Bits on BITS
BITS Pilani, Goa Campus. Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Goa Campus.
That is the current location of your moody, recovered-from-a-headache author. Due to an innate necessity to blab and having few interested listeners, decided to pen down thoughts. I love reading what I write!!! Here I am, after a grueling 12 hour train ride from Mumbai, in the hostel, all organized, complaining how the coffee here sucks and how this place, idyll rustic paradise-like place inspires writing and I feel myself lacking in words…
Descriptions first, it’s quite nice actually… Hmm…something more explanatory seems to be required… On the Main Goa Highway (Mumbai-Mangalore apparently) there’s a left which people often take, atleast those who wish to reach the airport, and there on that left-turn road off the highway is Zuarinagar, once mighty Fertiliser plant setup by the Birla conglomerate, now moderately famous as the location of the location of the author, that is I (aarghh!! How silly does that sound!! Still, will let it pass, no egoistic, narcissistic, editing)
Scenic place, tucked near the banks of River Zuari (a bit of which is visible from the view of my window), it proves to be a great location to fall asleep, a tendency I have been prey to owing to the great weather. The innate windiness of this place is quite amazing. Ah, the campus, is beautiful, extremely well planned, especially the drainage etc. The hostels are quite near the campus (300 m or so) and the shopping complex, your all in one need – for books, photocopies, stationery, paraphernalia like dusters, toothpaste etc – quencher is around 1 km from the hostels. A long walk, the effects of which would hopefully be noticeable in a year or so, especially to the inch tape measuring the girth of my waist, stomach etcetera etcetera.
Rooms are decent. Nothing like a five-star resort, an 80 square foot room with a bed, a wardrobe, mirror, electricity, long table, a not-so-uncomfortable chair thrown in for good measure. Needed a bit of clearing up, organizing my stuff, buying buckets, dustbin, a broom? (mothers!) bottles (empty ones, just to clear up matters with my not-so-bright, prone to inebriation readers) and other things, just got settled to the rooms around 24 hrs after arriving.
My first sight of the students (a girl I saw on the train debarring, since the experienced, observant, wise-to-my-grandstanding readers would notice the careful application of the plural (Semantics!!)) was that of a horde of student getting down from a bus!! A huge group, an odd sight in comparison to lone autos or taxis or vehicles trudging in. All with parents (usually two, note that the usage of plural does not clarify preceding point) Quite reminded of the time at Calicut airport where an entire village or so had seemingly come to see off one person (departing to the Gulf, in all probability) To those not familiar with the argot of people who know about the huge exodus of Malayalis (predominantly) to the Middle East looking for a better job, earning in dinars, and not paying much tax, accompanied by a huge rural entourage at airports, the Gulf is a term ascribed to the countries in the Middle East (to the Westerners, of course, to us Indians, its very much in the West)
So as to not regress from the observations being made, the students were all from one place, Andhra Pradesh. I was aware of the largely linguistic regional majority that populated the BITS campuses (campii to some) but was still mildly taken aback. Those who know the author personally would know that he is prone to understatements so as to appear cool (a term he highly detests but assumes fits in context)
Telugu was always a mystery to me, and it was surprising to see so many using it as the primary mode of communication. Quite startling when someone starts presumptuously talking to you in what he considers to be lingua prima without making any enquiries in respect to your linguistic capabilities. (Had some pathetic guesses at translation, which owing to my mother being present, thankfully did not lead to any far-reaching consequences aka disastrous results)
The seniors seem to be quite helpful. Nice place. Already mentioned I suppose. Since its my first taste of hostel life, expected worse. Common bathrooms. On application of arithmetic, 3:1 is the ratio of students to bathrooms. By bathrooms, I mean bath-rooms and not basic sanitary facilities as the word is often flippantly employed to refer to.
