First 2 weeks

10th July was my last day at amazon Hyderabad. And was also for 2 two-months interns in my team.  They were kids with a lot of unfinished task so I stayed back at office and helped them finish stuff, working through the night between 9th and 10th. On my last day, I was walking stead-fast here and there completing formalities. Then the HR told relieving letter cannot be given the same day but in a week. I was almost in tears worried because it might be a requirement to show it on Monday 13th July at document verification in IISc. I was that late completing formalities, biding good byes and releasing  my laptop and stuff that I had to call my friend who rushed me to my flat and in 13  minutes I put a few clothes and my original DMCs in a bag and boarded the train to Bangalore.

I am finding IISc very nice. It’s very green and calm. The buildings and pathways seem to sprout-out amid a thick cover made of old 'real' trees (I a bit dislike the genetically-mutated nursery-made plants we find everywhere else). Insects, birds and bats are everywhere and there are also some squirrels and monkeys. Every evening it rains.

On 11th I reached Bangalore railway station at 7 AM and found an IISc van waiting there to receive the new admits. It took me to 'New Mens Hostel' within the campus where I parked my luggage. In NIT there used to be boys' hostel. So it was a promotion. The foundation stone of this  hostel proudly proclaimed "inaugurated by APJ". I wished if I could get to stay there. Also on the same day was hostel allocation-  in which I picked for myself, from a bucket of folded chits, a room in the most  undesirable of all hostels. Undesirable because it is at the  other end of the 400 acres campus while the dept and mess are on this side, so a stay here demands multiple long walks every day. If I go from CSA (Computer Science and Automation) dept to this PD Hostel (Post-Doctrate's Block) I symbolically cross a number of  villages, some dense forests, a highway and then an open field.

It was reheartening to see that this hostel was inaugurated by my-very-own Prof. Yash Pal  (He is a scientist who had a weekly Q&A science column in The Tribune which I never missed during  my childhood). At the very entrance is a Jamun tree. Crossing it every time I pick a few Jamuns fallen there half-eaten by crows, maybe bats. My room is half-way underground.  That plus the thick gray concrete-stone walls and iron bed and iron door makes me call it a bunker not a room. Pakistan can do any amount of shellings or bombarding on our hostel but it is meant to safeguard every single post-doctoral guy.

Mohit Jindal works in Grabhouse a startup in Bangalore, he and Ashish and Gaurav  (both Bluestacks Gurgaon) were here during this time and we had a whole trip planned. Amrinder amazon Bangalore also joined in. On 12th we went to a water park and 13th was sunrise at Nandi hills. Mists at Nandi hills feel almost like the top compartment of a frost-free refrigerator. UNO and bluff at my hostel room took the most part of the following night. 

13th I got the documents verified and a temporary Id card issued and off we went for Coorg.

250 km of drive and we were there. Serene beauty. Nice rooms (at Hotel Caveri) were already booked by me with my goCash maneuvers. Hotel wifi gave breath, as IISc hostels have no internet. No Internet in IISc hostels, thats right. Even telephone network disappears when you go half-underground. The wifi password was aptly abbifalls. Abby falls is what we went next day- 5 km uphill and then a nice waterfall on river Kaveri. Driving back we clicked numerous happy photos. Gaurav and Ashish taking turns for driving and each of the two busy pointing out faults in the way the other one drives and Jindal competing with everyone else for the co-pilot's seat. Google Maps took us by the hard path which for sure wasn't the Mysore highway we wanted. We reached back to the raining Bangalore's traffic, overshooting the plan by an hour. Amrinder was dropped. Zoomcar returned and we four were pushing an Ola to overspeed so as to catch Rajdhani.

17th early morning we reached Hyderabad. Reaching my flat was homecoming with a chorus of notification bells even before I opened the door, as my phone auto-connects to its familiar home wifi. Swimming pool, TT and my cook's food saved the day as roaming in Hyderabad was turning a bit uncomfortable without a zoomcar. Still we managed via Uber/Ola to go for laser-tag and a mall and a park. But finally rented a car for 19th morning and went for Palm-exotica, an adventures resort 35km out of the city. ValleyCrossing, GoKart,  DirtBiking and Human catapult sling-shot. 19th evening was return flight to Delhi for Gaurav and Ashish and the trip was to end with every day precisely documented on SplitWise. I swept the flat clean of all my belonging and force packed most of them in fat bags. There was enormous amount of things to be packed in a bound space-and-time. As Border shows that at time of war even the army cook picked up a rifle. Seeing the pressing need of the moment my laundry bag took the charge of a luggage bag. Yes, He got badly severed in the brave attempt. This shattered yet resistant laundry bag, together with all the other bag comrades and with Mohit and me boarded a Red-bus for Bangalore. The relieving letter among other super important stuff lying safe in there somewhere.

20th I was now back at IISc and Mohit continued his way to office.

This whole week were orientation presentations. 2.5 hours before lunch and 2.5 hours  after lunch.

They told how Swami Vivekanand motivated J N Tata to make this institute and the King of Mysore sets aside this land for them.

They introduced India’s fastest super computer :) Cray 40 that is housed in IISc. btw 79th  fastest in the world :(

They described the hostel facilities Old New Men's hostel and the New New Men's Hostel (which came up 10 years back)

They listed the Gymkhana and HealthCentre facilities almost all of which are for free.

They told how Govt. of India came to IISc when they wanted to establish IITs, for DRDO,  when they wanted to have a Nuclear program and also when they wanted to have the  space program.

They said grades don't matter.

They said IISc students need not be serious about the future (being sincere suffices).

They said whats expected from us is contribution to Science.

They told how people fall in love with the campus and deny to submit their thesis fearing the consequences of getting the degree awarded.

Director's wife told she was bitten by a dog in the campus. She asked Physics dept to make some gadgets which emits ultrasound waves annoying away all the dogs but then the ecological dept came in and thrashed their plans.

One presenter showed a photo of a space with millions of galaxies having millions of stars and told that whether you live or die it doesn't matter.

Another presenter was a very old prof from Ecological dept. He gave a phone number to call in case you encounter a snake. Ecology guys will jump-in and catch the snake (and leave it at some other part of the campus).

All of them are very nice people. Profound and Content.

Next week I would go to the CSA department. Dept level orientations next. Classes to begin in August.

Plan for weekend is to read "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawkings on my Kindle in the bunker sitting peacefully beside my valiant laundry bag.

15:00 25th July 2015