!!!Two hours

In those two hours, the world went topsy-turvy. I received three CDC papers in two hours, one was good (surprisingly) and the other two left a lot to be done in T2 and compre. But these are not the two hours I am talking about. They are the ones that followed. I decided I was in no mood for snacks, instead went to the library and settled down with a book, only the fourth person inside. No network inside lib, switched off my phone. The clock showed six and I was completely immersed in All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot. Another hour went by among sheep, horses and calves. {James Herriot is a vet and writes about his country practice.} By now, I was ravenously hungry. I proceeded to the Institute Cafeteria for samosa chaat (staple food at IC). Saw some crowd outside audi, couldn’t figure out why. Maybe there was something related to the visiting MIT delegates, but without prior intimation… Wondering, I reached IC where the guy asked me that what was happening in audi. I replied with a negative probably for the first time. Anyway, returned at a leisurely pace to hostel where the world exploded. And I came to know a lot had changed…

For people who belong to BPGC, I am sure you’ll get the situation when I say that the above mentioned two hours are 5pm to 7pm on 23rd September 2009. If you don’t, at 6.15 pm, there was an emergency meeting in the auditorium. Where, it was announced that due to 47 cases of jaundice detected in the campus, immediate medical leave is declared up to 11th October. This is unprecedented in BITS Pilani Goa history. A university which publishes its calendar including each test date a year earlier had just thrown all previous organising into the air. That too, just for jaundice, not swine flu (no case in Goa Campus). But the rude shock does not end here. In front of the hostel, I was told the news. At the same time, my neighbor came running and told me to call my mom. Meanwhile, I was already on phone with mother and the first sentence she said was “tumhare college mein chhuttiyaan declare ho gayi hain”. And I was like, “what, how do you know”. Imagine your mom calling from home and telling that vacations have been declared in your college. Turns out during those blissful hours of reading in the library, many calls had been made. My room was locked and nobody had an idea where I was. Most of my friends called each other as to where I was. And I was sitting cosily in rural England. Though courtesy mom, within an hour I had a ticket for 25th. Right now, at home, enjoying God-gifted vacations :)