Pune is famous for the best-est eating joints, more famous than any of the eating places in Bombay. You can sample a variety of cuisine in all ranges – from the cheapest to the most dearest of menus. Sadly for me, there were fewer instances where I could go out and sample and savour the delicacies of this tasty place. But then whatever places I ate, I shall be talking about them – most of them would be unattractive mess places , but still most of them had a character to themselves.
Lunch on weekdays (as well over weekends) would always be with the Three Musketeers – Srinivas, Gopal and Kumar. No no no... these are not my office colleagues or lunch mates – these are there iconic figures who run the Vishnu mess in Bavdhan area of Pune. One cook, and three polymorphic guys who’d double up as the cleaner, the waiter as well as the manager. A wide variety on their menu, but a safe bet was to eat whatever they suggest and thought you could eat. A thali with dahi at 30Rs per plate was a whole wholesome meal and it was one which would only aid Post Prandial Lethargy.
There were days when we used to work hard, and be late for lunch .. and be disappointed with no curd as a part of the thali. One complaint, and then two watis of dahis were always preserved for us. Just in case we were to be late for lunch.
Food always used to fresh and great. There was this lesson I learnt from these guys out there – “Never say No to a customer” .. being the moody person I am, used to order for any weird dish from their menu. This would lead to a small hushed discussion between the cook and Gopal or Kumar, and in sometime I’d get an affirmative response for my request – then be it Hara Bhara Kebab Masala, Veg Bhuna ??? or Mushroom and Onion Soup , lol. And mind you, all these dishes were good enough. No complaints.
Sometime later, these guys got a full time manager cum cashier for themselves. Sadly, the manager spoke an unpuneish language called as Telegu and was slower than 8086 microprocessor (in this PIV ka zamana) when it came to preparing the bill and calculating the change for your bill. Sadly, Gopal or Kumar had to assist him in the task and they soon donned the hat of a translator, decoding our language to the ‘manager’ along with serving the thalis with as much gusto.
*To be updated
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Pune Traveler
Talking more about travelling in Pune, thankfully I was spared of a major part of it because the lucky dog I was, I was allowed to live in the office (which was housed in a 1BHK apartment in a residential society with t he much needed eateries just downstairs) itself by my internship company boss. So it went more beyond the oh-so-convenient “Work from Home” .. Mine was more like a “Home at Work”. A daily day at office was more on lines of an algorithm
1. Wake up
2. Wash and wear clothes :P
3. Office starts
4. Office ends (by around 7 PM everyday)
5. Home starts
6. Sleep
7. Goto Step 1
It did save a lot of travelling time and trauma associated with it, but I never experienced the numerous joys of travelling to work, jostling elbows in the fifty percent women reserved PMT buses, or shuddering my way in a six seater or getting fleeced by autorickshawala ....and am thankful to God for that. Amen !!!
Traveling in a PMT bus
Having friends interning in Pune as well is a good way to spend evenings .. but sadly all the action lies in the core of Pune and the place I lived in was more dead than a dodo. This led to some interesting journeys to the core of Pune – FC road, JM road, Deccan using various means of transport.
PMT buses and their signboards just make a mockery of common sense and play with the conceptual models of a regular BEST traveller from Mumbai. How in the world would I know where a “Ma Na Pa --> Ma Na Pa (Circle route)” bus is headed? Or where a “NDA --> Shivaji Nagar --> NDA” bus is headed. Plus to add to that the bus number is written in between the origin stop and the destination stop name (if they are , but different). So you have bus boards which say “Ko De Po --> 164 --> Hadapsar” (Ko De Po = Kothrud Depot) and mind you, this guideline is regularly flouted and you have buses with weirdest of boardplates possible.
There is a mystery about travelling in PMT buses .. Travellers and people who ask questions to fellow bystanders about the destination of a freshly arrived bus are usually invisible. No one bothers to give you a look or take heed of your inane question. You have to get into the bus to find out where it goes .. otherwise, you’d be left alone at the bus stop, asking the same question all throughout the day.
