Insti anecdotes

Insti t-shirts - loudmouths

1) 'We will be what we will to be - IIT Delhi' (Alas, the only will that exists is to huddle together for the latest bollywood flick).
2) 'STAND OUT - IIT Delhi' (Nice message from Grade A companies, keeping in mind the placement scene this year).
3) 'I am what you dream to be - IIT Delhi' (Now that we have given up on ourselves, we will play smart and assume that the others haven't found out yet).

Insti rules

1) Gender sensitization committees will have samosa-chai as Hostel funds are 'officially' wasted on Socials (for the uninitiated, this event involves 'interaction' between the opposite sexes. Insti doesn't mind if this requires the fairer sex to be transported all the way from IP, Miranda, Gargi and the like; to as much as attempt to satiate the desperate souls at Hauz Khas and Kathwaria Sarai)

2) The sole natural water source on campus shall not be touched, nevermind if dengue, malaria, etc call the shots. And even then, the student is sick only if he has been to Sick Bay (that most become sick after visiting Sick Bay cannot be contested!).

Insti Chemistry

Overheard this morning as I went past a PhD student walking to his lab with his eyes burning an NMR spectrum,'Kaisi paheli hai ye, kaisi paheli...'

Road trip

The things we make of what we have! An auto designed to fit three is remodelled to fit eight - I travel in one of these for my weekend trips back home and its awesome fun. Observing the expertise with which the driver catches his Savaari could make an enlightening case study in sales. Its equally hilarious to watch the reactions of first timers, used to the luxury of putting their whole body in an auto (here you should thank yourself if u can manage anything more than half a butt inside it). 'Bhaiyya, jagah kahaan hai?' has become so common that the driver doesn't even bother to reply.

Almost 600 people depend on these share-autos for their roti-kapda-makaan, ferrying thousands of the burgeoning middle class who have shifted out of Delhi into the expanse of trans-Yamuna and Indirapuram - the residential brother of Gurgaon. The porosity of the Delhi-U.P. border also means that traffic rules change practically every month. The poor auto-wallahs have to bear the brunt, with vehicles being hauled off the road every other day. Cell phones prove to be a big boon in such situations and one can occasionally find detours being taken when news comes of cops being on the job a few 100 metres ahead.

Similar stories can be seen unfolding on the roads of Gurgaon, Noida and the wonderful walkway from Mall Road to St. Stephen's and beyond. These autos may make for ugly road traffic and may be responsible for the 8 o'clock jam on the highway, but they are the lifelines for thousands. Like many other things Indian, the autos of NCR continue at their improvising best - connecting people and places.