‘Desp’ness Revisited

Two roads diverged in wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that’s has made me pathetic…

My intelligence team has got reports that ‘her’ father has already started searching marriage alliances for her. I knew he was going to be a trouble maker, he got that looks.

For the Christmas break, I had the leisure of a cosy journey to home with my waiting list ticket combined with confirmed tickets of my friends in the West Coast Express, and for the first time, she was travelling with me, but in a different compartment… and yeah, I have managed again to completely ignore her presence. I was hoping I would bid her goodbye at Calicut, but that’s when her dad popped up, and I gave up my plan. And the journey would have been another disaster if the sleep wouldn’t have blessed me. Sleeping felt like fast forwarding the time, I slept as soon as we left Chennai, and before I woke up, I was breathing ‘Palakkad’ air.

Talking about her dad, he isn't as clean shaven as the Facebook pic would make you think he was. And If he wants her married by the time she completes the college, the chances that he will accept a ‘kid’ as his son in law or, more importantly, the chance my family would allow ‘the kid’ to marry his daughter are non-existent. And purely outside any selfish motives, but for her own best interests, I recommend that she do her Masters before she marries. After all, studying is fun, isn’t it? And I would be a kid no more. Not like that’s the only hurdle. There are two grown up ladies at home desperately waiting for their turn to get married…

And the other report says that likeliness of her liking me is most unlikely, that she needs someone bolder… I don’t understand the parameters by which she evaluates boldness, but I am convinced I wouldn’t top the results. I am definitely not feeling much optimistic these days…

Break time!

And the exam fever is on!

I still suffer from lack of concentration syndrome, so I was googling tricks to tackle it, and this blog said, after every topic you learn, reward yourself with a short break, so as to not get bored. So I did, after studying about Habermas's Public Sphere at 10 pm, with live discussion sessions with class mates on Facebook group messaging, which ultimately turned flop when people got excited and started putting up middle fingers and 'Despicable me' smileys, I took a break, opened YouTube, started with Aashiqui 2 songs, checked Facebook statuses in between, checked few short films, and few random music playlists, opened torrent to download movies meanwhile, since my data consumption rates were getting alarmingly low, 20 GB this month against 140GB a month ago, went back to YouTube and listened Agneepath songs over and over, and then checked the clock, and it was 3 am already! And my eyes were getting heavy, and I was in these middle position, if I sleep then, I will probably have a panic start next day, or if I stay up, it was least likely my brain would focus on to, nor will I be able to survive two hours in the exam hall.

My point is, my break needs a break, reward your break with a page of knowledge or something, and not the other way around.

Rohit and I have been singing to hindi karaokes lately, and since I am down with cold, and my nose is stuffed and all, I kinda sound smexy! :D

Semester-end Chaos

It's been a very busy week with reviews and juries coming up, faculties trying to finalize internal marks, endless assignments, and exam revisions.

And finally there are some pretty photos of her in her Facebook, thanks to her friend, that I can show my parents to present my case if situation progresses. I would often consolidate myself, pat myself on the back, advice myself to streamline my concentration and prioritize my goals, and,  then I would steal a peek at her, and I hallucinate. I had this dream of having lunch with her. She seemed all impatient at  my lack of guts, while a dumbstruck me was struggling in a dearth of words. But it was the best dream I had in a while. This must be the 6th dream I have had about her in the last 3 semesters.

I've developed this new habit of sleeping early, too early, like at 8 or 9, and then waking up at 5 in the morning for a fresh start. And then a short visit to all social networks, and then work...

Farewell Speech

Today, at this proud moment of completing StreetRace Rivals in Facebook, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the influential people in my life. No, this speech was not inspired from Sachin Tendulkar's! And I am not carrying a list, so if I miss out anyone, I hope you will understand. 

Friends, please settle down, I will get more and more despair! My life between 1/4 miles for 1 and half months, it's hard to believe my wonderful journey is coming to an end. But I would like to take this opportunity to thank people who have played an important role in my life.