PMT bus conductors are a breed apart. They usually have nothing personal to do with the fellow passengers and are basically cool with people climbing into the bus from any entrance and getting off anywhere from anywhich door. Now couldn’t the BEST bus conductors learn some cool lessons from their PMT fellowmates? They usually are not bothered by the rush in the bus and cooly move around trampling the toes of the standees in the bus like Godzilla goes around crushing little dimwits in some ill-fated city.
Question : “Nal stop kadhi yenaar toh please sangnaar ka?”
Answer : “Ass Aynd Dee Tea (that’s SNDT pls) chya stop nantar”
As if, I knew where the SNDT stop is in the first place. Ask a stupid question and get a stupid answer. From that day, I asked fellow passenger who managed to communicate with me after some coaxing and some determination from my end.
Buses in Pune usually don’t take you completely to your destination. You have to get off at some Naka / Chowk / Bridge and pursue another excruciating wait for another metal container to come by, take you in and thankfully leave you at least a kilometre from the place where you left for originally.
I prefer to walk in Pune. Walking is good for your heart, mental health and emotional disposition.
1. Wake up
2. Wash and wear clothes :P
3. Office starts
4. Office ends (by around 7 PM everyday)
5. Home starts
6. Sleep
7. Goto Step 1
It did save a lot of travelling time and trauma associated with it, but I never experienced the numerous joys of travelling to work, jostling elbows in the fifty percent women reserved PMT buses, or shuddering my way in a six seater or getting fleeced by autorickshawala ....and am thankful to God for that. Amen !!!
Traveling in a PMT bus
Having friends interning in Pune as well is a good way to spend evenings .. but sadly all the action lies in the core of Pune and the place I lived in was more dead than a dodo. This led to some interesting journeys to the core of Pune – FC road, JM road, Deccan using various means of transport.
PMT buses and their signboards just make a mockery of common sense and play with the conceptual models of a regular BEST traveller from Mumbai. How in the world would I know where a “Ma Na Pa --> Ma Na Pa (Circle route)” bus is headed? Or where a “NDA --> Shivaji Nagar --> NDA” bus is headed. Plus to add to that the bus number is written in between the origin stop and the destination stop name (if they are , but different). So you have bus boards which say “Ko De Po --> 164 --> Hadapsar” (Ko De Po = Kothrud Depot) and mind you, this guideline is regularly flouted and you have buses with weirdest of boardplates possible.
There is a mystery about travelling in PMT buses .. Travellers and people who ask questions to fellow bystanders about the destination of a freshly arrived bus are usually invisible. No one bothers to give you a look or take heed of your inane question. You have to get into the bus to find out where it goes .. otherwise, you’d be left alone at the bus stop, asking the same question all throughout the day.
PMT bus conductors are a breed apart. They usually have nothing personal to do with the fellow passengers and are basically cool with people climbing into the bus from any entrance and getting off anywhere from anywhich door. Now couldn’t the BEST bus conductors learn some cool lessons from their PMT fellowmates? They usually are not bothered by the rush in the bus and cooly move around trampling the toes of the standees in the bus like Godzilla goes around crushing little dimwits in some ill-fated city.
Question : “Nal stop kadhi yenaar toh please sangnaar ka?”
Answer : “Ass Aynd Dee Tea (that’s SNDT pls) chya stop nantar”
As if, I knew where the SNDT stop is in the first place. Ask a stupid question and get a stupid answer. From that day, I asked fellow passenger who managed to communicate with me after some coaxing and some determination from my end.
Buses in Pune usually don’t take you completely to your destination. You have to get off at some Naka / Chowk / Bridge and pursue another excruciating wait for another metal container to come by, take you in and thankfully leave you at least a kilometre from the place where you left for originally.
I prefer to walk in Pune. Walking is good for your heart, mental health and emotional disposition.
Six Seater ???
