INAT was a special experience for me this year. Ever since my semester exams ended this November, I had been living a monotonous life for almost half a month preceding INAT. I was anxiously waiting for Himadri(BEN) Soni and Sudhanva Lalit (My friends from TIFR VSRP). They were also going to appear for the entrance and were coming from Baroda.
Well they appeared on 17th at wee hours of the morning. While Himadri had her lodgings in IUCAA guest house Takshashila, Sudhanva was kept at the Academic Staff College Hostel. They were unable to find it and I went to assist them in their search. It turned out that it was quite close to my own Hostel. After the morning tryst, we met again in front of the Chandrashekhar auditorium in front of IUCAA and had a good hour of chat succeeded by another one at the Old Canteen and Ellis garden.
After that we went hiking the hill behind my hostel and while trying to come down from the other side, we landed up in a No Man’s Land. After quite a good deliberation, Himadri showed us the way! We ran through prickly bushes and climbed a gate later to land in the Range Hills area of Khadki. We walked around and later were joined by my friend Soumyajyoti in the M.M. restaurant. Irshaad, friend of Himadri from SINP, Kolkata, also joined us. We had a healthy dinner, a chat again and went to sleep without studying anything!
In the morning, I tried turning few pages of H. C. Verma but to no avail. At the examination centre, we were joined by other candidates about 220 or so. We had three more fellows now in our little group. Aarti(our friend from TIFR), Raj(Sudhanva’s classmate) and Swathi(Himadri’s room-mate in Takshashila). We went for the exam, I a physics student could solve only 4 out of 15 questions and solved good enough from Electronics and Mathematics. At the lunch table we were discussing about our plans to visit the Parvati Hill and a trip to Lonavala but everything was devastated as me, Sudhanva and Raj were among the (un)fortunate people to clear the entrance. We went for the interviews soon after. I was to give it that day itself while the other two were slated for the next day. The interviews were absolute nightmares. I thought the first one to be worse but it seemed fair enough in comparison with the second one.
In the evening we went and had Panipuri and Dabheli and then went in search for a booking agency to book tickets for Swathi and Himadri. While, Himadri got it Swathi couldn’t. We had to go to Swargate to book her tickets but were too tired to think about going anywhere else. We had the worst dinner in a bloody hotel called Dilip near Shivajinagar. Before that we had walked almost 7-8 Kms. We were all tired and went for having thick shakes to rejuvenate ourselves. The shakes were really thick and we had fun scooping them and then walked back to IUCAA. We had walked almost close to 10 Kms.
The next day i.e. 19th I went with Swathi in the morning to reserve tickets for her. She got one and then we went to see Shaniwarwada and Pataleshwar Caves. We came back and then the pain of separation from my friends started sinking in. Irshaad went out first and then I went with Swathi to see off to her bus. Within an hour Himadri went back and I was there again seeing off Raj who after a long chain of sequences went back to Mumbai in a four-wheeler.
By Sunday, Sudhanva would be gone too. I don’t know, if I would ever meet these wonderful friends again in my life. Well I met Himadri & Sudhanva in about 6 months or so and if God permits and my luck shines, we will have a blast again somewhere else. Well anyways somebody has said, “Duniya Gol hai!” So, let’s hope I would have the good fortune to meet them again.
Now I want to go home more than ever!!!!!!!
