Cell

Well one normal night, in a normal final year engg student's life, it hit me, it hit me real bad. How madly and badly I was dependent on my cell fone, as if without it i would suffocate. I came back from the canteen to get a Hutch Recharge card so that I could call up my bro in Delhi and wish him a Happy Birthday. After the call I couldnt see any signal on my cell. I switched if off and then on again, only to get a message - "SIM NOT VALID". I frantically changed the sim into another cell and found that it was working, and tried another sim in my cell, and still the same message - "SIM NOT VALID". It was shell shocked. The cell had not fallen, it hadnt ben accidentally dropped into an aquarium, or anything like that. But still. Anyways, I had to leave for New Delhi the next day for my cousin's marriage and so I took the 12:15 bus to (CL) Civil Lines go dump it at a Nokia Service Centre. But still I was like what the hell is happening. Thank Godness for Suchit letting me keep his cell for the night and much of next day, but without a cell I was a fish without water. I was literally going door to door in the hostel asking people if anyone of them had a spare cell, but no one had one. In the end someone told me that Loki(Lokendra Kaushik from Sirsa, Haryana) had a cell which he was not using. But it had a battery panga. But still i wanted a nokia cell, more reliable, or so i thought. I traded the Motorola set with Mayank's Nokia which was on roaming as Mayank was still using his Bangalore number, God knows for what!! When I came back from Delhi I missed an interview because of the cell-less being that I was, as Mayank took the cell back and left me with a defunct Motorola piece of sh**. I asked Awantika to call up the Nokia SS and they told her that it has gone to LKO for 'big-people' to look at. So it meant i was not getting my cell anytime soon. Today, even after 7 days now, I am without a proper cell...but "Ab to Aadat si hai mujh ko...". I guess people get used to what they get used to...if u have a cell, one gets used to talking much, if not then still one lives, but it is the transition period that creates the troubles.

HRI

When is in Allahabad, the starting point of great Indian UP East, HRI means the nearest thing to Albert Einstein, Nobel Prizes in Physics, and things in that genre. Anyways, for footballers of IIIT Allahabad, HRI is a place with an awesome outfield, just perfect to play football 8 a-side types!! So yesterday using the contacts of Balwant sir of the Maintenance Cell of IIITA, the 9 of us chugged along to the greens of HRI. The thing is that its damn far off, in Jhunsi, in no man's land. In fact people say that IIITA is in some village, which is a fact, but then HRI is in a no-man's land, there is no one around. Anyways, I started off Left-Back, imagine that, left back, u think I would ever play Back....this is what is called Politics. Anyways, for me it has always been that team comes first. So if the team needed me at the left-back position then I will be at the left-back position. However, I would rather have put Khullar at that position, he has better defence sense. Anyways, in the first have we took 2 goals, one was a penalty from a handball by Suttu. The second was an own-goal from IK. Both goals were a bit disappointing, but there was very little Naman could do, Naman really kept us in the game, with all his acrobat saves. In the mean time I was having a terrible game, with very little support from my skills, which, somehow i found a bit erroded. Arjun, the one HERO of their team, well I started off with a bit of a body game against him, and he kinda got the message. After am illegal push, he said to me - "Thats technically a foul...but the point is how long can you keep this up". Anyways, the game ended with a 0-2 defeat for us, but we were happy with the way we played, at least as compated to the 4-0 route at their hands last time around.

I went to HRI risking missing an interview from a "not-so-bad" company based in Gurgaon. I missed a project meeting as we guys had to wait for Mayank and company to arrive in the auto(we arrived earlier at Kam Dhenu as we were in the HRI Ambulance). I guess its like what people say, one cannot ride on 2 boats simultaneously, if one attempts he is sure to drown. Anyways, lets see if we can have a re-match on Sunday.

The Orthopaedic Surgeon

Well it just so happened that in the first 5 minutes of the soccer game against MNNIT, Allahabad, I injured my ankle bad. But since the adrenalin was pumping, I could continue with the game till the end of the half. But when it was over, the pain brought me down on my knees, i was almost screaming out loud. Screaming and shouting I reached back to campus from the grounds of Allahabad University. I went to see the campus doc at her home as she had already left her office, she prescribed rest. I was trying to be fine with it and thought it would become better as the days went by but after 2 days I found a huge amount of blood collected at the place i had taken the hit (of course the blood had collected behind the skin) and the next day it turned to black. I was shocked at the sight of my foot, the pain was not as much but it was not less significantly. Awantika forced me to show myself to the real doc and so I went to this doc who is largely considered to be the best in the business in Allahabad. She had told me to speak in a good English to him as he had a gr8 diction, well she somehow wanted me to impress him (dunno why, but she knew him..,may be thats why).

I went to him and he seemed nothing like what Awantika had told me, a bit curt and spoke very little. On top of that he ordered an X-Ray and this place called Kriti Labs, the costliest X-Ray dukaan in Alld. Anyways, after he scared the living shit out of me by the xray order, i went to the bank first to get the money for the 400 bucks worth xray and then after 40 min, i was ready with the xray, and awantika, who was juss short of hysterical by now, i all ready to call up amit bhaiya to have me dropped back to campus in case my leg needed to be plastered. Anyways, I went back to the doc with the xray and he said all was well much to my relief. He prescribed something for the swelling and then asked his attendent to tie the crappe bandage around me.

All the while I tried to make some conversation, told him I was from IIIT A, he asked me where i lived coz at present iiit operated from more than one place in the city, all the time keeping my English flawless. Anyways, when it came to making him the payment, I handed him 2 hundred rupee notes and he promptly returned the 1 hundred rupee note, a discount of 50%.

So this is why she wanted me to be good, I had made a good impression on him by my english. Anyways, about 3-4 weeks later, Naman, guy in my batch (who is our goalie and also a member of the basketball team) hurt his thumb in the court. He turned to me to find out which doc to visit. Fresh from my visit, I recommended the same guy. And also told him that he should try to speak to him in English only. That evening I met Naman in the mess and I asked him about the visit and the doc, he told me, "Man that guy sucks, he is curt he is rude, etc etc". I was like, how much did he charge? Teo hundred Naman said. And then Naman promptly added, " I think I need to work on my English!!"