. Probably if they asked me to choose this year's Nobel, i shall give it to this. The thing is most, almost all, escalators have shoe brushes on their sides. What an idea! Save time; Save human labor/effort; Step out with sparkling shoes! Awesome! Hats off to the brain behind the idea! And many more hats off to the pioneering engineers of the delhi metro, of which one i heard was from Civil Engg dept of Anna Univ, obviously belonging to the old, glorious past batches.
