Trip to Chennai.

This weekend I went to Chennai to attend the IIMK GD/PI there. It was my first trip to the city and though I was given pretty sad review about the city, I was kind of keen on exploring it on my own. And thats exactly what I did!

Journey: I had booked railway tickets for the journey well in advance and that helped a lot. As Poxy mentions quite often, its not easy to get reservation at the eleventh hour on this route. My onward train was scheduled to leave Bangalore at 11:45 PM. I was very sleepy as I reached the station around 11:20. I dozed off as soon as I hit the bed. I got to know only in the morning that the train started late and left Bangalore at around 12:30 AM!! Though my interview was scheduled for 11:30 AM, I must admit I was scared for sometime that I will miss it. When I reached Chennai Central, finally at around 8:00 AM, sincerely following Sundy's advice I went straight to Pre-Paid auto booth (Best way to counter those thugs of auto drivers!).

Interview: I had to walk for quite a distance after I got down at the main gate of Loyola College. While walking, I noticed the beautiful Church, adorning the already spectecular campus. I finally reached the Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA) building. After figuring out where to go, I headed directly to the loo, had to get into my formals and groom myself for the interview! It was already hot (even before 9 AM) but it wasn't too different from Bangalore weather. Once I changed, I followed the fellow candidates to an air-conditioned room. The relief was beatific! The tension in the room could have been cut by a knife, people were reading newspapers (business page), eyeing anyone who entered the room in anticipation and then I went there are started to read Digital Fortress (Dan Brown). People scheduled for the 9 o'clock round were rounded off and herded to their respective GD rooms. After the GD they were back to the room waiting for their turn for personal interview. Slowly they trickled out and candidates for the 11 o'clock lot started to enter. Our time came eventually and I was asked to come to room 101 for group discussion with 7 others. The topic was totally obscure (something about socialism in Eastern Europe and democracy in Western Europe in Cold War era and capitalist powers...) and honestly I didn't a clue and I can say the same for almost everyone in the room, barring the interviewers about whom I'm not too sure. Everyone was bullshitting, or atleast trying his best too, I tried too but the loud chaps around me put me off after a while. The interview came later, in the meanwhile I was chatting with some of the fellow candidates (most of whom were from Bangalore only). I really wish all the best to that Chennai fellow (Darn! I really can't recall his name!) who told me about Spenser Plaza, he saved my day!
The interview wasn't much better, they started to ask me on the GD topic only (socialism, democracy, capitalism, blah blah..). I tried my best to bullshit through it, I'm not sure how I scored. Then came "tell me about yourself" kind of questions. In the end, when I was asked to raise my queries, I asked why do those guys (sheeeeeeeeeeesh!) not keep a centre at Bangalore. They were kind of caught off-guard there and mumbled something about thinking about it and keeping it in Metros only (frankly, I wasn't convinced!). I came out after general pleasantries.

Chennai: The "land of no communication", as Sundy described it, wasn't all that bad! The auto wallah outside Loyola was speaking Hindi perfectly. I asked him to take me to Satyam Movie Complex. Alas, neither my thirst for cinema was quenched, nor was I allowed to sleep in the blessing called Air-Conditioning, the shows for Hindi, English, Tamil movies were running house full! Thanks to that nameless Chennai chap, I headed to Spenser's Plaza. (Mind you, these journeies were done entirely on autos, without any hassles and in, what I thought, reasonable fares.) It was whopping big mall. After general wandering, I decided to dump my bag with Landmark's security. Then I found out about reliance broadband cafe and spent some time surfing there. Came back to Landmark and finished two magazines in their cafe, helping myself with pizza and few cakes and coffees! After that I picked up Digital Fortress again and started to gallop through it.
I was happily taking a break and watching the crowd after finishing the 36th chapter, just then he came to me! I've forgot his name too (You guessed it, I do forget names quite easily!) but it was Bengali. He came up to me, reportedly, out of curiosity about the book I was reading! We started chatting, it was nice until he started with his Amway business. I still get nightmares about that Vinod (or was is Vinay) fellow who came to my home and wasted two hours of pure tv watching joy over his stupid Amway nonsense and now I get to hear that all over again in Chennai too!! I tried my best to get rid of this rubbish, but he decided to stick around till dinner. We went to Pizza Hut and luckily I found Pondy(Adesh Nath Rawal, I remember some names :) there. He was with me in IIT, we weren't closest of pals but in good talking terms nonetheless. It was very welcome break chatting with him and another fellow IITian, whose name I can't recall, much to my regret (I'm not even sure if I ever knew his name, but he was with me in first year Mechanical workshops and was a Mech punter (dual?!)). That's the problem with me, I can remember faces very well and attach incidents with faces real good, but when it comes to names my data access just goes kaput! I would like to take this opportunity to beg forgiveness from all my friends (named and unnamed) for this real ignorant behaviour on my part, especially from Kapil Garg (or was it Meel?!), whom I met in Pune and instantly remembered him to be from my class in school, but couldn't recall his name!

This was almost it, I took another auto for railway station and headed towards Bangalore.

Highlights:
- Finished Digital Fortress in just one day!
- Got enlightened about the power and peace of pre-paid auto.
- I look GREAT in formals! (Thanks to Bothera for the tie).

Currently Reading: The Code Book - Simon Singh