The most important person in my life, my father. Without his ‘pushing’ I wouldn't be standing in front of you, I never wanted to be here! -.-  He gave me PlayStation at the age of 11 and told me: 'If you study hard, you'll get your rewards.' Every time I have done something special and raised my grades, it was for PlayStation. But I never got another one.

My mother, I don't know how she dealt with such a drowsy guy like me. I was not easy to be woken up. I almost missed my 10^th CBSE social exam for that reason. She must be extremely patient.

In my high school days, for two years, I used to stay in hostel, as my school was far away. They treated me like a robot. After the hard day at school, I would be half asleep and the professors at entrance coaching centre would be feeding me more craps, so that I could go all desperate and be a chronically depressed man tomorrow. I can't forget those moments.

My elder sisters, they don't like to inspire me much but they would say, 'whatever you do, you have to come up with 100 percent'. And my family, was no different. I always had this burden on my shoulders. I was first forced to Facebook by my friends. That is where the journey began. They continues to enjoy their life while I got addicted to Facebook.

Vineesh, my friend, what do I talk about him. We have lived in this hostel together. It all started when he got addicted to Candy Crush, he kept on sending me requests to send him ‘lives’, he inspired me and I knew I too need an addiction, and that's how I got into Street Race Rivals. You will find this hard to believe but even last night at 2 AM he send me a request, knowing that there was a remote chance of me being online, it’s the habit we had developed, the rapport we had developed. Various things we agreed upon and disagreed upon. We have had a lot of arguments over my choice of game. Even last night he called my game silly and stupid for it was all about hitting accelerator and shifting gears. If I had not done that, I would have never won a race.

I'll simply skip the 'wife' and the 'best partnership of my life' part. 

The two misfortunes in my life, Binil and Rohit. They have grown up too much. They are both 22 now, still single. Time has flown by. I've missed kicking their bum on several birthdays. Thanks for understanding, I'm more of a benign person. I've not spent enough time with you in FarcCry and Candy Crush but I promise you the next years of my life, everything is for you.

My roommates, Shahin and Biju, have been always supportive. I discuss various things with them, like if Modi was a better candidate, or where the best chicken fries were available in Vijayawada.  We are a strong family. The most important thing they did was allowing me to play Street Race Rivals, so thank you very much.

In the last 2 and half years that I have been stuck in SPAV, I have made new friends, and before that I have had friends from my school. They have all had a terrific contribution at making me a desperate gamer. Muzammil and Fadil, we would exchange game CD's at school, and would hardly escape those raids from teachers. Later at high school, I would skip my entrance coaching classes with the guys there and spent our evenings at the nearby game centre. Even after when they were caught by the professors.

My gamer career started when I was 11. The turning point of my career was when my my father gifted me the PlayStation and that is the best thing to have happened to me. I would be playing games whole day and night I would play Fighting Force one day and Tenchu 2 the next day to ensure that I got enough practice. On a lighter note, dad has never said well played to me so that I don't get complacent. Maybe he can push his luck and wish me now, because there are no more Street Race Rivals, in my life. I will be watching others play the game, and the game will always stay in my heart. 

My career at street race rivals started with Volkswagen Polo, at Los Angeles. I remember beating boss from Berlin at 4 a.m. and racing with Miami boss the next day because I wanted to finish the game desperately, and not that somebody forced me. I have had a great time competing with the bosses from Tokyo, and finally Rio. Of all the cars I have bought, Ferrari 458 Italia had been my favourite. They were all painted black on yellow or the other way around, definitely not inspired from Transformers.

Ayush, Bipul, Naina, Uzma, and my other desperate gamer batch-mates here. You are like my family away from home. I have had some wonderful times with you. It is going to be difficult to not be part of the Facebook games, sharing those special moments and bragging those victories.