I expected a large amount of intelligentsia, and was quite surprised to see that the student population was not quite well off in that sector. Their knowledge and application of the English language leaves much to be desired. That notwithstanding, they seem to have made a very poor first impression. Though prone to extremely prejudiced judgments on the rare occasion, I seem to have got it right atleast a modicum. My father, bright ray of sunshine that he is immediately informed me that he was extremely skeptical of the success of my dreams of establishing a scrabble club in BPGC (Bits pilani, goa campus to non-students.. haha losers!) “Of course, these very students whose linguistic ability you mock will be the ones who get top GPAs, get into American Universities, mint money and run their younglings through the same procedure, will also be the ones to get the best marks and jobs (repetitive but true)” said my other self (who is rarely introduced to common public due to him being extremely pessimistic, morbid, blunt and obnoxiously rude at times) with a touch of bitterness in his voice.
That shrugged off, those that consider Goa to be a haven for beaches, barbecues and babes (This is basically for the benefit of the male population of my readers, if any at all) would be taken aback (or not) to know that BPGC proves to be an exception to this widely accepted statement (axiom if you must)
The following description is not for those unacquainted with Indian cinema of a lower rung (that which rarely makes it to Cannes or even popular cinemas in cities) where tall, dark, swarthy, brutish beasts (male) make off with extremely short, fair, pretty females (hot babes, basically to those not used to euphemisms etc.) there seems to be a large portion of the student fraternity which would be at the top of Type A list (me included, some smartasses would point out) and a shortage of not too little acuity of the second. Of course, the type A mentioned may not be necessarily dark, swarthy, tall and the term brutish might be a seemingly fanciful flight of the author’s fancies but the acute shortage part is quite honest… ah pity (not that I had great any expectations or any ambitions etc., I just thought it was a rather interesting way of describing the student body inhabiting the campus)
Now, I suppose banal trivialities like attending to the purchase of a new SIM card etc have to be attended to and since I have run out of things to rant about, will stop. Considering the ass of an author conveniently forgot a LAN wire (in non-tech jargon) (also, an extra pair of spectacles, something of rather great importance to one whose eyesight is as weak as mine, a few books, and other minor things), this is posted later (or will be posted)
Thriddas Anorak
1st Year, (BITSian)
B.E. (Hons), Electronics and Instrumention
BITS Pilani, Goa Campus,
Existence
Dated : 27th July 2007
More later, I suppose
We live in eternal hope,
So don’t catch what misery throws,
Just laugh, and don’t dope!
That is the current location of your moody, recovered-from-a-headache author. Due to an innate necessity to blab and having few interested listeners, decided to pen down thoughts. I love reading what I write!!! Here I am, after a grueling 12 hour train ride from Mumbai, in the hostel, all organized, complaining how the coffee here sucks and how this place, idyll rustic paradise-like place inspires writing and I feel myself lacking in words…
Descriptions first, it’s quite nice actually… Hmm…something more explanatory seems to be required… On the Main Goa Highway (Mumbai-Mangalore apparently) there’s a left which people often take, atleast those who wish to reach the airport, and there on that left-turn road off the highway is Zuarinagar, once mighty Fertiliser plant setup by the Birla conglomerate, now moderately famous as the location of the location of the author, that is I (aarghh!! How silly does that sound!! Still, will let it pass, no egoistic, narcissistic, editing)
Scenic place, tucked near the banks of River Zuari (a bit of which is visible from the view of my window), it proves to be a great location to fall asleep, a tendency I have been prey to owing to the great weather. The innate windiness of this place is quite amazing. Ah, the campus, is beautiful, extremely well planned, especially the drainage etc. The hostels are quite near the campus (300 m or so) and the shopping complex, your all in one need – for books, photocopies, stationery, paraphernalia like dusters, toothpaste etc – quencher is around 1 km from the hostels. A long walk, the effects of which would hopefully be noticeable in a year or so, especially to the inch tape measuring the girth of my waist, stomach etcetera etcetera.
Rooms are decent. Nothing like a five-star resort, an 80 square foot room with a bed, a wardrobe, mirror, electricity, long table, a not-so-uncomfortable chair thrown in for good measure. Needed a bit of clearing up, organizing my stuff, buying buckets, dustbin, a broom? (mothers!) bottles (empty ones, just to clear up matters with my not-so-bright, prone to inebriation readers) and other things, just got settled to the rooms around 24 hrs after arriving.