There is a shudder going through my body, I sit meekly at one place .. am surrounded by seven or eight other people, some looking directly into my face. Looks ranging from surprise .. to contempt and to plain boredom. I look at my watch ... and wonder how much more time has to pass. There are people coming along from different directions. I am squeezed between the already seven people, but I still want that pan-chewing kaka to stop waiting in vain for the PMT bus and step foot into the “The Six Seater”, than am being a part off.
Yes, I am currently sitting in “The legendary Six Seater of Pune city” and am waiting for the driver to make a decision and arrive at the conclusion that the vehicle is now perfectly full and that he could proceed with the ride .. but till that time, the engine goes on, with the now familiar shudder through my bones, the loud rattling noise of the six seater chassis against other humans and spare parts residing inside it. Five minutes have passed, and by that time .. my heart has switched places with the right lung and the kidney is shoving it’s way up the oesophagus. Gawd !!! Let this goddamned contraption get going and save me from being a “jumbled up” human being.
These Six Seaters (or SS, as I would prefer calling them through the rest of the blog) are God’s gift to Pune – the perfect folly to rude and insolent rickshawalas. These majorly ply in the outskirts of the city, where our majestic rickshwalas refuse to drive on – or refuse to charge by the meter. But there is catch (I know it can’t be all that good and yet be good), these contraptions come with an unlimited seating capacity and probably at an average seat a dozen people at any given time. The question still haunts .. Why the f*** are they still called as “Six Seaters” ???. But still – no issues with it as they charge standard rates (ranging from 5 Rs to a maximum of 8 Rs for five to eight-nine kilometre ride), pretty cheap, eh ? But not at the surgery cost of rattled bones and organs ... am still looking out for my pancreas. :P
Yes, I am currently sitting in “The legendary Six Seater of Pune city” and am waiting for the driver to make a decision and arrive at the conclusion that the vehicle is now perfectly full and that he could proceed with the ride .. but till that time, the engine goes on, with the now familiar shudder through my bones, the loud rattling noise of the six seater chassis against other humans and spare parts residing inside it. Five minutes have passed, and by that time .. my heart has switched places with the right lung and the kidney is shoving it’s way up the oesophagus. Gawd !!! Let this goddamned contraption get going and save me from being a “jumbled up” human being.
These Six Seaters (or SS, as I would prefer calling them through the rest of the blog) are God’s gift to Pune – the perfect folly to rude and insolent rickshawalas. These majorly ply in the outskirts of the city, where our majestic rickshwalas refuse to drive on – or refuse to charge by the meter. But there is catch (I know it can’t be all that good and yet be good), these contraptions come with an unlimited seating capacity and probably at an average seat a dozen people at any given time. The question still haunts .. Why the f*** are they still called as “Six Seaters” ???. But still – no issues with it as they charge standard rates (ranging from 5 Rs to a maximum of 8 Rs for five to eight-nine kilometre ride), pretty cheap, eh ? But not at the surgery cost of rattled bones and organs ... am still looking out for my pancreas. :P
Day One in Pune - "The Puneri Rickhawala"
It all started off with the phone call that confirmed my internship in Pune. Ahead of that is what you would read in this blog.
Had heard a lot about Pune, the culture, the people, the mannerisms and obviously was excited to be in amidst all of it. To make lives simpler for the reader and not go on and on with my daily experiences, I shall categorize my experiences.
Lets start off with the quintessential rickshwalas from Pune.
The date: 18th May 2009, I ease my way into the of Pune. A friend volunteers to drive all the way from Kothrud and pick me up at University and drop me at Pashan at my relative’s place. Till that time, all places and locations and direction are as alien and difficult for me as for a Martian wanting to go to Kings Circle station, standing bewildered in the queue at ticket window number 12 at Andheri railway station on the Eastern side.
I politely decline the offer saying that I have a huge bag with me and that it’d be difficult for me to manage the bike sitting on the pillion. Forewarned about the moody and the princely rickshawalas of Pune (by the friend itself), I step foot on Pune soils. Confidently I approach a rickshwala and ask him to take me to Pashan, near NCL.