I will be failing in my duty if I didn't thank the college who provided us internet. Given the injuries my wallet has suffered from recharging for net packs, Vodafone and Docomo have helped me in odd hours. Iris communication has backed me a lot, since when the college blocked Facebook. Even today. Thank you. Thanks to the faculties who didn't change their default password, providing us unrestricted Facebooking.

I know my speech has become long. I want to thank people who have flown in from different parts of the world racing with me. And thank you everyone for bearing with me, all those requests I have sent you, I know it's very annoying, but I had no choice, those requests meant tank full of  petrol to me, to keep me going! I want to thank my fans from the bottom of my heart. 'Mukhthar, Mukhthar' will reverberate in my ears till I go to sleep. 

Goodbye.

thnx.

Finally! She replied... After the long wait for 72 hours, she just texted back,

''thnx.''

Too little letters for the favor I had done, it even wasn't a proper word to be fair. I took the pain of making those papers to pdf, and I was obviously expecting more than that! Sure I did pretend too formal with her texting her ''I have last years papers and you can share them with your friends if you haven't already got them'' like a boss. But little did I know she would sell me out and that her batch mate would come to me and character assassin me in front of my friends. I was almost caught red handed... Girl! What did I tell you about the reputation I had to keep up?

I did  a deep psychological study of her reply and its mental and scientific implications, and I guess I came out with some worth mentioning results-

(1) "thnx", such a short reply for the megabytes of pdf I had sent her, and the full stop after thnx"." shows that either she was as nervous and excited but didn't want to expose it, trying to maintain her reputation, or, the worst case, she may have been trying to hint me that she wasn't interested in whatever I was doing.

(2) thnx is kind of a SMS language you develop when you get pro at texting. That rises more concerns...

(3) The optimistic part, you just don't text "Thank You" formally to someone close to you but just thnx. 

Tell me I have hope! Why is this so complicated?

Boneless fried chicken from those street side stalls have been our new addiction, and we just discovered this Akbar Hotel near Panja Center, One Town, and it didn't take much time for us to declare it as our new official chicken destination, for their tasty, yet cheap chicken!

Ups and Downs

2 days and no reply yet!

I have been observing me for a while. There is a recurring cycle of mental states, like the sine waves, with its ups and downs, and there need to be no factor, but the time, for the shift of phases. Some days, I'll be fine, all confident, too much optimism in my head, enjoying everything under the sun, and the next day I am bored to death, roaming around cities or youtubing just for laugh gags and other pranks desperately for something to keep me entertained. Next comes the nocturnal stage, no matter how hard I try, I cant sleep at night, and probably will end up missing classes waking up at noon time. Then comes the period of solitariness, disgusted at people for I don't know what reasons, like I find their presence annoying. Then comes out the angry man in me, all the anger I managed to suppress explodes out. This is where I mess up with people close to me. I go all pessimist at this phase.

I was wondering why I left back so less memories of school life. It seems like I hardly had fun there, being the spoken English leader, betraying my friends to the teacher for not talking in English, and watch them get punished o.o But I was happy, I was least bothered about the enemies I was creating being a pathetic teacher's pet, arrogant with my ignorance. Yet I never regretted then. And here I am blessed with good friends, somehow convinced joy of life is all about friendship, and the little memories we create. I have learnt to be a part of the crowd. And I regret now looking back at the life I wasted then. But something is missing here. Sure, I do have lot of fun, but in the end, I feel that incompleteness all around me. I feel like I don't belong to the crowd, and I go out in these solo expeditions around the city, or just lay down under the bare sky over the water tank, to give some time to myself, to find myself. 

Published my second song in soundcloud, it's called Homecoming, and it is about going back to the time to find yourself. https://soundcloud.com/mukhthar-ahmed/homecoming

An Uncle, Officially!

