"i live here" "no you don't"

4 hours and 4 drinks (i am honestly not sure about this :P) later, Kunal and i finally decided to head home from 08 lounge. "Lets try out the shortcut" he says. HE SAYS!!! This detail later gets ommitted when the story gets retold! 

Kunal: aww bye sweetie, will you be fine (gives hug)
Suparna: of course, for sure, thanks, ill see you tomorrow morning
Kunal: Ok bye (walks out)

Suparna tries to unlock the door with her key. The hole seems to have changed in size. She vaguely recalls one of her quadmates stating that the keys are all acting up and not working properly. Tired and annoyed, she goes out to find help. She spots kunal walking back!

Kunal: hiii, is everything ok sweetie?
Suparna: my key is not working.
Kunal: Thats ok, Ill come with you, there is a trick to it.

Kunal tries door to no avail. The duo go to get more help. They spot a drunk classmate, Vinayak!

Suparna: Vinayak, can you help us. the key is not working.
Vinayak: Yaya, I'll come with you, there is a trick to it.
Kunal rolls eyes.

Vinayak tries door to no avail. The trio now wake up the security guard.Sleepy eyed, he walks to the apartment with the master key. He starts jiggling and playing with the key and the lock still stands its ground. He looks at the door with some suspicion and then looks at us then back at the door with more definace.

Then suddenly, the door opens.

It is pitch dark but there is a sillhouette of a man standing.

Suparna: screams loudly aauuuggghhhh
Switching on the light, a tallish south indian boy with an international accent says: what is going on
Suparna: what are you doing in my room?
South Indian boy with international accent: no, it isnt this is the room I was allotted!
Suparna: didnt you see my luggage everywhere
South Indian boy with international accent: there was nothing when I came here, look; opens door wide. this is my quad I-11.
Suparna: this is mine also, I-11.

Vinayak (interjecting): Suparna, errr, um, which student village are you in?
Suparna (confidently): Student Village 2 (there are 4 student villages of whch student villages 2 and 3 have an idential layout)

Vinayak: Suparna, lets go!

Moral of the story: Be wary of shortcuts :)

the party

Imagine being jampacked in a 1.5 acre region with 600 students mulling around. Imagine trying to get a drink from the bar with 2 bartenders. (Well that actually turned out to be relatively simple since it seemed that 90% of the class were teetolers). How is that even possible, i thought to myself. how can people converse with absolute strangers and "make friends" with such ease. I was clearly missing something. 

Having walked there with Kunal, however, I was feeling comfortable. The cheap plastic cup of wine, aided the easing up process.  The walk to the party 08 lounge had been lengthy though but we had discoveerd a shortcut that we could use on the way back :) The party's theme was back to school (mystery solved). But by then my white shirt was sweat soaked (humid hyderabad, something like windy chicago) so i had changed.

Wine in right hand, i was charged up and ready to start making some friends! There were people from Delhi that I knew through other people. To tell you the truth, everyone in delhi probably knows everyone else in Delhi through someone. Its a bit disdturbing actually but c'est la vie and the link gives you a talking point.

There was Rohaan, who was my friend's well sort of secret boyfriend. There was Saad, who went to college with a friend of mine, who I went to high school with and there was Akshay whose girlfriend I had gone to college with for a year!

Summing up my first impressions from what i remember:
Rohaan: good looking in a ranbir kapoor sort of way, nice guy, boy next door
Saad: good looking in a will smith sort of way, warm, friendly, FUN
Akshay: good looking in a  robert pattinson kind of way, 

the intersrting thing about Akshay is that he brings his own liquor (black label) to party because of "inability to drink this cheap shit" !!!!

(In case you want to know how he manages it, he hides it behind a rock and goes to the back and takes periodic swigs.)

So at this point ure probably wondering, was I interested in any of them?  I should have probably mentioned at the beginning that they ALL had girlfriends.


Besides that, before coming to college I had developed a checklist of what I wanted my next boyfriend to be like.  

Looks: Somewhat important but not really
Degrees: Preferably an IITian, solid resume
Hobbies/interests: Preferably sporty but not necessary. However must have something else to occupy his mind apart from just work and socialising
Social behavior: Partially reclusive, few good friends, is NOT a "party person"
Vices: Drinking and smoking allowed but no drugs and no MONOGAMOUSLY CHALLENGED gentlemen
Overall pluses: non attention seeking behavior  

Look, i said i developed it. I rarely follow my own checklists in any case. :) :) :) And in any case, The One doesn't enter the picture till third term and thats still a few posts and a few memories away.

