If you were following me on Twitter or Facebook, you might have been overwhelmed with the massive influx of messages/tweets which had only one intention - Explaining how much I love Manipal.
I had been to Manipal for three days for my University Convocation which was on 2nd of November. This day being a weekday instead of Saturday can be held responsible for a bit poor turnout of this great event. I reached Manipal on Sunday morning and left on Tuesday night.
Sunday
Reached Manipal at 10:30AM in the morning. The bus was unusually late and I was dead tired. When I stepped out of the bus, I could feel the real heat which we had been bitching for the last four years. It was really too hot especially after spending 4 months in Bangalore where the weather is excellent, or say PERFECT!
Getting down the bus, I went to the college hostel which one of my friend had booked for us. The hostel was 14C(MIT Hostels) which is probably situation in the valley. Going up in the heart of the campus needs some serious exercise as the 15th floor of this block is at the same height as the ground floor of the hostels in the heart of the campus.
After getting fresh, we(Gaurav, me and Atul) left for lunch at Dollops. We were in no mood to miss the finger-licking chicken lollipop. After finished the lunch, we went to college to get ourselves registered for the convocation.
The real fun was at night. Nearly 95% of the crowd who came to Manipal for convo headed for DT. The place was full and for those few hours, it looked like this place was the most happening place in the world. People were enjoying at their max, all beautiful chicks the place was filled with smoke. We all reached back Hostel by 2 in the night
Monday
I got up quite early in the morning, went to the college to get the convocation gown. I was shocked to know that the college had so-so many gowns which can be given to most of the students who came for this event. After getting all the required, we all 3 headed to China Valley, which is another restaurant which I had never missed whenever I got a chance in my engineering. After having delicious food, we all returned back to hostel. The big event needs big preparations.
Everyone I could see was running here and there, getting formals, shoes polished, ties and what not? Everyone wanted to look as smart as possible. It looked like a formal fashion show. We took our gowns in our hands to wear it at the event itself. At evening, reached KMC Greens on time. The venue was well lit up and looked more like a traditional Indian marriage. All of us who had registered had been allocated a seat for the time other’s were receiving degrees.
The Convocation started with Kasturba Medical College and ended with MIT. I was really thrilled when I got a chance to come on the stage and was handed over the degree. It is a prized possession. After the distribution of degrees, we headed over to Manipal University campus where dinner was arranged for all of us. After dinner, the only place I could think was again -DT. The Mecca of Manipal. Even though it was jam packed as usual, I along with some of my friends managed to find a place with other friends who were already camping for an hour. The experience that day is difficult to explain. All I can say is that we somehow managed to return back to hostel by 2:30AM.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning I got up early. I have a younger cousin studying at Manipal in 2nd year Mechanical. Called him up and asked him to come for lunch. We both went to Saiba, the place which I was not able to visit for last 2 days. We had a normal lunch as opposed to my heavy one. By that time I came to know that all the photos were being transferred by Aavik. I missed no second and went to this room to collect all the snaps from different sources.
Around 4PM, I called up Akshay and asked all the LUG guys to assemble in CCD for a get-together. The people who finally turned up were - Ankur, Djays, Anomit, Sameer, Akshay, Ujjwal, Tushar, Shashank. We had discussions ranging from latest breakthroughs to technology to where Manipal is heading to. This exhaustive session lasted 2 hours.
The day was drawing to a close. I had to catch a bus back to Bangalore. All I could take back to Bangalore were memories. This place gave me so many things. So many good friends. Miss you all! Miss you Manipal
The first time I saw those phones were when my grandmother applied for a connection. That phone was a big rock like device where you had to revolve the dialler till the end to dial someone’s number. If I compare them with the present generation basic phones, they look quite cumbersome. Inspite of looking ridiculous in this age, they did their job well as per the technology limitations. Probably after 10 years the present generation basic phones would look like a silly device.
It’s very fast and worked on wine with a few glitches. It has no native version for Linux though an Alpha has been released and I heard its unstable. Let’s wait and watch!