All praise to the Allah, my sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl last night. I am officially into the uncle's league! I didn't dare to share the news on facebook since I don't want them zombies annoying me around asking for treats, and lately many have been updating status about becoming uncle and stuffs I just don't want to be the victim of a trend. And yeah Valentine's Day was some 9 months ago...

I can't wait to go home and meet my niece! But the submissions and special classes are keeping me busy! And I unlocked Rio in Street Race Rivals. And bought my 5th car! One Town is becoming an integral part of my daily routine, and so is the Chikku shake from the Juice stall by the street corner. He makes real thick shakes and garnish it with Horlicks and badam bits, and would pour extra juice after the first serve is completed. And that made him our new official hangout destination. And I was having these inspirations to do my thesis next year on Vijayawada, as the State Capital in the context of Andhra bifurcation. I hope that's a hot topic already, and a thesis on that will surely get some attention.

I was wondering if I should get into politics. Not that I am interested in it, but Planning would be lot more better with power to implement them... And Dev from 2nd year has been following me around asking for last years question paper, and kinda dismiss him away everytime saying I need to check. I had them, I had saved them in case someone asked. Not just anyone, my special someone! I really have no hope of her coming to me asking for the papers, from the progresses I have made till now, so I am gonna make a bold move here. I took pictures of the papers and I am about to mail them to her, I am not cross checking my decision here, after all, I need 20 seconds of insane courage, thanks to Matt Damon for inspiring me, with his movie 'We bought a Zoo'. Wouldn't it look so desperate? I am senior a I got a reputation to keep up... God, I really hope I have a good news to share tomorrow!

Right now, I need to go home!!!

The workshop

The International Workshop on Riverfront Development was organised grandly, there were experts from fields and students from other institutes, and girls , cute ones, and  air conditioners and all, transforming the corridor into a convention hall. And they, guests had special food, while we made peace with the same old mess food. The 'international' part of the workshop was the same old white man from the Melbourne who will probably be stuck around here for few more days, and two online presentations through Skype, one from Iran, and the other from Germany, obviously I didn't have time for all those doses, so I just skipped the events till the cultural performances at evening. The band performed AR Rahman's Zariya, kinda messed it up with lack of syncing and poor audio mixing, followed by classical music inspired from Blah blah Usthad Khans, which again was ruined by an untuned Sitar and bass less Tabla. Nayana and her team finally rejuvenated the night with their classical - modern fusion dance. I was watching the reactions of the white man all the time, and he clapped only for the dance, though he remained almost poker faced all the while.

We were all already excited with our submissions getting postponed due to professors being busy trapped in the events. We kinda marched to the stage after the events and danced to Lungi Dance, and random songs while 5th years sang their heart out, until director had to call the volunteers to calm us down.

A memorable evening indeed!

Chronicles of SPAVia

Lot has been going in college for its preparation for International Workshop on River front Development. Students and faculty were busy face-lifting college, painting walls and designing halls. Everyone seemed excited about all the developments at college, except us, the planners... We were busy locked up inside our studios discussing strategies for next presentation or revising Raktim's lessons to prepare for class discussions. It feels so rueful to contribute nothing while others are creating campus for us.

Inspired from Rohit's fb post, I decided to try Japanese secret of healthy living, to start a day with 4 glasses of water before even brushing. They say it can even prevent fatal diseases! I tried and I ended up with a leaky bladder, had to pee every half an hour or so, and almost survived from bursting off my kidneys after getting stuck in Raktim's Theory discussion session. I had to gather my guts and storm out of the class in time to save myself without any damages.

A stalker's worries

Girl, I haven't stalked a profile as much as I stalk yours, though you hardly have anything interesting there. I am done with all the flowers and scenery on your cover pics and how long shall I adore this baby photo of you in the profile pic, people grow up right? And why do you 'like' all those random posts by random people pages but never a pic or a status update of mine? Yeah, I know I don't do yours either but I have a reputation to keep up, or all those vultures preying on me will have a nice feast on me.

