Wednesday, April 26, 2006

mor on himalaya

It is a himalayan blunder

It is a himalayan task to go for grub

You need to do a himalayan trek to eat

Like the himalayas keep the chinese cold and stink away, The himalaya keeps the academic stink away from the hostels

The above are the reactions on The Himalaya by a few people on campus.

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They use to serve us these round objects. They had black poker marks in them. Occasionally they would be porous as well. Invariably these were half cooked. They used to call the chappatis.

The above is an extract about the mess food written by an alumnus who graduated in the early sixties. These are his reflections about mess food of his era.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Where are we heading?

Sitting in the narmad corner of OAT, alone, i m reminded of the days when this part of OAT will be filled with who-is-who in narmad. Those were the days, when people of a particular hostel would sit at an appointed place. no one crossed borders.

Today also people sit at appointed places. In gumbals of friends. They still dont cross borders, they dont reach hostel areas at all.

Sometime back, IIT decided to have a dedicated Freshie hostel and then distributed junta all over from second year. This led to loss of spirit and oneness as a hostel. People are more involved within there own groups that they dont know more than half of their hostel. They dont care for it either. Thanks to the internet connectivity, though 5 hostels away, u can still talk to people who were ur first year buddies and u dont repent not knowing your wing, for who in the wing did u ever know before, that you care to know now?

This takes a toll in the enthu of junta to participate in anything within the hostel or doing something for the hostel. Gone are the days, when there were weekly jam sessions and monthly quizzes in the hostel. Nobody knows what is a speaking event, but for veterans since very many years. Even if one let all this go, there is nobody to even sit and talk in the middle of the wing. Those cots in the wing, were people would sit and talk are all eternally empty or they just dont exist.

Be that all as it may, this wierd idea of shunting people across hostels back and forth has just made people become couch(or should i say chair, for they dont have couches in hostel rooms) potatoes confined to the 4+ walls of the hostel room. The public life is just a farce, it doesnt exist.

To add this is what the internet has done. People sit for long hours gaming, without knowing thy neighbour. To make it more miserable is this monothek of a building right next to gurunath, you dont even have a place in the hostel were u can sit and talk over a cup of coffee. You cannot sit in the hostel stage and talk for hours over a cup of coffee. Gone are the days when you could sit with a gumbal of friends and enjoy a moon-lit dinner in your hostel. you need to walk all the way to a sorry of a building into one of its halls, filled with aliens for a plate of pathetic food which costs more than all previous records.

Most of this prolly has happened without anybody knowing. if somebody knew, as well, would they care for such things. Well, the last word, The hostel is becoming a boring and unhabitable place with every passing day...


PS: This was some thing i scribbled for the hostel mag and then it appeared on the hostel blog. a copy here as well.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Himalaya

It has been 5 days since the new mess complex, 'HIMALAYA' at IIT Madras started to function.

And since then, I have had 5 meals there. All of them lacking in something or the other in specific, beyond the over all lack of some things.

As a friend had listed somewhere, You loose a lot of time going all the way to the place and also standing in long queues. You miss the good old mess atmosphere and the food and the friends with whom you eat and all that. Even if one could wish off all such "mundane" issues, the food you get there is rather nothing different from what u used to get in the mess. For an extra basic of 13 rupees, you see visibly the only difference being the place where you eat and nothing more.

what is the blank truth is that, this has come to stay. In the name of Christ, i am not pessimistic or i am somebody who resists new things, but i wish to be true and frank about anything that leads to problems. As in the case of anything else, poor planning is there. It was initially proposed to have two exits and one entry. Now, the exits are closed for it is feared that people who dont belong to that mess, would enter thro' the exits and eat from that particular mess. This is one glaring example one finds and there are much more, if one looks in detail.

Last but not the least, the names given leave a nice smile on my face atleast.

This is move delibrately one, the reason partly being breaking hostel spirit which sometimes creates "problems" at schroetor and lit-soc.

Each of these moves makes IITM a sadder place to live. One just wishes to pass out sooner than later

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