My first sight of the students (a girl I saw on the train debarring, since the experienced, observant, wise-to-my-grandstanding readers would notice the careful application of the plural (Semantics!!)) was that of a horde of student getting down from a bus!! A huge group, an odd sight in comparison to lone autos or taxis or vehicles trudging in. All with parents (usually two, note that the usage of plural does not clarify preceding point) Quite reminded of the time at Calicut airport where an entire village or so had seemingly come to see off one person (departing to the Gulf, in all probability) To those not familiar with the argot of people who know about the huge exodus of Malayalis (predominantly) to the Middle East looking for a better job, earning in dinars, and not paying much tax, accompanied by a huge rural entourage at airports, the Gulf is a term ascribed to the countries in the Middle East (to the Westerners, of course, to us Indians, its very much in the West)
So as to not regress from the observations being made, the students were all from one place, Andhra Pradesh. I was aware of the largely linguistic regional majority that populated the BITS campuses (campii to some) but was still mildly taken aback. Those who know the author personally would know that he is prone to understatements so as to appear cool (a term he highly detests but assumes fits in context)
Telugu was always a mystery to me, and it was surprising to see so many using it as the primary mode of communication. Quite startling when someone starts presumptuously talking to you in what he considers to be lingua prima without making any enquiries in respect to your linguistic capabilities. (Had some pathetic guesses at translation, which owing to my mother being present, thankfully did not lead to any far-reaching consequences aka disastrous results)
The seniors seem to be quite helpful. Nice place. Already mentioned I suppose. Since its my first taste of hostel life, expected worse. Common bathrooms. On application of arithmetic, 3:1 is the ratio of students to bathrooms. By bathrooms, I mean bath-rooms and not basic sanitary facilities as the word is often flippantly employed to refer to.
I expected a large amount of intelligentsia, and was quite surprised to see that the student population was not quite well off in that sector. Their knowledge and application of the English language leaves much to be desired. That notwithstanding, they seem to have made a very poor first impression. Though prone to extremely prejudiced judgments on the rare occasion, I seem to have got it right atleast a modicum. My father, bright ray of sunshine that he is immediately informed me that he was extremely skeptical of the success of my dreams of establishing a scrabble club in BPGC (Bits pilani, goa campus to non-students.. haha losers!) “Of course, these very students whose linguistic ability you mock will be the ones who get top GPAs, get into American Universities, mint money and run their younglings through the same procedure, will also be the ones to get the best marks and jobs (repetitive but true)” said my other self (who is rarely introduced to common public due to him being extremely pessimistic, morbid, blunt and obnoxiously rude at times) with a touch of bitterness in his voice.
That shrugged off, those that consider Goa to be a haven for beaches, barbecues and babes (This is basically for the benefit of the male population of my readers, if any at all) would be taken aback (or not) to know that BPGC proves to be an exception to this widely accepted statement (axiom if you must)
The following description is not for those unacquainted with Indian cinema of a lower rung (that which rarely makes it to Cannes or even popular cinemas in cities) where tall, dark, swarthy, brutish beasts (male) make off with extremely short, fair, pretty females (hot babes, basically to those not used to euphemisms etc.) there seems to be a large portion of the student fraternity which would be at the top of Type A list (me included, some smartasses would point out) and a shortage of not too little acuity of the second. Of course, the type A mentioned may not be necessarily dark, swarthy, tall and the term brutish might be a seemingly fanciful flight of the author’s fancies but the acute shortage part is quite honest… ah pity (not that I had great any expectations or any ambitions etc., I just thought it was a rather interesting way of describing the student body inhabiting the campus)
Now, I suppose banal trivialities like attending to the purchase of a new SIM card etc have to be attended to and since I have run out of things to rant about, will stop. Considering the ass of an author conveniently forgot a LAN wire (in non-tech jargon) (also, an extra pair of spectacles, something of rather great importance to one whose eyesight is as weak as mine, a few books, and other minor things), this is posted later (or will be posted)
Thriddas Anorak
1st Year, (BITSian)
B.E. (Hons), Electronics and Instrumention
BITS Pilani, Goa Campus,
Existence
Dated : 27th July 2007
More later, I suppose
We live in eternal hope,
So don’t catch what misery throws,
Just laugh, and don’t dope!
posted by Thriddas Anorak at 3:25 pm
5 comments