Thanks to your friend I could get to see your family, and I am already stressed. Your dad looks too stern for my taste, and I don't think I would be comfortable handling things with him if things were to get sorted out between us.  I was never comfortable around govt. officials for that matter either.And he needs to set things right around in his fb, he can't start working in CPWD first and then pass out his high school! How can you not know what your initials stand for, even I do know. And I am not calling him 'Pappa', sounds too artificial, 'Uppa' sounds more intimate to me. Your mom looks warm of a person, Why didn't you inherit her traits? I wouldn't want you to be a strict mom to my kids... And your lil bro must be an aspiring IITian or something I can see that nerdiness in his face. And all of you, need to smile to the photos! Smiling, after all increases your life span! And It seems your family isn't much conservative, I probably will have a hard time convincing mine...

Nocturnal

Something's definitely wrong, I had to check my Facebook to confirm my age, and felt quite disappointed to realize I am only 21 while my junior was celebrating his 22nd b'day. Maybe I haven't been sleeping enough...wait! I have been sleeping a lot, at all the wrong times. I spend my nights beating bosses and upgrading cars in StreetRace Rivals on Fb or playingthe same loop over and over in FL studio messing with instruments hoping some careless notes I draw will transform my music, or despairingly browsing through Gsmarena.com or Pureviewclub.com watching agitated Android fans abusing Apple disciples or reading how the camera could be faulty in the new Lumia 1020 since these random guys have their pictures blurred in the corner of the frame... Last day, I found myself waking up at 3 in the afternoon to the phone ring of my worried group mate calling to mail her the presentation if I was not going to make up to the College. I punched in at the college fingerprint scanner at 3.45 PM, probably the first student to have marked the entry that late since it was installed few months back. I successfully experimented on adaptive land re-use turning the college prayer hall to my nap room. Went to college wearing Lungi, and people were like Happy Muharram!!!

Football fever is high in the campus, with Girl's football attracting much crowd even on the holiday. Burning Crows won the final for boys beating my team - Old Monks, on the shootout 2-1 after being tied 1-1 in the two halves. I made my debut in the group match against the Crows, since our team had won the first two games and made to the final, captain didn't mind seeing me on the field. I made a good impression on him by offering the opposition two penalties for 'handling' the ball inside the goal box, which they shoot carelessly off the target, saving my reputation, and rescuing me from a huge load of potential swearing. Playing in front of crowd was a different experience, not a cool one obviously. The feeling of being watched is too stressing, and I was constantly worrying what the crowds would be commenting upon me. We did win the game 2-0 then. *Head held high* Old Monks won the Girl's trophy though, in an enthralling final game which seemed like some slow motion video of men's game on some ultra high gravity ground. The game ended up in shootouts after shootouts till Old Monks finally managed to break the tie.

I never loved any SMS more than the SBI ones notifying balance deposits in my account.It was too depressing to walk by the shops near the hostel and the TATA Gluco Plus in the freezer would laugh at me while I hopelessly search for every pockets in my wallet and bag to find a carelessly dropped coin somewhere. Dad had finally listened my prayers, deposited 2k in the account. That was strange of him, he usually used to allot 3k for me monthly, he must be going through his hard time. I hope to survive if my groups don't go all frenzy over 'more sheets = more marks' ideology. Didn't they hear 'Less is More' concept. 

Speaking about the sheets, the studio is going snail paced but beware its just the calmness before the tornado. Aparna ma'am didn't forget to warn us that we only had 10 days till our final jury, and about a month till the semester end exams, and we were yet to touch upon our studio theme heritage tourism and conservation. Karthik seems pretty proud of his proposal of providing shelter to the festival pilgrims under a temporary structure while rest of the class were concentrating on kicking Karthik off their groups. Some despair soul even went on confession page anonymously to speak it out. We always have something to blame on him, how we have worked on the sheets while he was busy with his own works, how his proposal doesn't make sense, and how it will ruin the group's mark. He would come to me to discuss his ideas, and a part of me knows he is right, while the other part of me gets annoyed at him for his aggressiveness. He asks me what is wrong with people, I never told him, but hey, its a prejudiced world full of arrogant self obsessed people.