And ahead of it, it all happens in slow motion. I get in .. the rickshwala’s hand goes towards the meter, simultaneously asking me more details of the place I want to. This moment, I commit the worst mistake that one could do in the lands of this Asian Oxford. I ummm....errrr...gulp, say that I need to call and get more details. The hand goes down back to the rickshaw handle and a smug look evolves on our friendly rickshawala’s face and he says with a shrug “Chalees rupaye hoteel” (It’d cost my 40 rupees) and voila, am taken for a ride the moment I step into Pune. I dish out fourty bucks for a then later 5.65 minute drive from University to Pashan. I feel more cheated than a cow that’s been milked ... and you know what.
Moreover I must admit that the rickshwalas out here are more honest than the ones in Bombay. They do openly admit that they are charging that 15-20 Rs more than the regular fare. (which actually is a good 40 Rs more than the meter would calculate). Ahh, don’t I love honesty in a man. Am totally bowled over by the rickshwalas out here.
That man walks around (actually drives around) with the arrogance and pomp of riding a Rolls Royce Phantom in the dingy lanes of Kurla. That impudent look, that display of conceit all add to the already up stuck attitude of the rickshawalas in Pune. This species would reject a fare in the noon, just because it gets in between them and their afternoon siestas or even not be willing to drop a lady home late in the night, just because the lady’s destination is not the same as their destination for the night. Such chivalrous are there three-wheeler riding public servants of Pune.
Needless to say, after a few days of being cheated, and being made to feel like a loser, I prefer to board the infrequent buses of PMT (Pune Municipal Transport), walk all the way or step foot into another wonderful three (or is it five) wheeled wonder called as “The Six Seater” , but then that is another story.
Had heard a lot about Pune, the culture, the people, the mannerisms and obviously was excited to be in amidst all of it. To make lives simpler for the reader and not go on and on with my daily experiences, I shall categorize my experiences.
Lets start off with the quintessential rickshwalas from Pune.
The date: 18th May 2009, I ease my way into the of Pune. A friend volunteers to drive all the way from Kothrud and pick me up at University and drop me at Pashan at my relative’s place. Till that time, all places and locations and direction are as alien and difficult for me as for a Martian wanting to go to Kings Circle station, standing bewildered in the queue at ticket window number 12 at Andheri railway station on the Eastern side.
I politely decline the offer saying that I have a huge bag with me and that it’d be difficult for me to manage the bike sitting on the pillion. Forewarned about the moody and the princely rickshawalas of Pune (by the friend itself), I step foot on Pune soils. Confidently I approach a rickshwala and ask him to take me to Pashan, near NCL.
And ahead of it, it all happens in slow motion. I get in .. the rickshwala’s hand goes towards the meter, simultaneously asking me more details of the place I want to. This moment, I commit the worst mistake that one could do in the lands of this Asian Oxford. I ummm....errrr...gulp, say that I need to call and get more details. The hand goes down back to the rickshaw handle and a smug look evolves on our friendly rickshawala’s face and he says with a shrug “Chalees rupaye hoteel” (It’d cost my 40 rupees) and voila, am taken for a ride the moment I step into Pune. I dish out fourty bucks for a then later 5.65 minute drive from University to Pashan. I feel more cheated than a cow that’s been milked ... and you know what.
Moreover I must admit that the rickshwalas out here are more honest than the ones in Bombay. They do openly admit that they are charging that 15-20 Rs more than the regular fare. (which actually is a good 40 Rs more than the meter would calculate). Ahh, don’t I love honesty in a man. Am totally bowled over by the rickshwalas out here.
That man walks around (actually drives around) with the arrogance and pomp of riding a Rolls Royce Phantom in the dingy lanes of Kurla. That impudent look, that display of conceit all add to the already up stuck attitude of the rickshawalas in Pune. This species would reject a fare in the noon, just because it gets in between them and their afternoon siestas or even not be willing to drop a lady home late in the night, just because the lady’s destination is not the same as their destination for the night. Such chivalrous are there three-wheeler riding public servants of Pune.
