The Midnight's Road

I have often felt midnights. Many at home, and a few on my travels across the country. Now midnights are routine at NITIE. And when things become routine, that is when their beauty is lost.

Notice how I said "felt" midnights in the first line. Yes you actually do more than see things, you feel or experience them. I try to soak in everything and make an experience out of them so that they remain etched in my memory forever. Also I am blessed/cursed with a good memory. Midnights in Hyderabad used to be brilliant, since I stayed a predominantly residential area, you would never hear any noise (except this one prick IT professional who would keep honking to wake his watchman around 1am every night), the roads glistened in the orange haze of the streetlights and there was always a pleasant smell in the air owing to the trees around methinks.

It is the same almost everywhere in India. Midnights or late nights or mornings before the sunrise are truly the best times to actually discover any place in. Bombay after 1am, a brightly lit metropolis with very few cars on the road, the occasional policeman keeping vigil, the chai waala on his cycle and lots of unknown faces tucked under their blankets would sum it up.

NITIE or atleast the area between the hostels always has activity upto 2-3 am atleast, so I think those times have become too routine for me to experience anything serene, but sunrise is usually awesome. 6am and everyone will be asleep, the sun will throw its reflection on the waters of the scanty NITIE pond and air is moist and chilly. The Tea stall outside the Outer Gate is open early and always happy to see a NITIEan up that early. So here's hoping to soak in a few more of those early mornings in NITIE or Hyderabad or wherever life takes me henceforth.

Football, Cafes and a Movie

It started with a small mention of Mumbai FC to Ambujesh. This led to a series of events that has become the most memorable that I will have in a long time.

Two football players - Ambu and Me and Two Basketball players - Chetan and Anirudh left for Cooperage by the 25(bus) after getting done with classes. After a drowsy bus ride, we arrived at the ground 20 minutes into the game between Mumbai FC and Mahindra United. Got decent seats on flimsy stands that seemed like they would crash anytime. But the game was fun in its own way considering it was the first LIVE football match that I watching.

Although it ended in a draw, the game was pretty exciting, Mahindra United hitting the framework with some excellent play from Steven Dias on the right wing. Mumbai FC had a disappointing day although Abel Hammond showed sparks of brilliance time and again.It was fun yelling, clapping and discussing football with strangers.

Then we trotted along to grab a bite at the illustrious Leopold Cafe. After filling our tummies there, we went and sat on Marine Drive and just soaked in the sea breeze. Then it was off for dinner at Sundance.

Anirudh had to get back to college, so we put him on a bus and headed for watching Dev D. Its been long since I reviewed a movie, so here I break the trend. Dev D is old wine served in a spanking, stylised, good looking bottle. Kudos to Anurag Kashyap and his team for serving us with a visually stunning and bold movie. He has ushered in the Bold New Face of Indian Cinema.

From tomorrow its back to work, we are organizing B Cube, an event for MBA aspirants on Sunday. So if you want some gyaan about the various verticals of management, GD/PIs or you just want to win some prizes at the business quiz, come down to NITIE campus.

PS:Things I forgot to mention (which Ani's comment reminded me) - The many cute girls that we saw throughout the day, the tear-jerkingly spicy Hakka Babycorn at Leopold, Ambu's friend Karthik who joined us after work and Anirudh's encounter of the different kind ;) I also ran into a guy from school Prithviraj during the movie