Hard days continued

NOSPLAN is coming closer, the annual inter college events for Planning institutions, this time in Mysore. Along with Preetam, I had the responsibility to coordinate photography event from my college's behalf, that needed me to interact with the rest of the batches, which is something I am not good at.

Session with first years went easy, the eager excited kids ready to do anything to show off and make name for themselves, showcasing their 'photography talents' with pics of blank skies and clouds they had captured. I gathered all my guts, went to the second years, asked them all to gather around, everyone came, except her!!! She pretended she was busy with laptop or something. We waited. Nah! she didn't bother.

What did I even do to her? 

I went to One Town again, roamed around, to run away from depressing recurring repeating reality.

Hard Days

''Hello son''.

''Hey Dad! What's up?''

''Long time. What's the noise?''

"Err... I am hanging out with friends..."

"I thought you ran out of money?"

"YES YES!!! Errrr... YES! I am out of money."

Little does he know why I haven't called home in a week, strong recession had got its hold on me, choking my bank account and mobile balance. I am falling deeper and deeper into the crater of debt, I remember the lines of Max Payne, ' the more I try to climb, the deeper I am falling into it.

Study schedule has been as hectic as it could ever be. Must be the Karma! It feels like the four cozy semester I had enjoyed, at the expense of dedicated group mates doing my share of work, are now taking their revenge on me. Photoshop has never hanged on me so much, as I fight my sleep heaving on my eye lids, my mind going numb on an almost dysfunctional brain, arranging the sheets for next day's studio submission. Nothing felt more pleasant than my warm bed and comfy pillows. 

And the girl next door has been distracting me more than ever, with her colorful churidars. Things were not going any smooth though. She pretends like nothing is happening around, with her forced smile that flashes around her face while I pass by her, and a determined Karthik being ever annoying trying to 'enlighten' my life, and her friend plotting to revenge some old business with him, and my coward heart being the scapegoat. She was like the autumn breeze midst the winter, like a flash of colorful romantic movie in between a shady vampire movie. Speaking of the vampires, the newly recruited faculties have been getting on our nerves. They had the gift of demoralizing students with their unforgivably arrogant comments and intolerable lecturing.

Depression had caught me again, the unaccustomedness to working, and missing sleeps has made me an owl, I would search my way around Facebook and tech sites whole night, to the point of extreme depression, I could write reviews about all the latest gadgets around, or write a guide on drag racing, based on my experience with Street Rivals Facebook game. I traveled all the way to One town to keep myself distracted, with three rupees in my hand and a rumbling stomach, and made peace with it with the only samosa I could afford.

I was selected in the Old Monks team for 5 vs 5 football tournament, and well my job probably will be to cheer and shout at my team mates from the bench. A substiute eh? Psh! I am like the Manager! *head held high*

And hurray! I finally found a realistic violin instrument in FL Studio. I have composed this track called Heartbeat, and I am pretty happy with the result.

https://soundcloud.com/mukhthar-ahmed/heatbeat

'Sarkar'ed!

Big day for the final jury arrived. An over confident bunch of students dressed up all bright, ready with their mile long sheets stuffed in with countless pie charts and colorful maps, anxious to meet their jury, lined up in the classroom. An old man entered the class with a forced cold smile, and stared at the minions before him, all set to tear upon them. His name was Sarkar, and he brought along this tall guy who looked lost and totally out of place. After the formal introduction, it was announced the individual jury will be held first. An enthusiastic Bhaskar sir was running around making sure we were all prepared, not that he really cared about us, but he was trying to build a reputation for himself, and what else could he ask for than an opportunity to show off his kids to the Associate Professor of Traffic and Transportation Department of SPA Delhi?