Needless to say, after a few days of being cheated, and being made to feel like a loser, I prefer to board the infrequent buses of PMT (Pune Municipal Transport), walk all the way or step foot into another wonderful three (or is it five) wheeled wonder called as “The Six Seater” , but then that is another story.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
On the Leopard's Trail
I must allow “Ze King of the Jungle” to take precedence over other insects and animal forms in the IIT lush green campus which many of us don’t know is a part of a 107 square kilometre jungle fondly called as the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. The king being our very own leopard(s) from the jungle which often makes a visit to this technology park – probably to look into the newest and the bestest innovations taking life in this university. Hey hey .. some of you might have taken offence and must have pointed out that the King of the Jungle is the Lion and no one but the Lion – But pardon me monsieur, It is not Ze Lion which command respect inside the campus , but it is the blood thirsty, the original man-eater leopard.
There are many a stories about this magnificent beast that are part of every IITian’s story – But I shall move away from the stories and indulge in some loose talking about this creature. There are stories about the beast attacking people, but little do the outsiders know, there are stories about the beast intimidating only firings, to count em on the finger of my hands – There are exactly four who have faced the creature to tell the truth. Can’t debate on the truth of this particular tidbit but then am not the one complaining. I would rather take comfort in the fact that am not a part of the favourites. So far .. so good !!!
Nights are a busy time for the Special Security team out here as they check every nook and corner of the campus – each gutter and narrow alley for this creature. All equipped with torches and other tools, they are quite a treat to watch (if spotted). God forbid, if there may be a spotting of this spotted creature, then all alarms are up – The RTs (Recievers – Transmitters or better known as Walky-Talkys) go ON and each department / hostel is informed. Mails are shot – Each student receives a mail within 15 minutes of the discovery about the possible threat lurking outside in the shadows of the night. Just a couple of years back, there was a leopard spotting near the Mechanical Department in the wee hours of the night and all students from IDC were frozen in the department till the sun was up and shining, not wanting to trudge back to their hostel and be a possible ‘designer’ prey for this beast, who’d never on the Earth come to know that it is consuming a rare species off the face of the Earth – a person who is a designer and who is sincere and hardworking too.
I usually end up staying back in my design department till wee hours of the morning, at times just the time before it may be dawn and the night not having finished its reign yet. A refreshing walk at 3:30 – 4 AM is what I like back to the hostel before I may crash into my dingy room. A Friday night of hard work is what really gets an IITian geared for a nice long sleepy weekend. I have stuck true to my professional IT attitude and I DO NOT work over weekends. J - so all the work happens over the Friday night.
It was one cold rainy Friday night as usual. The clock strikes 4 and I decide it is time to bid the department Good-bye and move my tired feet and eyes towards the hostel. It was my first night-out in the department and the walk to the hostel was to be a solitary one. I picked up my bag and moved on. A walk down along the Mechanical Department (Yuss Sire, the same Mechnical Department where Mr. Spotty was spotted the last) through the lobby, the Central Library to my right and voila, am on the lonely road to Hostel number 01 (That’s the place where I currently exist over the weekdays). It is raining cats, dogs and leopards (lol) and I get onto the long walk back and I see it – All four feet, standing at a distance – at a distance of nearly 300 yards. At such long distance I cannot see its ferocious fangs, but only the lonely silhouette of the four legged beast. I freeze , more than ice could ever freeze. I pray that the creature may not have seen me – may it be myopic. Damn !!!, I though hard work always pays and not preys (Pardon the poor jokes in this excruciating moment). I am still pulled in that direction, I rub my eyes to get a clearer view and to my horrors, one more four legged creature joins the earlier one. I must have lost my senses and would have collapsed at the spot, making myself an easy, non-resistive prey for these creatures of the night. A cold chill down my spine, but I still move towards the silhouettes. A few metres more and there are more to join the couple. S*** , I must be having a really really bad nightmare .. I rub my eyes, I pinch myself hard more than a dozen times and I walk ahead – full of courage within me, prepared to take on the nightmare with both hands. I move ahead inch by inch and suddenly I see its grotesque face and it snarls with a loud “Mooooo” and I am more dead than alive.
