Categories

I think Whirlwind is one word that I’m going to use very often – at least for the next one year. The last month and half have been absolutely crazy – and yet there’s always been time for the myriad activities that vie for our attention. Actually I think I’ll make more sense if I do this chronologically. Started from Delhi on April 11th in the train. Was joined by quite a few “future” classmates. We had planned to take the train – even though it was almost 36 hours. But it was worth every minute – it probably led to formations of life-long friendships – not to mention the fact that we “Reely Reely” enjoyed every second. I had brought along a bottle of Absolut Pear – which we judiciously finished over the course of the day. We chatted, played cards, watched a movie, chatted some more and partied all the time. Don’t think that words can really describe the amount of fun we had – so here are some pictures:

Reached ISB in the morning and went straight to our rooms – was pleasantly surprised at the amazing campus (even though I had seen so many photographs on the net – none of them came even close to the real thing). The rooms were perfect – neat and clean and spacious and I must mention the great quality of the hot water showers. We got ready and went straight for the registration – which was a loooooong affair – mainly because of the HUGE rush at the SBI counter. But we got through and by evening we were true-blue students of ISB. So it was time for some champagne – to mark the start of what we hoped (and which I can vouch for now) would be an amazing one year. So a few of us got together and opened the “bubbly” – of course there was lots more after that – but the details are lost in the endless glasses of “daru” 🙂 There was a nice dinner (though no Hyderabadi Biryani) where we got to interact with our batchmates and alums. I’m sure I still don’t remember half the names I heard that night. The next day “Sunday” (At one time Sundays were a holiday – I wonder where that time went . . . . . ) started off our whirlwind tour of ISB – orientation to the various clubs, the acads, and what not. Not a very interesting day from my viewpoint – but I’m sure many people enjoyed it. And at night we had a great party – organised by the alums

more…

more…

Well – the last two days were definitely worth the trip – also they helped turn this trip from ‘hopeless’ to ‘good’. Went for a jeep safari on the first day and was able to get many great shots of rhinos, elephants, water-buffalos, hog-deers . . . . Was great fun. Of course the fun cannot always continue and had to “suffer” an afternoon of site-visits (which were supposed to be visits to tea-garden) with my friend. However on the whole – very nice. Few photos at the end.

Never again am I going to let someone else plan my trips.
The last two days have been absolutely useless. Yesterday was spent waiting for the ILP and then travelling to Tezpur (3 hour journey which took almost 6 hours) – where we were to board a night bus for Tawang (one of the oldest monasteries in India right next to the China border). It was all fine as long as there was something to look forward to. Then all hopes were dashed – there were no night buses / jeeps / bullock carts !! You can reach Tawang only by jeep and they leave only at 5.30 in the morning. Also it takes more that 12 hours to reach. So that meant wasting one day to go and one to come back – that left me with a night when I could stay there. Made no sense at all. Plan 2 was to go to an eco-camp for rafting — seems that was too expensive – no idea how much though. Plan 3 was to go to Bomdila (supposedly 3 hours from Tezpur and supposedly very beautiful). So we opted for plan 3 – little did I know it would take 5 hours to reach – 1 hour for lunch and 5 hours to come back !!!
So I ended up spending 11 hours for lunch – that ought to be a record. Finally I took matters in my hand and decided to spend my last two days in Kaziranga and stop sitting in buses / jeeps for the rest of the trip. So I'm writing this from a beautiful resort in the middle of the jungle . . . .. . . Lets see how the rest of my trip goes . . And as my school motto goes "Never Give In" – I'm not going to lose hope and discard this trip as totally hopeless.
More tomorrow . . . . . . .