One by one, the lambs went into the lion's den. We heard no screams, thought everything was going well, and that's when my turn came. Took a deep breath and walked in, sat in front of him, proudly spread out my portfolio of sheets I had finally managed to complete the previous day. He seemed least bothered about my work, my hours of continuous misery with photoshop creating all those sheets out of thousand rows and columns of excel data.

"What are the attributes of network characteristics?"

"Err..who sir?"

"What book do you refer?"

"Kadiyali.."

“WHO IS KADIYALI? He was my colleague! He is not the only author for transportation studies! DO YOU WANT ME TO CALL HIM NOW?"

"Err...?"

"This won't be enough! You need to work hard... Good luck."

And, I walked out of the den, heartless, totally 'boosted up' for the group jury that was coming next.

And before I know, I was standing before him again, this time I wasn't alone. Borrowing Rajiv's word, we stood up before him in a row, while he loaded his gun, brandished it, and aimed at us.

"Who is going to start?" asked the man with gun.

"Sir", I stepped forward. "Our aim is to study the parking demand and existing supply to differentiate out the deficit demand, and cater to it through our strategies. Our objective was to blah and blah and blah..."

"That's not an objective!" He fired his first shot.

"Sir, we have followed this methodology..."

"Nonsense!"

That was it, he began firing at us bullets after bullets of questions, we struggled hard dodging and defending them for a while, hopeless, as we finally surrendered, taking the blows one after another, to become the first martyrs of the jury. While we were being thrown to our graves, we saw Bhaskar sir entering the hall, saw the panic of realization on his face, all the hefty surveys out on the road under burning sun, all the data entries of where people were going and how much it was costing them, all the colourful sheets that had adorned the studio walls, and all the presentations of IRC and regulations and norms, for the last 6 months, were all hopelessly decapitated - 'Sarkar'ed...

(Background music: Time- Hans Zimmer)

At the end of the day, while our executioner was reminding us for the last time how much of dumb heads we were, I remember an emotional Bhaskar sir saying, "I wouldn't compare you with master students, but for the work done by 2nd year bachelor students, you have done exceptionally well." And that was the last time we saw him in the campus.

  

Transportation Semester

Transportation semester has been the most interesting.

Either you have to sit on the footpath like a homeless, usually accompanied by homeless, from sunrise to sunset and count the cars and 2 wheeler, 2, 3 and multi-axle trucks, and the cycles and handcarts, and tally mark them on the survey sheet, or record their speeds, from the time they took to pass you and your flag-wala friend, or just stop the vehicles and politely ask them 'ekkede nincho osthunnaru, ekkede elthunnaru and endi purpose?' (Where are you coming from, where are you going to and why?) and they will close the window on your face...Bingo! You have successfully failed to obtain a data! Of course you can comfortably sit at some Chai dukhan and doze the day off given Bhaskar sir doesn't jump around like a ninja with a camera out of nowhere.

And then there is this part, where you go to houses around the city and ask them how much were they earning, and how old their daughter is, where all did they go yesterday and why, and how', you can bet has been the best of the surveys (given, you don't understand abuses in Telugu) ! The coolest survey was to note the speed of the hired air-conditioned Toyota Innova while roaming around the city... obviously not from the speedometer, but from stop watch and the distance covered. Parking survey wasn't too bad either, you have to sit in front of BigBazaar whole day and enjoy the crowd and food there, but just keep filling the sheets with random licence numbers of vehicles allegedly park on the street. An upset stomach, a famished wallet, and nosy people around, adds to the fun.

And at the end of the day, you return to hostel with swollen legs and burnt face, and your archi mates look at you with utmost pity and prays 'God, bless them!' and that completes your survey day! Later you feed those data into Excel and conjure up beautiful pie-charts out of them and stack them up in sheets, which would later be your death omen, at the jury!