Later I was told that all the #$%#$#@ cows and bulls from the IIT campus, for some strange and weird reason, make the parking lot just ahead of Hostel 1 main door as their abode for the night and it usually is a pain for the house keeping guys from Hostel 01 to keep the place dung free and odour free.
So much of an anti-climax for a night of terror, but am glad to be alive to tell this story. These days I try not to stay in the department for long and make my way back to the hostel by maximum by 2 AM and ofcourse, I take the longer, better lighted route via the Main Building to the Hostel and avoid the shorter path down the Mechanical Department altogether.
Ahhh .. !!! The fresh air of the beautiful dark night – is much better when you take the longer but definitely safer way back.
There are many a stories about this magnificent beast that are part of every IITian’s story – But I shall move away from the stories and indulge in some loose talking about this creature. There are stories about the beast attacking people, but little do the outsiders know, there are stories about the beast intimidating only firings, to count em on the finger of my hands – There are exactly four who have faced the creature to tell the truth. Can’t debate on the truth of this particular tidbit but then am not the one complaining. I would rather take comfort in the fact that am not a part of the favourites. So far .. so good !!!
Nights are a busy time for the Special Security team out here as they check every nook and corner of the campus – each gutter and narrow alley for this creature. All equipped with torches and other tools, they are quite a treat to watch (if spotted). God forbid, if there may be a spotting of this spotted creature, then all alarms are up – The RTs (Recievers – Transmitters or better known as Walky-Talkys) go ON and each department / hostel is informed. Mails are shot – Each student receives a mail within 15 minutes of the discovery about the possible threat lurking outside in the shadows of the night. Just a couple of years back, there was a leopard spotting near the Mechanical Department in the wee hours of the night and all students from IDC were frozen in the department till the sun was up and shining, not wanting to trudge back to their hostel and be a possible ‘designer’ prey for this beast, who’d never on the Earth come to know that it is consuming a rare species off the face of the Earth – a person who is a designer and who is sincere and hardworking too.
I usually end up staying back in my design department till wee hours of the morning, at times just the time before it may be dawn and the night not having finished its reign yet. A refreshing walk at 3:30 – 4 AM is what I like back to the hostel before I may crash into my dingy room. A Friday night of hard work is what really gets an IITian geared for a nice long sleepy weekend. I have stuck true to my professional IT attitude and I DO NOT work over weekends. J - so all the work happens over the Friday night.
It was one cold rainy Friday night as usual. The clock strikes 4 and I decide it is time to bid the department Good-bye and move my tired feet and eyes towards the hostel. It was my first night-out in the department and the walk to the hostel was to be a solitary one. I picked up my bag and moved on. A walk down along the Mechanical Department (Yuss Sire, the same Mechnical Department where Mr. Spotty was spotted the last) through the lobby, the Central Library to my right and voila, am on the lonely road to Hostel number 01 (That’s the place where I currently exist over the weekdays). It is raining cats, dogs and leopards (lol) and I get onto the long walk back and I see it – All four feet, standing at a distance – at a distance of nearly 300 yards. At such long distance I cannot see its ferocious fangs, but only the lonely silhouette of the four legged beast. I freeze , more than ice could ever freeze. I pray that the creature may not have seen me – may it be myopic. Damn !!!, I though hard work always pays and not preys (Pardon the poor jokes in this excruciating moment). I am still pulled in that direction, I rub my eyes to get a clearer view and to my horrors, one more four legged creature joins the earlier one. I must have lost my senses and would have collapsed at the spot, making myself an easy, non-resistive prey for these creatures of the night. A cold chill down my spine, but I still move towards the silhouettes. A few metres more and there are more to join the couple. S*** , I must be having a really really bad nightmare .. I rub my eyes, I pinch myself hard more than a dozen times and I walk ahead – full of courage within me, prepared to take on the nightmare with both hands. I move ahead inch by inch and suddenly I see its grotesque face and it snarls with a loud “Mooooo” and I am more dead than alive.