"back to school" or maybe not

So the dean's address was scheduled to start around 7:00 pm. Surprise surprise, yours truly was late. In fact, so late, that I missed the entire speech and huffing and puffing reached the atrium (the centre, main building, sort of like the nucleus of a cell) just in time to see lengthy lines for a buffet dinner. I was thirsty, tired, sweaty and dresssed in my back to school outfit, comprising of a white button down shirt and a denim skirt. Well, it was supposed to be cute and sexy and if I had a tie, i would have worn it completing the look.

First bombshell! Noone and I mean not a soul was wearing a back to school, or seemingly back to school, or anything to do with a school outfit. it was just me! Well, its ok i thought, its a cute outfit, I look cute its all good :)

Shock numero deaux, no girl (out of the few girls that were even there, the ratio was clearly sordid) was wearing anything short even resembling a skirt. In fact, mine were the only bare legs in the atrium...Oh no, wait, there was one more. I sighed in relief. The girl was wearing a floral printed dress and her legs were in full view, taking maybe some (maybe all since her legs were curvy and shapely and very attractive in plain terms) of the attention of off mine! She turned around and I realised that it was quaddie number two, the snobby one, Srishti. But, snobby or not, I was glad she was there, thank goodness.

I joined a line, hoping to spot someone I would recognise. Actually i can be more specific. My friend Kunal had also joined ISB and I was looking to catch up with him.

Thats typical me behavior, by the way, looking for familiar ground rather than exploring uncharted territories, inspite of knowing that I will eventually have to do it anyways. Its also a sure fire way to make only a limited number of friends and that too after some considerable length of time. 

I thought of trying to speak to the chap in front of me. He seemed like a nice enough fellow standing quietly and tapping his spoon lightly against the plate. But I just couldn't open up. Whast if he thinks the thing i say is strange? What if he is annoyed by my intrusion of his spoon tapping? Anyways the food is right around the corner so might as well just wait it out. :)

I needed alcohol. What can i say, i am socially challenged?

first impressions

Landing at 5 pm was the first mistake. If anyone from any future class of ISB is reading this, then just remember to take an early flight so you can reach college at a decent hour, say around noon. This will actually give you time to settle in, register, grab some lunch, catch your breath and generally avoid running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

So this was my state on the first day of college. It all started with me missing my registration because I was too late. Being the worry wart that I am, I actually ended up brooding over the possibility that since I hadn't completed my registration, I may not be allowed to complete it, since I was clearly an irresponsible student who couldnt reach college on time, and subsequently be sent home. Hey, but thats me and my shockingly simple thought process :P!

Neveretheless, i got a room and set about unpacking. My first encounter with student kind was one of my three quadmates, a girl named Priyanka. She was tall and attractive, I noted with a hint of jealousy. She had one of those quiet, pleasent demeanors, which men usually found attractive. Shedding off my delhi bitchiness, baggage that I had told myself I would definitely leave behind, I gave her a bright hello in return! And then. Out came her mother. HER MOTHER!!!! I said namaste, guiltily thinking about the packet of cigarettes that I had purchased. I immediately got tensed trying to figure out whether the MOTHER was planning to live with us for a long period of time. I peeked in and saw a mattress that had clearly made itself at home in Priyanka's room.

 "There is a dinner today. the dean's dinner," Priyanka said interrupting my thoughts. "there seems to be some sort of theme to it, a back to school theme." "I got a fleeting vision of Priyanka's mother in a back to school outfit shaking hands with the dean. yikes!!

My second shock came with my second quadmate. Her name was Srishti, although she barely opened her mouth to even let me know that. At this point, I seriously started contemplating retrieving my Delhi bitchiness. She was accompanied by a somewhat younger lookng chap. he was definitely the friendlier of the duo and explained something about the dean's dinner. Srishti just seemed to be organising something or unpacking something and didnt seem the least interested in any sort of civilised interaction! HMPH. Then the chap who had introduced himself as Manas said a polite "goodbye, see ya around" and walked in, slamming the door behind him. I heard a click, the sound of the lock!

Now this was a traumatising beginning. I was sharing a quad with a mother, a brother/husband and three girls. I was quite terrified to meet my final quaddie by this time since she was bound to have been accompanied by her grandfather going by my luck. This is not fair, I thought to myself, what about the bathroom situation?