The tour to Kharagpur and Puri

I have just finished my combined tour to IIT kgp and Puri and am back to home(finally!!) to share my 'experiences' i faced there. I have divided them in 4 parts:- the train to iit kgp, my first day at iit kgp, the last two days at iit kgp, the climax-season finale.

here goes the first part:- the train to iit kgp

So i boarded the train early in the morning at 630.I along with my friend sumit was going to iit kgp for the fest KSHITIJ (it was supposed to be a fun trip considering the ennui in Delhi) and then a trip to Puri.This time the scene was quite different.The trip was scheduled 10 days back unlike other last moment trips and also we were pretty much on time to board the train.The coach we were in was almost empty and we had occupied 4 out of the 6 seats available at our disposal.Since the train had to pass thru some infamous areas of UP and Bihar, we had already chained the luggage well though i saw some nice however failed handwork of a person taking away a blanket in front of our eyes.The guy took away the blanket under the cover of another stolen blanket when the owner's eyes luckily caught him.The owner let off the guy for his excuse"galti se aa gaya hath me"!! My mom had already taken away the little bit of jewellery I was wearing.

The toilets in the train are also worth mentioning. They were certainly of the times India got independence-okay, i am exaggerating a bit here but still they were atleast 20 yrs old-when Manmohan singh started economic reforms-very shaky.one hand was busy holding the rod. The whole day in the train passed peacefully by sleeping, playing cards and discussing other mundane things when in the evening the train almost filled to its capacity at mughal sarai. The bihari babu who along with his family joined us there seemed to be a man of "principles". Both of us were sitting on the window seats when in an acerbic tone, he asked us to vacate those seats as they were reserved for him."yeh seat chod dijiye, ye hamari hai"-as if he had bought them.I 'politely' asked him, "aapko yahi baithna hai?" and prompt came the reply,"haan bilkul,chaliye aap apni seat par aa jaiye.."and soon we were in the corner with all other people nearby having a nice fun over the issue.Actually the way this babu spoke made the scene hilarious.As soon as he took over,the first thing he did was to close the windows and then to our surprise started "stripping"- fortunately not the mallika way but he used a towel.He even removed the inners from his body.However soon he was in a t-shirt and shorts.

As the nite fell,all prepared to go to sleep.Falling asleep was a bit risky as the train was in Bihar e and also after i saw the afternoon cameo.These guys dont even leave the slippers...I had to tie my shoes to the fan.So now the bihari babu was in the middle berth with sumit and I in the other middle berth and upper berth repsectively.Lalu ke raaj me bihari babu pure apne ghar jaise mehsoos kiye.As the darkness grew, the snores of the babu got stronger and louder, making all the more difficult either to sleep or remain awake. Anyways some how the nite passed and we were at the world's longest platform-1070 metres in length and with no direction boards to follow. The kgpians had informed that they wud be there at the station to receive us but we cud not find a trace of them. So we decided to take the rickshaw. The campus was about 5 kms from the station and the rickshaw guy asked for an amount for which i cud have easily commuted to and from my college and home on any vehicle except auto(with auto...it wud have been one way fare).Infact, that amount was fixed-as i came to know later.The ricksaw passed thru the 'main roads' which i wud say were even less wider than the delhi streets.I did not find even a single direction board the whole way and it was very easy to get lost in the labyrinth the guy took.In all, I felt even my village was certainly better than this only it did not have an IIT!

This continued even as we entered the campus.The main gate of the campus was pathetic...it was difficult to even read the name of the college.Then the admin bloc read-IIT KHARAGPUR- Dedicated to the service of the nation (in italics). There were no signs of any fest going on in the campus(until we reached the main arena)-no sponsors' banners, no fest banners-compare with the delhi colleges where one wud find as if he has entered the office of the sponsor rather than a college hosting a fest.

Then began my first day at IIT KGP---coming up in the next post.