Later I was told that all the #$%#$#@ cows and bulls from the IIT campus, for some strange and weird reason, make the parking lot just ahead of Hostel 1 main door as their abode for the night and it usually is a pain for the house keeping guys from Hostel 01 to keep the place dung free and odour free.
So much of an anti-climax for a night of terror, but am glad to be alive to tell this story. These days I try not to stay in the department for long and make my way back to the hostel by maximum by 2 AM and ofcourse, I take the longer, better lighted route via the Main Building to the Hostel and avoid the shorter path down the Mechanical Department altogether.
Ahhh .. !!! The fresh air of the beautiful dark night – is much better when you take the longer but definitely safer way back.
Encounters of the Un-wild kind
I prefer to call this particular piece of text as “Unwild Encounters” for the sole reason that we as humans perceive other living forms as wild and unwild whereas there is no race or breed as wild and dangerous than the homo sapiens themselves.
IIT is a wild place, there are wild creatures all around us over here. The day starts with a wild and loud creatures gargling and spitting and spooing around in the common washroom. Those voices alone could make you barf on your empty stomach. But then more detailed descriptions out here would be enough to make you sick enough not to read the rest of the text, so I draw a full stop out here.
There are many a monkeys around out over here. Small ones, tiny ones, huge ones, cute ones, ferocious ones, curious ones, happy ones, excited ones and all other kinds. There is a convention centre being built opposite IDC main entrance which would be completed in 2010. This place being a regular construction site for the mathadis over the week turns into a fun Jungle Jim kinds of playhouse for the apes over Sunday, wherein they run all around the place, hang out in search for food (with their red butts out) from the trashcans which adorn the IIT campus, scare the shit out of the dogs and at times play evil.
A recent incident on a sunny week day during a lunch break, there was silence in the corridors of the department as all IDCians ‘enjoyed’ their tasteless lunches in their respective hostels there came a text message in my inbox which read “Monkeys in d studio.Biggg mess ppl.No1 arnd 2 help.Tk my mouse,rly likin anikets toy.eggs blasted.Smellin like hell.All are welcome to xprnc animal interaction”. A quick run to our studio and we found the whole place in a smelly mess. Eye witnesses reported that six apes had ventured through into the Interaction Design studio through an open window and made the whole place into a kindergarten playground. Paper sheets and thermocol toys were broken. A fellowmate’s cordless mouse was smashed around (He managed to save his laptop though). Some weakassed ape had shat on a girl’s desk and ofcourse there were some eggs on the windowsill (which were fond artefacts of the Ragging session we were put through at the start of the course) were smashed around. Later news reported that there were more monkey attacks in other studios as well.
A pair of monkeys robbed a box of poster colors from the Senior studio. A girl who was enjoying her siesta in the Product Design studio was rudely awakened by the sounds of monkeys jumping on a centre table in the studio. But she managed to scream loud enough to scare them off their pants (if they ever wore any) and the studio was saved. Later a scare fight ensued between the IDCians and the monkeys as each of the party tried to scare the other ones by screeching, hooting and shouting. Some weaponery help from the IDC staff in the form of bamboos and sticks helped the former be successful in their fight.
This was an one-off encounter with monkeys. But each day, lives of every IITian are terrorised and traumatised by the presence of these humanlike creatures.
Next up – Creepy Crawly Insects and Our Favourite Leopards.
IIT is a wild place, there are wild creatures all around us over here. The day starts with a wild and loud creatures gargling and spitting and spooing around in the common washroom. Those voices alone could make you barf on your empty stomach. But then more detailed descriptions out here would be enough to make you sick enough not to read the rest of the text, so I draw a full stop out here.
There are many a monkeys around out over here. Small ones, tiny ones, huge ones, cute ones, ferocious ones, curious ones, happy ones, excited ones and all other kinds. There is a convention centre being built opposite IDC main entrance which would be completed in 2010. This place being a regular construction site for the mathadis over the week turns into a fun Jungle Jim kinds of playhouse for the apes over Sunday, wherein they run all around the place, hang out in search for food (with their red butts out) from the trashcans which adorn the IIT campus, scare the shit out of the dogs and at times play evil.
