Tag Archive for 'plan'

Chapter 1: At Persuasive Best

Published on October 5, 2009 in Travel. 0 Comments

A long weekend was looming large. Having wasted away the last long weekend, I was determined not to let go of this one. But therein lay the difficulty. What could you possibly plan at such a short notice. It was already Wednesday, and it being the Dussera weekend, we would not get train tickets to almost any place worth visiting. And for sure I did not want to plan a trip to Goa with only 3 days in hand.

There was only one destination that I could think of. Having discussed it with my team mates Vishal and Mali, I knew the trip was feasible. But it would require enthusiastic people to take up charge and set an example, for it would be tough, both mentally and physically.

A short background at this point is essential I suppose. We are a small group of friends, highly excited about bike rides. However, most of us have only recently started biking, and have at most gone for some 60 kms on a single ride. A few of us, like Rohit and I, had only just learnt driving bikes. I wasn’t sure how much we could endure if a long distance plan was proposed.

Never the less, I called up Vipin and laid down my plan in front of him. We could start early from Bangalore to avoid all the city traffic and head towards Mysore. A 150 km long ride would get us to the Mysore city. Stay at the city for the day and start for Ooty the very next early morning, The same evening, we return back to Bangalore. This is what I thought was a possibility. Vipin though, slightly altered the plan. He suggested we first reach Ooty, spend the night over there, and then return to Mysore on the day of Dussera. This way, we would be covering the larger and tougher part of the journey while we were relatively still fresh. And later on the urge to reach home would be the driving force for the return journey.Still, the one thing we agreed upon was that if we told the complete plan to everybody, there was a very high chance that they might pull out. There was a tacit agreement between the two of us to reveal our complete plan only at a very late stage.

Now that Vipin was in, it was time to spread the word and get as many people excited about it as possible.Vipin and I started buzzing people and telling them about our plan. Suhas immediately agreed. The count now stood at 3 people, 3 bikes.

The first shock was the refusal of Akshay to take part in out trip. He had already been to Ooty and Mysore, and did not wish to make that trip once again. No amount of persuasion could convince him to come along with us.The next bad news was from Lakke, who was leaving for home the same weekend. If any more people withdraw, our efforts could suffer a major setback I thought. So it was all the more important to get Sumeet onboard.

Vipin, Suhas, Sumeet and I were gathered in the pantry to discuss the weekend affair. Upon hearing the planned trip to Mysore, with a slight possibility of going to Ooty Sumeet was unsure if he wanted to do such a long trip. But then Suhas and Vipin put on an impressive show and listed out all the pros and cons in such a way that Sumeet had no choice but to agree. This would be our first victory. Now that Sumeet was in, it would be relatively easier to get others involved.

My flat mate, Rohit, instantly agreed. He was also itching to make the Ooty trip and did not want to miss this opportunity. Vipin called up his flat mates and two of them, Naveen and Aditya agreed.

I called up Arpit and he tentatively agreed, only to later reject citing migraine. My brother Ambuj was already on his way to Bangalore and would be making this trip with us.

At the end of the day, Friday that it was, we were at the cafeteria playing caroms and watching the live telecast of the cricket match. We were to leave the following day. A start time of 7 am was agreed upon by everybody. In walks Lakke, with his charming smile. He comes up to us and lets us known that he couldn’t get tickets to go back home, thus leaving him available for the weekend. This was like the icing on the cake. I broke into laughter and knew that the trip could be not not successful. With Lakke in, we would have lots of unlimited fun. Things couldn’t have ended on a better note. In less than 12 hours we were to start. We were an impressive team of 9 adventurers on 5 bikes:

  • Vipin and Aditya on Pulsar 180
  • Suhas and Naveen on Apache 160
  • Sumeet and Lakke on Hunk 150
  • My brother and I on CBZ Xtreme 150
  • Rohit on his Stunner 125.

This was to be our first long, very long bike ride. And we couldn’t possibly be less excited.

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A Feel Of Things To Be

Published on January 21, 2009 in Anu. 0 Comments

Things have returned back to normalcy at IIT Kharagpur. This report is with regard to one Mr. Anuvrat Singh, who is a final year student of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

A young boy, happy with his placement at Fair Isaac, Bangalore had been behaving oddly these past few days. Sources close to him tell us that since the start of the spring semester, this being his final one, Anuvrat had been attending all the classes. This was an unexpected change in a guy who never attached much significance in being present during the lecture hours. He had this weird theory of – Why attend classes if you don’t listen to the professor anyway. Time would be better spent sleeping then and later on doing something constructive. And he stuck to this absurd notion of his for seven semesters.

However, what changed his mind at the beginnnig of the semester continues to be a mystry. He won’t talk about it. When confronted, he simply tries to change the topic. His wing mates and friends were highly concerned for his well being and health. They were troubled by the possibility of attending classes having an adverse affect on the young boy’s health. To get him to bunk classes, they suggested he watch movies along with them late night, go for a walk at 2 am, and what not. But it was all in vain. Classes, apparently, had become his priority for the semester

His friends had given up as a lost cause. And then it happened ! This morning he had a double lecture at 0730 hrs – Foundations of Cryptology. Anuvrat woke up at 0725 and the very thought of a double lecture, that too of Cryptology, scared him. For the first time this semester he was afraid to go to the class. And then he did what he does best – pretend as if he doesn’t have a class at all. Yep, he woke up, got fresh, had breakfast and watched Two And A Half Men for the next four hours. This was the first class he skipped (not missed, but bunked) this semester.

And if the rumours are to be believed, he is leaving Kharagpur to visit his parents in Hyderabad tomorrow. It is a 2 weeks planned trip – away from classes, projects and any work. And he feels quite good about it. Things certainly are starting to look well for this lad once again. He was seen enthusiastically involved in a conversation to plan a trip to the Sundarbans in the second week of February with his wingmates.

Get lost, Ha ! Now its me, Anuvrat. Look, whatever the reporter has written is crap. I wasn’t demented to attend the classes everyday. It was all part of a plan. A plan that has already been put into action. The classes were to give me an advantage in attendance, so that I can now skip many more classes without being worried about  a drop in the percentage of attendance. Thats all from me. I am a bit busy right now – lots of trips to plan. See ya :)

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