A recent incident on a sunny week day during a lunch break, there was silence in the corridors of the department as all IDCians ‘enjoyed’ their tasteless lunches in their respective hostels there came a text message in my inbox which read “Monkeys in d studio.Biggg mess ppl.No1 arnd 2 help.Tk my mouse,rly likin anikets toy.eggs blasted.Smellin like hell.All are welcome to xprnc animal interaction”. A quick run to our studio and we found the whole place in a smelly mess. Eye witnesses reported that six apes had ventured through into the Interaction Design studio through an open window and made the whole place into a kindergarten playground. Paper sheets and thermocol toys were broken. A fellowmate’s cordless mouse was smashed around (He managed to save his laptop though). Some weakassed ape had shat on a girl’s desk and ofcourse there were some eggs on the windowsill (which were fond artefacts of the Ragging session we were put through at the start of the course) were smashed around. Later news reported that there were more monkey attacks in other studios as well.
A pair of monkeys robbed a box of poster colors from the Senior studio. A girl who was enjoying her siesta in the Product Design studio was rudely awakened by the sounds of monkeys jumping on a centre table in the studio. But she managed to scream loud enough to scare them off their pants (if they ever wore any) and the studio was saved. Later a scare fight ensued between the IDCians and the monkeys as each of the party tried to scare the other ones by screeching, hooting and shouting. Some weaponery help from the IDC staff in the form of bamboos and sticks helped the former be successful in their fight.
This was an one-off encounter with monkeys. But each day, lives of every IITian are terrorised and traumatised by the presence of these humanlike creatures.
Next up – Creepy Crawly Insects and Our Favourite Leopards.
The Ten Commandments of Design
Life is short and the expanse of Design is vast, so big that you could live a nine lives and come back more to learn more about concepts / processes in Design – So at the start you should be specific about the field in which you want to dabble in more, to become a master (as expected, after all it is a Masters course) in it rather than be a Jack of all trades. Keeping this in mind, I have decided my route and by now have specialised in sleeping in all the possible lectures/presentations/design movies that are screened in the IDC (Industrial Design Centre) auditorium. There are followers.. ..but then I lead the pack. I further expanded my skills to sleep in the face of the professor for all possible interactive post-lunch session. So much to brag about my sleeping skills – I shall move onto other details.
You can take the technical writer out of technical writing but you cannot take technical writing out of a technical writer, says Murphy – saying which I shall summarize and bulletize(phrase in bullet points) some highlights which will make the content more easier to read and comprehend. Some of the things which can be loosely interpreted as 'The 10 Commandments of Design in IDC' are as follows:
- 1. Thou shall not know fonts, shapes or colours in Design – There are only typefaces, forms and values/hues/tints blahs blahs.
- 2. "What is Design?" could have 50 definitions, but then the one which thou know and answer to when asked the same is always the wrong one.
- 3. There is no right or wrong in Design.
- 4. Design in its simplest form can be defined as "Creative Problem Solving", but when there is no Design, there are no Problems whatsoever.
- 5. Thou shall master Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, Indesign, Corel Draw, SolidWorks, Auto CAD and other software in two days time.
- 6. Thou shall always prototype your design concept.
- 7. Thou shall assign each design to a metaphor. (There is no design without metaphors).
- 8. Thou shall imagine, visualize in 2D, 3D as well from different perspectives as well as envisage from social, cultural, physiological and cognitive point of views (whew...!!!)
- 9. Thou shall unlearn all your Engineering as soon as you can after you get into IDC.
- 10. Thou are NOT a Designer (until thou pass out from IDC at least).
We shall keep the commandments at 10 for now, there'd be more and more to be added to fill up the electronic pages in Times New Roman or Calibri or Courier .. but then that is at a later stage.
This is for now (to keep it short and crisp). I will follow it up with some more writing about Design, more about IDC, the subjects learnt in the first semester and of course – There is life outside IDC.
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